Mike Wolanin | The Republic The exterior of Columbus East High School, pictured Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018.
Columbus East High School will welcome into its wall of fame next week one of the more prominent figures in American dirt-track open-wheel racing.
Pete Willoughby, Class of 1975 and co-owner and business leader of Keith Kunz Motorsports (KMM), is the 2025 inductee into the East Wall of Fame.
Willoughby will be inducted on Dec. 2 at Columbus East High School, 230 S. Marr Road, in front of the main office, with the ceremony getting started at 5:30 p.m.
His love for racing was inspired by his parents, D.E. and Sue Willoughby, and Willoughby began his life in motorsports at Columbus Kart Club, launching his competitive career in go-karts.
Being part of the swim team during his time in high school is what he recalls the most, Willoughby said, noting the long hours of dedication it took to compete, something he carried on to his career in motorsports.
Self-admittedly preferring to stay in the background, Willoughby was bashful about his time as a driver.
Columbus Kart Club became his training ground, although he said while laughing that his time there was comprised of “normally running second place to the same guy about every week.”
But the competitiveness still shines through, five decades later he still is able to name Tim Blythe as the driver he often came in at second.
Willoughby later went on to Late Model stock car racing, where he notched feature wins at regional short tracks.
He formed his own winning midget race team in the mid-1990s and joined up with Keith Kunz in 1997, establishing what would become KMM. Willoughby’s forte was management and logistics, complementing Kunz’s engineering expertise.
Willoughby called Kunz “a mechanical guru.”
Together, they and their drivers have earned over 600 wins across different series and races.
“This would not have happened without my partner Keith Kunz,” he said. “It was a partnership made to work.”
KMM serves as the flagship dirt-track team within the Toyota Driver Development Program (TDP), part of Toyota Racing Development (TRD).
KKM is often the first professional stop for drivers who will later move into ARCA, Trucks, Xfinity, and eventually the NASCAR Cup Series under Toyota’s umbrella.
Willoughby is known for mentoring young drivers and providing them with the structure, discipline and confidence to grow into elite competitors.
“You can’t really teach a guy how to race,” Willoughby said. “It’s more talking them through the hard times that their going to have.”
Over the years, their program has produced a steady pipeline of standout talent, going on to win national championships, race for top manufacturers and compete at the highest levels of professional motorsports.
Those include NASCAR Cup Series Champion Kyle Larson, who began his rise through KMM midgets, Christopher Bell, Nascar Cup star and former Chili Bowl Nationals champion, along with Rico Abreu, a multi-time national midget winner, to name a few.
