John Kilroy - 2025 PRI Hall of Fame Inductee
My Dad, the Hall of Famer
When I finally attended the Performance Racing Industry Show in December, it felt like I’d made a pilgrimage. I arrived with my mother, sister, and brother—all of whom felt similar. We’d heard about the show in rich and regular detail since 1990 from our late patriarch, John Kilroy. (My dad retired from PRI in 2016, passed away in 2021, and was inducted into the PRI Hall of Fame in 2025.)
As I told the thousands in attendance at PRI’s Grand Opening Breakfast, it's hard to not be impressed by the reputation my dad earned in life and the legacy he was granted in death when presented with a ring that looks like he won the Super Bowl and a racing helmet autographed by Mario Andretti.
Andretti even sat at our table that morning in Indianapolis. He was the breakfast’s featured guest, and to better give the speakers his attention, Andretti rotated his chair toward the stage and politely turned to my mother to thoughtfully remark, “Pardon my back.” It was very considerate, but given Andretti’s own legacy as one of the greatest drivers in racing history, I laughed because it’d make for such a burn on the raceway.
When my mother, siblings, and I exited the stage, having accepted the award on my father’s behalf and given a speech about how much it all meant, Andretti congratulated each of us and it was like stepping through a dream. The racing world has always been like that for the four of us—a thrilling, colorful realm we’ve long been enchanted by, yet one we’ve only ever really known through John.
My dad loved racing. Even after he retired from his 26 years at PRI (22 years as its editor, four years as its vice president/general manager), my dad joined his longtime friends to launch EPARTRADE. At the time, we joked that he’d stepped away from racing to focus on racing. It was just a world that he simply didn’t want to leave.
The funniest part of all this is that John Kilroy entered the racing world as someone who didn’t really know cars. He loved a maroon Dodge Charger he had as a young man, he always wanted a pink Cadillac with big fins (ever since he was a little kid), and he thought racing was an absolute blast. But he’d never really been a car guy.
The reason John Kilroy took to the racing industry and its glorious surrounding world so quickly and wholly was because of the people. He regularly and vocally noted racing folks as some of the most fun people alive. My dad could be thoughtful and philosophical, as well as deadpan and goofy, and he spoke of everyone, from the racers to his coworkers, as individuals you’d be lucky to know during your short stint on Earth.
In Indianapolis, I was stunned, yet unsurprised, by how many people had thoughtful and lovely words to offer in return. My family and I traversed the halls of the PRI Show—often guided by PRI Executive Editor (and family friend) Meredith Kaplan Burns and EPARTRADE Founder & CEO (and family friend) Francisque Savinien—meeting person after person who spoke highly of John and gifted us insight into a dimension of his existence we didn’t always get to see.
Some were dear pals; some only saw him at the show. We learned of annual traditions, inside jokes, and colorful memories—the kind so entrenched in one’s worklife that it can take several stories of context to even set up the main story. It’s impossible to share each and every detail of one’s workday or business trip, especially when you come home to be a husband and father. And so the day proved to be a rather profound and collective kindness.
The most curious notion, of course, was that the person we wanted to tell most about all this was John—that we finally roamed the show he helped shape, that we met people he’d told us about, that we even spoke at the breakfast he used to speak at. It was all very surreal.
The experience was unlike anything I’ve known anyone to move through. But I can’t say I’m surprised by the depth of care and richness of color my family has been awarded. My dad spoke highly of the people who make the racing community what it is for many reasons; their ability to celebrate life and all that it affords us was certainly one of them.
To be so loved and lauded years after stepping off the track in this realm and onto the track in another; to be posthumously inducted into the PRI Hall of Fame; to live on “In Loving Memory” on EPARTRADE’s site; to know your family is still flagged down by people in the racing world; you couldn’t ask for a better victory lap. Thanks for letting us in the driver’s seat.
— Jake Kilroy
