Kelly Ashcroft

Kelly Ashcroft (born September 9, 1988) is an World Challenge Cup driver and 2014 champion of the APRS.

Career
Kelly started racing after she turned 11, testing karts at the Ashcroft family's private test facility on Huntsville, Alabama. Her first APRS start came in the Pro Series in 2006. She won in her debut season, at Talladega. She quickly became a title contender, but in 2010 she suddenly stopped racing in the Pro Series in order to do select starts in the main APRS series.

Ashcroft failed to qualify for most of the events that she attempted, prompting her to return full-time in the Pro Series, where she won the title in 2011. 2011 was also when she won her first races in the main division of APRS, taking home the upsets at Quincy and College Station.

In 2012 she made the full move to the APRS Racing Series, winning 3 races, but being far from the title battle due to inconsistency. 2013 was more of the same, as Ashcroft won 5 times, but several crashes mid season gave the title to Jack Patterson.

In 2014 however, was her turnaround year, when she was consistent all season long, while her opponents failed multiple times, giving her a near full race advantage over 2nd place Tristan Kristoph coming to the TryHard 500, Ashcroft had a top 20 finish while Kristoph failed to complete the race, giving Ashcroft the title, turning her into the fourth Ashcroft to have won the title, a feat done by her father JTom, her uncle Jack and her older sister Julia. Kelly also became the 5th driver to not run the full season after its championship victory, which happened to Lesley Stage amd Jack Patterson due to injuries suffered, and with Marcus Stanton and Eric Burns that won the title and retired. Ashcroft is also the 5th woman to win the championship.

Following 2015, Ashcroft decided to leave APRS and head to WCC with family friend and former APRS race winner Alec Hodges. The team had strong results for the early part of 2015. Kelly also ran the #60 Project 4 car in APRS after Boyd Abbot was supended for five races.