When meeting soft-spoken Kerri Villa for the first time, one might guess from her unassuming manner that she is perhaps a stay-at-home mom, or a writer for a monthly magazine. That first impression is actually correct, but she is in fact also a top-notch race car driver here on Kaua‘i.
“I remember being interested in cars and racing when I was eight or nine years old, when my Uncle Tante Azares, an automotive instructor at Kaua‘i Community college, took me to the cars shows on Kaua‘i,” said Villa.
Villa was raised in Wailua and was always surrounded by men in her family that had had Mustangs and other fast cars. After Kerri graduated from college, her uncle Tante bought a 1970 4-speed Mustang and asked her if she would like to race it once the car was tricked out for the track.
Villa accepted with glee, and perhaps a little apprehension, and her uncle immediately began work on the Mustang. Fortunately for Villa, a young man named Bobby Barros met her uncle at the Lihu‘e Missionary Church and became good friends. Soon Barros was working on the Mustang’s body while uncle overhauled the engine.
Barros is a collision repair technician and owns an auto body styling and performance shop in Lihu‘e. When the Mustang body and engine were finally completed, Kerri got her chance to get behind the wheel and feel the rush of hitting the gas on green, shifting through the gears and flying down the track.
“I think there is a lot more pressure on the driver when driving a four-speed vehicle as compared to driving an automatic shift car on the track,” said Villa. This is where she learned the importance of using a complete and extensive check list before and during each volatile run.
The year following her Mustang runs, Bobby Barros offered to let Kerri use a 350-cubic-inch black 1985 El Camino. At one point, Barros built a 388-cubic-inch white El Camino for Kerri and she remembers it with great affection after she did 12.13 in the quarter mile.
“I’m not the competitive type that’s gotta get those trophies,” began Villa, “all I think about is, I’m going to be in this awesome, beautiful car that Bobby built, and I get to drive, that has a huge powerful engine, and all I wanna do is burn rubber, see lots of smoke and just stomp on the gas pedal all the way down and just that feeling at the end,” she said with a huge smile and a bright gleam in her eyes.
“And that’s all I wanna do, she said with finality and a sigh.
Barros restored two El Caminos that Kerri races at Mana drag strip. One of them is a 1985 black El Camino with a 388-cubic-inch, four-speed automatic, 204 R, a ten-bolt rear end out of a Buick Grand National.
“Kerri plays a big role behind the scenes at The Garden Island Racing Association being responsible for sending out race results to National Dragster, The Garden Island newspaper, Kong radio, writing the racing newsletter, and, as a writer for Hawai`i Motor Sports,” said Barros, who is the President of The Garden Island Racing association. Barros added, “and we appreciate it”.
To see two videos of Villa’s twin El Caminos, visit www.thegardenisland.com.
• Leo DuBois, contributor, can be reached via news editor Nathan Eagle at 245-3681 (ext. 227) or via e-mail at neagle@kauaipubco.com
