Kevin’s love for cars began with his father, Bill Webel. Bill was a car fanatic and even crewed with Speedway Motors during the 4x sprint car days of Jan Opperman and Doug Wolfgang. Bill owned B. W. Enterprises, where Kevin learned the tools of the trade and work ethic from sweeping the shop, putting tools away and organizing supplies. Bill also owned B. W. Service in Havelock, NE, where Kevin learned oil changes, tire repairs and minor service work.
The first real muscle car Kevin had was a 1969 Chevelle SS 396/4-speed. He and his father restored the old Chevelle and Kevin chose to paint it in ‘69 Daytona Yellow. His dad and brother restored a 1970 Chevelle SS 396/4-speed that ended up as a show car after his brother joined the Navy. They kept those two Chevelles while building and selling dozens of cars, including short box Chevy trucks. Kevin’s dad’s daily driver was a’69 El Camino with a 350 and a Muncie 4-speed which eventually received a big block Chevy.
During Kevin’s high school years, he and his dad turned the ‘69 Chevelle into a drag car. They put in the work to transform it into a NHRA D-Stock drag car with a built to NHRA spec 396 big block and a Doug Nash 5-speed (with 5th gear blocked off, stock was only 4 forward gears). Together, they raced Division 5 all around Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska, with the best ¼ mile time of 11.24 at 126mph. Kevin was also the artist for the N-C-El's (Novas, Chevelles & El Caminos) of Lincoln, a car club his father started. He did calligraphy work for membership cards, wood burned plaques for car show trophies and design work for memorabilia. He is currently a member of the Kingsman Car Club of Lincoln.
Kevin joined Speedway Motors in 2015 after 16 years with the Nebraska Department of Corrections, a number of years with BNSF as a conductor and a brief stint in an automotive interior shop called Auto Kraft Upholstery. A fellow team member had a 454/TH400 for sale, and it made the perfect upgrade for the 1954 Chevy Bel Air 4-door project that had sat in the garage for many years.
In general, Kevin is a hands-on, jack of all trades builder. He takes pride in doing his own work, just like hot rodders have done it since they could get their hands on cars. Since acquiring that 454, Kevin has done all of the work on his ‘54 Bel Air except rebuilding the short block and boring it to .30” over with dome pistons, rectangle port aluminum heads, air gap intake and FiTech fuel injection. Kevin upgraded the TCI Breakaway torque converter, swapped the rear axle to a Gen II Camaro 8.5” GM 10 bolt posi and TCI Breakaway torque converter. He has also put his upholstery experience to use sewing up his own interior with new door panels, Hushmat and new carpet.