Kiel primed for exciting month of May
May 14, 2021
Ben Davis produces many spectacular graduates and one of them is 2005 alum Taylor Kiel.
Kiel has been involved in auto racing since his days at Ben Davis and has worked his way up to being President of Arrow McLaren SP, which has drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Pato Ward in cars for this months Indianapolis 500.
Kiel’s love of auto racing started with his parents and grew daily while he grew up on the west side of Indianapolis. After graduating from Ben Davis in 2005, Kiel studied business at Indiana University before getting a job at Arrow.
“The first thing I did here was anything they asked me to,” Kiel recalls about his start in auto racing. “I didn’t have the experience to be a mechanic or anything like that so I would go out and run errands, like pick up parts or clean. I was more a janitor than a mechanic.”
From that humble beginning, Kiel took in everything he could and relied heavily on team owner Sam Schmidt to learn the business side of the sport.
At Ben Davis, Kiel played football and dreamed about auto racing. He credits current IU football coach Tom Allen — at the time BDs head coach — with giving him a love of competition, but he says his parents were the ones who raised him as an Indy 500 fan.
Kiel said Ben Davis did help him prepare well for life after school.
“By the time you graduate [from Ben Davis] nothing should surprise you, nothing is unusual,” Kiel said. “I loved the diversity of the student body at Ben Davis and the academic opportunities were incredible.”
After starting with Arrow, Kiel moved up the business side of the sport quickly. He soaked in everything he could from Schmidt, who became a car owner in 2001 after suffering a career-ending leg injury while racing
When joining the race team, Kiel did anything that was asked of him until he grew into the leader of the current team.
He is now in charge of total operations, marketing, business, investors, racers, endorsements and TV exposure.
“It’s just the whole broad scope of the industry,” Kiel said.
Kiel recently moved to Noblesville, leaving his natural habitat of west Indianapolis.
As expected, the ast year has been difficult on all businesses and the racing industry also suffered.
“Working through the hardships of covid and working to make sure our 65 employees stayed employed wasn’t easy,” Kiel said. “Life ain’t easy, there are a lot of hurdles you have to overcome and it ain’t easy.”
Despite that, his team has flourished. Ward recently won his first career race and Montoya is a former Indy 500 winner who has won two championships.
Ward is the younger racer of the team while Montoya provides veteran leadership.
Not only does Kiel have a satisfying career life but a new satisfying home life, having gotten married a year ago and having a baby on the way.
Ben Davis can’t wait for the day a new Kiel walks down its purple halls.