Pat O’Brien

Biography:

A life-long resident of Kingston, “Flyin Pat O’Brien” was a fixture in dirt track racing on both sides of the border from the early 1980’s to his retirement in 2015. Over that time, he accumulated 176 wins, with 149 victories in the 358 Modified class and 27 Big Block wins. His 73 victories at Can-Am Speedway in Lafargeville, New York are the most of all time in the Dirt 358 Modified division.

Pat has won 22 track championships in his career including ten at the Can-Am Speedway, five at the Brockville Speedway, four at Cornwall Speedway, a pair of championships at Mohawk International Raceway in Hogansburg, New York, and one at Thunder Alley in Evans Mills, NY.

Four times in his career, Pat was named Mr. Dirt 358 Modified Series Champion. The contenders for the honour compete on the track from May through October, spend hundreds of hours in the shop working on their cars and travel thousand of miles over the season to compete.

Pat raced against and defeated many full-time racing teams whose job it was to win races and seize championships.

In 2018 Pat was inducted into the Brockville Ontario Speedway Hall of Fame and in 2019 became only the fourth Canadian to join the Dirt Car Racing Hall of Fame/Northeast Modified Hall of Fame.

Pat competed against the “best of the best” in auto racing and throughout his career had the ability to take his car from the back of the pack to the front without having contact with another car to make that happen.

Throughout his career, Pat was a true ambassador for Kingston and was respected by his opposing drivers and the fans that watched him race.