by Andrew Wolf; Photos by Chris Simmons
Accomplished drag radial racer and event promoter Keith Berry, 53, passed away November 3, 2025, following a brief health battle.
Said his brother, Todd Berry on social media: “Last night around 11 p.m. my brother Keith went home to be with the Lord. He passed peacefully with loved ones around him. He is no longer suffering and in a much better place. Until we meet again brother, I love and miss you!”
Fun-loving with an ever-present smile and the gift of smack-talk, the poultry processing entrepreneur by trade endeared himself to everyone he ever met — genuine, warm, capable of making one seem like the most interesting person in the world, and the first to jump in when a friend or even a foe was in need. Like the wrestling and TV characters he emulated with his signature “WOOO!” line, Keith’s persona was in many ways larger than life.
Hailing from Gainesville, Georgia, Berry won back-to-back NMCA Radial Wars championships in his familiar jet-black, twin-turbocharged C5 Corvette, capturing the title in the class’ inaugural season in 2014 and backing it up with a repeat crown in 2015. The following season beared the crowning achievement of his driving career — a late entrant to Duck X Productions’ No Mercy VII event in Valdosta, Georgia, long considered the “super bowl” of drag radial racing, he worked his way through several hard-fought rounds and ultimately upset the heavily favored Steve Jackson on a holeshot in what remains the most memorable Radial versus The World final round in history.
Berry’s entry to the sport came rather inauspiciously. With no knowledge of the sport beyond what he had gathered from his hardcore-racer brother, Todd, Keith purchased a used 2002 Corvette Z06 and made a few modest modifications to soup it up in the horsepower department. The opportunity to compete in a PINKS: All Out event in 2008 at nearby Atlanta Dragway — he admitted he had to Google where the track was and later got instructions from Todd on how the Christmas tree worked — set the hook.
After that race, both the modifications and Berry’s approach became more serious. He set records in the ORSCA and LSX Shootout events early on, and led the charge in some of the early independent rear suspension classes with the nitrous oxide-assisted Corvette.
In the early 2010s, Berry opted to navigate away from the nitrous combination and take his program to the top level. Bell Chassisworks completely reimagined his modest little sports car, transforming it from a once daily-driven toy into a purpose-built racecar complete with a Pro Line-built LSX powerplant. With support from Pro Line Racing and Eric Dillard, tuners Steve Petty and Ryan Rakestraw, and help from Corey Lee and Steve Crisafulli, Berry went right after radial racing’s top dogs in Radial versus The World.
His successes in the years that followed, coupled with his charismatic and magnetic personality that attracted attention at every turn, cemented him as a legend in the sport in far fewer years than most.
Berry sold his prized racing operation in 2017 and stepped away from driving, but remained actively involved in the sport as a promoter and a self-proclaimed “No. 1 fan” of so many of the men and women whom he befriended in his brief but shining career.
He promoted his WOOSTOCK grudge racing and radial-tire event at South Carolina’s Darlington Dragway for a handful of years, ending its run in 2021. He also made a brief driving cameo as the “Dream Team” pilot in the Horsepower Wars $10K Drag Shootout reality show in 2019. Still a household name in the outlaw racing game and with relationships far and wide, Berry remained connected to drag racing while spending his later years focusing on family, fishing, and the family business.
Keith, Todd, and their middle brother, Steve collectively operated their family-owned Berry Plumbing business, which offered both plumbing and poultry processing services. In the late 1990s, Keith and Todd carried the torch with the poultry division of the business, providing expertise to many of the world’s top poultry brands. His weekday career gave life to a number of comedic tie-in’s between his work and his racing, as his Corvette became known as the “WOOO! Chicken” and references to the car being “chicken-powered” were often and aplenty.
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Berry is survived by his wife, Mindy, his five children, brothers Todd and Steve, and a host of grandchildren and extended family.
“My heart is shattered. While we are ecstatic our beloved PapaDo is no longer suffering, we are selfishly mourning the loss of the greatest father and grandfather we could have ever asked him to be,” Mindy said in a social media post.
Racers come and go from our sport, but few leave the lasting impression that Keith Berry did in his relatively short time behind the wheel. It can be said the measure of a man is in the size of his heart and how much light he brings to others. If the outpouring of somber goodbye’s from around the world this week are any metric, Keith Berry will stand tall long after his final day on this earth.
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