Chevy Rommeney leaves his tire tracks at Riverhead Raceway
Chevy Rommeney’s life is hectic. Between school, work, spending time in the mechanic shop and racing at Riverhead Raceway, he’s always on the move.
But when he gets into his race car, pulls on his helmet and pulls his belts down tight, his world freezes. Now he’s working to give young racers that same feeling.
The 18-year-old Chevy, of Bohemia, has been racing and building race cars since he was 12. His father, Michael, was a demolition derby star and sparked his interest early on. After his father gave up the derbies, he began coaching him in go-kart racing, back in 2019. Around the same time, his father taught him to weld.
“I was obsessed with the blue light,” he said. “It’s just something you don’t see every day. I was obsessed with that, and then, it intertwined with racing.”
Chevy moved up from go-karts to INEX Bandoleros — which are designed for younger drivers — when he was 14. He quickly made his mark, winning his first of three straight New York State INEX Race Car Championships in 2022 with a car that he built. He also built four other cars for other drivers to use in the same competition.
He has won nine races overall at Riverhead and 30 races nationally from New York to Florida.
“During mid-summer, if you’re in a race car, it’s probably 110 degrees. After winning it, I’m freezing,” he said. “I have goosebumps all around my body. It’s a love that, if you’re not in the sport, you can’t really understand.”
The next year, in 2023, he moved up to NASCAR crate modifieds, which are entry-level, open-wheeled race cars. He was named Rookie of the Year and spent time serving as crew chief, teaching a small group of younger drivers the ropes.
In 2024, that grew to an eight-car team of new drivers from age 7 all the way up to 40. He makes sure that, before his students get into the car, they have one thing above all else: discipline.
“There’s a lot that has to happen off the track to come into play on the track,” Chevy said. “A lot of people think racing is just driving these circles, but it’s a mental chess match. You need the drive, the mentality, the discipline — all of it combined, just to make one thing work.”
For the last four years, he has been teaching young drivers how to win races at Riverhead Raceway. As a crew chief, he won three straight state championships at the raceway in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
He couples all his work on the track with working full-time in mechanic shops around the island and going to school both at Connetquot High School and BOCES Islip Career Center in Oakdale.
He also continues to build cars with his dad, sometimes until 2 a.m. The pair can assemble a car in as fast as a day. If they take their time, they can build an entire car in about three days.
Chevy does all of this just for a shot at his dream: NASCAR.
“I’m juggling a job, an eight-car team and my own racing career just to have a shot at, one day, being a NASCAR driver,” he said. “My parents always taught me to never stop. This dream I have of making it to NASCAR is not going to come by me going home and sitting on the couch.”
Even away from the racetrack, Chevy’s love for welding continues. At BOCES, he picked up a passion for making metal roses. His roses are sold on his Facebook Marketplace and Instagram. Chevy has won numerous competitions and championships. At BOCES, he won the regional SkillsUSA Welding competition for Suffolk County in 2024 and 2025.
Coupling his two deep passions — racing and welding — has been a complete joy for him; one you can hear whenever he talks about it. He feels lucky enough to have found them so early on in life, and works every day to both enjoy them himself, but also make sure the next generation can, too.
“I grew up around it, and not a lot of people grow up around something they always wanted to do,” Chevy said. “It’s hard to find that. I had the honor to have that passion at a very young age, and it just makes me happy. I’m a better person around racing.”
