Fans of the multinational pay TV network Discovery Channel have certainly come across the popular reality show “Street Outlaws”, which premiered on 10 June 2013, and today numbers 186 episodes over 13 seasons; the last ended on 13 May 2019, but the series hasn’t been cancelled nor renewed for another season. The show follows street racers from Oklahoma City, who like to boast about being the best underground racers in the USA, while they have ‘The List’ which comprises the 10 fastest amongst them. The racers are presented as not-so-wealthy people who race to pay the bills and put food on the table, however, there’s been a lot of controversy surrounding the show, with viewers claiming there’s plenty of evidence that it’s scripted.
Some of the main cast members include Justin Shearer, Jeff Lutz and Lizzy Musi, and fans seem to be especially interested in Lizzy and her life; Lizzy claims to have racing in her blood, as it’s today become a family business.
Who is Lizzy Musi?
Elizabeth ‘Lizzy’ Musi was born in New Jersey, USA on 1 January 1991 – her zodiac sign is Capricorn, and she holds American nationality. She’s a professional drag racer and TV personality, who only gained recognition after she was cast to star in “Street Outlaws”, while she has also starred in its 2021 spin-off “Street Outlaws: Gone Girl”, which features her and six other ‘fastest women’ competing in legal street races.
Lizzy was raised in New Jersey alongside her sister Tricia Musi, and became interested in cars at a very early age, mostly because her father Pat Music was and still is a professional race driver, who has won eight World Championships. She spent most of her spare time with her father in his garage and at his car shop, learning more and more about cars every day, before it was time for Pat to teach her to drive; Lizzy was apparently a natural, and it took her only a couple of driving sessions to master it.
Her mother and sister are also today drag racers, which is why Lizzy often states that racing is ‘a family business’.
She studied at Carter High School, and was mostly interested in sports during her four years there, as she played volleyball and soccer, and practiced gymnastics. Lizzy matriculated in 2009, and because she hasn’t spoken of her further education, it’s widely believed that she hasn’t attended college.
Lizzy’s career as a drag racer
Lizzy began racing karts when she was only eight years old, and it took a couple of years before her father allowed her to learn to drive cars. She was 16 when she started competing in junior drag racing, and apparently launched her modelling career at around the same time – various pictures taken during her photoshoots can be found uploaded onto her Instagram account.
Her debut professional race was in 2014 at Pro Nitrous behind the wheel of King Kong 5, and the same year saw Lizzy win the Rookie of the Year Award.
In 2015, she won her first Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) Virginia Drag Race Competition, becoming the first woman to win at PDRA.
Following her success, she was cast to appear in the 2015 sports drama movie “Adrenaline”, written and directed by Joseph Quinn Simpkins, and which starred Charlene Amoia, Cameron Arnett and Deena Beasley. It follows a street racer who has been involved in a serious car crash, and has been left semi-paraplegic; he’s now struggling to become a street racer once again. The movie was a success, winning six of the 10 awards for which it was nominated, and although it made Lizzy want to continue acting, she hasn’t had any other roles.
Thanks to all her business ventures, especially her roles in the shows “Street Outlaws” and “Street Outlaws: Gone Girl”, Lizzy’s net worth is today estimated at more than $700,000.
Who is her boyfriend?
Lizzy is today in a long-term relationship with Kye Kelley, a car racer and TV personality, who’s also starring in “Street Outlaws”.
The two met when Kye came to her father’s store looking for car parts, and a couple of days later asked her out on a date.
Kye was born in Magnolia, Mississippi USA, on 18 May 1985 – his zodiac sign is Taurus, and he holds American nationality; he was raised alongside his sister, by their father who was a factory worker, but a drug and alcohol addict, and their mother who was a hairdresser. Kye’s the owner of his own shop Down South Performance, and has also appeared in the 2021 spin-off from “Street Outlaws”, entitled “Street Outlaws: America’s List”. He was married prior to meeting Lizzy; he divorced his wife Alisa Mote in 2019, following a one-year separation, and they have two children together.
Key matriculated from Pike Senior High in 2003, and has since been involved in car racing; he today drives a 1992 Chevy Camaro, known as ‘The Shocker’.
Lizzy’s hobbies and interests
Lizzy is physically highly active, and has multiple training sessions at the gym every week, thus her slim figure; she’s also following a strict diet, and avoids eating fast food and sweets.
She likes to prepare food, and her favorite dish is Gumbo, the most popular stew in Louisiana, comprising meat or shellfish, a thickener, and onions, bell peppers and celery, the Creole ‘holy trinity’.
She’s into hunting, and has recently uploaded a picture onto her Instagram account, which features her and her boyfriend standing next to an Axis deer which they had killed. This has been criticized by some of Lizzy’s fans, who claim that animals shouldn’t be killed for sport, however, Lizzy has explained that the Axis’ venison is believed to be one of the finest in the entire world, and that that one deer will keep her freezer full for the following a couple of months.
Lizzy is somewhat addicted to social media networks, and is today followed by more than 250,000 people on Instagram, while she’s uploaded nearly 1,000 pictures onto her account, most of which have been taken during her everyday life. She’s also active on TikTok, and has amassed close to 50,000 followers, while she also has more than 50,000 likes of all her videos combined; most of these feature her spending time with her pet dog.
She’s also into travelling, and has been all around the US with her father and boyfriend, mostly to watch and compete in drag races; Lizzy has apparently also been to a couple of European countries, including France and Italy.
Age, height and appearance
Lizzy’s age is 31. She has long brown hair which she occasionally dyes blonde, and her eyes are brown; her height is 5ft 8ins (1.75m) and she weighs around 145lbs (65kgs).
Interesting secrets about Lizzy’s show – “Street Outlaws”
The main star of the show, Justin ‘Big Chief’ Shearer, has revealed that the producers of the show weren’t really optimistic about it when it began airing, believing that it wouldn’t last longer than a single season.
The racers featured in the show nearly lost their racing licenses, which had been given to them by the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA); the association stated that the show would ruin their image, and forbade their drivers to appear in it, but they eventually managed to work things out between them.
Amongst the funny secrets is the fact that one of the racers, Joe ‘Dominator’ Woods, believed that Discovery Channel was involved in a secret spy operation launched by the police, and that they only wanted to arrest them all.
One of the show’s biggest secrets, which has raised a lot of controversy and led to “Street Outlaws” losing many viewers, is that it’s not really illegal racing that we see in the show. Each race has to receive a city permit, and the police are well informed about its whereabouts, and are in charge of keeping the streets clear during the races, so that no unwanted accidents would occur. Other accidents still happen, and ‘Daddy’ Dave Comstock managed to flip over his car six times and hit a wall, ending up in a hospital. Many of the show’s racers still take part in illegal races, but you won’t see these featured in the show.
The popularity has also brought some problems to the racers, and their main car shop – Midwest Street Cars – was shot at by a group of criminals.
According to police reports, 11 bullets hit the building, but luckily enough, it was done at night so no people were working in it, and nobody was harmed. A couple of cars have also been stolen, including the Reaper’s 1955 Chevy, which was eventually returned, and David ‘Bird’ Jones’ 1967 Chevy Camaro.
A couple of cast members have had problems with the authorities: Rhett Peters was arrested for selling drugs, while Izzy Valenzuela was charged with murder, when he crashed his car during an illegal race, and killed two bystanders.
History of street racing
Street racing is described as an illegal form of car racing, which most often takes place on public roads. It’s believed to be as old as automobiles, and it wasn’t a rather unique event – there had previously been illegal horse races, also occurring on public roads. It was extremely popular in the ‘60s during the age of hot rods, and then in the ‘70s, the age of muscle cars; it was popular to race with Japanese imports in the ‘90s.
Races often occur at car meets, events at which a large number of car enthusiasts gather to show off their cars, while they then end up racing to see whose car is faster, but also who’s a better driver.
Tōge racing is a highly popular type of illegal races, it comes from Japan, and the word ‘Tōge’ translates to ‘mountain pass’. These races are driven on mountain roads, and require a lot of drifting; one of the most popular roads for this in the US is Del Dios Highway in Escondido, California.
Sprints are another popular style of street racing. It’s usually two or more drivers racing from one point to another, but it has become rather hard to organize this kind of races nowadays, which is why Tōge and drag are more frequent.
Drag races are perhaps the most popular style of street racing today, as it’s quite easy to organize, and is a lot less dangerous than other forms of illegal racing. It involves two cars side-by-side, racing on a straight road which is usually no longer than a mile.
Southern California is believed to be the birthplace of North American drag racing, and it was covered by numerous magazines back in the ‘90s, including “Sport Compact Car” and “Turbo and Hi-Tech Performance”. Because of its popularity, strict laws were enacted in various US states against the racers, even against those just watching street races; many of these laws would today send the driver to jail, while his/her car would be impounded or even destroyed. In 2000, the Racers Against Street Racing (RASR) campaign was launched, as a way of telling illegal street racers about the dangers of their hobby, and to explain that they could just as well race in sanctioned events.
What contributed to the rise in the number of street races in America was also the highly popular film franchise “Fast and Furious”; a couple of other movies which seem to promote these activities include the 2004 “Torque”, the 2007 “Redline”, and the 2014 “Speed and Mayhem Down Under Uncut and Unrated”.
