Kyle Loftis funeral: Cletus McFarlane delivers heartbreaking speech; ‘Remember to smile’

McFarlane spoke about his friendship with Loftis and shared how he gives back to the racing community. What’s this Cletus MacFarlane Speaking of Kyle Loftis.

“I think these guys did a great job pointing out how effortlessly Kyle helped everyone around him and launched his career,” McFarland began. He continued: “I can’t tell you how many times Kyle has launched someone’s career or passion and put their life on a different trajectory than they imagined. The kind of person he is, it’s truly incredible.”

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Additionally, McFarland remembered Loftis, saying, “It’s also unbelievable how many friends Kyle had. I think he had more friends than anyone I’ve ever known. He was one of the kindest, most loving people who could talk to anyone, but you know, he had the widest range of friends.”

Loftis’ friend also noted the large number of people the late video creator brought together, saying, “I mean, you look around the room and it’s really amazing the variety of people Kyle brought together. His unique skill of bringing people together was one of his greatest skills. If you look around, there’s a good chance Kyle introduced you to the person you were sitting next to.”

“However, his passion for cars was absolutely contagious. When we met Kyle, many of us had no idea the journey we were about to embark on,” McFarland said of Loftis. MacFarlane then recounted his meeting with Loftis.

“When I met Kyle…it was also at Sonic. Gosh, Kyle loved Sonic. I don’t know how much he was a boost to Sonic’s economy, especially in the Nebraska area, but he deserves some credit there. But, uh, after an invitation from Chase, I came to Sonic at 180th and Center. I remember seeing this guy stick a GoPro on Fox. At the time, you know, GoPro had just come out. YouTube was kind of just becoming a thing. I didn’t really know what was going on, but uh I had no idea this was Joey’s beater bomb that he was putting this GoPro on. And just a few minutes later, the Fox body is pulling out. There’s these street bikes behind it. Kyle’s in the car right behind. He’s got this huge camera. Never seen anything like this, you know? And I’m like, I’m 15 years old. I’m Like, it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” McFarlane recalled.

He added: “So, I jumped in my car and followed these guys and Kyle was in the back car coordinating the race. And sure enough, they ran down Center Street back to the race site, and then they stopped and I thought, that was the first street race I’ve ever seen. It was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Speaking about his first interaction with Loftis, McFarland noted, “I went to Kyle, you know, because I could tell this guy that I thought he was responsible for the deal. And I was like, what are you going to do with this video? You know, that’s so cool. He said, ‘Oh, I’m going to put it on my YouTube channel, 1320 Videos.’ Will get up in the morning. ” I thought, “Oh my God, this is the coolest guy I’ve ever met.” “So, I came home and, like most of you probably, once you meet Kyle, you binge-watch 13, 20 videos, right? I watched as many videos as one person could watch in one night. I was completely blown away. My love for cars increased 10-fold after interacting with Kyle for a while. From this point on, my love for cars increased 10-fold. All I wanted to do in life was be a part of Kyle’s team.”

Speaking about the way Loftis inspires those around him, MacFarlane said: “I think a lot of you can relate to this, but all I want is a 1320 with the crew on it. video shirt. I just wanted to hang out with Kyle and see what he’s doing because obviously he’s doing cool stuff and everybody out there loves him and you know I can tell he’s the guy that holds it all together and I want to be inspired like him for the first time in my life. This is just a small example of how easily Kyle can inspire other people, I mean, you can’t watch the 1320 video and not want to put a bigger turbo on your car, right?

“Kyle’s passion for cars was so intense, right? That’s why we all know him. But if you really got to know him, his passion was really just documenting everything. I can guarantee that if he were here, he would have the most photos and videos on his phone in this room. He probably has about a hundred photos since this morning. Maybe that’s not enough. Maybe 250 photos at this time of day because he would see that brick structure. McFarlane also talked about his late friend who would be outside taking 20 Photos, that’s one of his best qualities, but I mean, he would pull out his phone and take pictures. He went on to tell an anecdote, saying, “I mean, I remember just driving down the road in Australia. Cooper and I were talking about this last night and there was a train on the side of the road, like driving, you know, just moving slowly. He slammed on the brakes. We cut to him filming from the passenger seat. I mean, we followed this train for about 20 minutes, you know, just getting video, rolling footage. And then uh, it’s just some never-before-seen footage. I’d love to see how much of his content gets exposed, but I mean, he takes a lot of videos and photos, and I’m sure you’ll remember that, man. We went to this zoo in Australia, I’m not kidding. I thought, Kyle, we could certainly go through the exhibit, like these little birds, but we did get photos and videos of every animal in the zoo and then another one on the way back. “

“I think a lot of you remember when Kyle first downloaded Snapchat. None of us were prepared for how much Snapchat Kyle was going to get. I don’t think the Snapchat servers were ready. I mean, he had to be the number one or top five user on Snapchat. I mean, his Snap The stories are so long. It’s unbelievable to want to read them all. But because Kyle is so special, you know, downloading Snapchat doesn’t count. So, it does lengthen the process, but if he chooses you on his Snapchat. Like, you must have been in a recent chat, or in a group chat, like, you got at least a hundred Snapchats, cars, birds, food, you name it, but he just loved documenting things, whether it was cars, or his friends, or anything interesting, and he was really good at that, and I’m going to miss those Snapchat quirks so much.

He praised the late video creator’s leadership, telling attendees, “I also think Kyle was one of the best leaders we could have ever asked for working for him. Whether you were working directly for 1320 video Work, or like I know a lot of you, as a volunteer at one of his events, he was really nice to us. It was like they were more of a party than a meeting. I don’t know how he did it, but it was awesome. And he, you know, he made these creative shirts and a lot of little things that were really great for us as a staff and he always went the extra mile to make sure that his staff or volunteers were really taken care of and went out of their way for us.”

MacFarlane recounted some funny moments with Loftis. He said, “I love Kyle’s sense of humor. I mean, you really have to go out of your way to annoy him. I mean, you can get away with a lot. I remember one time, Alec and I went to the uh front desk of our hotel and told him we needed a key to his room. It was 2:00 in the morning. Walked into his room, you know, and we had a couple drinks and we put the pizza on him. And Matt, you uh, I just remember we were in this shitty hotel and I could hear Kyle waking up and, you know, knowing it was us. I mean, he had never been more angry, you know, he was such a smart, funny guy.”

McFarland added: “Well, another funny story, one more before I go. I remember Kyle had a brand new drone. When DJI first launched it was like, right? Like it was state-of-the-art and we were in Colorado. There was a waterfall. Of course, Kyle was interested in that, right? Like it was a waterfall. It was like Kyle’s phone came out of his pocket. You know, we were like a magnet to this thing. I don’t even Knowing that whatever mission we had done before, but we saw the falls, it was like the first flight, you know, we hooked it up and Kyle got so close to the falls, you know, uh, the drone ended up flying into the falls and it was never spotted, but that’s the whole story of our boy Kyle, like he never missed a shot, he had to get in there, get the right photos, get the right video, it was awesome.”

McFarland concluded with emotion: “We were so lucky to have Kyle. So, let’s not let his legacy fade away. It’s time to spread the great ideas of 1320 Video more than ever. Put on your shirt. Put on your hat. Wear these stickers wherever you go. Most importantly, remember to smile like Kyle.”

McFarland recently posted about Loftis again on Facebook, writing: “My brother. Still speechless. He was the most inspiring person in my life.”