There is one relationship that I have had since the day I was born, and that’s been with karting. The next longest relationship, outside my family members, is eKartingNews.com. And yes, that includes my marriage.

Going to the race track with my dad, who started karting in 1974, I learned about the sport by attending races and reading the many magazines that were available during the late 1980s, early 1990s. Eventually, I began my career behind the wheel, but it was limited to club and regional racing in the Great Lakes area – focused primarily on road racing or endurance events at tracks like Grattan, Mid-Ohio, Putnam Park, and Road America. Despite that, I kept up on what was happening within the sport through my monthly subscriptions.

Eventually, I left my Grand Rapids home and made my way to Kalamazoo, Michigan to begin my education at Western Michigan University in the late 1990s. My first week as a student there, I received my first ever email address through the school and the famed computer labs in the library were my introduction to the world wide web (internet). The email was primarily used to communicate with professors and other students, however, I began to use it to research more about karting. Among the first email groups I joined was the Pete Muller’s ‘Karting Mailing List’. It was an email chain of karting discussions, including karters from around the world. That was my first introduction to karting outside of magazines.

During my first few years at WMU, the internet boom launched and led to the creation of many websites. Outside of my studies or when I felt burnt out by school, it was searching for information about karting. Anything karting related, I would save the URL and check back daily for updates.

Different outlets sprouted up throughout the web, and the discussion board was created. This sent my attention off to hourly check in on websites in between class and work, to see what the latest topic people were talking about.

By the year 2000, I moved into an apartment with my brother and a close friend a few minutes from campus and was dating my eventual wife. That September, a website called eKartingNews.com was launched. It became my new home page. I’d load up the site every day to see the latest news from across the USA and internationally and, of course, they had a discussion board.

Over the course of the first two years, the site changed its look and also introduced the ‘Forum’ section. This was the official page of the discussion board, broken down into groups within the sport. It was toward the start of 2003 that a new version of the site came out, including a new forum design. I am happy to say I was among the first 50 people to register for the new forum.

Aside from the thousands and thousands of topics published in the forums, what I really took away was the connections I made. As a road racer in the Midwest, I was not attending the WKA Manufacturers Cup Series, WKA Gold Cup Series, SKUSA ProMoto Tour events, US Rotax Grand Nationals, or the SKUSA SuperNationals. But the forum helped me to connect with the actual people who were there, racing and competing, and together with other karting enthusiasts.

Prior to the internet boom, I was a member of the Michigan Kart Club. It was a road racing based organization that hosted events at Grattan Raceway near my hometown, and eventually Gingerman Raceway in South Haven, Michigan. Together with the Dart Kart Club, who hosted events at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, they collaborated to put together the Mid-States Enduro Series. Through the club, I worked various positions from registration, flagging, scoring and more. By the year 2000, I was helping to organize the MSES program with building the rulebook, contact advertisers, managing points standings, etc.

It was through MKC and Mid-States that I began a relationship with Shifter Kart Illustrated. What a perfect company to sponsor our shifter classes than SKI. That is how I came to connect with Rob Howden – Shifter Kart Illustrated publisher. I knew of him through the forums and read the magazine through my subscription, but did not know him personally. My pitch to have SKI sponsor our shifter classes was the first direct connection I had with Howden. That led to him asking in return for coverage from the road racing side of the sport. Through my 21 years of working for EKN, I can tell you to take advantage of any connections you have in journalism to get the story.

In 2003, I was able to provide small race reports from road racing events across the USA, getting paid 10 cents a word. I was even reimbursed for pit pass and gas to attend one race in Indiana personally. I slept on the floor of a friend’s hotel room for two nights before driving back home Sunday night. Looking at my invoice for 2003, I made $291.11 over five months of race reports. That was my official start as a karting journalist.

My role expanded in 2004 with SKI. I was invited to the KMI Expo in Chicago to be part of the SKI booth at the show, and Rob presented me with an official SKI jacket and hat. Let me tell you, I wore them everywhere. In March, he along with mutual friend Marc Miller invited me to go with them on a road trip in a Class C RV, along with Mike Maurini, who was working with the magazines in the sales department. The four of us met up outside Detroit, traveled down to our first stop – a karting road race event at Road Atlanta. For me, it was my first ever visit to the historic course and allowed me to meet up with many familiar friends for a quick visit. We continued to the main focus of the trip – 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida. Through Rob’s FormulaCar Magazine, we were covering the action for the Skip Barber National Championship, Formula Ford Zetec Championship Series (now USF2000 Championship) and the Star Mazda Championship (now USF Pro 2000 Championship). Among those driving there were Ron White, Jason Bowles, Bobby Wilson, Wade Cunningham, Luis Schiavo, and future NASCAR driver Michael McDowell.

Leaving Friday, we left to head north to Jacksonville for the Superkarts! USA ProMoto Tour stop at the 103rd Street Sports Complex. It was my first major karting event that I had attended outside of road racing. It was the first time seeing in person the many names I read about in the pages of SKI and in the articles on EKN. After a busy two days of racing, we loaded up the RV and made the overnight trek back to Michigan. How they trusted me to drive the rig through the Tennessee mountains in the middle of the night is beyond me.

That trip helped to forge a great friendship, and partnership that began later that year when Rob asked me to become the Managing Editor of eKartingNews. For the last 21 seasons, I’ve been able to cover the sport of karting, something that I could never have imagined as a young boy build and racing karts out of Legos on the kitchen floor. To that, I thank him for his guidance and advice over that time and providing me the opportunity to build a career within the sport of karting.

Working as the EKN Managing Editor is not a job, it’s a passion. Karting is something that is in my blood. I think about it each and every day, as I have since I was a young boy. The quote by Dan Wheldon – “Karting is the purest form of motorsports” – is exactly that. From sitting in the garage working on the kart, to watching a pack of karts battling on the race track, and the many memories made off the track, it’s a lifestyle. And I’m glad karting chose me.

Congrats to EKN on turning 25.

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