On September 2, Route 66 Sprint Series owner Chris Kardashian announced the sale of the popular Midwest racing series to veteran industry and series manager Tim Koyen. The four-event series, which raced in Indiana, Wisconsin, and Illinois in 2025, has grown significantly over the last two years under Kardashian’s management with a focus on creating a fun, family atmosphere and respectful competition. With Koyen’s considerable experience, we expect to see continued development and growth through the coming years. Koyen was the long-time Operations Manager of the United States Pro Kart Series, a position he officially stepped away from in August, and he also co-promoted the Midwest Sprint Series from 2008 to 2012. He’s also the former owner of KartLift and has spent many years as a karting dad and mechanic for his son TJ, who is now a highly respected helmet painter.

eKartingNews.com: Tim, congratulations on your acquisition on the Route 66 Sprint Series. After years with the USPKS and working with Chris Kardashian this year, you’re back in the promoter’s seat. It’s been 13 years since you promoted the Midwest Sprint Series with Rick Jump, so let’s start by asking you what motivated you to buy the series and dive back into the ownership role?

Tim Koyen: Thanks, Rob. The MWSS was a great learning experience for me, even though it was run as a club. Unfortunately, the late 2000s economic downturn signalled the end of that series, but I was still enthusiastic about managing and promoting a kart series. Mark Coats asked me to come and announce for Route 66. When the USPKS series was born in 2013, Mark then asked me to be the Race Director, which I declined, because my son TJ and I wanted to race that series, which we did for a number of years. Fast forward a couple of years, and due to an emergency illness with series announcer Randy Kugler, and I found myself working for the USPKS as a fill-in announcer. It wasn’t long before I was working as the Operations Manager for both USPKS and Route 66.

I’m not a guy who was destined to work for someone else forever, but Mark wasn’t interested in having a partner, or selling Route 66 to me, so I had been on the lookout for another equity opportunity for a number of years. In the meantime, Mark sold Route 66 to Chris Kardashian in the fall of 2022. Fast forward to Christmas Day 2024, I lost my wife and business partner Christine to a short battle with cancer. Everything in my life changed then, and I knew that pursuing my dreams was going to be my top priority going forward. Since Kardashian lost his wife in a similar fashion, we quickly formed a bond and I agreed to work for him and, at the end of the year, we made a deal that allowed him to retire, and for me to realize my dream of operating my own series.  But I wanted to make a full commitment to Route 66, so I resigned from USPKS. Honestly, since I was used to working and traveling with my wife, I wasn’t having a lot of fun anymore anyway.

Koyen (r) ended his tenure with USPKS at the 2025 series finale (Photo: Ken Johnson – Studio52.us)

EKN: Before moving on, as you said, you’d been with the USPKS since 2016, so you’ve been through many of the ups and down of series management in recent years. Armed with your experience, what do you feel are Route 66’s primary strengths and do you have initial thoughts on how you may look to evolve the series to put your mark on it?

TK: Route 66 is first and foremost, a family-based series. It is more than just racing it’s an experience for the entire family. Christine and I raised our family at the racetrack spending money we didn’t have, but we built a lifetime of memories. I want to provide that same memory building opportunity for more families – although I wouldn’t recommend the overspending part). The ‘fun’ stuff will continue, but everything needs to be kept affordable as well.  There is a lot of focus in karting these days on TV and media and big teams, but for many people in racing, the experience and fun is why they race. Our legendary cornhole/bags games will continue, as will the fun kids’ activities. Changes that we will be discussing might including aligning rules a little more closely with other local series, and ideas for new fun activities.

EKN: You mentioned aligning Route’s rules more with local programs. I’ve always looked at regional series as being the opportunity for top club drivers to challenge themselves away from their home track, and then to defend their turf when the regional programs come to their own backyard. Do you have plans to strengthen your partnerships with the clubs in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana, which are the states that make up your 2026 schedule? It’s always a positive when clubs don’t schedule races on the regional weekends.

TK:  I couldn’t agree more that it adds to the fun for locals when they can challenge themselves against the best from other clubs. It’s a great way to learn and make yourself better and more competitive, and that’s the path that my son and I chose as well. All that said, the karting calendar is literally chock full of races, and asking clubs to hold off our dates isn’t something that I’m willing to do. I want to be on good terms with the clubs, and allow their drivers to compete with us, but everyone needs to survive. I have worked with the other traveling series to pretty much keep us off everyone else, and vice-versa, so that should be somewhat helpful for harmony and availability.

Tim worked with the Route 66 in the past, including as announcer seen here interviewing his son TJ Koyen (Photo: Kathy Churchill)

EKN: The series offers both two-cycle and four-cycle categories, and they all enjoyed solid numbers in 2025. I know it’s still only September of the ‘current’ calendar year, but do you foresee any changes to the class structure for 2026?

TK: The 206 Heavy/Masters class was new for 2025, and had a solid showing at the season opener, buoyed by free entries, but kind of fizzled out during the season, with only a couple of entries at the finale. I do think that one year isn’t enough to build a class, and I have already had a major team contact me to request that we keep that class, as he himself has four competitors who are willing to commit to the year, so I think we need to give that class another chance, and hopefully it will gain some ground in 2026.  The rest of the lineup will likely be unchanged, unless something crazy happens in the off-season.

EKN: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us, Tim. Do you have anything else you’d like to communicate to EKN Nation?

TK: Thanks for giving me this opportunity, Rob. I know we have visited many times before, and it’s always a pleasure. If I could say one thing to the karters in the Midwest, it’s that the Route 66 Sprint Series has been around for nearly 30 years, and I don’t plan to let that streak lapse on my watch. When folks come to our events, they should expect to have good, clean, competitive racing, and lots of off-track family fun. Nothing stays the same forever, but our mission of ‘Great Tracks, Great Racing, and Great Family Fun’ hasn’t changed.

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