My interest in racing started before I can really remember. My grandfather was the president of the racing association in Kalispell, MT back in the mid 60's.

I started going to races when I was about 2 or 3 years old with my grandmother, grandfather and mother (who was trophy queen at least one time that she will admit to!). I remember racing my tricycle during fun nights and later graduated to a two wheel bike where I won at least one race!

Later in my "career", I briefly turned to bicycle stunt riding. This was mainly due to the urging of my cousins. This was also at the peak of Evil Knievel's rein. I would wear my favorite jacket during jumps over cars (hotwheels), rocks, or anything else my cousins could talk me in to jumping. Of course every once in a while I would crash. Since I would always be wearing my favorite jacket during these wrecks, my cousins gave me the nickname of "CrashJacket", later shortened to "Crash"...which I still answer to.

My career as a driver was put on hold for many, many years after that. I suppose that was mainly due to the fact that I knew absolutely nothing about working on cars, let alone building a race car, or even being able to afford to build one. I never lost an interest in racing as a spectator, going to as many local races as possible.

This last several years, I have gotten into driving once again. I still don't know much about working on cars, but I figured it was now or never. I raced go-karts for two years, by myself (no pit crew), mainly in Luverne, MN on a quarter mile dirt oval...a superspeedway for go-karts. I finished 6th in season points in my first year, 1996, and 7th place in 1997 even though I missed the last 3 races due to a season ending crash in which I did a series of sprint car flips down the front stretch! It was all caught on video, too!

Guys, a word of advice...if your wife wasn't there at the races to see the real life experience, don't let her watch a crash video of you doing flips and cartwheels at a height of about 12 feet in the air if you have no roll bars or seat belts! Needless to say, she was NOT happy. I did end up with the "Best Crash of the Year" trophy, though. As a matter of fact, it was bigger than my points trophy!

Still, that's not exactly a good trade for about $4000 in hospital bills and broken kart parts. On the other hand, no one here has ever seen a go-kart catch on fire before! I guess the name "Crash" is still with me for a reason.

I have raced cars before, on occasion, while announcing at a couple tracks in Winner, SD and Marysville, CA during media nights and enduros in which I did manage a best finish of 3rd. This is the first time I will be racing cars on a regular basis. I found a couple of good friends that actually know how to work on these things! I am learning a lot, but still consider myself just a dumb driver!