Racing History
When he was seven years old, John Michael announced in a school project that he wanted to be a racing driver.
By the middle of that year, 2017, he began to race karts at K1 Speed in San Diego and consistently finished in the top three. He also began to drive simulated racing at home with a PlayStation 3.
From 2018 to 2019, he placed first or second in all his K1 Speed events.
After the pandemic closures, John Michael returned to K1 speed, now in the Adult karts, and continued to achieve top placings and was a top qualifier in the Teen League races.
In the late spring of 2022, John Michael began to race in higher-performance karts outdoors at CalSpeed Karting. He had been given an age waiver to race there and was immediately competitive with the adults, many with years of experience. He raced in the GP series at CalSpeed by the end of summer.
In the early fall of 2022, John Michael began to work with JHMotorsports. Josh Huff, the owner, evaluated him in an entry-level race kart and was impressed by his skills. John Michael entered a dirt-track oval race and, unexpectedly, excelled.
By the beginning of 2023, Josh Huff believed that John Michael was so advanced that he needed to
move to a higher challenge, a much faster kart with much more advanced competition, Tag100 Junior racing.
In his first race, driving this kart for the first time, he qualified and finished 11th.
John Michael drove in the Challenge of the Americas race series at Tucson, Phoenix, and Sonoma in early 2023. This kart series includes most of the national class KA100 Junior drivers. He did quite well, despite a string of mechanical failures.
John Michael began to participate in iRacing (simulator) races at the beginning of 2023. By September, he had progress from the “Rookie” category to the “A” category in road racing. The progression is: Rookie, D, C, B, A, Pro, and Pro/WC. This is quite extraordinary for someone his age and experience.
John Michael did not race from March until July 2023. He had an injured rib, there were few decent tracks available in Southern California, and his racing budget was thin. In July, we stumbled upon a chance to drive a KA100 kart provided by WRS racing at the Atlanta Motorsports Park. In two practice days, on old tires, he was surpassing the first place qualifying time of the previous KA100 Junior race. He had two offers to drive for teams located at AMP. We were told, however, that, given his skill, he should race at the Trackhouse Motorplex near Charlotte. We were told that the difficulty of that track and the competition available there would best help his advancement.
In August of 2023, John Michael began to race with Brandon Jarsocrak Racing at Trackhouse and got, for the first time, real on-track coaching there. After this he set the 3rd fastest time in raceday warmups and earned the “Hard Charger” award for gaining the most places, 8, during the race. Based on what they have seen in a short time, his new team manager and team coach have indicated that they want him to consider doing national-level events, like the PKUSA series next year. He is 13, at the bottom of his race class age range and has, from all assessments, the least prior kart-racing experience, so his potential is quite large.