In late 2001, while scouting out locations to purchase for a new shop/store front location the family took a wrong turn on Hwy 51 and ended up driving by our current location. There was a little yard for-sale sign barely visible because of the overgrown grass…..but it was fate – or destiny. Actually it was a total Blessing!
Initially the extra land was going to be used to build a small asphalt track so potential customers could test drive our VMT karts and for tuning purposes for KAM Karting Supply - our kart shop that had already been in business 10 years at this point. At this time, KAM was the North Texas Rotax Max Service Center and we owned a Rotax Max Challenge Series. But the economy turned and there was no longer a market for $4k kart motors and brand new Sprint Kart chassis. That and the bids for building an asphalt kart track were more than the entire property cost. *Another Blessing*
That’s when Mike looked to his first motorsports love – Dirt Racing. He borrowed a blade from a construction site down the street and KAM Kartway was born. We became a QRC Kart dealer in 2002 and started racing at other tracks to meet our niche market. Ron Clark at Texoma Motor Speedway was incredible! Instead of viewing us as the dreaded “competition”, he took us under his wing and mentored us for at least the first couple of years. (Heck, he’s still giving us advice to this day!)
With our experience running a major national series, working races at NTK and 6 years in the kart racing business it didn’t take long to carve out our place on map in the world of Dirt Karting. The economy may have put a dent in asphalt karting but the dirt racers where die hard competitors, and after a year our car count was higher than the average sprint kart race programs.
