It all started when I was 3 years old and 3 feet tall. I spent hundreds of hours at Harris Hill Raceway riding with my father, who is an instructor, a track junkie, and a Miata racer. As I grew taller, I began driving from his lap while he controlled the pedals. One Sunday afternoon, I got into the driver’s seat of a Mazda 2, and within my first lap, racing became my life.
Since I was too short for my dad’s Miata, we rented a Fiat every weekend until I grew taller. Then, with the help of a few pillows, I was finally able to reach the pedals and drive the Miata with my dad in the right seat.
Dad spent most of his weekends in 2012 teaching me everything I needed to know to be safe on the track, focusing mainly on safety, track awareness, and car control skills. We spent two years practicing—from Gymkhana and Time Trials to Drifting and RallyCross—until I was ready for my first Miata race.
A family friend modified the seat of our H2R Challenge Miata to ensure it was safe for a 10-year-old driver. My goal was to start every race as the last car and work my way to the front for the win with safe and clean passes. Within a year and a half, I achieved that goal, with many wins and podiums, culminating in the 2016 H2R Miata Challenge Championship at the age of 13.
With my first club racing championship under my belt, I felt the desire to step up my competition. NASA’s Spec Miata Series was exactly what I was looking for. My dad and I, with help from our Spec Miata friends, built my 1.6-liter Spec Miata.
NASA Texas and its community were very welcoming. I started in HPDE 3 at MSR Houston. I completed the NASA Comp School at TWS on Friday to get my provisional license and raced the following day. By my third race weekend, I had earned my competition license.
My goal was to win both the Teen Mazda Challenge and the NASA Spec Miata Series championships for a chance to be invited to the Mazda Road to 24 Shootout. I won my first race weekend at Motor Sports Ranch Cresson—the first of many more wins and podiums—leading to a Teen Mazda Challenge Championship and the 2017 NASA Texas Region Spec Miata Series title.
After winning the regional Spec Miata championship, I decided to step up to the SCCA Super Tour in Spec Miata to gain more experience and learn new tracks. In addition to Spec Miata, I competed in a few ChampCar Endurance Series races and earned a couple of wins. The following year, I got my first job at Longhorn Racing Academy (LRA) as Operations Manager and Ride-Along Driver. It was a great learning experience and gave me the opportunity to step into supercars and get regular seat time. I also continued racing Miatas in the H2R Challenge and secured my second H2R Challenge championship.
After a few successful seasons, and with huge support from my parents, racing simply became too expensive to continue progressing past Spec Miata. At this point, I decided to pivot and take up a new challenge: drifting. I made this switch primarily to learn a new skill and better understand the business side of racing on a more affordable and high-exposure platform.
I continued working at LRA and self-funded my first season in drifting, competing in the Lone Star Drift TXSL series. With the help of my partners—BC Racing, Auto Spec, and Dewitts Radiators—I built my first drift car: a C6 Corvette. I spent the season learning and competing, and was fortunate enough to participate in Drift Week 2020, a three-week drift trip across the U.S., street driving our race cars from Arizona to Florida and visiting six different racetracks along the way. This trip accelerated my development as a driver, leading to my first drift win in 2021 at Lone Star Drift Round 1. After a very competitive season and a few more podiums, I became the Lone Star Drift TXSL Vice Champion.
I learned a ton from drifting and really enjoyed the challenge and experience. However, after a couple of seasons, I knew I had to return to road racing. After careful evaluation, I traveled to Germany to meet with teams and gather information. The first race I attended was the Prototype Cup Germany at Nürburgring. There, I met Franz Konrad, team boss of Konrad Motorsport. Upon meeting him, he invited me to a test at Lausitzring in the LMP3. Considering my experience had only been in Miatas and drift cars, this was a monumental jump—but one I knew I had to take. With no prior experience in a car of that caliber and no track knowledge, I finished my first day just six-tenths off Konrad’s pro driver.
Following that successful test, I joined the final two rounds of Prototype Cup Germany with Konrad Motorsport. Shortly after, I signed a contract to become a full-time driver with the team.
I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity Franz Konrad has given me. He provided the time and support I needed to develop as a driver and begin challenging for championship titles. Since then, we’ve gone on to win several titles and collected numerous race wins and podiums in both LMP3 and GT3 championships.