For AJ, dirt racing started as a family tradition. Growing up in Central Pennsylvania, his grandparents regularly packed AJ and his brothers up for trips to Williams Grove, Selinsgrove, Lincoln and his home track, Port Royal Speedway. With a cousin racing Late Models, weekends around the racetrack simply became part of growing up.
But something about Sprint Cars was just different. Invigorating. Addictive.
As a kid, AJ remembers being fascinated by the machines, fondly looking at them as “go-karts with wings.” Then you see what those little cars can actually do—the horsepower, the speed and the way they command each turn—and suddenly, there’s nothing little about them. The magnificence of it all is on full display.
“There’s just nothing like it,” AJ says.
Sometimes You Find Your Way Back
Eventually, life took AJ away from Pennsylvania and racing drifted from his regularly scheduled plans. College brought him to Florida, and after graduation he moved across the country to Los Angeles, where he began establishing his career as a personal trainer. One year became another, and between school, work and building a life thousands of miles from the tracks he grew up around, nearly 15 years passed.
Then, one day in California, racing found its way back to him.
AJ saw an ad for an upcoming race at Perris Auto Speedway, not far from his new home in LA. Realizing how long he’d been away, and as a nod to his late grandparents, he thought to himself, I just have to go.
The moment he arrived, he remembered exactly what he’d been missing: the smell of the dirt, the rumble of a Sprint Car coming to life, and the familiar sights, sounds and energy of a race night. Surrounded once again by the machines that fascinated him as a child — and by people who loved them just as much as he did — it all came rushing back at once.
How could he have stayed away this long?
AJ was hooked all over again, and before long, the re-energized enthusiasm spread through his family, too. The people who had once spent their weekends together at the racetrack began finding their way back to the sport alongside him. Racing became something they could share again, connecting the memories AJ had made with his grandparents as a kid to an entirely new chapter of race weekends together.
“Once you go, you never leave.”
AJ truly is living proof. Today, he attends somewhere between 25 and 40 races a year, traveling from DIRTcar Nationals in Florida to Huset’s Speedway in South Dakota to every California race he can get his hands on, and of course the World of Outlaws World Finals in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Where Everybody Speaks the Same (EASY) Language
These days, AJ’s everyday life looks quite a bit different from the Pennsylvania farm where he grew up. Los Angeles means millions of people, traffic, busy schedules and plenty of small talk. That might be part of the reason arriving at a racetrack feels so refreshing.
There, AJ says, nobody has to put on a front. Racing people are just racing people. There’s a common courtesy, logic and decency to the community that reminds him of “how things used to be.” You can talk to the person sitting beside you or wander through the pits and strike up a conversation with someone you’ve never met. Either way, you'll often realize that two hours later, you’re still talking to your newfound friend!
Once, while AJ was hanging out by his truck at a hotel before a race, a few guys from Australia noticed his racing shirt. That was all it took. A conversation about racing turned strangers into buddies, and now AJ is planning to travel to Australia next year, stay with them and experience racing on the other side of the world during their summer season!
When at the track, “It’s hard not to feel at home,” AJ says.
Maybe part of that comes from the fact that dirt racing hasn’t been completely sterilized by time. The access is still there. The personalities are still genuine. The dirt still flies! At its core, it’s still genuine talent, raw power and thousands of people gathering all because they share an appreciation for the incredible machines in front of them.
At most professional sporting events, there’s a clear divide between the athletes and the fans. At a dirt track, AJ buys a pit pass, arrives around 2 p.m. when the gates open and spends the afternoon wandering from hauler to hauler, catching up with crew members and drivers he’s gotten to know along the way.
As AJ puts it, compared to other sports, “This IS the locker room.”
Once the racing starts, he rarely stays in one place. He moves around the track to catch the action from different angles, watching the cars breathe to life, crews scramble to make adjustments and teams respond to every little change the dirt throws their way. Somewhere along the way, the people he used to watch on the track became people he looks forward to seeing every weekend.
The Kind of Sport You Want to Give Back To
One of AJ’s favorite things about racing is that even as those relationships grow, there’s still room for someone experiencing it all for the very first time.
He saw that firsthand while attending a race with his nephew, who has autism. His nephew wanted autographs from Kasey Kahne and Rico Abreu but was too nervous to approach them himself. Instead, the drivers came to him.
It was a simple gesture, but AJ hasn’t forgotten it. To him, it represented racers understanding that they were once the nervous kid standing on the other side, too. Taking a few extra moments made his nephew feel seen and gave both an extra special memory to cherish for the rest of their lives.
That’s the spirit of racing AJ wants to protect: personal, loyal and welcoming, with enough room for anyone that wants to come together, laugh and enjoy life.
“I love giving back to the Sprint Car community because they’ve given so much to me.”
The Tall Guy in the Checkered Flag Socks
Of course, after attending 25 to 40 races a year, AJ has become a well-loved member of the dirt racing community. But in case you haven't met him yet, just look for the socks!
Checkered flag socks have become his race-day staple, and he’s accumulated about 10 pairs to make sure he’s never without them. Around the track, people have even started recognizing him simply as “the tall guy with the checkered socks.”
Those socks have covered some serious mileage, especially in his home state of California. AJ lives in Los Angeles but travels up and down the state chasing Sprint Cars whenever he gets the chance. In fact, even while we were interviewing him for this story, he was in the car in the middle of a back-to-back-to-back race weekend.
There’s only one thing better than a road trip…
And that’s a racing road trip!
With the World of Outlaws coming to California this September, AJ won’t be the only one with a reason to hit the road. The Greatest Show on Dirt is headed to four stops across the Golden State, giving West Coast fans the perfect excuse to build an itinerary of their own.
Hit one. Hit a few. Or take a page out of AJ’s book and chase them all!
West Coast, Best Coast? Prove it.
Just Go
After all those races, AJ’s advice for a first-timer is refreshingly uncomplicated: don’t wear white, don’t worry when a little dirt inevitably lands in your beer and just enjoy the ride.
Compared to many of the other professional sports you may follow, AJ notes that dirt racing remains remarkably accessible—not only in how close you can get to the action, but in what it costs to experience it. A night out at the races can still mean bringing the family, grabbing a hamburger AND a hot dog, picking up a T-shirt and enjoying hours of racing without the price tag that often comes with attending other major sporting events. You can actually settle in to the present moments and not feel guilty about what you spent to be there.
AJ also lives by another rule: “There’s no such thing as a bad race.”
Sure, he has drivers he wants to see win. (David Gravel is a favorite, in part because AJ loves the nostalgic look of his car and how much it reminds him of the Outlaw cars he grew up watching.) But when the checkered flag falls, cars fighting for every inch of grip and position is great racing, regardless of who ends up in Victory Lane.
Looking back, AJ’s grandparents gave him much more than somewhere to spend his weekends. They gave him a place he could always find his way home to.
It’s a place where a conversation in a hotel parking lot can turn into a friendship halfway around the world. Where you can laugh with someone you met hours ago and walk through the pits among people you once only watched from the grandstands, knowing that when you come back next weekend, someone will be happy to see you. Racing roots have given AJ a community that followed him from a farm in Pennsylvania across the country to Los Angeles, through 15 years away, and right back to the racetrack again.
And, of course, they gave him Sprint Cars—the raw power, incredible talent and unmistakable feeling that still leaves AJ just as fascinated by those “go-karts with wings” as he was as a kid.
This year, his story comes with another full-circle moment: AJ’s birthday falls during World of Outlaws World Finals. After all the races he’s chased and miles he’s traveled, AJ jokes that the Outlaws gave him the best birthday present he could ask for—a three-day, season-ending racing SPECTACULAR, surrounded by the machines he loves and all the friends he’s made along the way.
But really, we might be the lucky ones. Getting to share this sport with fans as passionate and dedicated as AJ is what makes our community so special. We’re grateful to have you along for the ride—and even more grateful to call you an Outlaw, AJ!
So, if you're heading to World Finals this year and want to help him celebrate, you know who to look for:
The tall guy in the checkered flag socks.
“If you haven’t been, you just don’t get it.”
And AJ would probably tell you there’s only one way to fix that.
Help us wish AJ a very Happy Birthday! Feel a little more dirt in your veins. We’ll see you at the track.
World of Outlaws World Finals: November 4-7 | The Dirt Track at Charlotte | Concord, NC