Meet Mikey Kruchka

I was born in June 1979 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Sometime in the years prior to my birth my dad had stopped racing and turned towards bluegrass music lol, seriously. Skip ahead 15 years, during this time off I had seen photos of him racing and we had attended Merrittville, twice with the Slade family (John, Colin), but really hadn't put two and two together just yet. 

The year is 1995, I'm in grade 9... after class dad picks me and my brother Clinton up and says were off to Welland to pick up a Mod-Stock,... WHAM!... we are back in racing... What?!!! That's where it began. And now here I am, 15 years later just coming off my rookie year in a 360 Winged Sprint Car.

So as I said my first involvement was in the mod-stock division crewing for my fathers white #21. Just about the time I had finished high school, My dad moved up to the Sportsman Class and I got my first taste of some speed behind the wheel of my Dirt oval go-kart that I ran Tuesday nights at the Merrittville kart club. My first real job out of school was at Plazek Auto Recyclers and that had earned me enough or at least whatever was left after auto insurance to buy me my first kart. That whole first season my brother had to help me carry the kart through our front door and it lived in our dining room... Thanks Mom!

I raced Karts up until 2002 when I scraped enough together to put a motor in my dad’s first sportsman chassis and there I was racing a sportsman at age 22 sweet..! That season was pretty good, I managed to finish 6th in points at the Ohsweken Speedway and won the rookie of the year title. I didn't win any feature events, but I did get a taste of a few heat wins, which for my budget at the time was pretty friggin' awesome!

I raced Sportsman until mid 2005, sometime prior to this I had started hanging around the Sprint Car scene which was rapidly growing at the Ohsweken Speedway. Also I had been working during the summers at doing grounds maintenance and stuff so during my time there is when I started hanging around Glenn Styres Crew Chief Kevin Loveys. During this time I started traveling more and more with the Styres team and got truly exposed to Sprint Cars. Needless to say it totally changed the way I looked at dirt motor sports in general.

Sometime early in 2006 with the connections made in the last few seasons Kevin had landed a job as Crew chief on the #10c World of Outlaws Sprint car of Jeremy Campbell. A short month later I would catch up with them in Wisconsin and would ride the rest of the season out in a toter-home crossing back and forth across the U.S. I'm not racing myself at this point, but this is still pretty cool for two kids from Steeltown! During this whole time I knew that I wanted to race Sprint Cars, but without the financial backing I knew I would have to bank on my connections made, gathered knowledge, a bit of charm and a truckload of luck. 

During my summers of racing sportsman and picking up garbage under the bleachers at Ohsweken is where I met the man who will forever change my story in racing. He was coincidentally the man who handed me my pay every Friday. The guys name is Dean and up until this point Dino (Dean) had never even been to a race even though at the time he did the financial books for the Speedway. During our Friday lunch break at the local diner I had convinced Dino to bring his wife, Brenda, out to the races later that evening which he did. I do believe I won the heat that night. Good Timing!

So it’s late 2005 and the seed was planted, but then I sold my Sportsman and went on the road, but not before I had convinced Dino and Brenda to help me purchase a used frame body, bumper kit and car seat from Kears Speed shop in Ohio. I promised them that I would take this beginning and turn it into something special. Although it took two full years to get everything lined up and everyone on board, we did it.

There is no way I could have made this happen without their generous support and dedication to Big Moose Racing. 2008 was just totally amazing I managed to land the coolest sponsor to ever be stuck to a sideboard of a Sprint Car... "Wings Up!". Also at the year end awards banquet for the Ohsweken Corr-Pak Sprints I finished 9th overall with a best feature finish of 3rd. We had one heat win and I was named the most improved driver... Pretty cool!

If you would like to check out more on Big Moose Racing and my first season behind the wheel visit our Video Page and click on the JAC-M-UP Show logo. This is a series of on-line reality shows chronicling my first season.... Check it out.

Cheers and see you at the races,

.....Mikey Kruchka