The Need for Speed

From a young age, engineer Mike Gruizinga has been fascinated with speed and racing. What began as a keen interest in motocross, quickly developed into a love of racing cars. Mike has sported several vehicles in the past, including a beefed up Geo Metro, to fulfill his endurance racing dreams in the 24 Hours of Lemons racing series.

racecar with a rainbow stripe

His current ride, a gray 1984 Nissan 300zx Turbo, has become his main focus for the last year. It has been a long time coming for this combo to come to fruition, as Mike has owned the Nissan in one form or another for nearly 16 years. Recently, he has been bringing his car to GingerMan, the local race track, for testing and development. Mike finds wheel to wheel racing to be an exhilarating outlet, and is currently pursuing that branch of racing.

race car on the track

If Mike isn’t racing for himself, he is sharing his love and knowledge of the sport with other enthusiasts through training opportunities brought to the track by Gridlife and AutoInterest. Several times during the year, Mike will take beginner, intermediate, and advanced drivers around the track to show them the ropes of racing. Beginners are typically paired with an instructor for their first few track events to help them gage their turns, speed, and technique. Mike thoroughly enjoys instructing others, as he finds it incredibly rewarding to introduce, mentor and coach others interested in a shared passion.

As any well-versed car lover knows, where there are cars, there are repairs, maintenance, modifications, and improvements. As an engineer, Mike feels right at home working on his cars. He enjoys working with his hands and adores having a tremendous outlet for some of his design engineer energy. To support these modifications on his passion projects, Mike has restored several vintage machines including a drill press and horizontal milling machine. In addition, he has also designed and built custom workbenches, including a fixture bench for welding.

lifting an engine

You can keep up with Mike’s racing by following him on Youtube https://youtube.com/channel/UCw7ZF1XmxBtNnU2NahJ3x7A

To learn more about local racing, visit https://www.gingermanraceway.com

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