Today we’d like to introduce you to Spike Kohlbecker.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My name is Spike and I want to represent St. Louis in the greatest race in the World, the Indianapolis 500!
My career-to-date started when I was 4 years old. My grandpa has always been a car enthusiast and loved to be around cars. When Christmas came around that year it was the perfect time for he and my grandma to buy me my first go-kart and get me excited about what he loved most, racing. It wasn’t long after that when my dad, mom, and grandparents drove me to a racetrack in Indiana called Michiana Raceway Park to spend 4 days on a track so my instructor, Brent Ebert, could teach me how to drive. We had met Brent at the Indy 500 the year before and he was known as the expert in teaching little kids how to go 40 mph in a go-kart. That was the beginning and I was hooked.
Initially, I raced locally in St. Louis, then our journey took us to Illinois and Indiana competing against young karters around the Midwest. I guess it was sort of like baseball, I wanted to travel and race against kids my age beyond my home track. As I got better, I kept moving up and I raced nationally all over the country. I worked my way through the rankings in karting as you would in soccer or baseball. Then, when I was 14 years old, I shifted to cars and have been on the “open wheel” car path ever since. I started out racing cars in Canada, then I moved to New Zealand with my mom for my next season, as a 15-year-old I moved on my own to live in England and race all over the United Kingdom at some very famous tracks like Brands Hatch and Silverstone. After the UK my mom and I moved back to New Zealand for another season Down Under. Currently, I’m racing here in the US racing USF2000 on the “Road to Indy” ladder system. Think of the Road to Indy like professional baseball – there are the major leagues and then triple AAA, double AA, and Single-A baseball teams. In the major leagues alone, there are 1,000 professional baseball players. In the entire IndyCar and Road to Indy professional racing program, there are less than 100 drivers in total.
I am the top-ranked rookie in the US Championship and sit 6th overall in points competing against drivers from around the world. My goal is to finish the season strong, find myself on the podium a few more times, and begin focusing on next year.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Nope! I’ve chosen the most difficult career possible! Racing is like any sport, it’s challenging but racing has a few more tricky elements, including the expense of the car, the tires, the track rental fees, and the professional mechanics and engineers that work day and night with the goal of matching the car, the track, and the driver. This sport at this level is especially challenging both on and off the track. Off-track it forces you to give up your normal life to train and to travel. Not only is the driving challenging but off-track is even more challenging. Interestingly enough, racing isn’t just about how good you are as a driver, it’s also about meeting people, cultivating relationships, and finding sponsorship money to keep you in a race seat year after year. That is the business side of the sport that is equally as important as the work a driver does on track. I’m grateful that some really cool people here in St. Louis are supporting me. I guess you could say it’s a St. Louis thing – St. Louis people helping St. Louis people. I want to be the St. Louis kid that represents my city in the Indy500 – it’s a big goal with some big challenges.
Struggles? I’ve had plenty of those. My life has been different. I don’t talk about it a lot but I gave up some things like a normal high school experience, I’ve made sacrifices. Not going to lie, it’s tough sometimes. My parents say they’re going to write a book about the journey … not sure anyone would believe it.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
To me, racing is a job I love but takes a ton of work. I feel like I am one of the most prepared open-wheel drivers in America. I have the best training team in St. Louis thanks to the support of the Central Institute for Human Performance. And I try to balance that with finding time to thank the people in St. Louis that support me … I’ve come a long way and the team of people I have supporting me on and off the track is the best. So, I’m most proud of the team … the team that has helped me get to this point of my professional racing career. You would think racing is an individual sport, right? Nope – it takes a massive team to make it all happen.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
I am very fortunate to be able to say that this is a very long list of people. I do however think my mentors have been attracted to my “drive” to become the best race car driver I can be. My mentors like the idea of me trying my hardest to represent St. Louis on the biggest stage in racing, they like the idea of “human performance” – me trying to be the best of the best, and they love the thrill that comes with racing.
I’m going to respect their privacy, but I can tell you that I’ve got some great people in my corner, people I never dreamed I would get to be around are in my corner, pushing and supporting me to be the best. St. Louis is crazy cool like that!
I’ve worked with accomplished drivers, coaches, engineers, mechanics, doctors, business owners, entrepreneurs, family, friends, investors, and people that just showed up and said “how can I help”. I got a call last week from someone that has been following me for years and he just calls me out of the blue and says, “I have some ideas for you”. I met with him the next day!
I’m 18 and have been chasing my dream since I was 4 – some people get that, and some people don’t.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@spikekohlbeckerracing.com
- Website: www.spikekohlbeckerracing.com
- Instagram: spikekohlbeckerracing
- Facebook: Spike Kohlbecker Racing
- Twitter: SpikeKohlbeckerRacing / @RacingSpike
- Youtube: spike kohlbecker racing
Image Credits
Schwigen Photography
