About Me –
I guess you could say I don’t know nothing but racing. Both my mother, Vicki, and my father, Mike, have made a living off auto racing. My dad is a fabricator and an accomplished racing mechanic. My mom is co-owner of Kreitz Oval Track Parts and helps in a multitude of family businesses. My paternal grandfather, for whom I’m named after, was a stock car racer who earned most of his success at the Dorney Park Speedway before passing away from illness at the age of 28. My maternal grandfather raced sprint cars and midgets throughout the East before ending his career racing dirt modifieds at the Reading Fairgrounds. My uncle is Central PA sprint car driver Don Kreitz Jr, whose career includes wins in The Kings Royal, Williams Grove National Open and numerous other championships and victories. One of the people who made the largest impact on my life was a successful local modified racer of the 60’s and 70’s, Red Coffin. My father worked on Red’s car as a teenager and learned the importance of preparation and doing things right the first time. Although not a blood relative, Red is a part of my family in the truest sense of the word.
I started out like most race rats, going to the races and driving go-karts, four wheelers and anything else I could around our house. My father was the full-time mechanic for my Uncle Donald and it was nothing for us to go to a hundred races a year. Around the age of twelve, I started to race go-karts at a competitive level at a bunch of different racetracks. I was fortunate enough to experience success and won my fair share of races between 1991 and 1993. By 1994, I was 16, and ready for a sprint car.
My rookie season in sprint car racing was 16 starts in the KARS 358 Sprint Series with the highlight being a win at The Seacoast Speedway. I bounced around 358-360 racing until the 1998 season when I went 410 sprint car racing in Central Pennsylvania. I won my first 410 sprint race against the All Stars at Port Royal Speedway in September of 1999. I won a few more 410 races over the next couple years in family owned equipment. In 2002 I picked up a ride and began competing with the Nation’s Oldest Sprint Car Organization, URC. I drove Bill Gallagher’s 5g sprint car to one win and a third place points finish. The following year would find me in a new ride, Gene “Speedy” Franckowiak’s car. 2009 will be my 7th season driving for Gene, virtually an eternity in sprint car racing.
Gene teamed with me and my father in the fall of 2002. We immediately won our second race together and were the 2003 URC Champions. I was nominated for the 360 National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Driver of the Year losing the honor to Texan Gary Wright. We enter 2009 with 18 wins in 167 races together. Since being a team, we’ve won on the ASCS National Tour, ESS, URC, The Great Race at Mercer Raceway Park, and had a successful stint in ARDC Midget competition. It’s the relationship that I, my father and Gene have developed that makes racing so enjoyable.
Other accomplishments that I’m proudest of include being ranked in the National Sprint Car Poll for both 360 and 410 sprint cars, being the only third generation winner at Williams Grove Speedway behind my grandfather and uncle and the many friendships I’ve developed through the sport.
After a brief stint racing for a living in 2001, I got a job at DMI Sprint Car Components as the “sales guy”. I continue to work for DMI and Bulldog Rears. I’m very proud of DMI’s position in sprint car racing and can’t thank the owners of DMI, Jim and Tammy Haines, enough for the opportunity to be involved in the company.
I live in Sinking Spring, PA within a mile of the house where I grew up. I have a wonderful wife, Jennifer, and four kids. (Rylee - 12, Kayleigh - 9, Nash - 6, Isabella - 1) We enjoy attending Reading Royals hockey games and spending as much time together as possible.
2009 will be my 16th season driving a sprint car. I’ll continue to race until I no longer enjoy it, or am not competitive. Hopefully you’ll see me at a track for a long time to come.
