Mad Greek Racing was founded in my home workshop in the fall of 2012. There had just been a 36-hour enduro announced by an amateur racing series called Chumpcar, and it was set to take place almost literally in my backyard—Spokane Raceway Park (now Qlispe Motorsports Park).

We named our little team Mad Greek Racing after my Greek heritage. I’ve always been a Datsun enthusiast, so we chose a $400 260Z I had lying around and named her Athena—after the Greek goddess of wisdom and just warfare. It felt right, like she named herself.

Over the 2012/2013 winter, we built Athena into a race car and had her ready just two days before the 36-hour race in June 2013. We expected teething issues, and we got them—but we still finished in the upper middle of the pack, putting down over 800 laps on the 2.3-mile road course. I was hooked.

The next few seasons had their ups and downs, but the highlight came when we won the West Region Championship (Chumpionship) of the Chumpcar World Series in Las Vegas. After that, we retired Athena from endurance racing and began building something new—definitely not boring. The story continues.