:: KSS MOTORSPORTS ::


	:: ABOUT THE TEAM ::		:: CREW BIOS ::		:: DRIVERS ::

	Russell Smith / Co-owner and bad driver: Born: yes Age: 44 As a result of a cruel medical experiment involving a fertilized embryo and a pickle jar, Russell was born to surprisingly grateful parents in England. He attended school but failed to learn anything of use in the real world and therefore found himself working at Lloyd’s Of London the Insurance Market where he experimented with US insurance company’s risks for 10 years until he could avoid the authorities no longer. Then following Hurricane Andrew he was placed in a bag and sent to Bermuda for 12 years where he carried on experimenting with catastrophe risk and managed to convince a native Bermudian woman to marry him. After the authorities caught up with him in Bermuda, he applied for a US visa and arrived in Atlanta with a bag, a wife and a 4 year old son. He met fellow escapee from Europe, Nic Jonsson who was also avoiding authorities after some unproven charges related to wearing built-up shoes and brandishing a man-grooming razor in a XXX rated film – they decided to open up a race shop and burn through Russell’s entire accumulated fortune in 4 straight years. Russell’s understanding wife Michelle and his easily influenced 7 year old son Nicholas live in dumpster behind a very nicely located 7-11 store in Gainesville Georgia.

	Nic Jonsson / Co-owner / Professional Driver: Born: Jonkoping Sweden Age: 42 (but through using many of his wife’s make-up products – looks 36): Nic was introduced to racing at a young age - due to a shortage of milk in Sweden, Nic was feed a balanced diet of go-kart fuel and pickled-herring. This turned out to be the winning formula and Nic had a hugely successful go-karting career culminated in winning the World Championship. He has raced at the highest levels of racing and for many factory teams, but it was only after being caught stealing a tank during his compulsory national service that he decided to leave Sweden’s craggy shores to experiment with faster cars in Japan and Malaysia – after over-indulging in absolutely everything the Far East had to offer, he like Kinetic Co-Owner Smith, was chased out of the country by particularly narrow-minded authorities. Landing briefly in England to sample the exquisite cuisine, Nic had a stint driving for legendry driving ace Sir Jackie Stewart’s team. After Sir Jackie found out that Nic was Swedish and was caught chatting up his wife, Sir Jackie fired Nic and sent him to the colonies (USA) for an indefinite period. Bruised and broken Nic talked his way into a job with an IRL team and drove even faster cars. In a bizarre change of direction, Nic managed to talk the unbelievably hot Swedish girlfriend at the time into marrying him and it was then his life began to improve. Through many twists and turns Nic found himself working for the legendary oil and gas mogul Tracy Krohn who for some reason, took a liking to the Swedish midget and made him drive his cars and let him know if they were safe for him to drive. Nic, who sadly recently suffered the loss of a major sponsor Rogaine, is now co-owner of Kinetic and factory driver for Kia Motors America (until they find out about his sordid past). Nic lives with his hot wife, Helene (who married way-beneath herself) and amazingly blond 2 year old son Max (amazing as neither Nic or Helene are “natural” blonds) in a nice house that doesn’t smell of herring but does have a Volvo parked outside. Helene, like all good Swedish wives is thinking of learning how to use a golf club and is taking lessons from Swedish Ace – Elin Nordegren.

	Ed Hall / General Manager With 9 years of operational and racing experience behind him, Ed Hall joined the KSS team in September, 2005 as General Manager. Hall began his career in motorsports in 1993 marketing show cars. From there he made his way through the motorsports ranks maintaining such positions as Driving Instructor/Mechanic for the Richard Petty Driving Experience moving up to Director of Operations for the organization less than one year later for the Atlanta and Las Vegas locations. From there, he became Vice President of Operations for the Panoz Racing School located in Braselton, Ga. Hall has experience in virtually every type of asphalt racing working with teams and organizations in NASCAR including Nextel Cup, Busch Series, Craftsman Truck Series, ARCA and Weekly Racing Series. In addition, he has also worked in ARCA, the Georgia Asphalt Series, IMSA as well as both the Grand Am Rolex and KONI Challenge Series. Hall currently resides in the Braselton area and spends his time fishing on Lake Lanier when not at the races.

	Jim Thompson / Managing Director Thompson began his motorsports career racing his own ITS Datsun 240Z in the early 1990s. While working for the Nissan IMSA team, he met the previous Sunbelt owner and began working directly for the organization.

	Kyle Leo / Truck Driver / Fuelman Leo grew up in Athens, Ga. and started his career in computer hardware and software installation. Feeling unsatisfied, Leo came to Kinetic Speed Shop for a new path and is now the Club Shop Assistant. His favorite memories include the day his son was born and when Road House came out on DVD. An avid guitar player and song writer, Leo adds, “I used to be on the “Young and the Restless” as Johnny Utah for three seasons. I also made several appearances on “Hee Haw” when I was younger.

	T.J. Minarcine / Mechanic / Jackman Since T.J. Minarcine was old enough to walk he has been hooked on Porsches. His path towards motorsports has been a maze of sorts as he bartended for 10 years, went to culinary school receiving an Associates degree and received a B.A. in Computer Information Systems at Georgia State. Seeking satisfaction, Minarcine entered the world of racing and is currently attending Lanier Tech obtaining a degree in Motorsport Technology. He has been involved with the PCA since he was learning to walk so as you can imagine, Porsches have always been a huge part of his life both throughout childhood and now in his career. Minarcine is both a technician at Kinetic as well as a part of the Grand-Am KONI Challenge crew.

	Sean Graham /Machinist Sean Graham hails from Long Beach California. Currently residing in Sugar Hill, Georgia, Graham attended Georgia State University and put himself through school by working at Kinetic Sunbelt Engines. He has been with the organization for eight years and specializes in cylinder head preparation at the shop. As a self-proclaimed gearhead, Graham enjoys riding and building motorcycles as well as hotrods in his spare time.

	Dale Caldwell / Design Engineer/Machinist Dale Caldwell started in the industry behind the wheel of his own race car. Having to work on the car on his own, he quickly began to learn about engines and was offered a position at Sunbelt in 1981. He remained at the company for eight years leaving to pursue two years of schooling in machine tools technology. After working in the industry for several more years, Caldwell returned to Sunbelt in 1999 as Design Engineer/Machinist. Currently living in the Cumming area, he spends his time outside of the shop SCUBA diving, driving racecars and spending time with his wife and daughter.

	Chris Arnold / Assembly Chris Arnold grew up around the auto industry as his grandfather owned a machine shop and his father surrounded him with his interest in hotrods. He began crewing for friends and clients at various Club Racing events and went on to crew for an ATC team in 2004. Arnold has been with Sunbelt for two years and specializes in assembly. In addition to working at Kinetic Sunbelt, he is currently a student at Georgia Perimeter College studying Mechanical Engineering.

	Brandon Butticaz / Parts Brandon’s passion for BMW’s began when he purchased his first BMW at 19 years old. He competed in various BMW and SCCA events from 2000-2005. He began working in the industry at United BMW of Gwinnett in 2001 and later moved to Global Imports BMW in 2003. He worked for Global Imports BMW for several years where he was promoted to Wholesale Parts manager. He joined Kinetic Speed Shop in August 2007 as Parts Manager and has recently taken on the role of Service Manager as well.

	Jennifer Muelle / Business Manager / Enforcer Born: Harlem NY Age: 35 (looks 65) After serving three consecutive sentences for serial (mens) underwear theft and a couple of small stalking allegations that were never proved in a court of law, Jennifer joined Kinetic to take over the dicey job of balancing our books and making sure our long suffering vendors get paid. Her passions are Lean cuisine meals, paying vendors with no money in the account and drooling over our younger staff members. This desirable cougar has had a positive influence in the company since joining and our payables way exceed our ability to pay. She is married to the long suffering Steve and has spawned the (surprisingly) delightful Ava (who is already contractually betrothed to the owner’s son with a sizable dowry of 4 camels, 2 goats and a dozen chickens). Her greatest desire to is escape the chains below her desk and work for a “real” company and learn to pole dance.

	Butch Henkel: / Master Porsche Technician Born: Minneapolis/St.Paul Age: 45 Passionate – is the best word to describe Butch – his first passion is Cheese – hailing from the frozen North, he has developed a selective pallet which can identify in which field the cow grazed that made the milk for his cheese. His close-second passion has to be air-cooled-Porsches – there is not a problem he has not been able to diagnose or fix. His particular skills lie in rebuilding air-cooled engines and gearboxes at which he is unmatched in his ability to build reliable, powerful engines for clients. His 20 plus years repairing and enhancing the client’s prized possessions has earned him the highest accolades from street and racing clients. His third passion is Fishing, it is Butchs’ greatest desire to retire back to the “Frozen North” on a cheese-based diary farm with a big river or lake on the land. Little Known Facts About Butch: he is a serial gambler and has applied his successful skills to paying for extensive cruises in the Caribbean where he preys on young innocent female passengers and always returns with a big grin and a strange limp.

	Amy Koster / Receptionist / Travel Coordinator Born: Lawrenceville, Georgia Amy joined Kinetic in December 2008 as the Receptionist/Travel Coordinator and Bookkeeper for Sunbelt Engines. She was born and raised in Gwinnett County Georgia where she still currently lives. Amy learned various skills from her job with a local police department as a dispatcher and was quickly promoted after gaining her helicopter pilot’s license to a special crack unit that flies SWAT members to crime scenes. After a near miss after confusing a children’s outdoor party with a viscous bank robbery, she hung up her wings. She then spent the next 9 years as a Bookkeeper and Executive Assistant at a doctor’s office but left as she did not like the uniform and then landed her very cool job here at Kinetic. Little Know Facts About Amy: When not working Amy enjoys spending time with her family and friends and collecting Cabbage Patch Kids. She is a black belt Karate Instructor and is regularly seen on TV as a mixed martial arts fighter.

	Kevin Horst / Fabricator Born: Ephrata, PA Age: Too old for this game… Kevin brings to Kinetic over 40 years of Motorsports experience and skills. As a Master Fabricator, he has invented/fabricated almost everything that you find on a modern day race trailer. In his own words, he has played with almost every type of race car in most series at some point in his life, most recently having won numerous races and championships at the highest levels of drag racing. He has brought all that experience to building the latest Forte Koup into one of the smartest and safest race cars in the paddock. Little Known Facts About Kevin: In addition to never being able to throw anything away, he has an extensive collection of (empty) Hornet’s nests in his barn and has a passion for goats and was allegedly the inspiration behind the latest hit film staring George Clooney “Men Who Stare At Goats” - Kevin apparently has never seen a goat he didn’t like.

	Reggie Murphy / Logistics and Race Track Parts Born: Chestnut Mountain GA Reggie began his racing career in the employ of Dan Gurney’s team no less in 1986, his career has spanned many series including IRL, NHRA, IMSA and Grand-Am. His career reached its apogee in 1999 when he was awarded the assistant Mechanics award in the 1999 24 Hr of Lemons. Things you Didn’t Know about Reggie: Reggie is believed to be Don Panoz’s red-headed illegitimate son after he was inexplicably given a job at Panoz and showing little aptitude for hard work of any kind he rose to the dizzy heights of Don’s gopher and personal chef – but when Don’s heartburn rose to truly epic proportions, he left for Australia for a change in climate and cuisine, leaving Reggie to fend for himself – at this point, with his recipe book in-hand he sort in employment with Kinetic. His fabled Brunswick Stew is now a track-staple for his new team and he is credited with single handedly poisoning half the team at the recent Daytona race in 2010.