The Racers Den

I’ll come right off the starting line and say, “I’m envious of many of the Garages featured in Garage Style Magazine.”

After working with our editor-in-chief Don Weberg and learning more about what the #thegaragelifestyle really means, I began to realize that there is a place for “working garages” like mine (and probably yours) in GSM. Many of us might be timid, embarrassed or even ashamed that we don’t have Jay Leno or Museum caliber garages. Neither do I. And that’s the most important part! Each of us in our own way, have created our inner-sanctum, our safe-space, a place where we feel the most at home, and for a Motorsports enthusiast like myself, my “Racers Den” is just what I need after a long week away from the track. build-break/fix-repeat.

We’ve spent countless hours in what we’ve dubbed “the GTM DIY Garage” turning wrenches. My garage has gone through many transformations, reorganizations and restyling over the years, mostly due to lack of space and an addiction to buying more and more tools… to my wife’s chagrin. From it’s humble beginnings (above) with just a concrete slab floor, manual doors and unfinished walls, to the 2020-covid-update (cover photo) including an all new composite checkerboard floor and pellet stove, every iteration over the last 16 years has been an exciting, fun and very personal experience.

Your space is what you make it. I know plenty of folks that get the most amazing work completed in what would seem like unreasonably disorganized spaces, some might go as far as to say “dingy grease pits.” I salute you – you are my hero – unfortunately my overwhelming compulsion to have a place for everything and put everything in its place overrides those haphazard #sendit working conditions. I equate the transformation of my garage in the same way that my race cars have been carefully upgraded and modified over the years. The planning process isn’t curated, it’s bred from necessity.

By no means is this a slam against the average Joe, my goal and intent for this series of articles on GSM is to provide some insight and inspiration by way of working garages – like yours and mine – as well as Motorsports inspired collections. You’ll note some common themes in many of our garages like: industrial sized tool chests, spare engines, tattered but cherished race suits, professional racing memorabilia and collectables as well as carefully organized stacks of tires.

Best of all, its those hidden gems, the race cars themselves that you unknowingly drive by on your daily trips to work, school or the grocery store that we also want to highlight. Every one of us probably has a racer living next door, they could be a club racer, autocrosser, rallycrosser, time trialer, off-roader or part of one of the many different Motorsports disciplines in the world. Join me in celebrating that, together let’s explore these Racers Dens, and by doing so continue GTM’s mission of “Spreading Motorsports Enthusiasm” through Garage Style Magazine.