Team principal, Bruce Barkelew, started his foray into professional racing as a car owner in the IMSA GTP series with Tom Milner Racing (later to become BMW standout Prototype Technology Group) and Barkelew's Datastorm Racing.
Before starting his professional career, Bruce had a long history in the sport at the amateur level. As a teenager, Barkelew had his first experience in drag racing at the now defunct Mid America Raceways (MAR) near St Louis. After one particular slow day at the drag strip, he took his 66 Mustang drag car on a lap around MAR's road circuit. That lit his passion for road racing and there was no looking back...
After getting his degree in Computer Science and starting his own very successful international software development company, Barkelew had the time and means to get serious with his racing. Bruce had been competing in autocrosses for several years and needed to make the jump to the next level.
He went to several driving schools and started his first road race in the highly competitive SCCA Sports Renault class. Yearning for something faster, Barkelew built a Porsche 911 based track car in his home garage for competition in SCCA GT1.
For the next year, he campaigned his Sports Renault Spec Racer and The GT1 911 at multiple events, earning his national license in the process. He got his first of several wins that year in his Porsche. Over the off season, he acquired a full tube frame retired Trans-Am Series car to run in SCCA Nationals in the GT1 class.
The next season, Barkelew won almost every race, receiving numerous poles, and setting track records at every track he competed. Bruce was picked by Sportscar Magazine as the likely winner that year of the national championship SCCA Runoffs held at Road Atlanta. Unfortunately, a broken front swaybar thwarted his efforts, resulting in an 8th place finish.
The next season he started his climb into pro racing running in IMSA GT with Alex Job Racing in a Porsche 911 RSR. That same season he ran a few select SCCA Trans-Am races in his GT1 car.
Barkelew soon formed RaceWerX Motorsports running three Riley & Scott Mustang Cobras in the SCCA Trans-Am Series. The team finished second in the Championship in 1998 and 1999 with lead driver Brian Simo. They won multiple poles and podium finishes, with eight outright victories.
With the economy taking a downturn in 2000, Valvoline (the team's primary sponsor) pulled out of most of their motorsports sponsorships. After a year of trying to acquire new sponsors, the hard decision was made to withdraw from professional motorsports. It was a fantastic run while it lasted!
Bruce kept his hand in the sport as an instructor for a few years and spent most of his time building custom restomods and working on his personal fleet (in addition to crafting custom guitars -that's another story entirely!)
After almost twenty years off the racetrack, Bruce is now back and running his 2020 Ford GT500 in as many HPDE track events as he can make it to. That itch just never goes away...
As the old saying goes, last but not least, we would like to congratulate the numerous drivers we have had the honor to work with throughout our various incarnations: Brian Simo, Boris Said, Dorsey Schroeder, Wayne Taylor, Perry McCarthy, Al Unser Jr, Jeff Purner, G.J. Mennen, Don Sak, Brian DeVries, Francois Migault, Charles Morgan, and Bruce Barkelew.
Even more important though, are the former crew members that worked so hard to make all this happen. The crew chiefs, car chiefs, fabricators, engineers, chefs, bus drivers, truck drivers, and team managers: Jeff Purner, Shannon Davis, Ryan Stott, Garnett Beeput, Kevin Mikulencak, Tom Bryant, Alex Maginness, Nathan McBride, Stephen Charsley, Mike Asmus, Robert Best, Phillip McInturff, Nick Short, Scott Michael, Doug Louth, Lynn Bishop, Bill Mitchell, Steve Clark, Roger Davis, Jeremy "Sunshine" Davis, Don Cooper, Obie Barsh, Scott Schanke, Shail Duhaime, Shane Duhaime, Christopher Jamieson, Lance Rosenbaum, Tom Fiddler, Sonny Utterback, George Varner, and Carl Edwards (yes, THAT Carl Edwards…)