Life by Design
The former magazine editor turned land speed record holder talks about working with Team Makita Suzuki’s Ricky Carmichael, building race tracks with Jeremy McGrath, and much more.

By Chris Webb
Many of us know Ken Faught as the former editor-in-chief of Dirt Rider magazine and the co-host of Dirt Rider Adventures on OLN. We’ve seen him on television riding in Hawaii with friends like Jeremy McGrath, Steve Hatch, and Greg Albertyn, and other exotic locations around the world. He had what was arguably the best job in the motorcycle industry and then he called it quits.
There were rumors that he was starting another magazine, reports of another television deal, and the formation of a race-oriented website, but none of those transpired. Instead, he changed direction and has become more diversified than ever before, and he appears to be having more fun than ever. After he left the magazine he headed to the legendary Bonneville Salt Flats where he put his name in the record books. Riding for Team Falkner/Livingston the 35-year-old rode Honda-backed CR125Rs to three land speed records, and did so in convincing fashion. His love of this extreme sport is so strong that he’s going back to Bonneville in 2006 aboard Team FL Racing Makita Suzuki’s in hopes of setting the record for the fas-*test*-('") production 750cc motorcycle, and he’ll ride another class where he hopes to pilot a Nitrous-powered GSXR750 to over 200mph!
But that’s just what Faught is doing for fun. Last year he showed up at the World Supercross Series in Canada working for one of the Japanese manufacturers doing public relations. He also owns a commercial photo studio that does photography for companies like Hyundai, Saleen, Anhueser Busch, Medieval Times, and a bunch of other companies, and even owns a successful calendar company called High Stakes. If that’s not enough, he opened up a multi-million-dollar indoor kart track in Corona, California with some of his friends. I guess when you have McGrath, Albertyn, Hatch, Mike Metzger and guys like that investing in your company, the odds are that you should do quite well!
To learn more about Faught we spent some time with him inside his new 53,000-square foot facility. As you will learn, he’s an interesting guy with all sorts of talent?

Chris Webb: First of all, why did you leave the magazine? It seemed like you had the best job in the industry.
Ken Faught: I really loved working for the magazine, and I loved the job, but I wanted a new challenge. I had worked for Dirt Rider for almost 13 years, and had a lot of fun while I was there. I left right after I found out that Dirt Rider was not going to renew our television show with Outdoor Life Network. The show gave me a lot of amazing life experiences, and I really enjoyed the adventure travel aspect of riding. But before I left, I went to Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii, and made sure that I got to ride in all of the places that I had dreamed about.

CW: We’ve seen your name in several magazines and on a lot of websites since you left Dirt Rider. How much writing and photography are you doing these days?
KF: Now that the kart track is up and running, I’m doing it a lot more. I just finished a book on Yamaha four-stroke performance that is available through Motorbooks International. I’ve also been doing a bunch of stuff for Australasian Dirt Bike, Moto Sprint, Racer X, Makes & Models, Cycle News, Motorcyclist, Super Streetbike, Moto Journal, Moto Verte, and a bunch of others. In fact, last week I just shot three-time NBA All-Star Latrell Sprewell for a car magazine.

CW: We’ve heard that you’ve been approached to start another motorcycle magazine. Is that true?
KF: Yeah, but I’m really happy with all of the other things that I’ve got going on in my life right now. I really believe that variety is important, and I’ve been involved with motorcycle journalism for 18 years since I started my career at Cycle News. I would only do it if the circumstances were right and I had the time to fully commit to the project. I would also want to surround myself with the right people. Right now I have more options than I ever expected, and I really enjoy building things from scratch.

CW: How much do you ride these days?
KF: I ride as much as possible, in fact, I just got back from a five-day ride in Hawaii with my partner Jason Williams. We rode over there with Jeff Guest of motohawaii.com, and we had a blast. I also went on another five-day trip about three months ago, and we rode all over Baja. I rode with Chris Haines Motorcycle Adventures from Ensenada to Loredo. We rode 810 miles with Jim Castillo who owns the famous Castillo Ranch and my friend Craig Potter. It was a really fun ride that I would recommend to anyone. The coolest part, though, was the flight home. Less than 45 minutes after we got done riding, we hit the shower at the hotel and then were wheels up in a Falcon 10 private jet.

CW: Tell us about your deal with Team Makita Suzuki. How does that work?
KF: In November 2004 they approached me with idea of helping out Ricky Carmichael. I really wasn’t looking for a job at the time, and really didn’t feel like traveling that much. I left the magazine to spend more time with my family, but I’ve turned out to be busier than I ever expect. I did a two-year deal with Team Makita Suzuki because it is an opportunity to work with the grea-*test*-('") motocross rider of all-time. I also wanted to learn more about the inner workings of a factory team, and it has shown me a whole new side of the sport. But the fact is, I’ve helped out Davi Millsaps, Broc Hepler and Sebastien Tortelli probably more than I’ve helped Carmichael. Ricky’s really made my job easy, and it’s not too difficult when the guy wins so much. He’s just an amazing athlete and he surrounds himself with good people.

CW: You mentioned that you own a calendar company. What’s that all about?
KF: Well, I started shooting the Xtreme calendars in the mid ‘90s, and then shot some stuff for a few other companies. It was a lot of fun, so when I left the magazine, I hired eight people and turned that hobby into a normal business with eight staff members. I own High Stakes with Jason Williams who I first met at McGrath’s parents house about 19 years ago. Jason is a lawyer and a CPA, and he’s one of the sharpest guys you’ll ever meet. We also sell books, poker cards, videos and all sorts of motorsports-related stuff.

CW: How in the world did you end up getting into the indoor kart business?
KF: A few years ago I began exploring the idea of owning a franchise. I looked at Subway, McDonalds, Coldstone’s, and a bunch of other things, but nothing really excited me about that much. McGrath and Albertyn said that if I ever wanted to start something that they might want to be involved, and that got me even more motivated. Then I started looking at some alternative businesses with co-founder Jason Williams, and the kart track seemed to be the most interesting. After all, who doesn’t like to race performance karts? Anyway, Jason was extremely instrumental in the development of the kart track, he’s incredibly business savvy, and we really work well together. Put it this way, I couldn’t have done this without him, and our talents compliment each other.

CW: So, how did you get some of the sport’s most-famous riders involved?
KF: A lot of them are just friends. I’ve known McGrath since he was 14, and I helped Albertyn form the ground work for his tour business in South Africa. They have been very supportive of my family, and I simply presented them with a business plan.

CW: Who else is involved?
KF: Mike Metzger, Dick Burleson, Kerry Peterson (5-time Hillclimb World Champ), Trevor Vines, Steve Hatch, Jeff Fox (President and CEO of Parts Unlimited), Eric Phipps (owner of Works Connection), Brent Harden (son of KTM’s Scot Harden), Paul Thede (owner of Race Tech), Bob Weber (general manager of Troy Lee Designs), and a bunch of other friends. It’s an amazing group of people, and I’m excited that they invested in the company.

CW: What exactly is your title and what do you do?
KF: I’m the president and I oversee sales, marketing and work with Jason on the day-to-day operations. Jason is the CEO and is in charge of operations, accounting and legal matters.

CW: Did you go to school for this?
KF: Well, I originally went to school for business management, and later transitioned to journalism. I spent 10 years in college before graduating from Long Beach State, and that certainly helped when we wrote the business plan. This took an incredible amount of work and took us almost a year from the time we drew up the plans until the day the doors opened. The challenge with the kart track is that you can’t dabble in the business. You either have to fully commit, of stay as far away as you can.

CW: What can people expect when they come to your track?
KF: They can expect to drive the most-competitive rental karts in the world. Most karts are 6.5 to 9 horsepower, but our karts have 18 horsepower and are extremely fast. Our karts are capable of 45mph and we have four karts that can go 67mph. We also have a small motorsports museum with all kinds of cool memorabilia. We have the bike that McGrath used to win the X-Games last year, we have a real KTM Dakar rally bike, a few bikes that have set land speed records, some exotic hillclimb Harleys, and all sorts of stuff. We also have some of the most-historic jersey and riding gear in our sport’s history. Although this is a kart track, you have to remember that most of the shareholder’s are national or world championship-winning motorcycle riders, and the theme of Pole Position Raceway reflects that. Our goal was to create an environment where people feel really comfortable. We want people who come in from out-of-town to make this a stop on their journey. By changing things up every few months, I really think that we can make this a key destination point for the entire motorcycle industry. Already Rick Johnson, Jeff Stanton, David Bailey and Jeff Ward have told me that they will help out by loaning us some of their cool gear, and that’s really cool. We also want to create an environment that attracts a lot of the top riders throughout the year. Travis Pastrana is a huge karting fan and recently e-mailed me to say that he plans to be one of our biggest supporters. I want to get guys like Pastrana, Chad Reed, James Stewart, Kevin Windham and every other top rider to come out an play as often as they would like. I really feel that 95 percent of the world’s fas-*test*-('") motocross racers will pass through our doors, and we’ll also have a bunch of NASCAR, IRL and CART racers as well. Think about this for a moment: almost all of the top riders spend most of the winter in Corona -*test*-('")ing for the supercross season. I really think that a bunch of them will be regulars, and normal customers will have a chance to race against them on a weekly basis. We’re also going to have a night race series where drivers can qualify to race against McGrath. I think that alone is pretty cool.

CW: What famous riders have been to your track so far?
KF: Kyle Busch drove here a few days before he won the NASCAR event in Fontana, and we’ve had tons of motorcycle riders. Of course we’ve had McGrath, Metzger, Albertyn, Hatch and Peterson, but we’ve also had Carmichael, Stewart, Reed, Tedesco, Langston, Short, Millsaps, Geoff Aaron, Dubach, Hamblin, Nate Adams, Rick Johnson, David Bailey, Trevor Vines, and Malcolm Smith. There’s a lot more, but those are some of the one I can remember off the top of my head.

CW: What has surprised you most about the kart track?
KF: The enormous amount of support from the industry. I still have a hard time believing that McGrath, Metzger and Jeff Fox have invested in our company. These are some of the most-influential people in our sport, if not the most influential. Fox alone sells more parts and accessories than anyone else in the world. But one of the coolest moments came a few weeks ago when Malcolm Smith called me on my cell. He said he just finished pouring 530 yards of concrete for his new 68,000-square-foot shop in Riverside, and he said he wanted to rent out the kart track for employees. We hadn’t even officially told people about the track, and we already had a dozen or so companies rent it out for private parties.

CW: So who has booked parties?
KF: Yamaha, KTM, Suzuki, Honda, MSR, Answer, Troy Lee Designs, and lots of restaurants, motorcycle shops and car dealers.

CW: Where is the track located and how can people get more information?
KF: The address is 1594 Bentley Drive in Corona. It’s located at the 15/91 junction, right off the freeway. Our website is www.racep2r.com.

CW: We really didn’t know that you were into street bikes. Tell us a little bit about what attracted you to land speed racing?
KF: A friend of mine named Rod Falkner owns Dumonde Tech Racing Oils, and he’s the one who created the addiction. He’s one of the most-generous people that you will ever meet, and he’s contributed to over 20 land speed records. When I told him that I was looking for more life experiences, he presented me with an opportunity that I couldn’t refuse. Last year he took me to Bonneville with a Honda-backed program and I got three land speed records. Now I have a deal with Team Falkner Livingston to ride a Makita Suzuki GSXR 750 in a few classes. My goal this year is to get the production 750cc record and to join the 200mph club in some of the modified classes. I think it will be a lot of fun. I saw my bike for the first time just a few weeks ago and it’s pretty wild. They reshaped the tank and all of the bodywork, and have added all sorts of high-performance parts, including nitrous oxide.

CW: You’ve traveled all over the world riding motorcycles. Where have you gone, and what are your favorite riding areas?
KF: I’ve been to Africa, Costa Rica, Peru, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Czech Republic, Austria, England, France, Spain, Slovakia, and 22 States in the U.S. As for my favorite place to ride…well, that’s a tough one. I really love Hawaii because of the beautiful scenery and the technical challenge. The soil is real similar to Costa Rica, but the both have their unique challenges. I also love Colorado, in fact, it’s one of the few places I could live. I’ve ridden all over Crested Butte, Silverton, Ourey, Breckenridge, and Copper Mountain with Don Riggle who organizes rides like the Colorado 500 and Pikes Peak, and the place is absolutely stunning.

CW: What is your favorite aspect of the sport?
KF: The participant aspect. I grew up racing several nights a week in southern California as a kid. I think I’ve raced over 750 times. But the older I got, the more I wanted to see the world and travel from point-to-point. I really think that people need to be more adventurous. I love riding around a motocross track as much as anyone, but there’s just something about riding in areas that most people never get to see. I’m of the firm belief that anyone who goes on tour will want to make it an annual trek, and will want to bring friends long on their second ride. I don’t care if you are joining Chris Haines in Baja, riding with Larry Larabure in Costa Rica, or Jeff Guest in Hawaii, you will have more fun than you can imagine. I’ve told several of my friends to do it, and they have all thanked me. In fact, I took Jason to Australia and New Zealand and he’s already talking about going back.

CW: What do you think of the 2005 racing season?
KF: It’s been an incredible year. I’m really impressed with the way that Carmichael has been riding and his work ethic. He’s one of the best athletes that I’ve ever seen, and he has more determination than any current racer. I was also impressed at the way that Chad Reed and James Stewart came back in supercross. I really wish that they had both been on top of their game the entire season. I’m also a little surprised that neither one of them have been able to really give RC a run for his money outdoors. There was a lot of hype about Stewart at the beginning of the year, and I really wanted to see a lot more race action. Fortunately the 125 class was incredible and extremely unpredictable.

CW: Who will win the supercross title this year?
KF: My money is still on Carmichael, but Stewart really surprised me with the two wins during the World SX Series rounds in Canada.

CW: What does the future hold for Ken Faught?
KF: A lot of my focus will be on Pole Position Raceway. It’s such a fun business and I get to work with a lot of my friends. I believe in life by design, and believe that if you’re doing something that you love, that you never have to work a day in your life. I’m a workaholic, but I’m really having a lot of fun with everything that I’ve got going on. I also want to spend more time with my family. I’ve got an amazing wife and two wonderful kids, and they are the reason that I left the magazine business in the first place. Despite all of my travel, I get to spend more time with them now than ever before, and I want to give them a lot of the same experiences that I’ve enjoyed up to this point. In the end, you only have your friends and family, and that’s what we all need to remember.