RENO, NV (March 1) – American Auto Air and Repair has been around a very long time. It’s current owner Tom Rankin grew up with auto repair in his DNA. “I was actually brought up in a shop that my dad owned since I was a little kid,” he said. “I worked in my dad’s shop since I was 7-years-old every summer and every day after school. I don’t remember never ever being in the shop.” When the elder Rankin retired one brother took over but sold Rankin Auto Repair a couple of year ago when he retired. Tom Rankin

RENO, NV (May 8) – Infinite Velocity Motorsports or IV Motorsports as its now called is a small but well equipped shop at the end of East Freeport Blvd. where it crosses Stanford Way. This shop has been around for a long time. “Its been 22 years as we opened in July of 1998,” owner Jay Reynolds said. “The Camaro versus Mustang or the Fox Body F Body was the rage. So I came and opened as a Mustang shop originally. Since then we’ve gotten into circle track racing, drag racing and all kinds of that stuff as well as

SPARKS, NV (May 4) – The Reno/Sparks area is blessed with many shops catering to a niche market and Scudders Performance is one of them. Owner Clayton Scudder is good example of how chance can lead one into a career. “I’ve been doing this since 1979 and had a residential carpenter license at 18 so was building and framing houses. My claim to fame is building Lakeside Apartments as that’s where I started,” he said. He explained back then winters were stronger than they are now so the carpentry  work only lasted six months out of a year. He had

RENO, NV (April 27) – The automotive service and customization world is full of small shops started by entrepreneurs that have followed their passions. Gabe Sweeney is one of these as his passion has evolved into a business. “I started street racing with an old Chevelle I had and it just kind of grew from there to doing everybody’s car out of my garage,” he said. “I worked for GM for a while then started doing it for everybody else and opened the shop in April 2012.” By then he had built up a good body of clientele, which made

RENO, NV (March 4, 2019) – In the world of off road racing and off-roading UTV’s are exploding in numbers. These fast, agile machines are changing the sport and local shop UTV Addiction is riding this wave. For owner Robert Gott off-roading has been a life long interest. “I grew up in the Sierra Nevadas in a Jeep family,” he said. “Started out when everybody had CJ’s and things like that. When I got older and my license I started to build crawlers and as those progressed I wanted to go a bit faster. So when the Razors came out

MILLER’S CHOP SHOP SPARKS, NV (March 19) – Miller’s Chop Shop is another small family owned and run business in our area that works in the automotive field. However there is a difference as it’s not the usual auto repair facility. The inspiration for owner Robert Miller to start the shop came from a local track closing down. “It all began with stock car racing at T-Car Raceway,” he said. “We started racing cars then the track got torn down, then we started working on hot rods after working on regular cars then full time on antiques and hot rods.”

STREET TO SAND: OFF ROAD AND PERFORMANCE RENO, NV (March 5) – Street to Sand Off Road is another local shop doing custom work in addition to the regular maintenance and repair work on cars. “We started 11 years ago in 2007,” owner Dustin Mileham said. “My dad and I were sitting around Bully’s one night drinking beer. I was mad at another shop working on my truck. So we decided to start our own shop, trying to get people a little better quality in town.” He and his father picked the business name due to what people do in

This week’s shop is Shelton Racing and Fabrication located in Carson City. Those familiar with racing in this area, especially from the paved oval days, know the last name Shelton because Robby and his late father Tom raced there for many years. Like many in racing Shelton grew up with the sport. “My dad started racing when he was 18, then he quit for a while then he started again at Carson back in ’69,” he said. “Then he went to work for Hershel McGriff and built quite a few of his cars.” Shelton’s racing career began in quarter midgets

CARSON CITY (Jan. 8) – MarTec Engineering is another small shop in our region that came about when the owner followed his passion. When asked why he started the business owner Nick Maher said, “I guess the term ‘scratching your own itch,’ is how I’d describe it. When I was about 15 I got into off road trucks and stuff like that. Once I had a decent job around age of 20 I started building my own truck.” He wanted to install a roll cage, different motor and other things as well but there wasn’t the budget to buy parts.

SPARKS, NV (1-2-18) – This area is populated by a number of small shops turning out high quality work. Nate’s Precision is one of these, one that does service as well as offering accessories and fabrication. Several magazines have highlighted some of the shop’s custom creations. Like many entrepreneurs owner Nate Jensen used his background and interests to form the company in June, 2007. “I worked at a dealership and built a lot of custom stuff on my own time,” he said. “So I had a lot of dealership background, automotive schooling, stuff like that. This was my passion and

SPARKS, NV (12-26) – This off-season the site is focused on small shops that abound in our area. One of them is Nasty Engines Machine Shop, a small company that offers high quality work, products and service. The shop’s goal is fast, quality service at a competitive price and taking any factory-stock motor to a nasty engine. Eric Henry started the business but being a very hands-on owner was unavailable so his manager Dan Foote was the pinch hitter for this interview. “I was there when it was starting to be set up and was on its way to becoming

RENO – Von Metal V Twin Racing Development is owned and operated by Justin Von Metal. His business is located on Geiger Grade and he like many, around motorcycles, has a long history of racing and engineering. “I started out in motorcycle racing, racing dirt bikes when I was 8-year-old,” he said. After growing up in Southern California where motorcycle racing was part of life when he attended UTI mechanical college then went to Texas to earn a mechanical engineering degree. The knowledge, combined with his motocross and truck racing allowed him to work on his own things and open

June begins with another addition to our family of sponsors and our first dealer. RENO (June1) – Big Valley Honda has been a fixture of this area for the past 31 years. Years ago it was located next to what is now the Grand Sierra but in 2000 moved to its present location at 2225 Market Street. Asked about the dealership General Manager Layne Kolbet said, “We’re a level 5 Honda Power House dealer, specializing in Honda products. “We offer ATV’s, UTV’s, Motorcycles, on and off road from beginner to expert level machines.” The large showroom is full of different

Another article about a business that lives inside the world or motor sports. Nate Delaney is a racing entrepreneur. He’s part of a large group of entrepreneurs that populate and support the world of motorsports. His company is Delaney Drive Components specializes in motorcycle off road racing. And like many his involvement in the two-wheeled world goes back to when he was a young boy. “I got my first dirt bike when I was in sixth grade, it was kind of a graduation present from mom and dad,” he said. “And once I started riding and learning how to ride

Sometimes a person’s skills, as well as their business allows them to chase their personal dreams. Mark Levrett is the owner of Mark One Metal Works and while metal fabrication is his business his passion is off road racing. Like many he was exposed to racing at a very young age. “My love of fabrication started because of my love of racing off-road and motocross,” he said. “I started racing motocross at the age of 5 in the 60’s. My dad raced off-road buggies when it was just starting back in Indian Dunes and the Mint 400 when it was