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Justin Grim

Birthday: December 13. 1990

Justin Grim has had racing in his blood for a long time.  Justin was born into a family that has a long history of being involved in racing.  Justin's father, Larry Grim, owned a small block modified car that competed on the dirt tracks of eastern Pennsylvania for many seasons.  Prior to owning his own car, Larry worked with several other teams beginning before he was a teenager.  Larry began to move away from the modified when the first of his three children began racing quarter midgets in 1983.  As he became more involved with the quarter midgets Larry moved away from the modified totally, devoting his full attention to the quarter midgets.  When Larry's second child Jessica turned of age, she too began racing quarter midgets.  When Justin was born in 1990, the family was racing their first two children in the quarter midgets on Saturday and Sunday nights each week.  Justin began attending races before he was even six months old.  At a very early age it was apparent Justin was also very interested in racing.  Justin anxiously awaited his fifth birthday, so he too could join his sister on the track.  In 1996, his time came, he got the chance to strap in and drive HIS car for the first time.  The years of closely watching from the grandstands had paid off, he took to driving quickly and handled the car well. 

Justin's first year went well, racing two tracks weekly.  He was able to score many wins and was consistently finishing in the top three.  In 1997, he and his sister also raced on Wednesday evenings at the Phoenixville track.  Justin again was able to score many top finishes.  It was a very enjoyable season for Justin racing three races, sometimes four races each week; he really loved to race.  The hectic schedule was a little too much for the rest of the family to handle though.  In 1998, they cut back to racing Saturday and Sundays again.  Justin was quickly moving through the classes and actually shared the track with his sister in the top class her finial season in 2001.  The family continued to race the same schedule until 2004 when Justin was looking for a new challenge. 

After competing on dirt tracks for his whole career, he wanted to try asphalt racing.  A few exhibition races in parking lots had peaked his interests.  Justin began his new challenge at the very competitive Oaklane track near Quakertown, Pa.  Racing in the upper class Justin had a tough learning curve racing other drivers with many years of experience on the high banked 1/20th of a mile oval.  Justin loved the competition in the Quarter Midgets of America (QMA) Half class.  He gave up racing at his Friday night home track, Blue Mountain Speedway, in 2005 to attend races at other QMA tracks.  At the Region 2 Dirt States Race Justin set second quick time in only his second attempt at qualifying for a regional event.  Justin also was able to make it to the B-Main at the 2005 Dirt Grand National event in Terre Haute Indiana, before the car got bent up beyond repair in a roll over.    In late 2005, he claimed his first asphalt win at Oaklane.  The 2006 season was Justin's last season in the quarter midget cars.  He raced a few races at his original home track, Lehigh Valley at Pocono Speedway, when his traveling QMA schedule permitted.  He traveled to many tracks throughout the season, beginning with the indoor track in Columbus, Ohio.  He raced the Region 1 states race at Thompson Connecticut bringing home a fourth place finish.  He also raced all three Grand National Races: Eastern in Wall Township, NJ; Western in Topeka Kansas; and the Dirt Grands in Elma Washington.  A crash took him from contention at the Eastern Grands.  He was able to make the A-main in Topeka.  In Elma, at the Dirt Grands he was able to finish second.  He concluded the season at Oaklane running strong in the Half Sponsor Cup event, which was his classes biggest event.  His finial event of 2006 was a victorious run at Hagerstown, Maryland.  Justin had a great quarter midget career bringing home countless wins and podium finishes.  Over the years he competed at over 20 tracks in 12 states.  Quarter midget racing taught him many traits during his time in the sport.  He learned the relationship of hard work and dedication to achieving goals.  He learned how to be a winner but also how to be a gracious looser.  Although winning is always the goal, you just can not win them all.

In 2007, Justin made the move to the Legends Series.  He began the season facing a tough learning curve.  The season was focused mainly on dirt track racing with a few pavement events thrown in.  Learning the maintenance and set up work involved with the new car was also a challenge to Justin and his crew.  Justin raced about twenty events in his first season, with a eighth place finish the best result.  He was also able to claim a heat race victory at Five Mile Point Speedway in New York.  He just missed the top ten in points with the local touring season due to missing a few races.  He was unable to compete in one of the tours races held in New Jersey because state law mandates drivers be at least 17 years old.  Two blown engines also cost him two good finishes as well as a missed event for each engine.  He finished 6th in his divisions national point series as well. 

For the 2008 season, Justin set his sights on the national semi pro title.  The team committed to a very intense schedule racing all of the KLASCAR events as well as every Central PA Legends event that was not on the same day as a KLASCAR race.  A trip to the western side of Pennsylvania to Mercer Raceway was how Justin would spend his July 4th holiday racing at a National qualifier event.  In late July Justin had a super strong run at Linda's Speedway nearly pushing the leader across the finish line to finish second.  Since the leader was not in the Semi pro class, Justin opted to not risk making a pass on the one groove surface that night.  At this point he had a good lead in the national point standings.  The following night disaster happened.  The heat race line ups were handicapped and Justin started towards the back of the 12 car field.  As he was working his way toward the front spots, something jammed in a competitor's right front wheel while Justin was to his outside in turn 3.  The other car shot up the track and nearly put him and Justin into the wall.  They both were able to continue without contact but had lost field.  Justin finished last in the heat and would have to start in the last row of the 35 car feature.  The feature race started off well as Justin was quickly moving through the slower cars, when coming off turn 2 a car tried to block his pass.  Justin climbed the rear tire and started flipping very high in the air.  After a fire and scary crash Justin walked away but the car was nearly a total write off.  The team picked up an older used chassis at a good deal the following Monday and went to work seeking whatever pieces where salvageable from the wreck and raiding the spare parts inventory.  The body from what the team was preparing for a second car was quickly painted and Justin hit the track at Grandview just 7 days after the nasty crash with a new mount.  While he still lead the national points, others were gaining ground as Justin took some time to get the set up on this chassis dialed into his liking.  Unfortunately once the set up was dialed in the car began to pick up a miss late in races.  After nearly a month of trying different electrical fixes, the problem was corrected and the car ran strong again.  Justin had dropped to second in national points at this point and needed a good finial points weekend.  Friday night Justin got the job done picking up a few points on his competitor who also raced in the area, unfortunately, the Saturday night event would be rained out and Justin came up 3 points short against the other local driver.  As finial points were turned in from other areas of the country, a driver from North Dakota, out scored both Justin and the other local driver, placing Justin third.  Justin concluded his season with a third place finish in the National Event and a trying out the pavement at Mountain Speedway after a year focused on the dirt.  Justin's finial numbers for the season were very respectable, third INEX National Dirt Points, Third INEX Dirt National Event, Fourth KLASCAR points, and Seventh Central PA Legends points.  A second place finish was his best feature result, with many top 5 finishes and a number of heat race wins, running a total of 48 races for the year. 

Justin was moved to the INEX pro division for 2009, and he chose to run an interesting schedule.  The KLASCAR Tour remained the teams main focus, while Central PA Legends shows at Lincoln and Grandview Speedway completed the dirt part of the schedule.  Justin also raced 13 pavement races in a second #611 at Mountain Speedway, Bethel Speedway and Wall Stadium.  Justin picked up a feature win at Linda's Speedway and finished in the top 5 of 7 dirt races while finishing outside the top 10 only twice, both due to DNF's.  The pavement side was a learning experience, where he was able to run in the top half of the field most nights and finish second in points at Mountain Speedway. 

Justin purchased a dirt modified chassis at the end of 2009 and chose to run a very limited legends schedule on dirt only in 2010 as he tried to prepare the modified to get some track time.  Justin picked up 2 feature wins at Linda's Speedway and lead the series points until the second last event on the tour when he was hit under yellow and broke a valve stem out of the right front wheel.  That night he finished a disappointing 20th and lost the point lead.  Even though he scored as many points as possible the finial night, winning his heat and feature race, he was unable to make up enough ground and finished a disappointing third in points.  In September, Justin got his dirt modified prepared to make a few late season starts in the sportsman class.  The car was tested at an open practice session at SSP Raceway and the following weekend, Justin made his first start at Big Diamond's Coal Cracker 50.  After getting a little comfortable with the car in the heat, Justin tried to make the feature race in the consolation event missing the last transfer spot by one.  A few weeks later, the Diamond Nationals event was the next opportunity to run the sportsman car.  Again Justin missed the cut by just one spot, but got more comfortable racing with other cars.  His third and finial start of the season came at SSP for a daytime event.  He was able to qualify and ended up finishing 12th on the dry dust surface. 

For 2011 Justin will be racing at the Grandview Speedway in the Nascar Whelen 358 Modified Division. 

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