How did you get started racing? 
My parents are both gear heads, both were really into drag racing cars before they had children. My dad raced three-wheelers briefly too, again pre-children. As a baby, I loved monster trucks, bikes, quads and dinosaurs. I obviously couldn't be a dinosaur (that was a super sad day when I found that out!) and monster trucks seemed a little out of my league at the time. I didn't have much balance as a toddler, so I guess my dad decided out of the things I loved, it should be a quad for Christmas (Might have been birthday, I will find out after they read this). Prior to actually getting the quad, my dad took me to a GNCC race in Lisbon, Ohio in 1996 to watch his friend Kim Kuhnle race. I was really into that. I mean, I never wanted it to end, that's how much I liked it. So I'm assuming that's the real reason for the Blue Yamaha Zinger 60 I got at age four at the end of 1996. It's been an open book ever since. 

But you’ve raced both bikes and quads, right? Why did you end up picking the quads to go pro on?
So in 1998 I got a KTM 50 Adventure or something like that. The deal was I had to do a wheelie on my bicycle from one telephone pole to the other before he would let me get a bike (roughly 150 feet I suppose). I spent hours for weeks after school until I got to say "hey dad, watch this!” I rode both at the local races. The quads would race for 20 minutes, and then my mom would have my bike running and warmed up when I got off the quad. I'd jump on the bike and race it for 20 minutes. I got pretty good on both, but GNCC only ran youth bikes at the time. We wanted to see where we were competing at a national level, so in 2002 we loaded up and went to Sparta, Kentucky and I podiumed with a third place finish. We ran the rest of the races that year and I ended up fourth. Long story short, youth ATV's were added back to the GNCC schedule in 2005. I ran both a bike and quad until the end of 2008. I sort of plateaued as a top-level A rider on the bike and was starting to not enjoy it. On the ATV, I just continued to get better and still loved it. I made the decision in 2009 to go full-time ATV and we got a tiny bit of support from Yamaha, but it was enough to want me to keep trying. In 2010 I got a lot more support from Yamaha and rode under the Ballance Racing tent. The amount of "jobs" as an ATV racer were scarce, but if you could contend to be the best it would pay off. And pay off it has! 

On the bike side, it seems like most pro riders pursue other National Series. I don’t know of any other large series like the GNCC that also includes ATV Racing. Do you race locals or anything for practice in your spare time?
As far as East Coast goes there are not any other national or elite series. I don't think our numbers are strong enough to support it. I used to run a lot of local races, but it was starting to really burn me out and was also getting expensive. The last two years I've probably gone to maybe 10 locals a year. With my busy schedule and expense it seems to be about the best I can manage. I just practice A LOT at a few tracks near me.  

I see your mom at the races all the time. Is she pretty much your biggest supporter?
Both of my parents are my biggest supporters. My mother is just very, very open about showing it! She's as passionate as I am and then some, and has a pretty big fan club herself. She cheers on every rider out there, and several of them have caught on about these good-luck cookies she makes so she's a busy lady at the tracks! GNCC's Betty Crocker if you will.

Hmm, I see her at the WXC starting line all the time, but this is the first I’ve heard about cookies – I will need to investigate that! Anyway, I know she’s racing now too, driving UTVs. Are you able to help support her as well?
To a degree. She's extremely independent so I try not to step on her toes too much. But I try to help her with her machine when she asks me, or find the right people to help if it's above my pay grade. She also does some of the work herself which I think is super cool. She's only getting better the more she races so it's awesome to see where she is finishing and I only expect her to continue to run with it. I think what she does at her age (28- I love you mom!) speaks volumes to not only female racers, but older racers of any gender.

What was the most memorable race for you this season? 
There's two really memorable ones, but memorable for different reasons. I will talk about the John Penton race for this answer, and X-Factor for the next, as it was a really challenging race. The John Penton is one of my favorite tracks, and also it's an Ohio round so I love to do well in my home state. I had a great start and was in second following Adam McGill who was riding fantastic up front. Toward the end of the lap there was a pro only section so it was fresh trail. Adam kicked up an eight foot piece of pretty large vine and the stupid thing was like a snake in my ATV. It stopped me dead in the water. A boy named Gage, who's been coming to the races for years, and some of his friends happened to be standing there and we flipped the quad over and started to wrestle this snake vine out. I was all the way back behind third place in the XC2 class when I got moving again. For a brief moment I wanted to quit and go home. But I pushed that aside, gathered myself together and started riding like the racer I know I can be when I have to. I haven't had to ride that hard for that that long, since the 2014 Ironman head-to-head race for the championship that I lost to Chris Borich. But at the Penton everything somehow fell into place, and I managed to come back and win. It was a very rewarding win; one I will remember my entire career.