Family History in Racing

The Martin family passion for racing came from Bill Martin, John’s dad and Riley’s grandpa. He built and raced his own cars in the 50s (actual picture from a race and some of his results pictured below), which inspired John to get into racing as he grew up, which, naturally, was passed right on to Riley.

We moved to Oliver in 1993, and when we found out that there was to be a world-class racetrack built in our hometown, we eventually gave in and scrounged up what we could to become members at Area 27. We figured that it was such a gift to have such a facility so close that we just had to do it. We have a family membership and are member #60 of 330+. We bought into it before they even broke ground on the project which saved us a lot upfront on membership costs. Both of us completed race training in 2016 and have been lapping since, mainly in our matching mustangs. 

Riley Martin

Roles: Driver, Team Manager

Since John bought him F1 2001 and Gran Turismo among other racing video games, Riley has had a passion for racing. This passion was put into a mini-dirtbike as a kid, a motorcycle after getting his license, turning his first car into a track car, and of course his current mustang for lapping at Area 27 and now this race team. Riley has drag raced both on a bike and in a car (and has won multiple events) in Osoyoos for many years with the Wine Country Racing Association, has participated in Autocross events during his undergrad in the Okanagan College Parking lots, King of the Hill events in the Vernon Motorplex, and completed his High-Performance Driving Education (HPDE) at Academy 27 in 2016. Since then, he has lapped each year at Area 27’s road course and developed a desire to participate in actual races. Riley’s academic background is in finance and law, and he can be trusted to use your sponsorship funds for exactly what is described in this package and welcomes honest and open discussion on the subject.

Riley is an avid Formula One and World Endurance Championship fan. For more than a decade now he has watched every F1 race and 24 Hours of Le Mans races. He went to the 2013 Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal and the 2017 Belgian Grand Prix at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. He has also driven the Nurburgring Nordschleife and the Nurburging Grand Prix circuit. Next on the list are the Monaco Grand Prix and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in person.

John Martin

Roles: Mechanic, Pit Crew Lead

Over the course of his life, John has prepared several of his own vehicles (Vauxhall Viva GT, Austin America, and Triumph TR8, for example) for slalom racing and solo events. In addition to working on his own cars, he has many years of experience preparing competition engines across many different series, including Formula Ford motors for Team Vancouver Racing (Martin Kernahan and Michael Clifford Pinto and Cortina variants), several Formula Atlantic motors for Team Vancouver racing (Cosworth BDA and BDJ variants), a Jaguar XJS (motors only) for Ira Young, and Ford Lima motors for a drag racing hobby. Outside of engine building, John has 100s of hours in dyno rooms tuning these prepared motors for track use. John has swapped engines and transmissions and wiring harnesses in Riley and John’s first race-prepared car, the white and grey mustang pictured above.