Published: Aug. 29, 2017
Climbing to reach the top
Driver has achieved one of his goals, out to accomplish
another
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043
ELKHART LAKE — Justin Marks' two biggest goals in his life
were to be a professional race car driver and to climb mountains.
At age 36 and with more than 15 years of being behind the
wheel of a race car, the Menlo Park, California, native believes he is at a
point in his life to try that other goal. And he's working toward climbing the
biggest mountain of them all: Mount Everest.
“I kind of put that dream on hold to pursue my racing
career,” Marks said. “It just requires so much time and effort and focus and
dedication, it's really hard to do a good job of both of them simultaneously.
“As I kind of get a little bit older and get a lot of my
racing success in the rearview mirror I kind of refocused my training for my other
dream.”
While Marks has never had a full-time drive in NASCAR, if
his career were to end today, he would be at ease with what he accomplished.
He started racing in 1999 when he was 18 years old, driving
in the SCCA Regional Racing Series, later the Speed World Challenge Series.
In 2004, he added the GT class of the Rolex Sports Car
Series into his schedule, while still competing in the Speed World Challenge
Series. Between the two series, Marks won four races, finished on the podium
eight teams and collected 13 top-10 finishes.
In 2005, Marks remained in the Rolex Sports Car Series,
winning three races with teammate Joey Hand. Marks also teamed with Bill
Auberlen in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge for Turner Motorsport,
finishing third in points with five pole positions and five wins in nine
starts.
In 2006, Marks ditched sports-car racing and moved to NASCAR
and made his debut with the Craftsman Truck Series in 2007. Since then, Marks
has made 71 starts in NASCAR, including his fourthplace finish in Sunday's
Xfinity Series race, the Johnsonville 180, at Road America.
In 2016, he won his first NASCAR race at the Mid-Ohio Sports
Car Course.
“It kind of made the transition, everything I've worked for
the last 10 years in North Carolina worth it,” Marks said.
Since his move to stock cars, the only full season Marks has
put in was in 2010 with the ARCA Racing Series. He had 13 top-10 finishes, with
one victory, in 20 starts to finish sixth in the points.
“I'm very happy with what I've accomplished in my career,”
Marks said. “I did not grow up in a racing family. I didn't start racing until
I was almost 20 years old. It was something I decided to try.
“Coming from an environment where you don't have a lot of
racing in your life and I had to go figure out how to do it on my own, to be
able to get to this point in my life with a Rolex 24 Hours win under my belt, a
NASCAR Xfinity Series win, I'm proud of those.”
Comfortable with his racing career, he's spent the last
several years working toward reaching the peak of the world's tallest mountain.
“I've always been passionate about adventure and
exploration,” he said when asked what inspired him to want to climb mountains.
“One of the greatest expressions of those is to climb the tallest mountain in
the world.”
The experience of training for a tall task has helped him
learn things about himself he didn't know before.
“Anybody is capable of doing extraordinary things if they
focus on the work that needs to be done, the time, the devotion, a daily
devotion to it,” Marks said.
He added, “I ran an ultra-marathon two years ago. When I
started training for that, I could hardly run 3 miles without stopping. We're
all capable of doing amazing things if we just decide to go out there and do
it. I've learned a lot about myself and the fact that there's things out there
you don't think you can do.”
Training started several years ago, but has stepped up his
training as of late. In January, he wants to go to South America in January and
climb Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in the Western Hemisphere. He's also
climbed mountains in Ecuadour, rock climbed in the Sierras and ice climbed in
Canada.
“I've been doing a fair amount of climbing in the last
year,” Marks said, adding, “We live in a world where it's getting increasingly
harder to find adventure.”
One of the first books Marks read growing up was “Annapurna:
First Conquest of an 8,000-meter Peak” by Maurice Herzog, a French climber. The
book is about the first expedition in history to summit and
return from an 8,000plus meter mountain, Annapurna in the Himalayas.
“There is a ton of trail running,” Marks said of his
training program. “But we don't have a lot of elevation in North Carolina so
you have to do the best with what you've got. So, I spend hours and hours and
hours running at low intensity on the trails.
“Then I focus on the treadmill. I have a treadmill in my
house. I put it at 25degree incline and I put 50-60 pounds in a pack and just
walk for hours.”
According to Wikipedia, more than 290 people have died
trying to climb the mountain.
“I think a lot of risk you can mitigate,” Marks said. “Some
of the risk you can mitigate by being prepared, making smart decisions. ... I
have a good comfort level with the risks.”
After all, he does drive race cars, so risk is nothing
something new to him.
“I don't anticipate it being anything but hard work and a
very rewarding experience,” Marks said.
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