Meet CJ Tackman

CJ Tackman describes himself as a driver, builder, aspiring coach, wannabe engineer and strategist. The list sounds slightly chaotic until you see the common thread: he wants to understand every part of what makes a race effort work.

Based in North Texas and known online as @cj7tac, CJ has built his path into motorsports through simulation, rallycross, mechanical work and the controlled chaos of endurance racing. Roshan first knew him through S Collective; today, CJ is Cheese Ball’s primary technician and an important link between the shop and Ball Pit Motorsports. CJ did not grow up with an obvious route into the sport. He made one by staying prepared, saying yes and treating every opportunity as the start of the next one.

Starting on an Xbox

CJ wanted to race long before he knew how to enter the paddock. As a teenager, he bought an old simulator setup for an Xbox 360 with money earned from working and mowing yards. Forza Motorsport 4 and DiRT became his first classrooms.

The simulator was not a substitute for the real thing. It was a way to build vocabulary, repetition and intent before real seat time became available. The goal was simple: be ready when an opportunity finally appeared.

From Marine Biology to the Shop Floor

In high school, CJ expected to become a marine biologist. Sitting in AP Biology, he kept thinking about leaving for automotive technology and working on cars instead.

That instinct became a job at a hot rod and restoration shop, followed by automotive schooling and dealership work. He cycled through cheap cars, drove heavily and found friends who shared the same appetite for learning. The path was not glamorous, but it kept moving toward the paddock.

The Wake-Up Call

One night, CJ was driving home too quickly when he struck a piece of wood in the road and ended the life of a high-mileage Acura Integra.

He treats the incident as a wake-up call rather than a heroic street-driving story. If he wanted to drive quickly and have fun, he needed a controlled environment designed for it.

A mentor at the dealership had told him about North Texas Rallycross. Two weeks later, CJ brought his first new car—a Civic Si—to rallycross and won his class. In his words, it was the purest shot of “carcaine” he had ever received. The bug was permanent.

Overlooking Devils Playground for Pikes Peak International Hillclimb Practice

Finding a Way Into Professional Motorsports

Money remained the main constraint, as it does for nearly everyone trying to enter motorsports. CJ decided experience was more valuable than waiting for a perfect financial moment.

A post in a racing-jobs group described what he had done, what he wanted to learn and how hard he was willing to work. That openness led him to Silvio Zucchet and Kelsey at Safeplace Automotive, which evolved into S Collective Service and Racing.

His first day began by loading a trailer and heading directly to a Porsche Sprint Challenge event at Circuit of the Americas. There was no gentle introduction. The work started in the fire.

Over time, CJ became part of the S Collective endurance effort, serving as crew member and car chief. He has repaired shift linkage in the pits at COTA, helped swap a transmission between race days and experienced the particular satisfaction of seeing preparation turn into a class victory.

Car Yoga: It isn’t always pretty (or comfortable), fondling these balls

Controlled Chaos

CJ keeps coming back for the challenge. There is always another issue to solve, another driver to chase and another layer of the operation to understand.

He is drawn to the pursuit of mechanical perfection before the car leaves pit lane and to the human work required once a team is under pressure. A race weekend is never actually perfect. But when drivers, crew and machine are communicating correctly, the disorder briefly becomes harmony.

Our first S Collective WRL class Win in GP1 at Eagles Canyon Raceway

How Cars—and Relationships—Move Through North Texas

Roshan first met CJ through S Collective, where Roshan arrived as a customer and CJ was part of the team doing the work. What began as a shop relationship grew through the same mix of trust, mechanical problem-solving and shared track time that connects much of the North Texas motorsports community.

Their connection deepened through rallycross. Rally has always been CJ’s favorite form of motorsport, and rallycross is where he first learned to compete. That shared interest eventually intersected with Low Ball, Ball Pit’s inexpensive Mazdaspeed3 rally project.

Around the same period, Golf Ball entered the fleet after Roshan purchased the Cayman from CJ’s boss. Golf Ball then became the first rear-wheel-drive car CJ drove on track. One car changed owners; another driver gained an experience; and a customer-and-shop relationship became a friendship and racing connection.

That pattern is bigger than any one Ball Pit car. In the North Texas community, cars rarely pass cleanly from one owner to the next and disappear. They circulate through friends, shops, instructors, crew members and drivers. Each handoff carries setup knowledge, old stories and new opportunities. The owner may change, the person in the driver’s seat may change and the discipline may change, but the community keeps adding chapters to the same machine.

Cheese Ball, S Collective and the Endurance Team

When Roshan acquired Cheese Ball and began building an endurance program around the Spec Miata, CJ’s role became even more direct. Through S Collective, he has served as Cheese Ball’s primary technician—the person closest to the preparation, repairs and mechanical details that make the car available for the next driver.

That work has strengthened more than one race car. It has deepened the relationship between Ball Pit Motorsports and S Collective, turning a conventional customer-and-shop connection into a collaborative motorsports partnership built on shared standards, trust and time at the track.

Cheese Ball brings together the pieces CJ values most: preparation, mechanical understanding, strategy, driver development and a team that must keep functioning when the plan changes. His current goal is to acquire a race license, but his contribution already extends well beyond driving. He understands the car-chief perspective and the reality that a fast driver is only one part of a successful endurance effort.

In that sense, Cheese Ball represents the North Texas cycle perfectly: a car moves into a new program, a trusted technician becomes part of the team, and every renter, crew member and future driver adds another relationship to its story.

Fixing Shift linkage in the pits at COTA

Prepared for the Opportunity

CJ’s personal rule is to prepare for every opportunity, say yes, work hard and be capable of taking advantage when the door opens.

That approach helped him reach the finals of the PT Autosport Aspiring Driver Shootout and finish second. It also led him into the Ball Pit endurance team—two organizations with a shared belief that access and opportunity can change someone’s path.

Dreams stop being stupid when you turn them into goals and do the work.

His story is not that dreaming is enough. It is that a dream becomes useful when it is translated into work: mowing yards for the first simulator, learning in shops, accepting unglamorous tasks, repairing what breaks and returning prepared for the next chance.

PT Autosport Aspiring Driver Shootout 2025 Finals; Driving Ginetta’s at NJMP

What Comes Next

CJ is rebuilding a K-swapped Subaru BRZ/Scion FR-S track car, developing a Lemons car for a new group of drivers and continuing his work with S Collective’s endurance program.

He also wants the race license that turns the next driving opportunity from an aspiration into an available option.

Ball Pit Motorsports benefits from handlers who can see beyond their own stint. CJ brings a builder’s curiosity, a strategist’s attention and the energy of someone who remembers exactly what it felt like not to know how to begin.