Meet Grant Mendeljian

Grant Mendeljian grew up near Detroit, where cars were less a hobby than part of the landscape. Corvettes, Vipers, and American muscle shaped his earliest idea of performance, but the person who made motorsports tangible was his grandfather, Jim Campbell.

Jim hand-built a go-kart that Grant raced as a child. He also built and restored a 1936 Oldsmobile that remains in the family today. Those machines connected craftsmanship, driving, and family long before Grant had language for what the connection would eventually mean.

When Jim passed away, racing moved to the background. Life, work, family, and the children’s sports took priority. The interest never disappeared; it simply stopped having a place to go.

THE PASSION HAD NOT DISAPPEARED. IT HAD SIMPLY BEEN SLEEPING.

A Detroit Beginning—and a Long Pause

In 2024, Grant started visiting road-racing events around Dallas–Fort Worth. SCCA, NASA, and Apex events put him back near the sounds, routines, and people he remembered loving. The response was immediate: the passion had not gone away. It had only been sleeping.

The return was different from the childhood version because Grant was no longer arriving alone. His son, Ryan, was developing the same interest—and beginning to see motorsports not only as recreation, but as a possible engineering career.

Grant and Ryan started searching for a first track car together. What followed became more than another garage project. It created a shared language between father and son: car setup, driving technique, what changed, what failed and what they should test next.

The Supercharged Miata

The center of Grant’s current track life is a heavily modified, track-prepared, and supercharged NB Miata. It is both a car to drive and a rolling classroom.

Grant is still focused on becoming more consistent behind the wheel. The Miata gives him a familiar platform for learning how setup changes affect balance and how his own inputs affect the result. It also gives Grant and Ryan a project they can study, maintain and improve together.

Outside the track, Grant’s garage still reflects a broader affection for cars. A BMW F82 M4 Competition Package brings modern performance into the mix, while the 1936 Oldsmobile carries the craftsmanship and memory of his grandfather forward.

Golf Ball and the Value of Driving Something Different

Grant’s Ball Pit experience came in Golf Ball at Eagles Canyon Raceway. He wanted time in a properly prepared Porsche Cayman and a chance to drive a platform very different from the family’s Miata.

The day delivered exactly what he wanted: meaningful seat time without requiring him to buy another track car first. Nothing dramatic failed, nobody went farming and Golf Ball returned from the session intact—which is about as close as a track day comes to a perfect operational result.

The larger lesson was about comparison. Specifications, videos and simulator time can build expectations, but they cannot reproduce how a different car communicates weight transfer, braking, rotation and confidence. Grant’s advice is simple: drive several platforms before deciding what you think you need.

Access matters here. A well-prepared car, supported by someone the driver knows and trusts, lets the experience become useful evidence rather than an expensive guess.

A Father-Son Track Story

The part Grant remembers most is sharing the track with Ryan.

For Grant, motorsports is a hobby, an obsession and a way to reset. For Ryan, the same weekends are beginning to shape a future in motorsports engineering. They can look at the same car and the same session from different angles—one as a father rediscovering a passion and the other as a young driver building a life around it.

Grant’s role is expanding with Ryan’s progress. He is not only a driver. He is becoming a crew member, mechanic and supporter, helping Ryan test ideas and pursue opportunities while continuing his own development.

That is what makes the story larger than a father and son owning a Miata. The car is the shared project. The real result is time spent learning together.

“You Gotta Run the Car”

Not every test produces the result the team wanted.

During one memorable setup day, Ryan and their friend James worked through changes intended to make the Miata handle better. Each adjustment needed laps before anyone could judge it. The phrase of the day became, “You gotta run the car.”

They ran it. Some settings worked better than others.

The least successful version announced itself through the amount of gravel Grant found Ryan and James cleaning up from the front end and undercarriage after an agricultural excursion. Nobody was hurt; the car provided unusually physical feedback, and the team learned which direction not to pursue - more importantly, they all had a good laugh about it.

That is testing in its most honest form: change something, run the car, observe the result, remove the gravel and keep moving.

The Community Around the Cars

One of Grant’s biggest surprises has been the culture surrounding North Texas tracks and performance shops. People share knowledge, lend tools, help solve problems, and support one another’s progress.

That community is a major reason he keeps returning. The driving matters, but so do the conversations in the paddock, the collective troubleshooting, and the willingness to help another person get back on track.

It is also why Grant fits naturally within Ball Pit Motorsports. The program is built around cars, but its real structure is people: drivers, instructors, families, friends and the technicians who keep the fleet moving.

Racing as Focus, Reset and Therapy

Away from the track, attention is divided among work, family and everyday responsibilities. In the car, the task becomes singular. Brake here. Release there. Place the car. Learn from the lap. Do it again.

Grant describes racing as equal parts passion, obsession and therapy. The track gives him a place to focus completely, clear his head and measure improvement honestly.

His next goal is a dedicated caged track or race car, followed eventually by wheel-to-wheel competition. The timing and platform are still open, which is appropriate for someone whose best advice is to gather experience before buying the answer.

For now, the work is consistency: more laps, more comparison, more mechanical understanding and more shared weekends with Ryan.

Why Grant Fits the Ball Pit

Grant’s story captures several ideas at the center of Ball Pit Motorsports. Cars can reconnect people with parts of themselves they thought life had displaced. A rental can answer a question before another purchase creates ten more. Mechanical learning can be as important as lap time. And the best track stories are often family stories wearing helmets.

His grandfather gave him a handmade way into motorsports. Decades later, Grant is helping Ryan build his own path into the same world.

The machines changed. The family connection did not.