TKG Motorsports
410 South Riverside Drive
Batavia, Ohio 45103
Phone: 859-466-1999
Email: sampaley@teamtkg.com
Facebook: trinitymotorsportsgroup
Instagram: tkgmotorsports
Website: www.teamtkg.com
The idea of TKG Motorsports started 3 years ago. Todd Miller decided to purchase a salvage Miata for his son, Ryan, and himself to convert into a race car. After thorough research, he concluded that Mazda grassroots racing was the best choice. Ryan had been involved in go kart racing since the age of six, and the next step for him was to transition to cars. Todd, having spent his childhood working on vehicles—building hot rods, engines, suspensions, and 12v wiring—planned to spend a few years teaching Ryan the build process as well.
About six months into the project, as Todd shared their progress on social media, he began receiving inquiries about the project. The owners of Trinity Karting Group, seeing an opportunity to develop a ladder from their karting program into car racing, asked Todd to expedite the first car and take on additional builds. Todd accepted the challenge when David Cook, formerly of Mazda Motorsports, asked him to debut the first build at the Karts to Cars weekend at CMP in 2022. During that event, Cook also asked Todd to refurbish one of Mazda’s factory cars. Furthermore, Dave Thomas from JTR Motorsports reached out to Todd requesting body work repair services for one of their MX-5 Cup cars.
At this point, Todd knew he was going to have to expand the operation out of his home garage. The team acquired two buildings in Batavia, Ohio and fully renovated them—one into a frame and body shop and the other into a mechanic shop. The next step was getting the right team to manage the shops and oversee the race team. Scott Conaster, alongside his longtime friend Gary Brown, took charge of the body/frame shop. They have repaired every car from JTR at least once, with some cars needing multiple repairs. The team then partnered with Sam Paley, a go kart, formula car, and Mazda MX-5 Cup driver and coach, to oversee race weekends, driver management, client relationships, the coaching program, marketing, and general operations of the race team. Sam was familiar with the group through the Motorsports Country Club of Cincinnati, home to Trinity Karting Group.
After Sam Paley came onboard, the team restructured its management. Todd also brought on current Team Owner, Greg Heheman. Greg has had long-term involvement with Trinity Karting Group, as well as restructuring and improving the Motorsports Country Club of Cincinnati. Greg has since become an integral part of the team, significantly contributing to the rapid growth of TKG Motorsports. The team expanded further by hiring Tim McGovern as the lead mechanic/engineer and Adam Kneipp as the data and setup engineer, both possessing extensive engineering and automotive mechanical expertise. Recently, Ethan Cooper and Dan Lawrence joined the team as new mechanics.
In a relatively short time, TKG Motorsports has undergone significant developments, with everyone investing considerable effort and time to get the program off the ground. TKG Motorsports is looking to continue their rapid growth and development. The team is aiming to field 5 cars by the end of the 2025 season, and TKG Motorsports has cars available for arrive & drive programs in both Spec Miata and Spec MX-5 with the team. Additionally, the team welcomes customer cars and offers extensive track support, hospitality, maintenance, transportation, prep, and coaching programs. TKG’s goal is to tailor rental and support programs to match client-specific needs. TKG Motorsports led racer Justin Adakonis to the Spec MX-5 SCCA Super Tour title in 2024, the inaugural season for SMX as an SCCA National Championship-eligible class.
