Gabriel Balog
In 2017, Gabriel Balog and his family moved to an acreage in British Columbia, where Gabriel's dad had purchased a dune buggy. After seeing the new machine in action, Gabriel became fixated on the thrill of driving and wanted nothing more than to experience driving for himself. However, being so young, Gabriel was not tall enough to even reach the pedals! Gabriel's dad would attempt to add cushions and blankets for extra reach, but eventually would end up purchasing a small sized ATV that would allow for Gabriel to independently operate it.
After piloting the ATV for some time, Gabriel found himself constantly topping out the speed, as it came set with a throttle control cap to limit engine performance. This would begin Gabriel's craving for more power! Gabriel's dad removed the throttle limiter, which allowed for Gabriel to hit higher speeds and learn to control the vehicle using all of the performance available.
Gabriel's dad began to see more than his son just having fun. The skill that Gabriel was portraying, maneuvering the ATV through rain and snow at top speeds around corners, was starting to really show. This performance made Gabriel's dad realize his son has more potential in racing than he realized, and would decide to place him in a racing go kart on a track to test his skills.
Blown away by Gabriel's performance every time they would visit a track, Gabriel's dad made the decision to purchase a professional go kart and begin regularly racing at various tracks, primarily at Greg Moore Raceway in Chilliwack BC. From there, Gabriel would reach a level of confidence to start competing in increasingly more significant races, as January 2021 was the start of Gabriel's international racing legacy.
Competing in Florida, Nevada, and North Carolina, at some of the biggest events such as: FWT, ROKCUP, SKUSA, USPKS, GOPRO, along with local Canadian races, 2022 was the year Gabriel had raced in Italy at Lonato South Garda Karting.