From Stage to Track: A NASA Northeast Couple’s High-Octane Hobby

When a couple picks a new weekend hobby, it usually involves pickleball, tennis or even gardening.

Kurt and Megan Wubbenhorst took up road racing and fully embraced it. The husband and wife are fixtures at NASA Northeast events, all while raising a young family and managing a growing real estate company.

Regulars in the HPDE program, Megan earned her competition license over the summer and started racing.Kurt is expected to seek his competition license later this year, but Megan was ready to take racing to the next level.

“I knew I wanted to race pretty early on, and I think Kurt just wanted to do it for the fun,” Megan said. “We wanted to be able to do it together and that’s the best part, that we’ve been able to do it as a family.”

The Wubbenhorsts started racing with NASA after Kurt had participated in a couple of autocross events with friends in 2022. Kurt knew his high school sweetheart would love it, but Megan was pregnant with their second daughter at the time. Six weeks after giving birth, Megan was participating in her first autocross event.

“I fell in love with it because I had retired from dancing, and it was kind of the next best thing,” said Megan, who toured professionally as a modern dancer. “I knew I wanted to get into racing.”

Kurt also spent a fair amount of time on stage as a touring musician for different bands, most notably as a keyboard player for the band Sevendust.

The Wubbenhorsts jumped in with both feet, buying similar BMW E36 M3 cars to run in HPDE. Megan was eager to race, advancing through the HPDE1 through HPDE3 in under a year. Getting through competition school hasn’t been without a few bumps in the road.

Megan went off track at New Jersey’s Thunderbolt Raceway during comp school in her second season with NASA. “I currently have the bumper hanging on my wall just as a reminder to not lift, ever,” Megan said laughing. “It seems like a good life lesson too.”

While going through competition school in July, Megan was out on the track in the rain when the car hydroplaned and went head-on into the Armco barrier at 75 mph. Unfazed, Megan returned to the classroom and with the help of the paddock, Kurt swapped Megan’s race seat into his nearly identical car.

“By the time I got out of the classroom, I was able to jump back into comp school, just in his car,” she said. “Honestly, that’s why we have fallen in love with NASA Northeast, specifically, because the whole paddock helps get my car back together.”

In a points race after comp school, Megan lined up in the rain once again. This time, she finished third in one of the two points races. “It was a good race weekend for me, but it was quite dramatic,” Megan said.

The Wubbenhorsts acquired another BMW E36 from a NASA Northeast member, and that one is Kurt’s new track car. After completing the car’s shakedown, Kurt is next up for comp school in the spring. He’s looking forward to getting on track and racing with his wife in GTS2. Both shared the track when they were going through the HPDE program.

“It’s actually quite a bit of fun to be on track with your spouse in the same groups,” Kurt said. “Then you can have fun messing around and going two-wide on the whole track if you really want to.”

When the Wubbenhorsts go to the track, they bring the whole family—including the grandparents or a nanny to help. Their daughters Zoey, 4, and Violet, 3, enjoy being at the track, but Megan says it’s a balancing act between being a parent and a racer.

“I’m still trying to figure it out because it’s hard,” Megan said. “You get in the car to go to grid and my (daughter Violet) is telling me about a bird she saw. With Kurt and I being performers in our previous careers, we kind of know how to separate that, but the mom and dad role is hard to turn off.”

Since joining NASA three years ago, the Wubbenhorsts say they see more families attending events in the NASA Northeast. “I think we’ve kind of inspired a few other NASA members to bring their kids,” Megan said.

The Wubbenhorsts own Blue Flags Realty in Kinnelon, N.J., a high-stress career that requires them to be available round the clock. When the NASA schedule comes out for the season, they coordinate with their team at the office and the grandparents for childcare. The Wubbenhorsts participate in about a dozen NASA events a year.

Eric Magnussen’s Main Line Motorsport in Exton, Pa., prepares their cars so the Wubbenhorsts can focus on their family and their real estate company. Even at the track, Kurt is still networking with current and potential clients.

“A NASA weekend is our tribe,” Kurt said. “Most of the people there are business owners or they’re running after the things in their own life.”

Kurt, 38, spent most of his 20s touring as a professional musician, while Megan, 36, traveled the country making a living as a modern dancer. Shifting into new careers, both Kurt and Megan see a lot of parallels to the track.

“A lot of people say everybody gets what they want to get out of the track, or that there’s something for everybody,” Kurt said. “When Megan and I show up for a track weekend, there are things that remind her of being on tour with her dance company and there are things that remind me of being on tour with my bands.”

Touring may be behind them, but the mindset isn’t. Kurt and Megan still approach race weekends like show nights by getting to bed early and staying focused.

“We’re performers at heart, so we always want to make sure we’re performance ready,” Megan said.