Kevin Moore and Eric Moore

In a non-pandemic world, Eric Moore would be finishing up his freshman year at Oregon State, studying mechanical engineering. Because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the teenager took a gap year so he wouldn’t endure another year of remote learning.

Instead of focusing on a lost year , the younger Moore saw it as an opportunity to spend more time racing with his father and learning the art of a racecar setup thanks to a job at EDGE Motorworks.

“It’s really a unique thing that we can bond over and I’ve really enjoyed the time I’ve gotten to spend with him,” Eric Moore said. “He uses racing to escape the world that he has to deal with and live in his dream world. The fact that I get to be part of his dream world is pretty cool.”

The feeling is mutual for his father Kevin Moore, who has watched his 19-year-old son become the faster driver among the pair. The duo campaigns a BMW E36 in Super Touring 4 and Time Trial 4 in NASA’s NorCal region.

It’s not surprising the pair would end up racing together since Kevin started taking Eric to the track years before his son even had a driver’s license.

“He would sit and listen to me talk and got to know everybody, and he loved it,” Kevin said. “He loved being around the cars, making friends and taking photos.”

Eric had some interest in karting, but his father wanted to make sure it was something his son really wanted to do. After convincing his father to let him go karting, it took some time for Eric to warm up to racing competitively.

“He didn’t want to race for a long time until this cute coach-mechanic went and talked to (Eric) one day about racing,” Kevin said. “He comes over and goes, ‘Hey Dad, what do you think about racing?’ I started laughing, I’m like, ‘Of course, leave it up to a cute girl to get him to race.’”

Eric raced karts for two years — and still does — before joining his father to race a BMW E36. Kevin, 51, was coming off hip replacement surgery and knew he had a short window before his son left for college.

Just like his father, Eric worked his way up through HPDE and Time Trial before earning his hard card in 2020. Eric’s first race is one he will never forget. After coming off a yellow flag before Turn 3 at Sonoma Raceway, a driver pushed another car into Eric’s racecar and his car was hit again, ending his first Super Touring 4 race with a damaged front end.

“Everyone was giving me advice on how to handle it, what to do and that was all great, but no one told me how to crash,” Eric said dryly.

Kevin said he was proud how his son handled the incident, since the other two cars involved in the crash were reportedly passing under a yellow flag prior to the incident. Eric filed a contact report with the race director and then talked to one of the drivers involved, who helped repair his car.

“I decided I wasn’t going to be the Dad and make it my issue,” Kevin said. “(My son) handled it great even though the guy kind of ruined my kid’s first race.”

Rather than running two cars at the track, the Moores decided in December to share a car and split driving duties over the weekend. They typically run ST4 and TT4 over a weekend, using Time Trial selectively to practice, improve lap times and earn contingency money. The focus is on the races and not putting more time on the racecar than needed.

“I always prioritize keeping the car safe and you always want to bring it back in one piece,” Eric said. “At the same time, the car is very competitive, and we’d like to go out there and see what we can do.”

To keep the car running smoothly, the Moores handle basic maintenance such as fluids and brakes, while leaving major repairs to EDGE Motorworks, a race shop about 30 miles from their home in Moraga, Calif.

“(Eric) has become a pretty phenomenal mechanic in the last couple of years too,” Kevin said. “We have a pretty capable race team because we both can race and wrench.”

The Moores pit with the EDGE Motorsports team at the track, having worked with the shop for the past three years to dial in their BMW E36. The EDGE Motorsports teams compete in ST4, so when the shop is testing new brake pads or a different setup, all the cars will benefit from the knowledge gained. The drivers will even share data since they are using the VBOX system. The father-son team took an E1 class win in a 2.5-hour enduro at Sonoma Raceway.

“It’s just kind of this EDGE (Motorsports) family thing and we all kind of fit into that and we really like it,” Kevin said. “We consistently work on just being better drivers while the cars are being developed.”

In recent years, Kevin has taken an interest in endurance racing after competing in 25 Hours of Thunderhill in 2019. Though the endurance race had its share of rain and fog, Kevin had a blast.

“People who had driven it before said that was the worst conditions they’ve ever driven in,” he said. “My first (endurance race) was supposedly the worst and maybe it will only get better.”

In December, Kevin competed with his son Eric at an endurance race at Circuit of the Americas in Texas. It’s what he had hoped for when Eric started karting several years ago. Like most endurance races, the team had its challenges.

Eric spent more than 40 hours on the simulator learning the Austin track and put the team on pole after the first day of qualifying. The car had transmission problems on the last day and Eric spent most of his time driving without fourth gear. Even with mechanical gremlins, the team still won its class and it was a weekend for Kevin to remember.

“I just sat back and enjoyed it,” Kevin said. “It was one of the first times that I really recognize that I should pay attention and be in the moment because this probably never gets duplicated.”

When Eric heads off to Corvallis, Oregon in the fall for college, Eric is hoping his father will tow the racecar from Northern California to some races in the Pacific Northwest.

“There’s a few good tracks that are up there,” Eric said. “It’s going to be tough to go to college and race, but I’m going to do my best to make it work.”