There comes a time in your life when you run across someone that makes an indelible impression on you and changes your life forever. This is exactly what happened when I met the “shocknerd” Mark Menscer. Some of you may think that you know Mark because of other “articles” written about him, but I want to bring you in and introduce you to the Mark Menscer I know, the real Mark Menscer.

  I first met Mark about five or six years ago, and the only thing that I knew about him was that he made amazing shocks that were kicking ass in the radial world. What I didn’t realize at the time was that becoming so close friends with Mark would forever change my life for the better. Over the last five years, Mark has become one of my closest friends, a mentor, and a business partner.

Most of you that think you know Mark Menscer from the outside looking in really have no idea what Mark is all about. Everyone thinks of Mark as the guru of shock and struts in the radial tire, small tire, and even pro mod world. And while yes, that is some of who Mark is, that is not nearly the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the complicated person Mark is.

Growing up, Mark was into cars just like most of us were, but Mark was into cars that tended to go in a circle or even those that ran road course stuff. He eventually went on to be quite successful with setting up dirt track cars on of course you see now that he utilizes some of that theory when handling drag racing setups. The fact is, I believe that Mark would be just as at home on a road course or a dirt track as he is at the drag strip.

What I am willing to be that most of you didn’t realize is that the automotive industry wasn’t Mark’s first love though. In fact, there are many different paths that he could have taken in life that had nothing to do with the automotive industry. Such as farming, a musician, or even a professional photographer. You didn’t read those last two things wrong at all.

Music is the core of so many things in life and at a young age, Mark had a fondness for the guitar. The fact of the matter is that he could very well have decided to pursue that for the rest of his life, and we may have been reading about him in Rolling Stone Magazine instead of E3xtreme. That’s right, it is safe to say that Mark could be what we consider a guitar prodigy. In fact, he was a Blues player and did a significant amount of traveling and touring as a guitar player in his earlier days. On a fan of the blues, Mark and I have sat down and had numerous conversations about music and the guitar. I can remember sitting in his living room and him busting out newspaper clippings and such from his days on the road before finally getting the guitar out and playing some chords for Ally, Ellen, and I.

  Life on the road as a guitar player isn’t what Mark decided that he wanted to do in the long term though, so that idea was scrapped, though he can still rip on the guitar. Another option that Mark has always really had a love for is his farming ways. His family has a background in farming, and you can see after less than ten minutes at the farm how much he loves being there and how much joy he gets from it. Mark is dedicated to sustainable farming and giving back to the planet as much as possible. And you may ask how he balances his love for nature and the planet, with his day job of making race cars get down the track. He told me once when I asked about that, it was a zero-sum gain, and the farming along with race cars essentially cancel each other out.

  In the future, I certainly see Mark spending more time on the farm and enjoying the ways of life that bring him. Whether it’s with the cows or the chickens, or just being away from the bullshit that we all deal with within this industry. It is one of the things that make him more grounded than anyone else I know in the industry.

Some of you might be wondering what I was talking about earlier when I mentioned the photography thing also. Well, if you ever get a chance to spend some time with Mark, you will discover someone that is more well-rounded about a lot of things that anyone else you know. Years ago, Mark did photography and is damn good at it. In fact, I have a metal print from him of elephants that he photographed in the wild while in Africa. Mark has taken, what in my opinion are some of the best photos that I have ever laid eyes on. His vision when looking through the eyepiece of a camera is rivaled by very few that I have ever met in my time on this planet. And that isn’t even touching on his abilities in astrophotography either. While Mark isn’t big into taking photos at the racetrack, he does do an amazing job at whatever it is that he decides to capture.

  Just when you thought that Mark does it all, there’s more. Most of the time that I have spent with Mark and his amazing wife Ally is spent at the horse stalls across the street from his parent’s house. I first got to meet Mark’s father Randal last year and I literally could not even begin to absorb the knowledge he was dropping on me about horses. You can certainly tell that it has been passed down to Mark and his sister as well. Both of them absolutely love horses, working with horses, and just being at the stalls spending time with the beautiful creatures.

  So you read all these interesting things that Mark has accomplished in his life and the abilities that he has, whether it is suspension setups, farming, music, photography, equestrian things, or really anything else, and you think to yourself he is pretty amazing. The fact is that you would be right, but that’s not what defines Mark or who Mark is when I think about it. When I think about who Mark Menscer is, he is all of the things I talked about, but he is so much more.

  The so much more that I am talking about is the core of him. At the core, he is a man who believes in so much. He believes that we need to do better when it comes to taking care of our planet. Mark is a family man to the absolute core of his being. He is a husband to Ally and someone that sets an example for the rest of us about what a real relationship inside and outside of this industry should look like. Mark is someone that will shred on the guitar, go cook some shrimp on the grill, and then stare at the sky and tell you about all the stars and constellations. Most importantly though, he is a true person. Mark is a no-bullshit, take no bullshit, straight up, welcome you with open arms, tell ya how it is kind of guy. He is a friend that has his shit together and his priorities in order.

            There isn’t much that Mark can’t do, and there’s even less that he won’t do when it comes to family and friends. The real Mark Menscer is someone that if you have the opportunity to, you must sit down and talk with about anything because chances are you will learn something. We could certainly use more people like Mark in the industry, and the world for that matter! So that to me is the real Mark Menscer!