The Ruth Family
"We are a family owned business and kart racing is our passion!"
Curtis Ruth
Curtis is the owner/manager of Innovative Karting.
Curtis (kart #40) comes from a racing family that has racing blood deep within their roots. He started racing on a competitive level when he was only 4 years old. He has been an avid racer at PKRA since the early 90's and started racing there at age 12.
Curtis, born in California, started off racing quarter-midgets at the age of 4 and then started racing go karts when he was 12 years old when he moved to Arizona and hasnt stopped since. He has won countless trophies-including 3 prestigious "Duffy's"-, awards, and titles on both the local and national level of karting over the years. Curtis is also listed permanently in the IKF Rulebook as a 'Hall Of Fame Expert'. An elite group of kart racers with only around 100 members on the list in the world.
Curtis has been in the kart racing business for over 20 years now and this is the only job/career that he has ever had since he was a teenager. He truly loves the career path he has chose and his wonderful customers who he gets to work with on a daily basis. One of his favorite sayings is: "Our friends are our customers, and our customers are our friends."
Also, Curtis can really relate to his karting clients because not only is he the owner of a kart shop, but he is there on race days usually racing right along beside you in his #40 kart!
Ask your kart shop if they still race themselves. This can give a deep knowledge of the current karting technology.
Melissa Ruth
Melissa, an Arizona native, is Curtis' wife and has been around kart racing since 1999 when she first met Curtis. She has been working at the kart shop along side her husband since 2005.
She handles all the books and paperwork of the business and also helps to keep this website maintained. She enjoys home decoration, photography, taking care of their three wonderful sons and watching them grow, and, of course, going to the kart race track to watch the races! She was also, when the boys were younger, an established doll artist that created lifelike dolls known as "Reborns" which she created for her doll enthusiast customers and has sold all over the world. Lastly, she enjoys helping out with the PKRA karting club. She organized/planned/chaired many of the PKRA awards banquets for the club over the past decade and was also the trophy person for the PKRA club for almost 5 years.
The boys!
The heart of our team.
Matthew (#39) is Curtis and Melissa’s 1st and oldest child who was born March 30th, 2006.
Matthew is currently a full time college student majoring in Urban Development & Engineering. He also works part time as a pizza chef for extra spending money and to help fund his out of town kart racing that he absolutely loves doing with his racing buddies!
Matthew first obtained a kid kart at age 5, but after a few sessions of driving it he decided at the time it was not for him and then didnt get back into the seat of a kart again until he was almost 15! When he did, though, he was instantly hooked and has not stopped racing since. You can find Matthew mostly competing in the LO206 Senior Class at PKRA, but he also enjoys getting into the faster 2 cycle TaG karts for fun and, most recently, the newly designed EV (electric) motor karts that Innovative Karting has now in their arsenal of choices in the shop.
In Matthew’s fairly short time competing in karts, he has accomplished quite a bit. He is a back-to-back LO206 Senior champion winning 1st in both of PKRA’s Winter and Summer 2024 Seasons. He has numerous podium finishes at both his local track and out of town tracks and has quite a collection of trophies in his room. Currently, Matthew is spending a lot of time racing on a more regional basis mostly in California, and Texas circuits and series. He absolutely loves the sport of karting and plans on doing it as a hobby for many years to come!
Kevin (#38) is Curtis and Melissa Ruth’s middle child who was born April 9th, 2012.
His hobbies include: riding his bike, swimming, playing with his computer and tablet, being a “dad” to his beloved hamster pet, hanging with his friends, and he loves school!
Kevin started racing in the Kid Kart Class (ages 5-8) at age 5 at PKRA. He has had many 1st place wins as well as many podium finishes in his short racing career. Kevin won the 1st place champion spot in the 2019 Winter Season, and he also won all 20 races in the Winter & Summer 2020 seasons on his LO206 Briggs kid kart package at PKRA! Kevin placed 3rd at the prestigious ‘Cup Karts North America Grand Nationals’ in Newcastle, Indiana in Oct 2020 in the kid kart class landing on their podium, racing against the best kid karters in the entire country! Kevin also won the ‘4 Cycle Supershowdown’ event held at PKRA in Nov. 2020. He is a LO206 Jr 1 champion, winning the Summer 2023 championship against close to 30 unique drivers.
Kevin has since moved onto the exciting adventure of the next level of kart racing in the LO206 cadet Jr 2 class (ages 12-17) at PKRA which he started driving in 2024. He is adapting in the bigger and faster kart very well and has already started his collection of trophies earning podiums in this class.
Racing is just in Kevin’s blood and he always enjoys his racing friends and competing.
Tristan (#37) is our
newest little boy to the Ruth Team and he was born April 8th, 2016.
Tristan loves to play with his toys, ride his bike, play with his friends from school and the neighborhood, play with his tablet/XBOX/Oculus Quest 3 VR, loves his Hot Wheel collection, going to school, watch all kinds of racing, and visit the kart track to watch his big brothers and dad drive and race!
Tristan started practicing and racing in the Kid Kart class at PKRA in Summer of 2021 at age 5. He won multiple times in his time in Kid Kart. His most prestigious accomplishment from Kid Kart was placing on the podium at the ‘Cup Karts Grandnationals’ event in Indiana in October 2024. He raced against the best kid karters in the country and placed 4th out of 26 total kid karters in that event.
Tristan moved up to the LO206 JR1 class in late 2024 and mostly races in the JR1 Novice class when he decides to participate on race days. He also enjoys practicing and just having fun with the X125 2 cycle engine on his kart so that he can “go extra fast”!
