Hi I’m Fritz.
I’m a professional marketer for Ford Motor Company and a passionate car guy.
I’ve been in marketing with Ford for 11 years and have worked as Mustang Brand Manager, Performance and Enthusiast Marketing Manager, North American Product Marketing Manager, Asia Pacific Product Marketing Manager. I am currently the Ford Performance Product Marketing Manager, working on the performance products I love.
You can find me here: [email protected] or https://fritzwilke.com
My love of racing
It started on Memorial Day in the garage in my hometown of Munster, Indiana. My dad working on his car, with the Indy 500 on the radio. I dreamed of one day racing at the speedway and becoming one of the heroes on the radio. Years later, my father took me to my first Indy 500, an experience that I’ll never forget.
I look back and after all these years, it was that one Sunday in the garage listening to my heroes on the radio that hooked me. Soon after I had pictures of 935s and 962s on my walls instead of lions and elephants.
Figuring it out
I was the kid at the arcades who went straight to the go karts. I couldn’t get enough. I wanted a real kart, but it was out of reach, so I played on the arcade karts and taught myself how to drive.
I crewed for a late model team at a local short track for several summers during middle and high school. I loved those nights at the track with all those passionate race fans – sharing in the Friday night experience.
I loved cars and was an avid reader of long gone titles like Sports Car Graphic and ones that are still here like Autoweek, Car and Driver and my favorite, Road and Track. Each month I read the stories by Paul Frere, Peter Egan and Stirling Moss and wished I could be a racing journalist. I started figuring out how to go to school to become an automotive journalist.
Little did I know that journalism really didn’t pay. I worked side jobs after college and finally realized that what I really always wanted to do was race, not write about racing. I dedicated the next several years to trying to become a professional race car driver.
Getting Started
Like a lot of aspiring young drivers, I knew next to nothing about the industry. I listened to people I shouldn’t have and missed opportunities that were there but for the recognition. I started out autocrossing my little Honda CRX at local events in the summer of 1992.
By the end of the summer I had met several people in the autocross community and volunteered to help out Mark Utecht with his Dodge Omni in an SCCA road race event at Brainerd. I was absolutely hooked! This mad monks society of campers and racers – grassroots to the core was my new family. Not long after, in summer of 1993, I attended my first drivers school in a car I bought with money my grandmother had given me in savings bonds over the years – she really would have been proud. I wish I could have shown her the car.
I raced that car twice that year before losing an engine at Road America. Mark helped me replace the engine and I subsequently sold the car to buy a new one for the 1994 season.
We won the CenDiv, Land O Lakes, Milwaukee and Chicago region championships that year in our little ITC Civic. I also won Driver of the Year for Land O Lakes region.
We sold the car that winter and built a new ITA CRX for 1995. Unfortunately, we had several teething pains and ultimately wrote the car off in a large accident at Road America. We were presented the Brooke Kinnard award that year for displaying resilience in the face of disaster.
Other Series onto 2017 and 2018
I’ve rallied a Ford Fiesta in the northwoods of Michigan in the Lake Superior Pro Rally, crewed for John Buffum’s Hyundai Pro Rally Team, Raced on the frozen lakes of Minnesota and Wisconsin in Dodge Omnis and Honda CRXs.
Now I am starting the next chapter of my racing career, racing the #84 B-Spec Fiesta in the Hoosier Super Tour and SCCA Majors, culminating in the National Championship Runoffs at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway – back where the inspiration began all those years ago.
What’s next?
After a successful 2017 season, I’m back and more excited than ever to go out and compete with the best group of racers I have had the fortune to know. We all race hard, but all give room. Nothing’s easy with this group. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
After Indianapolis this year, the Runoffs move to Sonoma in 2018. Looking forward to new challenges and new targets for 2018.