By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
Kristian Aleixo hasn’t been a race car driver since he was a young child, in fact before he even sat in a race car, he had to overcome a boat load of adversity to be where he is today.
Aleixo is the perfect example of an individual who never gave up and kept pushing forward. From being homeless, to serving our amazing country, to racing you’ll hear about it all as our Sarah Handy recently spoke to the driver about many different aspects of his life.
This is Kristian’s story, buckle up, it’s a wild ride but a ride that will show you just how much adversity a person can overcome when they know what they want and refuse to settle. Sit back and enjoy the story.
The early years
Kristian Aleixo was born in Seattle Washington, on September 23 to an immigrant mom and an American dad.
His father, a New York native had the hopes of playing in the NBA. Ultimately, he made it onto the Boston Celtics practice squad but wouldn’t make it any further with the team. After speaking with Gus Williams of SuperSonics fame, there was an opportunity that arose to play with a Semi-Pro team out in Seattle, Washington. However, a knee injury would halt any chance of ever playing again.
For much of Aleixo’s childhood it was just him and his Portuguese single mother as his father had taken off when Aleixo was young. Aleixo believes it all became just too much for his father with having a child as well as the responsibility of a job.
Aleixo went on to attend catholic school, which to this day he admires because even at that time it was expensive to do so. It’s something he’s very proud of because his mother was able to do it on a single source of income at that time.
Unfortunately, when he was eight, she was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and the symptoms that came with it would only become worse as time went on. There came a point in time when Aleixo’s mother was unable to use her legs anymore and would have to use a wheelchair regularly, ultimately forcing her onto public assistance because she wasn’t able to perform the duties necessary for her job.
This turn of events would force Aleixo to have to leave catholic school due to the drop-in income in the household and furthermore forced he and his mother to leave Seattle altogether. Moving to Tacoma, Washington, about 35 minutes south of Seattle was a night and day situation for Aleixo.
The move would be a huge difference for him at the time with having to attend public school instead of private school which he had become accustomed too.
It was a totally different atmosphere for Aleixo, who unfortunately got teased in school mainly for his attire. As Aleixo told me “They’d look at you like why do you look like someone’s accountant?” as he wore his cardigan, tie with penny loafers and the other kids had jeans and Jordan’s on.
On top of that he was left with empty promises from his father who would promise to come pick him up and spend time with him only to have it not happen time and time again.
At 13, Aleixo had taken over the cooking duties due to his mom’s declining health. One evening he went to ask her what she would like for dinner and she was non responsive. At that point he knew something was wrong and called 9-1-1. While his mom would come out of the stupor she was in, she was unable to put together coherent thoughts. Furthermore, she was admitted and would spend a couple weeks in the hospital.
One day, Aleixo came home and his father was there. Unbeknownst to him at the time, his parents had spoken prior to her going into the hospital and had a conversation with her telling him he basically needed to step up and be a father because her time was near.
On December 27, the phone rang and Aleixo’s father took the call. When it concluded he told Aleixo the news that his mother had passed.
Following his mother’s death and before she was even laid to rest Aleixo had no time to deal or process the loss of his mother because his father thought it better that he stay distracted and go back to school.
Where do we go from here?
With the money his mother had paid on the rent prior to her death, gone, the landlord came around to collect what was due. Money Aleixo’s father told him not to worry about but ultimately with nothing paid on the rent, father and son were evicted.
From there, for about a month, they lived in a rented room in the back of someone else’s house. That was until his father told Aleixo he didn’t want what happened in the last place to happen again, referring to eviction.
Unfortunately, things were about to get a whole lot more challenging for Aleixo as his father moved them into a storage unit, which by the way if you’re unaware as you read this, they’re illegal to live in.
For $20 a month, they lived in a storage unit with no running water except for the public restrooms, no lights after 8 p.m.and the everyday possibility they’d be caught on security cameras and the police would be notified.
Aleixo told me he would try not to drink anything after 5 in the evening so he wouldn’t have to use the restroom because if the cameras detected you from 8pm-6am, there was a chance they could be busted for living there illegally.
Furthermore, with no place to cook adequate food, the only meals he received were the ones he was able to obtain at school. Aleixo recalls always trying to sneak an extra banana at breakfast because lunch was his last meal for the remainder of the day.
Aleixo would go on to join his school’s football team so he had a regular place to shower and wash his clothes. The problem with this he was doing school and playing a sport on limited nutrition.
With no sufficient light to complete assignments, Aleixo constantly fell behind on his homework but due to his previous catholic schooling he was actually ahead academically and was great when it came to tests, something he felt saved his grades in high school.
The car club days
Aleixo’s grandfather had left him his 1967 Volkswagen Beetle. A car that spoke “freedom” to him from the age he was legally able to drive. He recalls how it was a complete wash bucket, and how he’d have to talk to the car to get it to work properly.
A guy named Steven at his school that had a little import car club mainly consisting of Hondas, invited Aleixo to join. “It was cool, I felt like I belonged”, Aleixo recalls.
Steven introduced Aleixo to a type of racing with cones, called autocross where the person with the fastest time through the cones would win. It gave him his first experience of competitive driving.
Out of the storage unit
When his father met a woman and married her almost immediately it provided him with what he thought of as an opportunity to move him and his son out of the storage unit and into a home with his new wife, which is exactly what occurred.
During his last year of high school, Aleixo’s school had a program where you could work during the day and attend classes at night. With him being ahead on his credits and living in a house now, it made it much easier for him to take advantage of the night courses.
Aleixo credits one of his teachers, Mr. Sackeyfio as being more of a philosopher than a Math teacher. Sackeyfio furthermore took over the role of a father figure while the impressionable Aleixo was in his class and made a positive impact on Aleixo’s life.
Army days
Upon graduating high school and unsure of what to do, Aleixo decided to enlist in the United States Army. After scoring a 99 on the ASVAB (Army Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) Aleixo qualified for all 212 jobs offered within the Army. Ultimately, Aleixo chose Logistics, and attended basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina before further training in Virginia to learn the particulars of movement control.
Following that, Aleixo was sent to his first duty station in Arizona, about 15 miles from Mexico. After watching war coverage on TV one day, he got the bright idea that he should volunteer to go to Iraq. Placed into a unit of twelve total they went out to Kuwait for a while and then pushed into Iraq where everything changed.
Aleixo had a number of different jobs overseas such as cleaning outhouses and providing the logistics for building the largest railroad in a foreign country since World War II.
During the year-long tour, Aleixo was granted two weeks of leave, which he opted to spend in Scotland. On his way back to the war, he saw a group of
pilots at an airport bar with these “cool leather jackets” and was immediately drawn to the idea of becoming a military pilot himself.
The opportunity to do so arose five months later after Aleixo had returned stateside. Aleixo’s unit was looking for qualified candidates who scored a 95 or above on the ASVAB and were looking to become Warrant Officers. Having met the requirements, he was approached by his Commander.
With only thirteen jobs offered to Warrant Officers, the one that piqued Aleixo’s interest was helicopter pilot. However, after passing his tests, his date to attend school was postponed as his unit was mobilized to Iraq. This time wasn’t voluntary, this time, he was ordered.
Type 1 Diabetes
Towards the end of his second deployment, he became ill. While in a Suicide Prevention class that was required before they could go home, his vision started to go in and out and not knowing what was wrong he thought maybe he was dehydrated. When the class was over, Aleixo went to stand up and as he put it “I just fell over and hit the floor.” After some routine tests in the medical tent, the doctor came back and asked Aleixo for his M16. That’s when he knew something was definitely bad because “They never take your weapon from you unless they’re about to tell you something crazy.”
After his weapon was taken away, the doctor informed him, “I think you’re in the beginning stages of Type-1 diabetes”…the same disease that claimed his mother. Following the news, he was sent to Germany to be stabilized, and while there, he was given the option to either go back to the war or be medically returned to the States.
Aleixo decided to go back to Iraq, as it was important for him to finish the tour. However, everyone treated him differently now because of his new diagnoses.. He couldn’t go out on missions anymore and no one would let him lift a finger because of “Doctors orders.”
Upon completion of this second deployment and after a month off, the first question he asked was, “When is my first day of flight school?” Well, that unfortunately wouldn’t be happening. Because of his diabetes they wouldn’t allow him to fly. That ultimately led to his decision to leave the Army instead of being reclassified into something he really didn’t want to do.
An opportunity to earn his racing license…in California.
Following his time in the Army, being diagnosed with Diabetes left Aleixo down and uncertain of what was next.
It wasn’t until he remembered his love of being in the car and the auto-crossing he enjoyed in high school when he was in the import car club.
Aleixo would go on to spend all his Army money on a Nissan 350Z. He started auto crossing again and found out about their pro league which then turned him onto sports car racing.
It was then, he knew he wanted to race door-to-door with other cars instead of through cones. That’s when he found out he needed his racing license, but the cost was well out of his means because he had just bought the Nissan.
Aleixo knew there had to be a way around that and be became obsessed with sending e-mails to people in the industry he thought could help or at least point him in the right direction. Five weeks of this and one thousands e-mails later, a track owner in California got back to him and asked, “How serious are you about this.” Aleixo responded with, “I’m very serious, I want to become a race car driver.”
The gentleman challenged his conviction, looked up where Aleixo lived on the map and said, “You’re about 18 hours from me, you have 24 to get here, go!”
Aleixo drove to California, and met with the gentleman who had just bought the race track. He explained to Aleixo that he had no one to mow the lawn, he needed someone to hang signs, deliver newsletters and the track flyer to the businesses that promote in their town publication, sell concessions or be part-time security personnel.
The deal? If Aleixo agreed to do that for him, then at night and on weekends when he had the time, he would take him out on the track. The track had an accredited school and Aleixo could earn enough hours under instruction and be signed off on his novice racing license from the owner of the track.
The kicker though? The job would solely pay in experience and not money. Aleixo asked how long of a commitment he was needed for. “About a year, minimum.” Was the answer. That got him to thinking, “Can I go a year with no income? It’s the only offer on the table.”
He ventured back out to California, sold his 350Z so that he had a few dollars to live on and purchased a 1995 Thunderbird because “it had a big back seat.” He went on to live out of his Thunderbird for the next year, no computer, no phone.
Aleixo said to me “People always ask how I spent a year living in my car?” He usually responds with “It’s easy when you’ve done four years in a storage unit, at least in a car I could move around…”
Novice License earned
Aleixo went on to earn his novice racing license, he left California and got picked up by a Formula BMW school as a classroom instructor.
Through that opportunity he met a racing driver for a decorated auto manufacturer that made him aware of an open test driver spot in Buford, Georgia which is exactly where Aleixo went next.
NASCAR Truck opportunity
There was a newly formed Truck Series team that had achieved moderate
success in a Busch (now Xfinity) Series effort a few years prior, that was holding a competition where the winner would receive a ride for a year.The competition was going to be half driving ability and the other half was bringing in sponsorship.
There were 30 contestants, most of whom got their sponsorship money from their families while Aleixo didn’t have that.
Thinking creatively, Aleixo found an energy gum company from the Czech Republic that was interested in getting involved in NASCAR. After meeting with them in New York City, Aleixo left with a $20,000…enough to put him at the top of the leader board for the moment. Aleixo was told by the team manger that a wealthy fellow competitor and his father had money they weren’t putting in the pot yet, and if Aleixo put in his $20,000, they were going to put in $20,001 and so forth, so they always remained $1 ahead.
Why was Aleixo being made aware of this information? Well, the CEO of one of America’s largest refrigerated trucking company, a retired Sergeant Major himself, had been in talks with the team about sponsorship and wanted to see an Army Veteran win the competition…the only Veteran in the competition was Aleixo himself. The kind of money he was willing to spend, should Aleixo win, was incredible.
Aleixo would finish second but it was decided that he and the eventual winner would split the seat time using the sponsorship money offered by the generous CEO. Unfortunately, that deal ended up folding due to mismanaged money before Aleixo could make a Truck Series start.
First trip to Indianapolis
Already a fan of formula cars, NASCAR testing had given him an appreciation of ovals, that’s when the idea of Indy Car Racing came about and the ultimate dream to run the Indianapolis 500.
Upon visiting Indy for the first time, Aleixo said, “I basically got kidnapped by my Uber driver” After attending meetings with “Road for Indy” teams for three hours, he exited to find his driver waited for him and after learning some of Aleixo’s story he said, “You have to meet my family. Have you seen the Speedway?” When Aleixo said he hadn’t the driver insisted on taking him there.
Upon arriving at the speedway, Aleixo takes one look at the place and as he told me “It grabbed me. This is what I need to be doing, chasing the 500.”
Arriving at the Speedway, Aleixo took one look at the “Racing Capital of the
World” and as he told me, “It grabbed me. This is what I need to be doing, chasing the 500
Moving to Indy and a book deal
Following his full-time move to Indy, Aleixo has been steadily inching closer to his goal, testing with a few “Road to Indy” teams. With his management team, The IMpower Agency, behind him, he feels he will land the major sponsorship necessary to compete at the highest level of American open wheel racing. He has also co-written a book, My Life in Story: The Outside Grove, fore-worded by former NASCAR and IndyCar driver, Willy T. Ribbs.
Sharp Entertainment has also joined forces with Aleixo for a reality TV concept that would follow Aleixo from where his book ended to now.
Today
As of August first, because of the significant decrease in sponsorship money necessary, Aleixo has applied for the 2019 America’s Rally X Series combine at Mid-Ohio in October. This is a new venture for him, while still trying to work his way into a “Road to Indy” program. Aleixo has never raced Rally Cross before but he said, “I think the jumps will be my favorite part.”
Apart from this, he is also set to release his first children’s book “Faster and Faster” with foreword by Robby Unser.
On August fifth, Aleixo met with the CEO of a sunglasses company that’s agreed to put him in a race car starting with testing in Salt Lake City, Utah later this month.
To read Kristian’s full story you can purchase it from major book retailers and on Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/My-Life-Story-Outside-Groove-ebook/dp/B06XPSVTPP
Lastly, I leave you with something Kristian said, “I’m not just out here for me. I’m out here for any kid who’s ever been homeless. If I can run the Indy 500, then nobody that’s in a hard situation can make any excuses as to why they can’t get where they want to go. I want to inspire people; I want them to know that no matter what you’re going through you just have to be tougher than the situation. As long as you’re tougher than the situation, you can make it and I know because I’ve done it.”