Built from a lifetime in motorsport.

Uri Nizhnik

Uri Nizhnik founded Performance Motorsport Club from a lifetime of motorsport experience and a long-held belief that driving should give people more than speed—it should build skill, judgment, discipline and respect.

Born in Odesa, Ukraine, in 1969, Uri first sat in a kart at about age 12. The track was covered with ice, and he had no idea how the machine worked or how to control it. Within half an hour, however, he was driving naturally alongside experienced adult racers. By about age 13, he had become a prize-winner in the Ukrainian Karting Championship.

His path then moved toward production-based race cars. It eventually brought him into the legendary workshop of master Sergey Leonidovich Vukovich, whose standards and driving school still influence him today. At 17, Uri entered his first rallycross in a car he had largely built himself. Starting 14th, he finished fourth. In 1987, he joined the CSKA Odesa automotive sports team and competed in Formula Junior, rallycross, rally and circuit racing.

After moving to Israel in 1990, another chapter began. Around 1992, the chief mechanic of the USSR national rally team brought Uri and his friend Marik a kart in completely disassembled condition. Motorcycle racing was established, but karting infrastructure was virtually unknown: there were no kart tracks and very few organized opportunities in four-wheel motorsport. That kart inspired Uri and a group of like-minded people to create something new, helping launch Israel’s first karting project.

Later, Uri took part in designing and creating two additional kart tracks, helping build them practically from the ground up. On more than one occasion, he also held training days there together with his children.

Uri moved to New York in 2006. For years he carried the idea of building a karting track, but unfamiliar American laws and the language barrier pushed the dream into the background. When he moved to Florida in 2016, the larger vision returned: a driver-development facility with separate experiences for all-wheel-drive, rear-wheel-drive and front-wheel-drive cars, using asphalt, dirt, wet and dry surfaces.

Around 2023, Uri began participating in autocross. Competition with ERSCC, Central Florida SCCA, SRMS and Sebring events brought him fully back into active motorsport. His recent results include second place in the 2025–2026 Equipe Rapide Street Modified championship—one chapter in a much longer story.

Performance Motorsport Club is the first real step toward Uri’s long-held dream. He wants to leave a positive mark by creating a place where experienced drivers and instructors help people develop car control, reaction, confidence and the ability to make the right decisions in emergency or extreme situations.