Growing up across the highway from Laguna Seca Raceway, Nick was destined to be a car guy. His father worked as a dealership service manager, giving Nick an early front-row seat to both the service world and motorsports — and by his teenage years, his passion had narrowed to one marque in particular: BMW. After high school, he enrolled in automotive training and earned an associate’s degree in automotive technology with a concentration in diagnostics, picking up his smog license soon after. He cut his teeth at a local smog shop, Pacific Smog, working a second job at an auto parts store to make ends meet. Nine months in, he set his sights higher: BMW’s STEP program. Seven months of training later, he relocated to San Diego to start his career as a certified BMW technician at BMW of El Cajon.

What began as a job quickly became a calling. A few years into his time at BMW of El Cajon, Nick joined the local chapter of the BMW Car Club of America — first as a director-at-large, then vice president — all while servicing fellow members’ cars at the dealership. He found his second passion on the autocross course, eventually becoming an autocross and HPDE (High Performance Driving Education) instructor and a multi-year chapter president. That local leadership grew into a national role: from 2013 to 2016, Nick served on the BMW Car Club of America’s National Board.

On the service floor, Nick’s career had its share of turns — a stint in sales and parts after the dealership relocated, then back to the service department as a technician, and eventually a promotion to shop foreman, where he learned the finer points of running a shop and mentoring the next generation of technicians. In total, he spent over 16 years at BMW of El Cajon.

Then came an offer that changed everything: a friend working for a BMW customer race team asked Nick to help out at the track. What started as occasional part-time work turned into a full-time career, and Nick and his wife, Amanda, packed up for Texas to build and maintain factory BMW race cars full time.

After a couple of years racing across the country, Nick decided it was time to trade the road for something more settled. His BMW Car Club connections — including his friendship with racing legend Boris Said — led him to BMW of Murrieta. But a few months back at a dealership made it clear that chapter of his career was behind him. Drawing on decades of dealership expertise, motorsports experience, and deep roots in the local community, Nick opened Nick’s Auto Service & Smog — bringing honest, dealership-level BMW service and general auto repair to Fallbrook.