Our Family Story
From a Georgia backyard shop to families across America
Our Family Story
GoKartMasters did not begin with a website, a marketing plan or a warehouse full of boxes. It grew from four generations of people who built machines, repaired engines, helped customers and believed outdoor fun was worth passing down.
The company name is newer than the family tradition. Our roots reach back to 1970, while the online GoKartMasters business took shape decades later.
Generation one
1970: David Loveless and Fun Wheels
The story begins in Georgia with Kimberly's grandfather, David Loveless. In 1970, David founded Fun Wheels and built a business around the equipment families and property owners actually used.
The early business sold and serviced Snapper mowers, Hodaka motorcycles, small engines and outdoor equipment. Go-karts and mini bikes became a natural part of that work because the same mechanical knowledge, tools and practical problem-solving applied.
Long before online parts searches and video tutorials, customers came to a real shop and talked to someone who knew how the machine worked. That expectation still shapes GoKartMasters today.
Built by hand in the backyard
Loveless Enterprises and the Buffalo Mini Bikes
In the 2000s, David Loveless and his son designed and manufactured Buffalo mini bikes through Loveless Enterprises in Dallas, Georgia. These were not machines selected from a catalog and relabeled. They were designed, fabricated and assembled by hand in their own shop.
Kimberly knew David as Pawpaw. Ron, her dad, grew up inside the work. He learned how frames, engines, controls and drivetrains fit together because he helped build the machines rather than merely selling them.
Modern TrailMaster mini bikes are factory-built, but the family still evaluates them through the eyes of people who have designed and manufactured mini bikes themselves. Stability, comfort, simple controls, repairability and parts support matter more to us than whatever feature sounds impressive in an advertisement.
Generation two
Ron and Patti Carry the Business Forward
In the late 1990s, David's son Ron and his wife Patti took a larger role in the family business. Ron became known to customers as RonnyJack and combined hands-on mechanical experience with an early understanding of what the internet could do for small-engine owners.
By 2012, the business was operating through Red Top Mower while RonnyJacks.com helped customers find small-engine and go-kart parts online. As the powersports side continued to grow, the GoKartMasters name and website became the center of the go-kart business.
This was the bridge between the traditional shop and the company customers know today: real mechanical knowledge delivered through online listings, telephone conversations, shipped parts and practical instructions.
Growing with the brand
Becoming a TrailMaster Family
The family worked with several imported powersports brands, including machines from companies that later changed ownership, disappeared or stopped supporting older models. TrailMaster stood apart.
Ron developed working relationships with people inside the powersports industry and worked directly with TrailMaster leadership as the brand entered and grew in the United States. GoKartMasters became one of the early TrailMaster dealers and has now spent nearly 20 years selling, assembling, riding, repairing and supplying parts for the lineup.
The relationship has included practical input on engineering, new features and model development. More importantly, years of supporting real owners taught the family which designs hold up, which maintenance matters and which replacement parts families will need years later.
An honest part of the story
A Difficult Chapter and a New Generation
In 2021, a serious family health crisis disrupted the business. Ron suffered a stroke and was hospitalized for months. Because the online store continued accepting orders while its primary operator could no longer manage them, some customers experienced long delays and unanswered messages.
The website was eventually paused to stop new orders. In 2022, Scott and Kimberly Pannell took responsibility for the company, worked through unresolved orders and refunds, and rebuilt the systems behind sales, fulfillment and customer support.
We do not hide that chapter because trust requires context and accountability. It also explains why the current business puts so much effort into written policies, model-specific resources, customer education and support that does not depend on one person keeping every detail in his head.
Generation three
Scott and Kimberly Rebuild GoKartMasters
Scott and Kimberly brought different strengths into the next generation of the business. Scott is a master mechanic whose former military and law-enforcement experience reinforced a steady, practical approach to responsibility and problem-solving. He can diagnose, repair, and explain the mechanical systems that owners depend on.
Kimberly handles the systems that turn that knowledge into a better customer experience. She assembles machines, studies model differences, writes owner resources, develops product pages, works with customers and turns repeated support questions into instructions other families can follow.
In 2022, the business relocated to South Dakota. After a temporary return to Georgia, GoKartMasters now operates online from Lennox, South Dakota, serving complete-machine customers across the lower 48 states and TrailMaster parts customers throughout the world.
There is no public showroom, test-ride location or customer-pickup counter. The business is intentionally built around nationwide online sales, freight delivery, shipped parts and an expanding library of resources owners can use wherever they live.
What the business looks like today
We Ride the Same Machines We Sell
The family uses TrailMaster machines at camp, on a backyard go-kart track and along the dirt roads of South Dakota farm country. Friends come over to ride. Children learn the controls. Adults take turns. Problems become maintenance lessons, and good days become memories.
That real use influences recommendations. We know why a wide mini-bike seat matters after an hour of riding, why reverse matters around trees, why a remote shutoff can matter more than horsepower and why the easiest machine to own may not be the model with the longest feature list.
Our product pages are written for parents and grandparents because that is how our own family thinks about these machines: as a way to spend time outside together.
Generation four
The Children Are Learning the Business Too
Scott and Kimberly's five children are growing up around the same combination of family, machines and work that shaped the generations before them. They ride, help with projects, appear in real sizing and demonstration videos, and learn what goes into serving a customer after an order is placed.
No one knows exactly what the business will look like when they are adults. The goal is not to force a fifth version of the same company. It is to pass down mechanical confidence, useful work, honest communication and the belief that families still need reasons to get outside together.
Meet the Family Through GoKartMasters AcademyWhat four generations taught us
The Principles We Still Use
Continue exploring
More From GoKartMasters
The Next Chapter Is Still About Getting Back to Fun
The technology has changed from hand-built Buffalo mini bikes to EFI-equipped TrailMaster go-karts. The reason for the work has not. We want families to understand their machines, care for them well and use them to make memories together.
