About a decade ago, there was a young boy in a parking lot in Charlotte, NC, who could name the make and model of every single car his parents pointed to. Though his father’s affinity for cars was clearly inherited, the boy’s encyclopedic knowledge of cars was almost entirely self-taught—a prodigy of sorts.

“It was just, you know, a love that I found early on,” Westin Workman recalls. A love that he has already turned into a career that’s proving remarkably fruitful for the 19-year-old.

Most days, Workman hits the gym at 7 a.m. Every week, he puts in three days of lifting and two days of cardio. Cardio is done in a heat room set to 120°F to simulate the temperature in the cockpit during a race. “You get super sweaty,” he laughs.

After the gym, it’s off to yoga—but that doesn’t mean it’s time to relax. Twice a week, Workman attends business marketing classes in person at UNC Charlotte and, every night, does homework until 5 or 6 p.m. “I try to treat it like a nine to five,” he explains. In reality, it seems more like a seven to six.

It’s safe to say that Workman’s love for racing isn’t unrequited. It just so happens motorsports love him, too. Long before his foray into motorsports, he got his first taste of winning as a kid at go-karting summer camp down the street from his house. “That’s when I realized I really wanted to do this for the rest of my life and figure out how I could make it a career.”

“I always wanted it to be in my court, in my control,” says Workman. “And racing provided that.” He wonders aloud if it’s somehow selfish to prefer a solo win to the camaraderie of team sports. Rather than selfish, might it just be self-reliant, given that he depends on his crew for adjustments? He smiles modestly and agrees.

That independent streak served him well in 2023. Workman competed in his first GR Cup race at Road America and nailed it, finishing third. But having podiumed, the season that ensued proved frustrating. “It was eight or nine second-place finishes, 11 podiums, but no win. So that was a very tough one to swallow.”

There’s one former teammate and competitor in particular who seemed to keep getting in his way—Gresham Wagner. But Workman claims he wouldn’t have it any other way. “He pushed me past what I thought my limit was in every single race.”

Watching Wagner taught Workman a lot—that the race starts in practice, not when the flag drops, and that control of the throttle is key. “The earlier you can get on the throttle, the faster your lap time will be.”

Even as a veteran of the GR podium, Workman is still motivated to keep learning, especially so early on in his career. But make no mistake, he’s no stranger to Toyota’s top-performing cars. He’s driven GR Corolla, GR86 and more. But at the end of the day, the MK4 Supra—specifically, the one in his father’s garage—has his heart.

“That’s honestly what got me into cars and what got him into cars. He’s been modifying that car since he first owned it.” Workman continues, “It’s old, so it’s analog. The old cars really, really resonate with me.”

The fact that mods are out of the question in the GR Cup Series does little to dampen Workman’s palpable enthusiasm. “You know, they’re actually being built downstairs right now,” he adds excitedly, referring to the GR Garage in North Carolina. “They’re all built in one single shop.”

They say a bad workman blames his tools. However, Westin Workman is anything but. He actually enjoys the fact that in a spec series, like the GR Cup, the car provides the driver with no advantage—they are responsible for their own on-track performance. “That’s what I really like about this series. It teaches you to be self-dependent.”

That’s not to imply Workman is all work and no play. He’s really just a chill guy with an unwavering dedication to what he loves. He prefers the landscapes at Sonoma Raceway but the track at Road America and Sebring International Raceway. “They provide really good racing,” he comments. “Lots of draft, lots of long straightaways, lots of opportunities for passing.” He also likes ’90s R&B on race day to get him in the zone.

And when Workman wins, he doesn’t like to party. He simply enjoys getting up on the podium surrounded by the people who made it happen. “That’s what gets me,” he grins.