For Mike Garvey, 1980 was a very big year! He graduated from high school, started racing dirt at Muskegon’s Thunderbird Raceway and went to work at Port City Racing. His initiation at Port City was less than auspicious and involved sweeping floors and getting parts. Over his next eight years there, he set about learning everything he could about all aspects of racing. "You know how it is when you’re a kid on your first job. Until you learn how to do things, you’re ignored or, at best, tolerated," says Garvey as he reminisces about Port City Racing in the '80s. "I taught myself how to weld and every time they gave me a job, I did it the best I could and as fast as I could. I learned a lot of things after everyone else had gone home."

After five years on dirt, Garvey switched to asphalt. Following eight years at Port City, he headed south. During the winter of '88, Garvey was offered a ride and a job with John Arnold at A-1 Engineering, located outside Louisville, Kentucky. Building cars and racing out of A-1's shops, he was the NASCAR All American Challenge Series ‘Rookie of the Year’ in 1989 and won the championship in 1990. He left A-1 and moved on to Atlanta where he worked and raced for Herb Murrath. He then spent two years with a Busch team in Daytona before moving back to Atlanta to race Hooters’ Late Models with Kevin Horton. After driving for Jerry Gunderman's All Star Racing ASA team in the late '90s, he drove the Lafaver Motorsports ASA entry in 1999.

Wherever Garvey has raced, he's been heavily involved in building and fabricating the cars he drives. He admits to having a fascination for designing, building and setting up race cars. "I really like race cars. I like to build them and I like to race them," Garvey explained. "I’m involved with a race car from start to finish. There is no area I like better than others; everything about them fascinates me."

Over the years Garvey has won championships and a good many races, both large and small. His two All American 400 wins—especially winning the final 400 in 2000—are at the top of the list. However, for the racer himself, the most outstanding win is when he parked the Lafaver Motorsports ASA entry in victory lane at the Minnesota State Fair. "I’ve had some big wins, but winning at the Minnesota State Fair was really something," concluded Garvey. "It was right in our back yard and to see how much it meant to everyone on the team was special—really special."

With the demise of ASA at the conclusion of the 2004 Mike leaves the ASA series tied for fifth with Mark Martin with 22 career wins. Mike's 22 wins over a seven year period was the most of any driver in the series. Mike will be racing full time in the Hooters Pro Cup series along with some Nascar Nextel Cup Races. Mike's main sponsor in ASA (Jani King) remained loyal to their winning driver and returns to sponsor Mike in 2005.