Apex Driving Academy 



Formed in 2003 at the Motorsport Ranch facility near Fort Worth Texas, Apex Driving Academy Inc. has grown into the premier high performance driving school in the DFW region. Our management and instructor team share a common passion - the desire to share their experience by assisting others to develop their high performance driving skills.


Management Team 

Keith Verges, CEO & Co-Founder
A successful SCCA licensed driver, Apex Driving Academy Founder Keith has competed in national and regional races throughout the country. Keith is also respected as one of the best club racers in the Southwestern United States, having placed in and won many races and events with SCCA, NASA Series, One Lap of America, and POCA Speed Trials. The full time attorney and part time driver placed third overall during his first season racing in the Texas Region Spec Miata Racing Series, and he also holds the Spec Miata lap record at the MotorSport Ranch, Apex’s home base.

Keith has worked hard to share his love of motorsports with others. He produced and administered the Texas Triathlon Driving Event for 2000-2001, and has been a popular instructor at performance driving and car club events throughout Texas for years. Keith and one of his racecars appeared in Automobile Magazine in 2003 when he taught a journalist how to best hustle around the private racetrack.

The accomplished driver is a strong proponent of advanced training. Keith has attended some of the most advanced driving and racing schools across the country, and is a graduate of the Russell Racing School’s Techniques of Racing and Advanced Racing Schools. This experience, as well as his time instructing at club level events, led him to found the Apex Driving Academy. His goal was to establish a school that built better drivers for the public streets and track by maximizing seat time at a practical cost. Since there were no reasonably priced permanent schools in North Texas, he based Apex Driving Academy at the Motorsport Ranch.

Also a skilled mechanic with a Master’s degree in engineering, Keith has performed every task from changing fuel injectors to drive train replacement. He regularly performs full race preparations on his personal racecars and has completed aftermarket modification on everything from Ford Mustangs to Mazda Miatas to Ferraris. Keith’s passion for fast cars has led him to own various high performance street vehicles including a Lamborghini Gallardo, Lotus Elise, DeTomaso Pantera, Ferrari 355, Datsun 2000 Roadster, Triumph Spitfire, Mazda Spec Miata racecar, Oldsmobile 4-4-2, Formula Mazda racecar, a 600 HP supercharged Chevrolet Corvette and several Dodge Vipers.

John Holmes, President
John has been a “car guy” all his life, and enjoys both contemporary performance cars as well as classics. He has restored and owned many classic muscle cars including Hemi Cudas, Hurst Olds, Superbirds, and a DeTomaso Pantera. John has been an accredited Classic Vehicle Appraiser for over seven years.

After drag racing regularly since he learned to drive, John discovered high performance driving on road-race tracks around 2000, and has participated in many performance driving events and schools. In 2004, John competed in the Car and Driver One Lap of America national event in a Subaru Forester XT.

John joined the executive team of Apex Driving Academy in 2005.

Georg Taht, Director of Operations
Georg inherited a delight in all things mechanical from his father. This genetically induced obsession was nurtured as he worked alongside his dad on German-made Borgwards, Toyotas, and Peugeots before he even had a driver’s license. His skills supported him through college as he regularly performed engine swaps on Hondas before it became the craze it is today.

In 1995, Georg purchased his first BMW, a car that literally changed his life as he sought associations with fellow enthusiasts in the BMW Car Club of America. With his shiny red 1987 535is, he was drawn to the high performance driving arena and learned to refine his talent on tracks in the Pacific Northwest, eventually becoming a driving instructor and teaching with various car clubs, including BMW, Alfa Romeo, and Audi.

Experience as a mechanical engineer in airline maintenance operations brought him from Boeing in Seattle to Southwest Airlines in Dallas where he currently leads a team in the Safety Performance area. His expertise is put to good use at work, as well as at home where he maintains his own fleet of vehicles that has included marques such as Alfa Romeo, Borgward, Honda, Mazda, and VW. Currently the stable features three BMWs, including an original M3, and most recently a Porsche Cayenne S.

Moving to Texas has been an exciting adventure for Georg and his wife Claire, along with son Karl, who often accompany him to Apex Driving Academy events. Georg continues to participate in the realm of enthusiast as his on-track experience and classroom instruction impart some of his passion to students, and contribute toward a safe experience at the track.


Instructor Team 



Daron Cooke, Chief Instructor
Originally from Australia, Daron developed his driving skills at a very young age after receiving his first car and motorcycle on the family farm at only 10 years of age. After racing Motocross during his high school years, he progressed to motorcycle road racing in the 1980s, and has been around high performance bikes, cars and even boats ever since.

Since relocating to Texas in 2000, Daron has instructed for many national and regional high performance driving organizations. Daron is a licensed racer and competed in the National Auto Sport Association's Camaro Mustang Challenge Series in 2006, and is currently racing a Ford Mustang Cobra in NASA's popular 'American Iron' series achieving podium finishes at every race meeting this season.

After many years in marketing, technical, training and management roles in the IT industry, Daron now operates a motorsport company focused on handling performance and developing products for race and open track cars, as well as managing the Apex Instructor team.

Mason Melkowits, Lead Instructor
Mason is Structural Engineer, and is currently working in the oil industry. He is an accomplished autocross competitor with five years experience competing at regional and national levels. With multiple regional and state championships to his credit, and as a two-time trophy winner at the SCCA National Championships, Mason made quite a name for himself in SCCA autocross circles.

Mason yearned to pitch his skills against others in wheel to wheel racing, so in 2005, he joined the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) and attended their Racecraft School. Mason adapted quickly from autocross to road racing and in 2006, Mason made his racing debut in NASA’a Camaro Mustang Challenge series. Progressing to the American Iron Series in 2007, he finished 2nd in his first race, and achieved his first race win in April 2008.

Predictably, Mason’s talent on the road course combined with his previous autocross instructing experience attracted attention and he was approached to be an instructor, and Mason is now instructing with several high performance driving organizations, as well as Lead Instructor for Apex.

Andre Vandenberg, Lead Instructor
Andre's bio will be available soon...

Lewis Tanner, Lead Instructor
Lewis' bio will be available soon...

Instructors  



Apex Driving Academy prides itself on the quality of our instruction team, and as a group, they represent some of the most skilled high performance drivers in the region. With over 40 instructors on the team, most are accomplished racing drivers, while others have come up through the ranks of respected high performance driving organizations like the Porsche Club of America. It takes a lot more than just being a fast driver to be a good driving instructor, they must also be good teachers and communicators, and we look for these attributes when selecting our instructors.