Karsatos Returns on Fast Track

Jim Karsatos really wanted to play quarterback for USC. As a football and basketball star at Sunny Hills High, even before that, as a sports-crazy kid growing up in Fullerton, Karsatos knew what he wanted: To be the quarterback at USC.

So 20 years ago, when Karsatos was being recruited, being wooed by USC and Ohio State, what the heck happened? Why is it that Karsatos has returned this week, visiting family, playing golf with old high school buddies, but only as an Orange County guest? Why is it that Karsatos is the color announcer for Ohio State football, a successful stockbroker in Columbus, Ohio, a proud new investor in Active Motorsports, a Worthington, Ohio-based team?

“Hey,” Karsatos says, “USC took a guy and told me they thought I could be his backup. I said, ‘I don’t think I need to back up Sean Salisbury.’ His whole career was based on potential.”

Karsatos is laughing now. That part about backing up Salisbury, that was true, but he was only kidding about Salisbury’s career. Really. So Karsatos left home, went far away to Columbus, a whole new world.

And now he’s back, part-owner of a car-racing team, eager to be in pit row today when Active Motorsports drivers Will Langhorne and Tom Wieringa participate in the Toyota Atlantic Championship series race at the Long Beach Grand Prix.

Karsatos is new to this car-racing thing. Active Motorsports is a 3-year-old team and Karsatos joined this season. Its drivers participate in a developmental division of CART. Langhorne and Wieringa drive open-wheeled, open-cockpit, four-cylinder cars. They race one-hour, straight-line sprint races. Karsatos doesn’t know much more about cars other than how to change a tire and check the oil, but he knows about excitement, about the thrill of competition, about starting from scratch and building something.

In a way, Karsatos started from scratch when he left Fullerton and went east. He became a two-year starter and a captain for Coach Earle Bruce’s Ohio State teams. He competed in a Rose Bowl. But at first, Karsatos says, he was lonely and homesick. “I wondered more than once what the heck I was doing out there.”

Karsatos found out how OSU football was the only thing that mattered in Columbus and, as quarterback, how everything he did mattered. The scrutiny could be exhausting, but it could also be rewarding.

After college (Karsatos spent six years as a Buckeye, having received a second redshirt year after a knee injury), Karsatos spent two years as a Miami Dolphin quarterback. While he might not have wanted to be Salisbury’s backup, Karsatos was thrilled to be Dan Marino’s.

But in his second year, when the Dolphins were playing the Bears and Karsatos was seeing some mop-up duty, “I blew my knee out,” he says. “It was the very first game played in Joe Robbie Stadium and the turf hadn’t loosened up yet. My foot got stuck, Otis Wilson had a running start, he hit me and that was it.”

As an ex-OSU quarterback, Karsatos was welcomed into the Columbus business community. He’s a vice president and partner of the Prim Capital Corporation. He is also president of the central Ohio chapter of the NFL Alumni Assn.

He’s married to Susan and the father of 2-year-old Nick. Karsatos has made a life for himself far away from where he grew up, unusual for a Southern California kid. “Yeah,” he says, “it’s hard to make the move. But things have worked out well for me.”

Besides a strong football tradition, Columbus also has a strong auto racing tradition. Bobby Rahal has a team headquartered in Columbus.

“It’s a big deal in Columbus,” Karsatos says. “You can’t help but get into it.”

Needing an outlet for his competitive instincts and being convinced he could offer a racing team expertise in business practices and marketing, Karsatos did some research. “I think you’re gonna find that NASCAR and Winston Cup racing, while exciting, has maybe peaked,” Karsatos says.

“In NASCAR, the average driver is 42 years old. In our racing, it’s 26 years old. NASCAR is more a bump and grind racing. Ours is a power series. It’s a different world, a type of racing that is coming on and that’s what I want to be involved in.”

It costs the Active Motorsports team, Karsatos says, $850,000 per car to get through a Toyota Atlantic Championship series season. Karsatos believes “that a lot more can be done in the marketing side of racing. I’m not saying the series doesn’t do a great job, but we can do a much better job and I think I can at least nudge it in the right direction.”

While he will be in the pits on race day, Karsatos says, “I’ll only be the biggest cheerleader out there.” But he is not often a backup in any aspect of his life anymore. Though Karsatos says one thing still drives him crazy.

“I see and hear Salisbury on national radio and TV all the time,” Karsatos says. “I’m just on the local Buckeye broadcasts. What is it with that guy?”

Karsatos laughs again. He isn’t serious. Except maybe a little.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com