Jack Korpela drives his love for Motorcycles to over 3.5 million social media followers via CycleDrag racing content.
By – John Phillips
There are many hobbies and passions people have. Since the end of World War II, motorcycles have become a way of life for many. From the Harley Davidson Fat Boy softail to the classic look of an Indian Scout, or even the powerful and fast Suzuki Hayabusa, there are tons of bikes and styles that keep people riding everywhere.
It was that same love of motorcycles, beginning at the age of 4 that gave Monroeville native Jack Korpela his ticket to find his life’s work in a genre he loved. Even more than his passion for professional wrestling.
After graduation from Gateway High School in 2001, Korpela found himself at the University of Florida to study broadcast journalism. He loved pro wrestling and wanted a career in the business. Eventually after graduation in 2005, Jack left Gainesville and sent an audition tape to Titan Tower, home of the WWF in Stamford, Connecticut.
Not really expecting to be contacted for any reason, given the amount of audition tapes the WWE receives, Jack kept looking for work locally but found it a very tough market to find a break in.
I had come back home and was disenchanted with the lack of local jobs and what some of them paid,” said Korpela. “I was given an offer to work in Steubenville at a TV station for $7/hr. but it was 90 minutes each way. I could work at Home Depot close to home and come out financially ahead. Then I read the book ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ and one of the lessons in the book was ‘mind you own business’ and I decided to start my own business.”
Korpela launched his cycledrag.com website, along with his YouTube page in 2006 while continuing to search for work in TV locally. It was more hobby than job to start, but his path was just beginning. Shortly after doing this, the WWE called him to come do an interview but made no offer. Six months later one afternoon while on a job interview in the Strip, his phone rang. It was an HR liaison from WWE.
“I get a call and an offer to come work for WWE and I almost crashed by Ford Ranger on the Parkway East,’ joked Korpela. “That changed my life. It was an incredible five plus years to hone my craft and focus solely on my on-air ability. WWE was so dialed in, I was able to just deliver the on-air product where other jobs had you shooting video, editing, doing the little things. It was a dream come true.”
Korpela’s WWF contract as a broadcaster placed him in their growing online programming. He also did commentary on TV shows like Smackdown and Heat, while hosting online offerings like ‘Bottom Line’ and ‘NXT 2.0’ among others.
But by late 2011, the WWF decided to not renew Jack and let him go. From there he bounced around, first returning to Pittsburgh and a short run at 93.7 The Fan. After that stint dried up, he went into television, taking a job in Tucson for 2 years, then eventually came back to Pennsylvania working TV in Harrisburg. All the while, even thru his run with WWF and other stints in media, Jack always had a love of motorcycles that he carried with him.
It was that love in 2018 that turned his fortunes towards what he now does for a living when he took a full-time job with a new venture that CBS Sports started in conjunction with Lucas Oil creating a motorsports channel.
“Whose luck enough to get two dream jobs in your life,’ said Korpela. ‘Lucas Oil comes calling and I take a leap of faith, leaving Harrisburg to move to Corona, California and I’m covering high level motorsports. It was a great two years. Then COVID hit and my job was eliminated.”
Jack turned his back on all that to start producing content on social media full-time for himself, eventually moving to Clearwater, Florida in 2022. He thought long and hard about how to market his content while trying to cover events on a shoestring budget. With his love for combining motorcycles and drag racing, both passions of his, Jack had made quite a few contacts in that world.
He began to pick up freelance gigs as a reporter and play-by-play announcer for several smaller Motorsports Networks. The pay wasn’t lifechanging, but it afforded him free travel, hotel and meals while granting him access to the product his audience was interested in seeing up close and personal.
Armed with his iPhones and a knack for knowing what was trending and popular, Korpela shot as much content while also conducting interviews with the names of the stars on the various motorcycle circuits he was attending.
Those first two years ballooned his following. One that has grown to over 3.5 million followers across all his social media platforms. And the numbers of views and likes are simply staggering.
Korpela has by far the biggest presence online when it comes to the niche he’s cracked. His YouTube page was first started in 2008, where there alone he’s racked up nearly 425 million views on over 8,500 videos posted, boasting over 708,000 subscribers. He joined TikTok in the summer of 2021 and in just under 5 years has tallied over 12 million likes on his posts on that platform, with over 528,000 followers. But the crown jewel to his content creation crown is Facebook where in 20 years he’s piled up a massive audience of motorcycle crazed fans who eat up his content, surpassing 2.2 million followers this past week.
“Nobody can pull the rug out from underneath me now,’ said Korpela. “That revelation got me to say, let me go all-in, go on the road every single week, open up pages on all-social media platforms, something I learned in WWE to have any and all revenue streams open, TikTok, Instagram, you name it, no matter how small the gig it was, I felt I could make it work.”
As his CycleDrag brand has grown, his ability to conduct interviews with the biggest names involved in motorcycles has also gained traction, interviewing TV icon Jay Leno and Paul Teutul Sr. of Orange County Chopper fame. Each has done numerous interviews for Jack.
Korpela has capitalized on a ‘beef’ between those two when Leno in a 2024 interview called the ‘chopper’ craze ‘junk’ citing electrical issues with a bike that came out of Orange County Choppers shop he was given. Teutul fired back at Leno, calling him ‘grumpy’ for taking shots at a free custom bike he was given. Fans ate up the feud, with tens millions of views for each post Korpela made.
“I’m very lucky, I get to make my own schedule. I don’t have to worry about some suit calling me into an interview and letting me go from my job. What more can you ask for?”
