Kevin Tarpley -- Owner
More Than a Business. This Is Home.
I was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina. I grew up in Eno Trace, went to Jordan High School, and today I live on Horton Rd—about a mile from the shop. This area isn’t just where I work, it’s home. It’s where I was raised, where my kids are growing up, and where the people around me aren’t just customers—they’re neighbors.
I’ve spent the last 21 years in the automotive industry, starting as a technician. Early on, I had a Christian mentor who didn’t just teach me how to fix cars—he taught me how to carry myself, how to treat people, and how to put values and quality above everything else. That foundation stuck with me.
As I grew, I moved into a service advisor role. That’s where everything changed. I stopped just building engines and started building relationships. I learned that people don’t just need their vehicles fixed—they need clarity, honesty, and someone they can trust to guide them through the process.
I opened Champion Tire & Automotive May 1, 2024. Before I opened up, I served as a service manager for a high-volume dealership in Raleigh. That experience showed me both sides of the industry—the potential to do things right, and the reality of where things often fall short. I saw firsthand how poor communication and lack of transparency break trust. And I knew there had to be a better way.
Champion Tire & Automotive was built to be that better way.
I’m a father of three—two boys and my youngest, a little girl who keeps me on my toes. Being a single father has shaped how I look at everything. Time matters. Trust matters. Doing things right the first time matters. That carries over into how this shop operates every day.
I didn’t build this place just to fix cars. I built it to create a system where honesty isn’t optional, where communication is clear, and where people know exactly what to expect every time they walk through the door.
Because this community deserves that.
A Foundation That Doesn’t Cut Corners
While working toward my Associate’s Degree at Durham Technical Community College, I took several automotive classes along the way. At the time, I was pursuing a path in engineering—but the more I got involved in automotive repair, the more I realized this was where I belonged.
I’ve spent 18 of my 21 years in the automotive industry in independent repair shops, with only a short time in the dealership environment. The shops I came up in believed in doing things the right way—and that meant continuing to learn. They invested in training, sent me to classes, and expected me to keep improving.
Early on, a mentor told me, “If you learn from the best, you will become the best.” I took that seriously. I focused on learning from the right people, paying attention to the details, and building a strong foundation over time.
Along the way, I’ve had the benefit of strong mentorship, hands-on experience, and continued development through dealership-level training and programs like ATI. Each step added to my understanding—not just of the work itself, but of the responsibility that comes with it.
Over time, that experience turned into a standard—one that guides how this shop operates and how we train the people around us. Champion University was built from that same foundation. Not to reinvent anything, but to pass on what works—clearly, consistently, and without cutting corners.