News From The American Le Mans Series - Canadian Tire Motorsport Park 2012 Seth Neiman and the ALMS SPORTSMEN OH CANADA! FELLOWS • MARCELLI • GT3 CUP www.michelinalley.com 2 RON FELLOWS A CANADIAN motorsports legend create a lot more racing interest,” said and one of North America’s most Fellows. versatile and popular drivers, Ron That is why spectator Fellow is on the other side of the improvements are a big proverbial fence this week. part of the plan. As a driver, Fellows is a two-time 24 “We have done a lot Hours of Le Mans winner, three-time of grading to improve American Le Mans Series champion the sightlines for and four times voted the Series most spectators,” said popular driver. Fellows. These days he wears a new hat, “We created often a construction hard hat, as some new areas for part of the Canadian Motorsports camping. We also Ventures, Ltd, ownership group with have a road that goes transportation industry leader Al from one end of the Boughton and real estate developer property to the other so Carlo Fidani. it now connects the grand “Mosport has been a big part of my prix track - to the kart track life. I went to my first race in 1969 as - to the oval track and to the an 11-year-old kid and here is where driver-development track. You I was bitten by the bug to go racing. A no longer have to go on public lot of my first wins came at Mosport,” roads to get to these facilities.” said Fellows. This big wave of improvements The first Canadian to win a isn’t the end for one of NASCAR Nationwide Series event, motorsports most challenging and Fellows and his business partners historic tracks. realized Mosport needed significant Fellows, who scored his first investment and energy to keep it Trans Am win here in 1989, reports relevant and successful going forward. that there is still much more to come. “We had to improve the “We need a registration building, infrastructure of the paddock, getting we are working on a plan for a new in and out of the property for the events center including a media competitors,” said Fellows, who is center and timing and scoring and quickly learning the costs of being a administration.” race-track operator and promoter. When one of the hardest working, “We installed a brand new tunnel most successful and most popular in Turn 9. You can drive two tractor- people in motorsports gets rolling, trailers through that tunnel side by the result is typically great side. You can enter through Gate 3 success. Whether as a driver or and drive through the tunnel into the race promoter, Ron Fellows infield,” continued Fellows. Previously knows how to find the the track had to be shut down to bring winner’s circle. competitors haulers into the paddock. Another big change is the name of the track itself to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. “Having a marketing partner like Canadian Tire, we feel like it is really going to help grow motorsports and SHIFTING OH CANADA 3 for Porsches built from 2002 to mid- 2005. America and an excellent car for Etienne Borgeat (#2 GT Racing) THE FASTEST-GROWING single- developing new drivers. Canada is has won three of the five races in make series in North America joins the the 20th country worldwide to host a the Platinum Cup and holds a slight American Le Mans Series this weekend Porsche GT3 Cup series. lead in the championship over Perry at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The series splits the field into Bortolotti (#84 6th Gear Racing), the The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge categories based on the model year of defending series champion. Bruce Canada by Michelin enters its second the Porsche GT3 Cup car. Cars built in Gregory (#18 SpeedMerchants) has year with more entries and races. 2010-2012 fall into the Platinum Cup, four Gold Cup wins to date and holds The Porsche GT3 Cup car is among while the Gold Cup is for Porsches built the championship lead over Robert the most widely raced cars in North from mid-2005 to 2009, and Silver Cup Maranda and Shaun McKaigue. Kyle Marcelli’s HOMECOOKING THE 2012 ALMS season has not gone exactly according to plan for Barrie, Ontario’s Kyle Marcelli--yet. A return to his home track this weekend may be just what he needs to change his racing luck. Now in his third season of ALMS PC class competition, Marcelli, 22, posted wins at Mid-Ohio and Baltimore in 2011 before joining the Merchant Services Racing team as co-driver of the #8 Prototype Challenge class entry for 2012. Despite Marcelli’s speed, the early season results are mixed. After a retirement at Sebring and a fourth at Long Beach, Marcelli led the third race of the ALMS season at Monterey - until suffering mechanical SHIFTING issues with just five minutes remaining in the six-hour race. At the recent Lime Rock race, Marcelli took the third pole position of his young career but never got his turn at the wheel as his car was out before the first driver change. “We have had a bit of a rocky road this year,” said Marcelli. That road now leads him back home. With a growing base of family, friends and fans cheering him on, a win at his home track would be one to remember. 4 SPORTSMEN GREG PICKETT ED BROWN CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY + RACING DRIVER = THE SECRET TO THE success of sportscar racing in general ALMS in 2011 and his team claimed two race wins and the and the American Le Mans Series in particular are the 2011 ALMS PC class championship. In 2012, CORE has taken sportsmen team owners. These accomplished entrepreneurs the PC class wins in all four ALMS events to date. have a passion for the sport that is matched only by their While not a team owner, Ed Brown, CEO of Patrón Spirits, business acumen. is a sponsor and driver whose passion for the sport and busi- Three of the most successful teams in the ALMS are led by ness and marketing savvy plays a continuing role in the suc- such sportsmen: Seth Neiman of Flying Lizard Motorsports cess of the sport and the emergence of Scott Sharp’s Extreme Porsche in GT, Greg Pickett of the LMP1 Muscle Milk Pickett Speed Motorsports Ferrari team. HPD Honda team and Jon Bennett of CORE autosport in PC. Ironically, each saw their cars win their respective class at The Alley met with Seth Neiman at the 24 Hours of Le Mans the most recent ALMS race at Lime Rock Park. to talk about his team. His comments may surprise you. Seth Neiman, founder of Flying Lizard Motorsports, saw his career take him from music through the computer Why did you start your own team? revolution to engineering, then to executive and CEO roles “Early on, I realized that a ‘ride/drive’ program wasn’t go- before landing in the venture capital world. Since joining ing to make me happy as a customer. To do it right, we had the ALMS in 2004, the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsches to own a team. When we first started racing, I realized that have claimed 21 race wins and the 2008 and 2009 ALMS GT I had some knowledge and skills that some of the people class championships. didn’t have. There were two key things: first, to construct Greg Pickett founded CytoSport, makers of Cytomax and an organization and second to hire great people who could Muscle Milk. Pickett, a legend in Trans Am competition and create stability in the organization, for the potential to go now retired as a driver, returned to the ALMS in 2009. Since beyond what we could do individually.” then, his team has racked up 10 race wins and currently leads the 2012 ALMS P1 class championships with drivers What was your approach? Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf. “We wanted to hire the best athletes, people who are natural Jon Bennett, team owner and co-driver of CORE auto- pros, intelligent and good communicators. We needed peo- sport, owns a company that uses composites and carbon ple who can listen, learn and develop talent and the ability fiber products to find engineering solutions. He entered the to work together.” SPORTSMEN 5 SETH NEIMAN JON BENNETT CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY + RACING DRIVER = “Once we identified the key people like Craig Watkins, The racing changes constantly, why does your team seem Tommy Sadler, Eric Ingraham, Thomas Blam and Jennifer so stable? Hart, we spent the next six months creating FLM. We came “Stability is a big part of our team. We want people who stay, out at Daytona in 2004, ran second at Sebring and won Mid- not people who are changing jobs every 18 months. We want Ohio. We had success early, but after Sebring we saw that we people who bring stability, good communications and intel- had a lot to learn.” ligence. We plan, build a plan and follow it up.” “It is hard to own a team and maintain stability. There are What did FLM get from your business background? lots of momentum swings, up and down. What do we need “Good businesses tell themselves the truth all the time. They to learn from this? How do we fix it? It took us two or three are forced to deal with reality. Cash flow and customers are years to get that.” reality and good businesses have a cold eye on what is work- “We have been with our key partners like Porsche and ing and what is not.