Photo by Ben Lovie
Volume 12 Issue 1 » 45
We hear it from successful
people in life that passion means
commitment. Beyond your skills as
a talented racing car driver, what
else does it take to have a longterm professional racing career?
Making it in racing is very difficult. In a
crop of twenty to thirty racers from all
across the globe, only one or two make the
transition to IndyCar each year. To be that
person you have to be at the top of your
game all the time. This means learning the
ins and outs of the sport from the business
side, representing your team and supporters
positively, being as fit as possible and, of
course, being the fastest on track. All this
takes huge commitment and there are no
days off. In the end it’s all worth it when
you strap on a helmet and get to go racing.
The business of motorsport racing
is financially intensive. What does
it cost for an average race weekend
in the Indy Lights race series? And,
what does that cover?
At the Indy Lights level, season budgets
hover around the $1 million mark. Divided
up it’s about $100K per race weekend. The
costs are high, but this is also a very highlevel series with very expensive machines.
I’ve created a group called the BCPitCrew.
com for interested parties to get involved
so they can take advantage of the huge
marketing benefits associated with Indy
Lights.
At what point does a driver cross
the line between being a paying
driver – that is paying all the
expenses – and being a fully
sponsored driver?
Simply put, when you are good enough!
Once you’ve mastered all aspects of the
sport and proven yourself to those with the
available funds, being a professional is just
a contract and a signature away.
You’ll have time to sit down with
Jacques Villeneuve this weekend.
What are you hoping to learn from
him?
I’m very interested in the path that Jacques
took to get to the top levels of motorsports.
I hope he can provide some insight as to
which direction I should take next in my
career. He has driven everything from
Formula 1 to Rally Racing to NASCAR,
so I’m interested to see what he liked the
best.
I have to ask, what do you
personally drive when you’re not
racing?
Unknown to me until a surprise
presentation, the prize for winning the
Canadian GT3 Cup was getting to drive
a Carrera S for a year. So, needless to say, I