Classic Car Club Manhattan and New Jersey Motorsports Park also join forces with the up-and-coming sports car team as it works to help deserving individuals reach their motorsport dream
MILLVILLE, NJ (30 April 2024) – PT Autosport welcomes three exciting new partners to its 2024 sports car programs – STEAM Sports Foundation, the Classic Car Club Manhattan, and the team’s ‘home away from home’ New Jersey Motorsports Park.
All three partners will be in action this weekend and throughout the remainder of the season, with representation on the No. 98 PT Autosport with JDX Racing Porsche GT3 Cup car, driven by Alex Sedgwick, in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America series, and the No. 88 Precision Racing LA w/PT Autosport Toyota GR86 driven by Henry Drury in the Toyota GR Cup.
“I’m looking forward to working with and representing our three new partners across our remaining events,” said Sedgwick. “STEAM Sports Foundation ties in perfectly with the vision of PT Autosport, and the overall goal we set out to achieve of promoting involvement and opportunities in motorsport from deserving individuals, regardless of their background. NJMP has been a great partner for our shootout program for the past two years, and I am looking forward to developing that relationship further whilst also welcoming Classic Car Club Manhattan into the mix. I am looking forward to showing their guests the world of Carrera Cup in Miami, and visiting their facility in the near future.”
“I’m excited to represent our new partners going forward this year,” said Drury. “It’s incredible to find partners that resonate with PT Autosport’s core mission of providing career opportunities for talented diverse youth, and we’ve found not one but three partners that share those values. NJMP has been a prime example of this in supporting our last two shootouts, and the STEAM Sports Foundation does vital work through their scholarship programs, so there’s plenty of synergy between us all. I was lucky enough to visit the Classic Car Club Manhattan recently and meet some of their members, and I can’t wait to welcome them, STEAM Sports Foundation, and NJMP to the team.”
STEAM Sports Foundation provides scholarships to minority female engineering students and technicians who aspire to careers in the motorsports or automotive industry. Through summits and scholarships, the foundation demonstrates the career opportunities that are available via Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math education, via employers seeking innovative backgrounds. To reinforce this message, the foundation will host a pre-event webinar ahead of November’s PT Autosport Aspiring Driver Shootout to talk about the opportunities that are available through this program. PT Autosport will also host a charity fundraising event after the Shootout, with STEAM Sports Foundation as one of the beneficiaries.
“When Jeph and Jason reached out and shared the Aspiring Driver Shootout with me, I recognized immediately a complementary fit and alliance,” said Bob Dickinson, president and executive director of the STEAM Sports Foundation. “I look forward to collaborating with them regarding how to bring some incredible talent to motorsports who perhaps have been overlooked or not encouraged in the past.”
The Classic Car Club Manhattan is one of the premier private automotive-based membership associations in the U.S. Founded in London in 1995, the New York club opened in 2005 and is based at Pier 76 in Midtown Manhattan. In addition to the main clubhouse, members have access to a spectacular fleet of cars, as the club is known as an innovator of the shared access model. The CCCM has more than 1,000 members in New York and hosts more than 200 motorsport, automotive, and lifestyle events a year.
PT Autosport has called New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP) home since its inception. Just over an hour’s drive from Philadelphia, NJMP began its life as Millville Army Air Field in 1941 as a gunnery school for fighter pilots training on the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. During its four-year existence, about 1,500 pilots received advanced P-47 Thunderbolt fighter training at the facility. The area converted to a racetrack in 2008 and embraced its history by naming its marquee 2.25-mile racetrack “Thunderbolt Raceway.” The track now hosts 21 public event weekends throughout the season, ranging from music festivals and Make-A-Wish Foundation events to sportbike and SCCA races on its newly repaved racing surface.
For PT Autosport team principal Jason Myers, it’s a chance to broaden the team’s reach and shine a light on the unique aspects of each of the partners – and the changes that can be brought about by the new partnerships.
“We’re very excited to bring on partners that are near and dear to our heart and our cause,” said Myers. “New Jersey Motorsports Park is home to our current team HQ and garage – we keep our fleet of Spec Boxsters and run our Shootout from their facility in Western New Jersey. It’s got a pair of really challenging and unique tracks, a kart track, great garages and classrooms and other amenities, and is a one-stop shop for a lot of what we do.
“Classic Car Club Manhattan provides us with a great partner for event space and logistics in the city’s heart. They have an incredible facility and we’re looking forward to hosting our post-Shootout awards dinner there in November.
“And we are really excited to work with STEAM Sports Foundation (SSF), a great organization led my former team COO, Bob Dickinson. Bob was also the VP of Media and Communications for IMSA and has an incredible background and network in the motorsports community. When Bob started SSF a few years back, I took notice, and have always kept an eye and ear on what they’re doing – mainly because there are not enough people helping sustain the workforce in the motorsports industry. That’s why I knew I had to connect with Bob surrounding PT Autosport and our mission of not only discovering and developing drivers, but also helping feed the motorsports industry as a whole. It’s an incredibly difficult and niche industry to break into but it’s also one of the most unique, and demanding industries in the world. Those of us that have made it a career should be happy to help usher in a new era of talent and energy. We really can’t wait to see what kind of partnerships and activations we can help bring about with the STEAM Sports Foundation – and with all three of our new partners.”
The Porsche Carrera Cup North America series will contest two races at the Miami Grand Prix. Race one takes the green flag Saturday at 5:50 p.m. ET, with race two Sunday at 10:30 a.m. ET. The races will be broadcast live in the U.S., on IMSA.tv, the NBC Peacock streaming app and PorscheCarreraCup.us.
The Toyota GR Cup series will contest two 45-minute races at Sebring. Race one will take the green flag Saturday at 1:50 p.m. ET, with race two Sunday at 1:45 p.m. Both races will be broadcast live at www.grcup.com.
PT Autosport would like to thank partners STEAM Sports Foundation, Classic Car Club Manhattan and New Jersey Motorsports Park, as well as JDX Racing partners Byers/Porsche Columbus and Renier Construction.