Galante joins Racing to End Alzheimer’s at Sonoma

Longtime friend of the program and California resident will get behind the wheel of the iconic Porsche in the Porsche Sprint Challenge and Endurance Challenge events – at a track he considers his home

LOS ANGELES (September 24, 2024) – The Racing to End Alzheimer’s MDK Motorsports team returns to the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama and Porsche Endurance Challenge at Sonoma Raceway this weekend, with a familiar face behind the wheel of the iconic purple and yellow entry.

Longtime Racing to End Alzheimer’s driver Nick Galante will take over for regular pilot Mark Kvamme this weekend, behind the wheel of the No. 243 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car at circuit he considers one of his “home” tracks.

Galante, who is also a professional caddy at Pebble Beach, learned to race at Sonoma’s Jim Russell School and has taught at the school for over a decade. He hesitates to estimate the sheer number of laps he has around the 12-turn, 2.520-mile road course located near Sonoma’s renowned wine country.

“I attended the Jim Russell School at Sonoma and went on to win the school’s scholarship, along with the Masters Class, in an F3 car,” said Galante. “I was already caddying – that’s how I met (Racing to End Alzheimer’s founder) Phil Frengs. So my first race with Phil was the scholarship shootout in the winter of 2006, then I started racing in the Russell series. Soon after, I started working there as an instructor, in the F3 cars, in S Raceway Formula 3, the race school and race series, and also the McLaren Sports Car Experience and the Audi Sports Car Experience. I still go up there to do private coaching, and all sorts of other programs. So over the years, it’s got to be at least 4,000 laps at Sonoma.”

When Galante takes to the track this week, his car will carry the names of 176 people who have suffered from Alzheimer’s or other dementia. Family and friends donate $250 to Racing to End Alzheimer’s to have a name placed on the car. The money is matched by Frengs’s company Legistics, and 100% of the donations and matches go to the organization’s beneficiaries.

For Galante, the work is personal, having lost a grandmother and an aunt to Alzheimer’s. But he isn’t just on-site on the weekends he’s racing. He often comes to the track to support Kvamme and Frengs, helping to put names on the car and talk to fans about the organization – finding that few people have not been touched in some way by the disease. He works closely with Frengs, who founded the organization in 2017 after Frengs’s wife Mimi was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s.

“Phil works so hard for people that are suffering. You don’t often see the kind of people in the world now who are just a force for good. And I’ve never seen him give into a moment of feeling sorry for himself, instead, he’s relentlessly positive.”

Galante last raced a Porsche in 2022 – but that was a Porsche Cayman GT4. The Sonoma weekend will be his first in the Porsche GT3 Cup Car, a prospect he relishes.

“I’ve done laps in the Cup Car, but I’ve never raced it,” said Galante, who will share the car with Gus Burton in Sunday’s one-hour Porsche Endurance Challenge. “So I’m excited to do that. It’s going to be a lot of fun and obviously with a team that’s as talented as MDK Motorsports. We look forward to putting on a show for the benefit of the Racing to End Alzheimer’s family.”

The Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama will contest two races at Sonoma Raceway. Race one takes the green flag Saturday at 3:55 p.m. ET, with race two Sunday at 1:30 p.m. ET. The one-hour Porsche Endurance Challenge is set for Sunday at 4:00 p.m. ET The races will be broadcast live on the Porsche Motorsports North America YouTube page.