From the Racing Edge

Hello, thank you for the opportunity to introduce myself and Extreme Speed Motorsports!

ESM is now completing it's 3rd season in existence. It started when Ed Brown, President and CEO of Patron Tequila and his other top executives asked me to start my own team in October 2009. The goal was immediately clear... To build the best championship level organization as quickly as we could! At first, it was going to be one car running in the ALMS GT class, with Ed driving, while I continued to drive the Patron LMP1 Acura for Highcroft racing.

Quickly we realized the focus and effort it would take to build a championship level team combined with the advantage of having two cars instead of one. I accepted the challenge! Stepping out of the LMP1 car and driving one of the two GT cars while also managing the team. Next decision: what manufacturer should we align with? It didn't take too long to realize the answer was Ferrari! Patron is the leader in the ultra premium Tequila business. They wanted a similar ultra premium manufacturer. You can't get any higher than Ferrari! Some of the engineers from Ferrari Corsa I had known from my days of Indycars and they were looking to support a second Ferrari team in the ALMS.

Thus, ESM/Patron/Ferrari was Born!

Now that we are completing our third season - extensive hard work and major resources spent - has resulted in a team able to compete with the top factory teams from Corvette BMW, Porsche and Aston Martin!

This year we had the tremendous opportunity to help Ferrari of San Francisco and partner with them in fielding their Ferrari Challenge campaign. It has been a very exciting next step for ESM to field 3-4 cars on a regular basis in the series. By utilizing some of the key talent that comprise the ALMS team we have quickly gotten our Ferrari Challenge 458s up to speed.

Our drivers, who are obviously huge Ferrari afficianados - John Taylor, Peter Carlino , Phil Ploskas,
John Baker, Mike Hedlund, and Larry Bowman - have progressed rapidly throughout the year and figured out the nuances of driving the 458 at the limit. Many thanks to our ALMS drivers -

Johannes van Overbeek & Guy Cosmo along with myself - we've all enjoyed coaching and instructing them at each race!!

I've had the chance to push these cars in earnest on several occasions and they are impressive! Balanced, responsive....and confidence instilling!!! I didnt want to get out !!! What great cars to be able to hone a driver's racing craft!
Lastly, at the beginning of the year, we also added the new Ferrari 458 Grand-Am car which we campaigned in several races this year including the prestigious Daytona 24hr!

As you can see its been an extremely busy season for ESM!