I NEWS
Neil Braun of Road To Racing (right) was at an event prior to the Toronto Indy to encourage support for young Canadian racers like Mac Clark (left). Photo by Greg MacPherson
ROAD TO RACING STEPPING UP
New Organization Aims to Help Canadian Talent Move Up the Racing Ladder By Bryce Turner first-year organization is providing a new way to support talented up-and-coming drivers, who don’t have the same financial means as others. Road To Racing is an amateur athletics association that acts as a fundraising platform for selected drivers, where donors can receive charitable tax receipts, while the money raised helps cover the drivers’ racing expenses. The program also has pre-paid scholarships for specific groups, funded through corporate donors. So far this year, 12 drivers have raised more than $500,000, in total, through the platform. Road To Racing president Neil Braun says the organization has limited resources and that they’re trying to identify those with the drive and talent to reach the next level. “We’ve set the criteria for the categories and age groups, age limits, then the next step is asking the drivers to submit a resume and an essay that just describes their journey, what their dreams are, what their expectations are for next year, what their budget is,” said Braun. “We have a panel of people who are going to go through those applications and determine who we believe is a good fit for us and who we can really help.”
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Braun says that they expect to have at least 30 drivers fundraising through their platform next year. He added that there are other ways that Road To Racing can help drivers, with one of their goals being to increase participation in Canadian grassroots motorsports. “What we’re trying to do is democratize motorsports and help those elite athletes in Canada, who may need some financial help to get them to move up through the ladder,” said Braun. “With the drivers that we select, we’re working on networking opportunities with high-net-worth donors, helping them create their pitch decks and maybe refine them, do some mentoring with them on the process of moving through the ladder.” While amateur athletic associations exist elsewhere in sports, Braun says that Road To Racing is filling a void in racing. When Braun sold a property and was looking to donate money to support racers, he noticed that he couldn’t do so as a charitable donation. With Road To Racing, individual donors get the benefits of a tax receipt, while family foundations or businesses, that are unable to write off a sponsorship, can also benefit from their contributions. For companies that would like to go the sponsorship route, the pre-paid scholarships provide an alternative
to choosing a driver. “A lot of businesses don’t even know where to start, finding a driver that can fit what they’re looking for,” said Braun. “But we’ve got scholarships for women in motorsports, (which) they can be a title sponsor to, we’ve got another scholarship for Black, Indigenous, people of colour…we find the driver, we vet them, and work with them for that sponsorship.” The first group of drivers are already benefiting from Road To Racing. Kevin Foster was able to participate in a competition at a racing school in France, where he won a scholarship for a full year of French F4 competition; he has several podiums so far this season. Mario Gil will take part in that same racing school competition. Mac Clark joined the program to raise funds for his USF2000 efforts in the IndyCar support ladder, where he plans to move up to USF Pro 2000 next season. While Road To Racing has many drivers in open-wheel competition, opportunities exist for those in other forms of motorsports as well, such as driver Jonathan Woolridge competing in an LMP3 class. For more information on the program, visit www.road2racing.com or e-mail neil@ road2racing.com. IT
