Dale “Particularly Passionate” on Driver Development at JDX

JDX Racing founder and team principle Jeremy Dale feels “particularly passionate” about trying to help kids make a carer in racing and his expanded Porsche Deluxe Carrera Cup North America campaign aims to build on last season’s championship-winning success with a trio of developing drivers.

2022 Carrera Cup North America champion Parker Thompson earned his title in JDX machinery and has since graduated to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with Vasser Sullivan Racing.

“To make that trip, that’s the ultimate goal for us,” Dale told Sportscar365. “To give these kids the ability to do that, to give them a platform, some of the education they need, some of the coaching and mentoring they need.

“I am so proud of what Parker has done and I’m so proud that our team has been a part of that because I really feel that he is on his way now.”

Trenton Estep is another JDX graduate to move into GT3 competition who has recently benefited from development and seat time with the Colorado-based team.

After a 2022 Carrera Cup campaign that saw JDX’s initial three-car lineup whittled down to a single entry by the closing stages of the season, the team has returned to running a trio of full-season Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars.

In the spirit of Dale’s desire to help up-and-coming drivers, all three seats are filled by young, Pro class competitors: Will Martin, Elias De La Torre and Alex Sedgwick.

“I feel really fortunate that we have these three kids because they are all at slightly different phases of their experience level and driving career,” Dale said of this season’s crop of drivers.

Heading into Miami for this weekend’s Rounds 5 and 6 of the season, JDX sits third in the teams’ championship on the back of Martin’s first series win on the streets of Long Beach last month.

“All of our guys are just going to get better and better and Will proved that at Long Beach,” Dale said.

“I just thought the quality of that race from a driving standpoint was really high. He was aggressive when he had to be, he defended really well when he had to. I’m really proud of what he did and really thrilled for him.”

Seventeen-year-old, De La Torre is in his first full season of professional racing, having has made the step up to Carrera Cup competition as a newly-named Porsche Junior North America driver following success in the Porsche Sprint Challenge last season.

“I feel really confident that as we help him develop, he’s going to be a factor in this championship,” Dale said. “He’s got a lot of natural talents. Now, we need to fill in the rest of that with experience.”

Sedgwick, on the other hand, recently reignited his racing career with the help of PT Autosport, now a partner of JDX’s No. 98 car.

“He’s great. He’s really quick, he’s really smart, he’s really measured, which means zero drama,” said Dale of the 23-year-old Brit.

“His feedback is great and I’m really proud that he had a top-five in Race 2 in Long Beach because he’s also done a limited amount of testing. And like I said, a year ago, he was retired.

”We met the PT Autosport guys and they wanted to help him and they felt that he was deserving of an opportunity and he certainly is.”

Dale: “My Past Informs Where I Am Now”

Dale was a successful Canadian sports car racing driver from the late ’70s to mid-90s before a serious accident at Road Atlanta changed his career trajectory.

Following the accident, he has enjoyed stints as a television commentator and driving coach, alongside his oversight and management of a variety of race series, programs and teams before founding of his own enterprise, JDX Racing, in 2008.

“My past informs where I’m at now and what excites me about driver development,” Dale said. “Every [driver’s] path is a little different but I just want to help some of them do the same thing that I was lucky enough to do.”

According to Dale, his past involvement with Skip Barber Racing School, as a coach and manager of the Barber Dodge Pro Series, informed his current approach to helping the careers of young developing drivers in his own organization.

“When I drove, I came through the Skip Barber system and I had a lot of people that helped me and mentored me, and then I worked as an instructor for Skip for many years,” he explained.

“I always had this sort of built-in connection to that side of it, and when my own career ended after my accident at Road Atlanta in 1995, I wanted to stay involved in racing and I had been close to Skip for many years.

“I worked for Skip Barber during a period where a lot of really good drivers came though and for three years, I ran a championship called the Barber Dodge Pro series, which was the sort of pinnacle of the Skip barber ladder.”

Some of the drivers to come through the Barber Dodge Pro Series while Dale was at the helm include Ryan Hunter-Reay, A.J. Allmendinger, Jon Fogarty, Alex Gurney, Danica Patrick, Michael Valiante and Andy Lally.

“I come by it very naturally in terms of my desire to do it and my desire to somehow help these young drivers move forward,” Dale added.