Apex One Aiming to ‘Fill Void’ With New Endurance Series

Photo: Apex One Endurance

The recently launched Apex One Endurance powered by Creventic series is aimed at “filling a void” between the club and pro levels in North American sports car racing according to founder and president Dan Bloom.

Known for its organization of open test days that are utilized by the majority of teams in IMSA and SRO America, Apex One has expanded to staging endurance races, which kicked off with a ten-hour contest at Sebring International Raceway last month.

A six-hour race at Circuit of The Americas is scheduled for Feb. 5-8 at Circuit of The Americas, which will close out its inaugural season of racing.

Open to GT3, GT4, Type-992 Porsche GT3 Cup machinery as well as TCR-spec cars, all running on Michelin tires, Bloom said the foundation of the SCCA-sanctioned series is to offer a “professional-level environment” that’s geared specifically towards driver development.

Apex One, which is the official testing partner for both Porsche Carrera Cup North America and Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America, organizes 30-plus events per year but Bloom said they saw the opportunity to stage races on its own.

“We started realizing that there’s a niche right now, where we could slot ourselves above a club level and below a pro level and focus on that middle ground where you look for the experience of going to the track and improving as a driver,” Bloom told Sportscar365.

“Experience is really the important part of the equation. Having good racing, having comfortable accommodations and having a platform to improve a driver’s ability, and to get ready for the pro stage.

“Our objective with the racing is to be a top level of our driver development platform.”

Bloom used GT3 as an example, a car platform that’s largely only eligible in professional championships run by IMSA or SRO in the U.S.

“Apex One Endurance is designed to be that opportunity where, for example, ‘I sell my company, I want to go GT3 racing but I’m not really ready to do it yet, where do I go?’

“We’re designed to be the place where, ‘OK, I can afford a GT3 [car], I have the passion and desire to do it, but where do I get the experience to say, ‘Hey IMSA, look at what I’ve done. I’m ready to go campaign a car in the 24 Hours of Daytona and I’ve done it in the U.S. on your tracks and here’s my experience.'”

While lacking in overall car count, last month’s inaugural round featured veteran IMSA and SRO America teams such as Wright Motorsports, Kellymoss, Archangel Motorsports and Turner Motorsport, which won the enduro outright with a BMW M4 GT3 EVO driven by team newcomers Kevin Madsen and Adrian Kunzle along with former VP Racing SportsCar Challenge GSX class champion Francis Selldorff.

Bloom said he’s optimistic of more entries for the COTA round but is already setting their sights on an expanded calendar for next season that could feature as many as five races.

“We don’t want to have weekends where you’d have to choose between us and somebody else, but have an opportunity where we can fill voids in the calendar and have a proper championship,” he explained.

“Ultimately people want to participate in something where they have more than two rounds. They want to know that they have a full season of racing to do. Teams want that as well.

“That’s what our thought is. We’d love for this to be a five-round calendar and that would really accomplish the goal of driver development.”

Creventic, Michelin Partnerships Key to Series Launch

Central to the startup series is its partnerships with both Creventic and Michelin.

The Dutch organizers, known for its Michelin 24H Series in both Europe and the Middle East/Asia, has licensed its rulebook to Apex One, which includes the use of ‘Code 60’ race neutralizations as well as fuel pump refueling.

Multiple Creventic staff, including its race director, fuel director and operations director, were on-site at the Sebring race.

“Their format went well,” said Bloom. “The Code 60 format is great for the type of drivers we’re going after. The fuel pumps worked really well.

“The beauty of the Creventic method and the reason we decided to partner with them is because they have a method of racing that lends itself quite well to the amateur-plus driver.”

Apex One’s director of operations Calvin Connors added they foresee eventual crossover in teams and drivers competing in the 24H Series and vice-versa.

“There’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to send a client to the 24H Dubai or run the 12H Spa and then have a European team come here and do a one-off at Sebring,” he said.

“Their experience here in the past was that the U.S. market is so unique that they cant effectively run their series of a one-off here.

“But having us as a partner to help develop the clients and to ‘Americanize’ it is the goal there.”

Despite Creventic having already having a partnership with Michelin, Bloom explained that its relationship with the French brand, which is the ‘Official Tire’ of IMSA, goes back to its test day operations.

“We started to learn a bit more about Creventic and we thought that would be a good fit and they also happened to be on Michelins, so it made it easier,” he said.

“So we went to Michelin and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to go talk to them. We would like to have the series on Michelins. Does that work with you?’

“Michelin said, ‘Yeah, absolutely. That would be great.’

“That initial relationship with Michelin kind of greased the skids a bit to make the Creventic thing happen because it was a tire they were already using overseas.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John