O’Neill “Getting Mojo Back” in Esses Racing’s Pro Debut

Photo: Esses Racing

Esses Racing’s step up to pro racing in Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS has helped “get the mojo back” for team principal Dave O’Neill, a longtime figure in the world of Formula 1.

O’Neill, who joined the Austin area-based team as a co-owner in 2020, helped launch Haas F1 and served as its sporting director until 2017, with previous team management roles at both Manor/Marussia F1 and Jordan, which dates back to the 1990s.

“The passion I have is for starting things up,” O’Neill told Sportscar365.

“I’ve done a lot of start-ups. I like joining people together, trying to get people to work together that don’t like each other, that sort of stuff.

“We did that [with Haas F1] and Guenther [Steiner] said, ‘Why don’t you just work as a consultant from the U.S., and I was like, ‘Look, I can’t do 110 percent so I don’t want to do it.'”

O’Neill moved to Austin in 2018 and said he was soon connected with the Esses ownership group of Andres van der Dys, Gareth Rees, Phil Spano and Judd Miller.

“These guys called and said, ‘Hey would you come and have a look at the business and see what you can do to help out?” he recalled.

“They gave me a percentage of the business. It had its growth because of the money in Austin, people from California coming and wanting to do track days and drive a great circuit like this every weekend.

“I decided that we push into pro racing a bit and try to get the buzz back in the place. I’ve got racing in my blood so that’s all I ever wanted to do, really.”

While serving 70 racing customers, including being the exclusive Radical dealer in Texas, O’Neill said the GTWC America program was born out of Will Hardeman’s desire of returning to GT racing.

The managing partner of Mercedes-Benz of Austin previously took part in Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, Michelin Pilot Challenge as well as several IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races prior in the late 2010s.

“I spoke to Will over the course of last year,” O’Neill recalled. “He said, ‘Why don’t you look for a GT4 car for me and we’ll do some track days.’

“I was like, ‘You’ll be bored with that straight away. Why don’t we look for a GT3?’

“We did that and found it and then he tested a bit and he was like, ‘Why don’t we enter a few races this year?’ I was, ‘OK I think that would be great.’

“We explored a little bit, worked out, did some budgets and here we are.”

O’Neill brought in former open-wheel ace Adam Carroll, whom he worked with in his 2008-09 A1GP championship-winning season, to be Hardeman’s co-driver for this year’s partial season effort in its Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Along with Rees’ previous F1 experience with Red Bull Racing and the appointment of ex-CORE autosport mechanic Ross Needham as its crew chief, O’Neill believes they have the ingredients in place to build a solid foundation in the series.

“Now that I have the mojo back for the racing, I’d like to build this part of the business up,” O’Neill said. “The hardest bit is the staff in getting people to work for you.

“The structure has a decent backbone to it. From the experience we want to bleed into the juniors.

“If we can keep people for five years, they enjoy what they do and they like coming into work every day, you can keep them for a good period of time.

“Hopefully by that point of time, we’ll be well planted within this championship, have a decent customer base and hopefully some sponsorship and all of that, which we’re working on.”

Esses Targeting Two-Car Full Season Effort in 2024

O’Neill has praised the support they’ve received from Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing, amid its first step into professional GT3 competition.

“I like the brand and you’re investing in a brand now,” he said. “You’re understanding it, you’re buying spares. This is our learning year. There wouldn’t be any point for us to learn on a Porsche or Aston next year.

“We’re really happy with the brand and the support is great. Everyone that works for AMG is totally supportive of us and we get really good service.”

He said they’re targeting a step up to a two-car full season program next year, with the possibility of a third car for a testing program.

“As soon as you get two cars in the mix you can transfer data,” O’Neill said. “It’s a game-changer. You can see whether you’ve had a good tire run or the track’s gone off. You’re not scratching your head and going, we’ll maybe it was.’

“We’d like to have a couple of cars in here next year, if possible, and obviously try and get to IMSA and whatever.”

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