Frankie Montecalvo and Gunnar Jeannette will have a legion of new fans for their TUDOR United SportsCar Championship PC class assault after teaming up with Camp Boggy Creek, the Florida-based camp for seriously ill children.
Starting from this week’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Montecalvo, Jeannette and Mike Guasch’s PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca FLM09 PC car will appear in Camp Boggy Creek livery for the remainder of the 2014 season.
The tie-in with Camp Boggy Creek came through team partner Bayshore Recycling’s desire to highlight a worthy charity for the 2014 season. The decision to form the partnership with Camp Boggy Creek is thanks to the late, great Paul Newman.
The legendary actor and racer founded Camp Boggy Creek in 1996 with General H. Norman Schwarzkopf. The Eustis, Fla. facility is part of the SeriousFun camp network which was also founded by Newman.
Jeannette made his professional debut in 2000 driving a Porsche at the Rolex 24 driving with Newman. He drove a number of races with the acting great early in his career including several with liveries promoting camps for sick children.
“I’m really excited for the link up between PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports and Bayshore Racing with Camp Boggy Creek,” Jeannette said. “It’s something that I’ve been involved with through Paul Newman for a very long time. It’s part of his Hole in the Wall Gang Camps.
“When I raced with Paul, quite a few years ago now, we had a couple of cars that were involved with the camps. Having the opportunity to race with Paul and what he did for my motorsports career, the camps have a very special place in my heart.”
The Camp Boggy Creek PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports livery was unveiled at the camp on Friday with a number of former camp attendees revealing the new livery with Montecalvo and Jeannette.
“We couldn’t have thought of a better charity to do it with,” Montecalvo said. “We got out there and saw the kids eyes light up when they saw the car. It really made a big difference.
“It was very, very cool to get out there and have the kids pull the cover off the car for the first time and see it, and to have them represented on the car.
“Our team just got larger with a bigger fan base with all of the kids.”