Racer - Fall 2013

SCOTT SHARP PULLS DOUBLE DUTY It’s hard to say no when the chief executive of one of racing’s most visible and involved sponsors asks you to start a racing team. But that’s what happened to Scott Sharp in 2009

when Patron Spirits CEO Ed Brown wanted to take his side career as a racer to another level.

A few years earlier, Sharp had gifted Brown with a four-day intensive driver training school, and Brown enjoyed the experience so much that he started competing in his spare time. Sharp helped to manage his program, but he and Brown soon realized that they would have more control over the direction it headed and the potential for growth if Sharp started his own race team.

The result was Extreme Speed Motorsports, which started out in the American Le Mans Series ultra-competitive GT class. After running a pair of Ferrari F430s for Brown and Sharp in 2010 (ABOVE), the team campaigned the latest F458 Italia in 2011 and ’ 12, with Sharp nearly claiming the 2012 GT crown after a strong second half to the campaign (including a class win at the prestigious, season-closing Petit Le Mans enduro).

ESM shifted up a gear to the LMP2

Prototype class in 2013, and Sharp and the team have relished the challenge of going head to head with the similarly HPD-equipped Level 5 Motorsports squad.

“We weren’t getting factory support from Ferrari and we realized that to get maximum exposure for Patron, we really had to be in the top class,” says Sharp. “It’s something special when you’re going for the overall win instead of a class win.”

EXTREME DECISION

THE OWNERSHIP ROUTE

Drew Gi b son /L AT

Follow the team at esmracing.com,

@ESMRacing and facebook.com/ESMracing

“I’ve always thought that if you crash,
you crash,” he shrugs. “You have to be
willing and able to lay it all on the line,
and if that means ripping the rear of the
car off, then that’s just the way it is.”
Most great athletes are known for their
ability to “compartmentalize” the outside
elements in their lives in order to fully
focus on performing, and Sharp’s ability
to divide two radically different
responsibilities is a good example.

“I want to be treated like one of the drivers at the race track,” he says. “That way I just focus on driving. So many people have said that you can’t do both, but I never believed that. If you work hard during the week, make the decisions – whether it’s logistical, financial, planning, what have you – and you have the right people, which we do, then as a driver I can treat it like it’s any other race team.

“Of course, there are times when I need
to be involved in decisions and situations
I wouldn’t have been privy to in the past,
dealing with sponsors during the weekend.

I guess it’s kind of a different pressure that
you don’t face as a driver. But for the most
part I can keep the two roles separate.”
Sharp says the biggest surprise about
being a team owner so far has been the
immense satisfaction he derives from
seeing the second ESM car, driven by Brown
and Johannes van Overbeek, do well.

“It’s really rewarding to see it come together,” he notes. “Anything you are part of from ground zero, building it up, is rewarding in itself. Then add in the guys you helped hire, all the endless work, the trials and the tribulations, the oh-so-close moments – when it all comes together and you start winning races and see the team at that top point, that’s hugely rewarding.

“I think that everyone has a catalyst which takes them down that road into team ownership,” Sharp adds. “Certainly for me it was Patron, and it was all because I introduced Ed to driving.”