Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California and to a household of zero motorsport interest, Jason found his first taste of racing through the TV’s of friend’s and their parents watching the Indy 500 and NASCAR races on weekends. Early on, his Dad drove a beautiful white 1967 911S that was unfortunately sold for a more “practical” vehicle, replaced with a Ford Thunderbird, albeit with the big supercharged V8. But that was where anything car related in the household ended until, but most notably, the popular video game Gran Turismo was released. He was hooked and played for hours on end wondering what it would be like to experience this incredible form of sport in person.
While intrigued by cars and motorsport in general, Jason continued on in life with motorsports taking the role it does in most people’s: a passion, an interest, but something on the TV and not part of everyday life, let alone a career.
Jason enlisted in the Marine Corps his senior year of high school and left for boot camp three days after graduation, opting to sign up for the Infantry. The next 8 years would take him to some interesting places, spending seven months on a Navy ship circling the globe, visiting over 25 countries, and spending over 30 months across three tours in the beautiful country of Iraq. It was during Jason’s second deployment, and notably following the Battle of Fallujah in late 2004, that Jason reached out to a little sportscar team in Northern California that had recently won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Daytona in the same year.
Jason explained via email that he was a fan and also a Bay Area kid who was excited to see a local team doing so well for themselves. They offered Jason to come visit the team the next time they were at a racetrack he could make it to, which happened to be Fontana Speedway in mid-2005, where they were running two 996 GT3 Cup cars and two Riley Pontiac-powered Daytona Prototypes in Grand-Am. Jason met the team owner and was given a fire suit and asked to be the fire-bottle man on the pit crew for the race. What a rush. This is awesome. People do this for a living? Jason asked the marketing guy: “How do you get into a job like this?” The marketing guy replied: “You just gotta know someone. Now you do.”
Unfortunately, Jason still had a couple years left on his second contract with Uncle Sam. When the time came during his third tour in Iraq to decide whether to stay in the Marines or make a career out of it, he fired off an email to the previously mentioned marketing guy. It was bounced back: “That email address no longer exists.”
A bit downtrodden, Jason decided to email every single other address he could find on the team’s website. Within a few hours he had a response from the team owner: “I remember you and admire your tenacity. Come in tomorrow for an interview.” To which Jason replied: “Unfortunately, Sir – I am still in Iraq for another month.” This drew a laugh and the two started communicating via email. Once back in the states, Jason was headed north on Interstate 5 for an interview one weekend when his travel plans were cut short by an “All hands recall formation.” He turned his car around and went back to base, summoned by the recall issued by the Commanding General, typically only used in a time of war or extreme urgency. Of course this time it was only a drill.
At this point the team owner was busy and stopped responding to emails as quickly as he once had. He offered Jason a job as a shop boy for $500 a week, said he could travel with the team and they even had an apartment for him to stay in. Jason declined, opting to instead take interviews for Government positions, putting his Top Secret security clearance and recent Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer certification to good use. He figured he would never hear from the team owner again and this little dream of working for a professional Porsche racing team had flickered out.
About 3 months later, Jason was in an interview for a cross-promotion in his current field working as a civilian contractor for the Department of Energy at Lawrence Livermore National Labs. His phone rang and he was very happily surprised to see the team owner’s name pop up on the screen. “I have to take this.” as he stepped out into the hallway.
“Most people never turn me down for a job” the team owner said on the phone. “And I never call anyone back that has. You’ve got one more shot. I need a team manager for a four-car program and if I had to guess, you know a thing or two about leadership. If you’re in, you have to fly to Virginia tonight. If not, no worries, but I really won’t ever call you again.” Jason walked out of the interview and never looked back, landing in Virginia very late that night and assuming control of a four car Porsche racing team the next morning.
Since then, Jason has worked in all aspects of motorsport ranging from team management, sponsor acquisition and business development, to starting his own motorsports marketing/driver representation firm, and even working on pit crews. He haswas worked in numerous professional series including IMSA, Grand-Am, World Challenge, and even NASCAR. He has wins under his belt in numerous endurance and sprint sportscar series, most notable being the 2009 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona when two of his 997 Porsche GT3 Cup Cars finished in a historic 1st and 2nd across the line after 24 hours of grueling battle. He has also held executive roles on teams with some of motorsport’s most storied marques including Porsche, McLaren, AMG, BMW, and Aston Martin.
Jason brings over a solid decade of motorsport and OEM industry experience, relationships, and industry knowledge to the team. It hasn’t always been easy or fun, but he also never gave up.
