Team Seattle is an

endurance Endurance (also related to sufferance, forbearance, resilience, constitution, fortitude, persistence, tenacity, steadfastness, perseverance, stamina, and hardiness) is the ability of an organism to exert itself and remain active for a ...

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

team and

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

founded by racing driver Don Kitch Jr. in 1997 to raise funds for the Seattle Children's Hospital. Team Seattle's drivers and other supporting teams who compete in the

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car racing, sports car Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Flo ...

gain pledges from donors based on the number of laps their cars can complete over the event. Since first entering Daytona in 1997, Team Seattle has raised over $3.3 million for Seattle Children's. A new endeavor for 2009 will have Team Seattle participate in another endurance event, the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, and also raise funds for the Mecenat Chirurgie Cardiaque Enfants du Monde. The team's driving squad will include American actor

Patrick Dempsey Patrick Galen Dempsey (born January 13, 1966) is an American actor and racing driver best known for playing neurosurgeon Derek Shepherd in ''Grey's Anatomy'' (2005–15; 2020–21). He is also known for his leading man romantic film roles, such ...

History

Team Seattle debuted at the 1997 24 Hours of Daytona, backing a

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

from the Alex Job Racing team, before expanding to two cars in 1998. The two car effort was boosted in 1999 by the addition of professional drivers Kelly Collins, Anthony Lazzaro, and Cort Wagner who led one of two Team Seattle-backed Alex Job Porsches to victory in their class. In 2000 Team Seattle began a partnership with The Racer's Group, another Porsche squad, before switching to the faster GTS category in 2002 with Park Place Racing's

Saleen Saleen Automotive, Inc., commonly known as Saleen (/səˈliːn/), is an American manufacturer of specialty high-performance sports cars and high-performance automotive parts. Saleen is headquartered in Corona, California, in the United States, a ...

s. Team Seattle made their first entry into the

sports prototype A sports prototype, sometimes referred to simply as a prototype, is a type of Auto racing, race car that is used in high-level categories of sports car racing. They are purpose-built auto-sports race cars, as opposed to production-car based or s ...

categories by joining with Essex Racing in 2003, where they finished first and second within their class in a Lola-

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

. Essex Racing switched to Multimatic- Fords in 2004, but were not able to repeat their success in the new

Daytona Prototype A Daytona Prototype was a type of sports prototype racing car developed specifically for the Grand-Am Road Racing, Grand American Road Racing Association's Rolex Sports Car Series as their top class of car, which replaced their main prototype rac ...

category. The team returned to Porsches in the lower categories in 2005 with a two-car effort with Synergy Racing, joined by corporate backing from

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

in 2006. Team Seattle made another partnership in 2008, joining Farnbacher-Loles Racing.

2009 Le Mans entry

Team Seattle announced a partnership with Italian racing team AF Corse to apply for an entry to the

2009 24 Hours of Le Mans The 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans () was the 77th Grand Prix of Endurance, an endurance racing (motorsport), endurance auto racing, auto race run over 24 hours. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France, and was organised by the Aut ...

, not only to raise funds for Seattle Children's, but also for the French Mecenant Chirurgie Cardiaque. Although initially being granted a reserve entry, Team Seattle was granted a full entry on March 31, 2009, following the withdrawal of another competitor. Team Seattle made use of a

Ferrari F430 The Ferrari F430 (Type F131) is a sports car produced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Ferrari from 2004 until 2009 as a successor to the Ferrari 360. The car is an update to the 360 with exterior and performance changes. It was unveiled a ...

GT2 from AF Corse's Advanced Engineering squad. Founder Don Kitch Jr. and racing driver Joe Foster were joined by actor

, a regular competitor in the

Rolex Sports Car Series The Rolex Sports Car Series was the premier series run by the Grand American Road Racing Association. It was a North American-based sports car series founded in 2000 under the name Grand American Road Racing Championship to replace the failed ...

. Pledges to the team were raised not only by the car's lap total, but also by allowing donations in exchange for personal photos to be added to the car's paint scheme. The team expected to raise $1 million at the event.

Collaboration with Heart of Racing

In 2014, former Team Seattle driver, Ian James founded The Heart of Racing, which would become a partner of Team Seattle and Alex Job Racing from

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

until

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

. The team returned for the

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

season, with drivers Roman De Angelis, Alex Riberas, Ian James, Nicki Thiim and

Darren Turner Darren Turner (born 13 April 1974) is a British racing driver and owner of Base Performance Simulators. He races for Aston Martin Racing as a Factory-backed, factory driver and also works as a high performance test driver for Aston Martin. He w ...

. While they didn't win a race in that season, their best result came at the 2020 12 Hours of Sebring where they finished 2nd. The Team would achieve their first win at the 2021 Detroit SportsCar Classic with Roman De Angelis and Ross Gunn at the wheel, after another team failed to meet the minimum refueling time. They would achieve 2 more wins that season, en route to a 3rd place in GTD Standings. For

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

the team would field a second car in GTD Pro for Alex Riberas, Ross Gunn, Maxime Martin and Tom Gamble. They would finish 4th in the standings, while Roman De Angelis won the GTD championship.

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

wasn't so successful for the team as they finished 5th in GTD Pro and 2nd in GTD.

References

External links

Team Seattle

Racing for Children
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