Alex Sedgwick, Zachary Vanier and Elias De La Torre All Sit Top 10 in Point Standings, With Madeline Stewart Closing Fast in Impressive Showing for Four Car Effort
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (September 20, 2024) – With just six races left in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America season, JDX Racing enters the stretch run with two drivers in the top four of the point standings, another inside the top 10, and a fourth showing significant improvement in recent rounds – giving the four-car effort momentum heading into this weekend’s doubleheader at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Alex Sedgwick currently leads the way for JDX Racing, sitting second in the Pro Class point standings on the strength of four podium finishes. Sedgwick is 57 points from the lead, with teammate Zachary Vanier just 15 points and two positions behind Sedgwick. Elias De La Torre sits eighth in the points, with Madeline Stewart 16th.
All four will be in action this week, with doubleheader races on the 2.4-mile “Brickyard” road course. Friday’s 40-minte race takes the green flag at 3 p.m. EDT, with Saturday’s race at 11:10 a.m. EDT. Both races can be seen live Races air live at PorscheCarreraCup.us, on the IMSA YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/@imsaofficial, for subscribers on the Peacock streaming app and at IMSA.TV.
JDX Racing Pre-Race News and Notes
- Sedgwick’s No. 98 PT Autosport/Byers Imports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup enters the weekend with a four-event podium streak. Outside of the opener at Sebring, Sedgwick has been on the podium at least once at each doubleheader this season.
- The streak may well continue this weekend, as Sedgwick was a podium finisher in each race at Indianapolis a season ago. His race two podium last year for JDX Racing came after starting 11th.
- It’s a bit of a homecoming for Sedgwick, despite his British heritage. His first race with backers PT Autosport came in Porsche Sprint Challenge at Indianapolis, which led to the opportunity to partner with JDX Racing for Carrera Cup the past two seasons.
- The consistent finishes have pushed him to second in the championship. Though he trails leader Loek Hartog by 57 points entering the Indianapolis weekend, he has a 14 point cushion on third place, and 19 points to his teammate Vanier in fourth.
- Vanier and his No. 9 Technica Mining/Byers Imports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup finished as the runner-up the last time out at Road America. It was a strong bounce back from Saturday’s race, where he was collected in a lap one incident that likely cost him significant points.
- Though it’s Vanier’s rookie season in Carrera Cup North America, he swept the weekend at Indianapolis a year ago in Porsche Sprint Challenge on his way to that championship. Both single-make series run by Porsche Motorsport North America utilize the same 992 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars, giving the young Canadian extended experience in the car.
- De La Torre continues to show improvement from his rookie season in Carrera Cup. His 76 championship points put him eighth on the grid and are almost three times the number he scored a year ago – still with six races to go.
- The 18-year-old matched his season best at Road America with a fifth-place finish in Saturday’s race there.
- Stewart scored points in both races on a weekend for the first time at Road America, boosting herself to 16th in the point standings. Stewart drove her No. 82 Spool Imports/Byers Imports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup to a seventh and 11th place finish at Road America, with both runs topping her previous season best.
- Like Vanier, Stewart was a participant in the Porsche Sprint Challenge a season ago. She finished just off the podium at Indianapolis in that championship during its season finale with a fourth-place finish.
- The New Zealand native is currently calling Indianapolis home as she pursues her racing career, making this week’s event the closest to a “home” race on the North American schedule for Stewart.
- JDX Racing has run successful tests at both Indianapolis and Circuit of the Americas in the time since the last rounds at Road America.
- The Indianapolis event began with practice on Thursday morning. Sedgwick opened with the fourth-quickest time to lead all JDX Racing drivers in the 30-car field, just 0.253-second off the best time in the session. Vanier was eighth on the timing charts, followed by Stewart in 11th and De La Torre in 15th. Sedgwick jumped to the top in the much warmer Practice 2, with Vanier and De La Torre improving their times from the morning session.
- Prior to the racing, qualifying takes place at 9:35 EDT on Friday morning. The 20-minute session will set the grid for Friday’s race one.
JDX Racing Quote Board
Jeremy Dale, Team Principal, JDX Racing: “We’re really excited to get back on the track after a number of weeks off post-Road America. We’ve done a test at Indy and we’ve done a test of COTA and all the drivers and team are feeling quite tuned up so it should be a fun weekend for us. We’ve had reasonable success here over the years so we’ll be looking to build on that and solidify our places in the point standings as the season continues to progress.”
Alex Sedgwick, Driver, No. 98 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup: “It’s always special to come to Indy and to be able to say that you’ve raced here. Last year went really, really well. With a year of additional experience, we have very high expectations and I think it should be a very good weekend. We’re looking to maximize our points haul and gather as many as we can as we continue to claw back into the championship. We obviously need a little bit of luck on our side as well but I’m feeling very positive that it can be a good one for us. Indianapolis was where it all started with PT Autosport. The first PT Autosport race was Sprint Challenge at the Porsche Together Fest in a 991.2 Porsche. It was my first race in a Porsche, PT Autosport’s first race as an organization, and really what gave me the opportunity to move onto Carrera Cup and start this partnership between PT and JDX. There’s a lot of history here, and a track I love to race around as well.”
Zachary Vanier, Driver, No. 9 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup: “I’m really looking forward to being back at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Porsche Carrera Cup North America. It’s a track with such a strong legacy and one that treated me really good las season by giving me two wins. It’s a track that’s very difficult since it’s always changing and requiring different things each lap, making it really important to adapt and maximize each session. Coming off a strong weekend Road America, we’re going to continue pushing for strong points toward the championship with the goal of leaving Indianapolis again with two wins. We’ve just got to stay focused and continue developing our platform into something competitive which gives me a great amount of confidence that we’ll be a front-running contender this weekend. I can’t thank all of my partners and family enough for giving me this opportunity and I hope to make them proud this week.”
Elias De La Torre, Driver, No.4 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup: “Heading into the weekend at the historic ‘Brickyard,” we hope to have a better weekend than last year where a mechanical issue in qualifying had us starting from the back. We’re trying to carry the good parts of the Road America weekend over and continue progressing toward the front end of the grid once again. Although Indy isn’t a circuit that suits by style, we will maximize the car and the track time to go as far forward as possible.”
Madeline Stewart, Driver, No. 82 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup: “I’m really looking forward to racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend. Having been based in Indianapolis for the 2024 season, it feels like a home race for me. We’re coming off our best Carrera Cup round to date, so I’m focused on building on that momentum and continuing to progress.”
About JDX Racing:
Founded in 2008 and based outside of Denver, CO, JDX Racing represents the very best in professional motorsports. Competing in the IMSA sports car series, JDX Racing campaigns cars in events throughout North America. JDX Racing features world-class drivers, outstanding crew members and dynamic marketers from Champ Car, IndyCar, NASCAR, ALMS and the Champ Car Atlantic Championship series. For more information, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/jdxracing, on Twitter @JDXRACING and on Instagram @jdxracing.
