It often takes a lot of friends to reach the top. If you have tens of thousands of friends named Benjamin Franklin, it makes that ascent far easier. However, buddies of the more conventional sense can also get you there. Want proof? Take a look at driver Patrick Wilmot and his Split Decision Motorsports IMSA team.
With an all-volunteer crew, backing from the Genie garage door opener company (thanks to a pal), and crowdsourcing (thanks to many fans, especially in Jzilla), Patrick finished second in points in this year’s IMSA VP Racing Sportscar Challenge standings–basically GT4 door-slammers versus Le Mans Prototype 3 cars.
What’s the magic ingredient to this success? An unrelenting passion for the racing that elicits a response from those who also love the sport.
What Brought Everyone Together
The roots of the team go back to a bunch of racing buddies drinking beer and enjoying themselves during a race weekend. That group included Jimmy Scott, Adam Thomas and Rob Farley.
“We got to talking, ‘One of these days, let’s go figure out how we can pro race,’” says team owner Jimmy Scott. “We were just going to do one race. It would just be us, and we were going to figure out how to make it happen.”
The three had met through track days, and Rob served as its nucleus.
“Rob’s one of those people that, when you meet him, you’re immediately friends with him,” explains Adam, the team’s engineer.
Jimmy had discovered track days later in life and bought a Nissan GT-R, which Rob had worked on.
“Once I met Rob, I wanted to spend time with this guy,” says Jimmy. “He was so helpful, so forgiving. I knew nothing about driving. I came up the ladder system in NASA, and he was there all the way.”
Most conversations about racing in the pros are pipe dreams and nothing more. Not for these guys.
“We started looking for a car,” Jimmy says. “I sold the GT-R so I would have money to put toward a full race car.”
In 2014, Adam stopped by Rob’s shop in Cleveland, Tennessee, to assist him and his helper Davis Gregor with a clutch replacement in a C6 Corvette Z06. Adam was headed to the Rolex 24 At Daytona after that.
“I told Rob, ‘Hey, I’ll buy you guys tickets. Come down with me. We’ll finish this up next week,’” recalls Adam. “Rob said, ‘No, we got to get this done….
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