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Successful Australian-based operation McElrea Racing has opened a United States base and will compete in Porsche Carrera Cup North America in 2023.
The squad has established a separate U.S. “base of operations” in Mooresville, North Carolina.
It comes as the Andy McElrea-led organisation is set to field a multi-car team in the North American Carrera Cup series.
An Australian driver has been signed for the programme and will be announced in the coming weeks, with others set to be confirmed at a later date.
Porsche mechanic David Gahagan, who has a long-standing working relationship with McElrea, has been hired as Crew Chief to manage the U.S. team.
McElrea Racing’s existing Australian programme, based in Queensland, will continue unaffected.
The team has won two Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia titles and currently leads the 2022 standings with one round to go.
McElrea helped launch Matt Campbell’s career, the latter winning the 2016 Carrera Cup Australia title with the team before becoming a factory Porsche driver.
Campbell was announced as part of the Porsche Penske Motorsport sportscar programme earlier this year.
Other McElrea Racing alumni include Jaxon Evans, Scott McLaughlin, Alex Davison, and James Davison.
McElrea’s eldest son, Hunter, competed for Andretti Autosport in this year’s Indy Lights championship, winning two races and claiming three pole positions.
“I spent six years living and working in the United States in the late 1990s and early 2000s and I love the lifestyle, the people and the way they go motor racing,” said Andy.
“We’ll be spending a bit more time there in the next few years with Hunter’s racing so the timing of this is perfect.
“We have been looking at it for some time and after discussions with Troy Bundy (Head of One Make and GT Sports for Porsche Motorsport North America), who we know well from racing in Australia, helped me decide that this is where we want to be.
“From a competitive and commercial standpoint, GT racing in the United States is one of the best-kept secrets in motorsport.
“It’s the largest market in the world with the best commercial and sponsorship opportunities for young drivers to progress their careers.
“Our objective is to create an alternative to the existing European Porsche Pyramid, wherein we bring young talent from our part of the world to the U.S.
“The reality is that the Porsche junior programme being developed in the U.S. is creating huge opportunities for young Carrera Cup drivers to win scholarships to advance to IMSA sportscar racing, without having to win the junior shootout in Europe.
“We have had great success with the European pathway, as proven by Matt Campbell and Jaxon Evans, but there is opportunity for an alternative and was the key driver behind our decision to tackle this really exciting opportunity. We want to cover both bases.
“With the people we have in place there is no reason we can’t start our Carrera Cup North America programme the same way our Australian programme did in 2011, which is with immediate success.”
McElrea Racing currently fields series leader Harri Jones, as well as Bayley Hall, Jackson Walls, Christian Pancione, and Tim Miles in Carrera Cup Australia.
The final round of the Australian series supports the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 from October 28-30.
