JMF More Than Tripled Staff in SRO America Expansion

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

JMF Racing CEO Danny Kok said the team more than tripled its number of on-site staff in a largely expanded season that sees the Canadian squad compete in three SRO America-run championships, including a step up to GT3 racing for the first time.

After running a dual Pirelli GT4 America and Michelin Pilot Challenge campaign in 2024, JMF has gone all-in on SRO America competition with a pair of new GR Corolla TC cars, two new Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evos, alongside a single Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

The latter is set for a GT World Challenge America powered by AWS debut with Michai Stephens and Mercedes-AMG factory driver Mikael Grenier at the wheel.

“It’s logistically a big operation, so we wanted to have everything done early,” Kok told Sportscar365. “We more than tripled our staff. I think we’re at almost 30 people every weekend.

“John Farrow, who really owns the whole organization, has a dream of having a big race team. It was more the timing. Cars were available, the Astons were available and we had purchased a GT3 in the spring of last year already.

“We came up with this, and then you start staffing it. By the end of October, we had every staff member in place, so we could really start focusing on developing our team because it’s a big operation. A big job.”

Kok said last year’s dual Pilot Challenge and GT4 America program put additional strains on the team, enough so to withdraw from IMSA competition mid-season last year.

“It was just too much,” he said. “We spent more time in the air than we did at the racetrack.

“We had made the commitment to go GT3 regardless, and at the same time as making the commitment to GT3, we wanted to switch to the Astons in GT4 to have a little bit more current car.

“While having a conversation with Toyota, while we were looking at the different GT4 cars available, they said, ‘We’ve got these really cool Corollas coming out.’ They showed us some pictures and we said, ‘Yeah, we’ll take two of those.’

“That’s the perfect car for the young kids coming into the team because we also run a go-kart team.

“They can fill into our TC program, and if that works out well, they can move up to GT4, and if that works out, like we did with Michai, move up to our GT3 program. So it becomes a really nice ladder system.”

With its two Aston GT4 entries for the pairings of Jesse Webb/Jonathan Neudorf and Braydon Arthur/Mike David Ortmann, along with the pair of  GR Corolla TCs for Neudorf and Antonio Costantino and the new flagship Mercedes-AMG GT3 effort, Kok admitted it’s created some logistical challenges.

However, he indicated the team has further aspirations of growth on the international stage.

“The challenge this year has just been knowing where I need to be and when,” Kok said. “Now I’m looking at my schedule ten times a day.

“There’s a lot more requirements for a team on the first weekend. But it’s going really well and I’m enjoying it.

“It’s been a really positive transition growing this thing one step at a time.

“Will it get bigger? My guess is probably. John has this vision that we are this massive team.

“There’s some talk of us maybe going to do Bathurst or the Spa 24 or some of those events. They may be one-off events, but maybe doing an event here or there to learn what it’s like to race in different parts of the world.

“I don’t have a dream of winning, I have a goal of winning. There’s a big difference between dreaming and having a goal.”

John Dagys contributed to this report