Highlands Today photo by ALLEN MOODY
Westfund CEO Scott Tucker is one of three drivers in the No. 33 Level 5 Sports Honda Lola Coupe for Saturday's 12 Hours of Sebring.
Published: March 18, 2011
But the aggressive, confident Tucker may be the one setting records for having fun while enhancing and expanding his business.
The more than 100 guests that Westfund, a private equity firm headed by Tucker, has invited to Saturday's Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida will get to watch Tucker drive both prototypes that Level 5 Motorsports has entered:
The No. 33 Honda Lola Coupe, with Christophe Bouchut (France) and Joao Barbosa (Portugal), part of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup contingent.
The No. 055 Honda Lola Spyder, with Ryan Hunter-Reay (USA) and Luis Diaz (Mexico), the team's American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron entry.
"We just received the cars from Lola last week, so we're still trying to learn the differences between them," Tucker said, "but they both are fun to drive! This is the start of our global racing program. There hasn't been an American team that's run a world championship in prototypes since 1984, and there never has been a team we're aware of that has run national (ALMS) and world (ILMC) championship series in the same year. Yes, we are aggressive, but that is the nature of our business."
Going global with a racing-related marketing program is also important to Level 5's primary sponsor – Microsoft Office. Yes, Microsoft, the company that every racing team in the world has pitched and coveted, the company that has rejected every proposal until Tucker's team explained how important software is to racing teams.
"We worked on Microsoft Office for four years," Tucker said. "It was just a lot of perseverance. Basically, they didn't understand all the technical side of racing and how we're always looking to be more efficient. We did case studies. We really educated them on how technical sports car racing is and how their software is used.
Microsoft Azure is the easiest software application to understand how it relates to racing technology. "They really like to feature how Microsoft's software is used in racing ... that's an easy application to understand."
Level 5 Motorsports executes a five-star hospitality program at every event.
"People enjoy coming to the races and seeing all the technology involved in racing – especially at this level," he said. "It's engaging. The racing background adds a little excitement to our business discussions."
Tucker's primary business is private equity in several fields including real estate, hotels and restaurants, internet technology, financial services, energy and automotive. "Over the years, we've provided funding for more than 100 businesses, and helped them grow. It has been a fun and rewarding career."
Tucker, 48, got a late start to his motorsports career in 2006.
He started in the Ferrari Challenge, which he says is more professional and competitive than you might think. He has raced in Porsche GT3 Challenge, Grand-Am, SCCA national ST and IMSA Lites, and had a breakout season in 2009, when he won five of nine ALMS LMP Challenge races and captured the driver and team championships, as well as being named Rookie of the Year.
This year, Level 5 Motorsports has moved up to LMP2, and will run two cars – a Honda Lola Coupe and Honda Spyder – in all nine ALMS races. They will also enter a Honda Lola Coupe in all seven Intercontinental Le Mans Cup events, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
"This level of sports car racing fits our racing program and our business interests perfectly," Tucker says. "Sports car racing at the highest level on a global basis is the perfect avenue to showcase and increase our business."
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