PWC: Charity efforts and comebacks afoot for Mid-Ohio round - MotorSportsTalk

While this weekend’s pair of Pirelli World Challenge races at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course will play a pivotal role in all of the series’ championships (all six divisions are in action this weekend), this is also a big weekend for charity and comebacks.

There’s two designated charity cars, which both feature two-driver lineups.

We wrote last week about the GTS class Ford Mustang Boss, driven in race one by Pirelli World Challenge President/CEO Scott Bove and 15-year-old USF2000 rising star Austin Cindric in the second, which will race for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.

Meanwhile the second charity car was announced Monday. The season-long Touring Car B-Spec FIAT 500 entry, run by 4R Motorsports and with support from FIAT USA/Pirelli Tire/SRT Motorsports, will see Leo Parente make his driving comeback with Dan Goodman also in the car. Parente, a former Formula Atlantic racer, has since carved a second successful career as a commentator. The two will run to benefit Maxton’s Fight Foundation. More info is here from the series website.

The Shea Racing Team, which fields two TCA class cars (Jason Cherry, Shea Holbrook) and two in TCB (Paul Holton, PJ Groenke) will have Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy boys and their families attending, as well.

Parente’s is one of three driving comebacks of note.

Alex Lloyd, the 2007 Indy Lights champion and 2010 IndyCar Series rookie-of-the-year who posted a best career result of fourth in that year’s Indianapolis 500 (and a qualifying effort a year later that still leaves my jaw dropped), will be entered in CRP Racing’s No. 12 Emkay Fleet Management/Hawk Performance Chevrolet Corvette. It’s his first pro race in three years, and first road course race since Sonoma 2010, when he drove for Dale Coyne Racing in IndyCar.

Lloyd will be joined in GT by Ryan Dalziel, the Extreme Speed Motorsports ace who’s making at least a one-off cameo appearance in EFFORT Racing’s No. 31 Porsche GT3 R, which won Round 9 in Toronto with Porsche factory driver Nick Tandy. Dalziel’s lone series appearance came in the 2013 season opener at St. Petersburg; he won the first race but was excluded post-race after the car was found out of compliance in technical inspection.

More details on the series’ races this weekend can be found on the series website, world-challenge.com.

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The IndyCar Series has re-signed NTT as its title sponsor in a multiyear agreement starting in 2024.

NTT, a global information technology and communications company based in Japan, became the series’ title sponsor before the 2019 season after starting as a sponsor of the No. 10 Dallara-Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.

NTT Data (a subsidiary of parent company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.) will remain the official technology partner of IndyCar, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indy 500 and the NASCAR Brickyard weekend.

With the extension, an IndyCar spokesman said NTT would become the second-longest title sponsor in series history. The longest title sponsor was PPG from 1980-97 (under the CART sanction of the Champ Car Series).

NTT replaced Verizon, which was IndyCar’s title sponsor from 2014-18 after IZOD from 2010-13.

“NTT is an excellent partner across our enterprise with strong expertise and a deep commitment to our sport,” Penske Corp. chairman and IndyCar owner Roger Penske said in a release. “From Smart Venue technology at the Racing Capital of the World to the reimagined Series mobile application, NTT is transforming the fan experience in new and innovative ways. We look forward to a bright future together.”

NTT has used artificial intelligence-enabled optical detection technology at IMS to provide information to the track’s operations and security teams, helping improve fan traffic flow and safety, the track said.

“IndyCar is a great partner for NTT Data because of our shared commitment to driving innovation, increasing sustainability and delivering amazing experiences,” NTT Data CEO Kaz Nishihata said in a release. “We also appreciate how IndyCar is so diverse, with drivers from 15 different countries, and races that range from short ovals and superspeedways to road and street courses. It’s both an incredible sport and a wonderful example for our world.”

NTT also has been instrumental in helping redesign the IndyCar app and providing more race and driver data for use in NBC Sports’ broadcasts by utilizing 140 data points from every car in the field.

“NTT is fully invested in the development and growth of our sport and has already established a terrific track record in our industry with problem-solving capabilities and access to top talent and tools,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said.

Said NTT Data Services CEO Bob Pryor: “We’re thrilled to continue our collaborations that enhance and expand the fan experience for motorsports and serve as proof points for data analytics, AI, and other innovative digital technologies. For more than a century, this racing series has pioneered innovations making driving safer for everyone, and by continuing this relationship, we will accelerate the pace of innovations and new technologies, particularly related to sustainability that ultimately can benefit organizations, communities and individuals around the world.”

Starting as a Japanese telephone company, NTT grew into a $100 billion-plus tech services giant with U.S. operations based in Plano, Texas.