I grabbed a dinner with good friends Jeff and Becky Mishtawy Wednesday Night as they Embark on a New Adventure in racing! Jeff got me into being a fan of Grand Am Racing through the Team fielded by APR Motorsports a few years ago. Becky, probably gave me the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had in the city when she ran a coffee shop in Koplan’s Alley for several months. . I hate to see these two friends, that were early Downtown Opelika Dwellers move to Daytona for this new life, but it is Daytona after all. And I will go visit with the camper! All that official New Release Stuff is posted below!
SPORTS CAR, INDYCAR VETERAN RAYMOND NAMED IMSA TECHNICAL DIRECTOR; CONTINENTAL TIRE CHALLENGE VETERAN MISHTAWY NAMED SENIOR TECHNICAL MANAGER
The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) today announced the addition of motorsports veterans Scott Raymond and Jeff Mishtawy to key technical roles, along with reallocation of responsibilities for three existing members of the competition department. Raymond, a race- and championship-winning engineer in IndyCar and sports car racing, has been named IMSA Technical Director and will report to IMSA Vice President of Competition and Technical Regulations Scot Elkins. Raymond will oversee all technical aspects for the seven IMSA-sanctioned series. Raymond won the 2012 IndyCar championship as part of the engineering team for Andretti Autosport and has been a professor of motorsports engineering at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis since 2011.
Raymond was Performance Engineer for de Ferran Motorsports from 2008-11, with five race victories and eight pole positions in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón (ALMS) with drivers Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud. He was Assistant Race Engineer at Newman/Haas Racing in the Champ Car World Series for three series championships (2005-07) and 21 race victories.
A native of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Raymond earned a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from Carleton University in Ottawa and a Master of Applied Science (Mechanical Engineering) from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Raymond will relocate from Indianapolis to the Daytona Beach area with his wife, Rebecca and three sons, Liam, Jude and Noah. He began his new position this week.
“An opportunity like this does not come by very often, so I’m very honored that I’ve been chosen,” said Raymond. “I’ve always been a big fan of sports car racing, especially the variety of cars and the fact that strategy is so critical in performing well. The opportunity to work with all the manufacturers and teams at the highest level is amazing for me. I’m particularly excited to work on the new rules coming on-line for 2017. I can’t put into words how wonderful it is to know that I will be a part of shaping the series as we work with our stakeholders to define the future.”
Mishtawy will serve as the Senior Technical Manager of the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, reporting to Raymond. Since September 2007, Mishtawy was Director of Motorsport for Auburn, Ala.-based APR Motorsport, which has won nine Street Tuner class races in Continental Tire Challenge competition.
He also led APR’s GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series efforts, which included a second-place GT result in the 2013 Rolex 24 At Daytona with its Audi R8. As a team leader and chief strategist, Mishtawy owns more than 60 top-10 results in various sports car classes since 2007. He is relocating from Alabama to Daytona Beach and began working in his new position this week.
“As a competitor in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge for the past several years, I developed a firm grasp of the technical rules – and worked tirelessly to find ways around them – which will serve me well in this position,” Mishtawy said. “With so many varied makes and models in multiple classes of competition, balancing performance is difficult, but not impossible, especially with the team we now have in place. I could not be happier to have been offered this position and look forward to the future.”
In addition to the appointments of Raymond and Mishtawy, IMSA also announced new responsibilities for existing IMSA competition staff members. Charlie Cook is now Senior Technical Manager of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, Rob Elson is Senior Technical Manager of Single-Make Series for IMSA and Mike Kraemer is now IMSA’s Senior Manager of Electronics. All three will report to Raymond.
“Adding Scott and Jeff to our competition team is huge for us as we look to grow our sport,” Elkins said. “Both of them bring tremendous experience to IMSA and there is a great deal of mutual respect between them and our competitors, which is extremely important. Shifting the focus and priorities for Charlie, Rob and Mike allows them and our whole team to play to their strengths.”
From the Archives — originally published on the Opelika Daily News on February 27, 2014. View the original page.
