Rocketsports Racing was a motor racing team based in

East Lansing, Michigan East Lansing is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. Most of the city lies within Ingham County, Michigan, Ingham County with a smaller portion extending north into Clinton County, Michigan, Clinton County. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...

in the United States.

Team history

Rocketsports was founded in 1985 by racing driver

Paul Gentilozzi Paul Gentilozzi (born February 6, 1950 in Lansing, Michigan) is a race car driver and businessman. His non-racing business interests are real estate development, principally developing office buildings for institutions and Government Agencies. ...

to compete in the

Trans-Am The Trans-Am Series is a sports car racing series held in North America. Founded in 1966, it is sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). Primarily based in the United States, the series competes on a variety of track types includin ...

series. It competed in Trans-Am until 2004, when the championship was cancelled, and achieved 57 outright wins in 20 years. It has also raced in the

IMSA The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive direc ...

sports car racing championship. Rocketsports joined

Champ Car Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., or Champ Car, a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams ( ...

in 2003 with driver

Alex Tagliani Alexandre Tagliani (; born October 18, 1973), nicknamed "Tag", is a Canadian professional racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series, driving the No. 18 Chevrolet Camaro for 22 Racing. Tagliani has competed in a variety ...

, who scored the team's only victory at

Road America Road America is a motorsport road course located near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, United States on Wisconsin Highway 67. It has hosted races since the 1950s and currently hosts races in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, WeatherTech SportsCar Champ ...

in 2004. In 2005 and 2006 the team fielded cars for

pay driver A pay driver is a driver for a professional auto racing team who, instead of being paid by the owner of their car, drives for free and brings with them either personal sponsorship or personal or family funding to finance the team's operations. Th ...

s and frequently changed drivers. In 2007, Tagliani returned full-time and the team shared technical information with

RuSPORT RuSPORT was an auto racing team that competed in the Champ Car, Champ Car World Series. It was founded in September 2002 by Carl Russo. Team history Russo drove for the team then known as Performance Development and Racing (PDR) based in Fort Co ...

. This alliance was dubbed

RSPORTS RSPORTS was an auto racing team that competed in the Champ Car World Series. It was founded officially in 2007 as a technological partnership, but started out originally as two different teams owned by former race car drivers Carl Russo, who owned ...

, and took a race win with RuSPORT's Justin Wilson. However, the alliance ended at the end of the season. In 2008, following the unification of Champ Car and the IRL, Rocketsports announced that it would not transition to the

IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of ...

. They did compete in the Champ Car finale at

Long Beach Grand Prix The Grand Prix of Long Beach (known as Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach since 2019 for naming rights reasons) is an IndyCar Series race held on a street circuit in downtown Long Beach, California. Christopher Pook is the founder of the event. It wa ...

, with drivers

Antônio Pizzonia Antônio Reginaldo Pizzonia Júnior (born 11 September 1980) is a Brazilian professional racing driver who has raced in Formula One and the Champ Car World Series. Born in Manaus, he started his car racing career in the Formula Vauxhall Junior s ...

, who competed for Rocketsports at Long Beach in 2006, and

Juho Annala Juho Annala, born is a Finland, Finnish racing driver. Annala was born in Lapua. After starting in Kart racing, karting, he moved to Swedish, Finnish, and Nordic Formula Ford in 2004, winning the Nordic championship and coming second in both the ...

. Since the demise of Champ Car, Rocketsports has competed in the revived Trans-Am Series with driver

Tomy Drissi Tomy Drissi ( ; born December 9, 1958) is an American professional stock and sports car racing driver, and an advertising executive in the movie industry. A long-time competitor in the Sports Car Club of America's Trans-Am Series, he was the serie ...

, winning the 2009 championship.Trans-Am Wraps 2009 Season at Road America This Weekend
, Sports Car Club of America, September 19, 2009, Retrieved 2009-10-02 Gentilozzi went on to form

RSR Racing RSR Racing was an American sports car racing team formed from the defunct Rocketsports Racing. In the spring of 2009, Paul Gentilozzi and his sons, Tony and John, founded RSR in partnership with Jaguar Cars Ltd. to build and race the Jaguar XKR in ...

in 2009.

Drivers that have competed for Rocketsports in Champ Car

(2008) *

Mario Dominguez is a character (arts), character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in ...

(2006) *

Memo Gidley José Guillermo "Memo" Gidley is a Mexican-born racing driver, of German and Canadian ancestry, born in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico on September 29, 1970. He holds dual citizenship - American and Mexican. In his early years, he sold his a ...

(2004) *

Timo Glock Timo Glock (born 18 March 1982) is a German professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver. He raced in Formula One for the Jordan, Toyota, Virgin Racing and Marussia F1 teams. He finished 10th in the Drivers' Championship in both ...

(2005) *

Ryan Hunter-Reay Ryan Christopher Hunter-Reay (born December 17, 1980) is a professional American racing driver best known as a winner of both the Indianapolis 500 (2014) and the IndyCar Series championship in 2012. In each accomplishment, Hunter-Reay became th ...

(2005) *

Tõnis Kasemets Tõnis Kasemets (born March 17, 1974 in Pärnu, Estonia) is an Estonian racing driver and a former competitor in the CART Champ Car World Series. He won the 2022 IMSA Prototype Challenge championship. Career Kasemets emigrated to the United Sta ...

(2006) * Michael McDowell (2005) *

Nicky Pastorelli Nicky Pastorelli (born 11 April 1983) is a Dutch professional racing driver. Motorsports career Euro Formula 3000 Born in The Hague, Pastorelli participated in Euro Formula 3000 for Scuderia Fama in 2003. He finished on the podium twice and pl ...

(2006) *

Nelson Philippe Nelson Philippe (born July 23, 1986 in Valence, Drôme) is a French race car driver. Career Early career Philippe raced go-karts from 1998-2002. In 2003, he raced in the Barber Dodge Pro Series, finishing the season with one podium, and four t ...

(2004) *

(2006, 2008) * Guy Smith (2004) *

(2003–2004, 2007)

Racing results

Complete CART / Champ Car World Series results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (results in bold indicate pole position) (results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) # Competed as

at Rds. 1–10.

Complete IndyCar Series results

(

) # Run to

specifications. # Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

References

External links

{{Champ Car teams Grand American Road Racing Association teams Champ Car teams 24 Hours of Le Mans teams American auto racing teams Companies based in Ingham County, Michigan Sports in Lansing, Michigan American Le Mans Series teams Auto racing teams established in 1985 1985 establishments in Michigan IndyCar Series teams Auto racing teams disestablished in 2009