Gidley racing for man he inspired
Tiburon driver overcame hardship to get into sport, will compete at Sonoma
Tiburon’s Memo Gidley has the rare chance to drive for a man that he inspired to get into auto racing in the first place.
Gidley will share the Motorsport USA No. 23 McLaren
570S GT4 with Cavan O’Keefe in a pair of races this weekend at Sonoma Raceway, part of the SRO Fanatec GT World Challenge America series.
Motorsport USA team owner Jerold Lowe will share a similar McLaren with Michael McAleenan, and field a third 570S GT4 for the father/son duo of Todd and Tye Clarke. All will compete twice in huge 32-car fields in the Pirelli GT4 America SprintX class. These hour-long races will also feature BMWs, Porsches, Audis, Mercedes AMGs, Aston Martins, and Toyota Supras.
Gidley may technically be the hired help, but his boss has looked up to him with gratitude for many years. It’s a rare dynamic in racing.
“It is a very special feeling that the struggles and challenges I faced going after my passion to race cars and win at the top level are what inspired the excellent man that owns the Motorsport
USA race team, and inspired him to race and help others to do the same,” Gidley said after Thursday’s first test at Sonoma in the car.
Lowe had no inkling that his life would steer towards the track. His passion was racquetball, but a bout with rheumatoid arthritis requiring a long recovery forced him to look elsewhere for athletic satisfaction. It was a hard time in his life.
Then he saw an article in Racer Magazine about this Mexicanborn, Northern California driver that had risen through the ranks without funding to drive for Chip Ganassi in the CART Champ Car series.
The story was about Gidley. Memo grew up living on a boat in San Rafael and started winning races right away during his year in the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School mechanics training program. The opportunity to race for free came as part of learning and performing the craft of racing mechanics.
Each rung up the racing ladder Gidley earned on talent not personal sponsorship, often sleeping in his truck on race weekends to save money. Gidley then became a winner in the Formula Atlantic feeder series driving for Lynx Racing owned by Peggy Haas of Ross. That was his springboard into CART Indy cars.
Lowe was inspired by Gidley’s determination and self-sacrifice to make it to the pros. And he decided that he wanted a taste of that world. Lowe started out in autocrossing, and coming from a career in the tire industry had experience in tires and suspension work. He opened his own racing shop, still competing in autocross where he had one national win in class in a Dodge Neon.
Then Lowe and his racing team focused on road course club racing.
“As I progressed, I said when I finally get a team big enough I’m going to talk to Memo and see if he wants to come drive,” Lowe said. “That would kind of cap off my kickstart
thing. Then he had his wreck, and I was gutted.”
At the Daytona 24 Hour race in 2014, Gidley was driving a Corvette Daytona Prototype when a driver slowed almost to a stop not far off the racing line in the infield section. Gidley pulled out from behind another competitor to pass and hit the slowmoving Ferrari at around 120 mph. The impact fractured Gidley’s spine and mangled his legs and one arm.
It took eight surgeries, two separate spinal fusions, and three years for Gidley to get back behind the wheel. Lowe was paying attention. He still wanted to complete the circle.
“I talked to him at the Thunderhill 25 Hours one time, and I felt like the biggest dork,” Lowe admitted.
“It was like, ‘Hey man, you’re kinda sorta my hero.’ But it was (because of) the amount of drive that it gave me at such a crucial time in my life.”
It finally happened the first time when Gidley partnered with O’Keefe in a Maserati Trofeo for Lowe at what is now Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca four years ago. They ran well but lost a lap and never got back in contention.
This weekend, things are different. Unlike when he ran the Maserati, Lowe is enjoying fantastic manufacturer support from McLaren.
“Their guys have been just phenomenal,” Lowe said. “It’s frustrating when you feel like you’re all alone and trying to find these answers. I can send an email to those guys and they’re excited to help.”
Although he’s only run
a handful of pro races in the last couple of years in the IMSA LMP3 prototype class and the US Touring Car Championship, Gidley has kept sharp with a steady diet of karting and driver coaching. The latter often requires him to set baseline laps for amateur drivers so they can see from the telemetry what Gidley can do with the car that they can’t yet. The overlay of data from both drivers in debriefs points to where improvements can be made.
“I’ve driven a lot lately, but mostly five laps at a time,” Gidley quipped. Last weekend he helped a Ferrari Challenge driver come to grips with his Ferrari 488 EVO at Thunderhill Raceway Park near Willows.
The GT4 SprintX entry list is filled with pro drivers already performing
that role, often mentoring gentleman drivers who bankroll a large part of a team’s budget. The World Challenge offers these symbiotic opportunities.
“Not only are you driving the car, but it can be a coaching session all weekend long so these guys are getting a lot of value,” Gidley said. “I’d love to do this more.”
And he’s been making sure that he’s more than ready.
“My training and everything goes about getting ready for that opportunity. These are great cars, GT4 cars, not super physical so I’m probably overly trained for the car I’m getting in right now. But you never know what’s around the corner,” Gidley said.
Racing prototypes, lighter and more powerful, demand more from a driver physically. Despite his experience, Gidley has an international driver rating of Bronze, the lowest of four tiers. This is because he’s raced so little of late.
That rating makes Gidley a good choice to step into IMSA LMP3 or the faster LMP2 cars that require at least one Bronze driver for the entry.
“That’s my mentality.
I’m out pounding laps in the kart, I’m on my bike, swimming, lifting weights so that I’m good to go all the time.” Gidley said.
But he’s not too busy looking forward to understand the value of the great opportunity before him today. He can make a budding team better. He can savor the family atmosphere of friends and racers that have been a tightknit
unit for many years.
His co-driver appreciates what Memo brings to the table.
“I think he brings everything; he brings experience, a voice of reason to the team. I think he’s one of the best drivers out there,” O’Keefe said of Gidley. “To use a phrase that my dad would use, we were tickled that he’d come race with us. We have a scrappy young team here of guys that like to come out and have fun. And we were psyched that he’d come out and run with us — and teach us a lot. He’s helping us refine our race craft.”
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this weekend’s racing will be held without spectators. But every race will be available live and on demand later on the GTWorld YouTube channel.
The squadron of McLarens from Motorsport USA will race at 4:05 p.m. Saturday and 10:55 a.m. Sunday.
Pit Bits
• Novato’s Kevin Buckler will also field two cars in GT4 SprintX for his
The Racer’s Group team: the No. 66 Porsche Cayman 718 GT4 co-driven by Spencer Pumpelly and Derek DeBoer, and the similar No. 17 Porsche shared by James Rappaport and Robert Orcutt.
• Sonoma Raceway’s Wednesday Night Drags kick off March 17.
• Petaluma Speedway will throw its first green flag March 27 with a wing-less sprints program. Its weekly Saturday night track championship series fires up April 10th.