DRIVERS
Joe Foster
- Birthdate: 11/03/1965
- Hometown: Orange, California
- Residence: Atlanta, Georgia
- Marital Status: Married
Brief Bio:
Joe Foster has been racing professionally for over 25 years and has been competing at the top levels of American sports car racing since 1998. He scored two wins, three poles, and the overall GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Championship in 2008 in a Ford Mustang FR500-C with co-driver Scott Maxwell. Joe was the Chief Driving Instructor of the Panoz Racing School for 10 years and currently instructs at the Miller Performance Training Center at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. Patrick Dempsey was one of Foster’s students and the two have been racing together for the last six years and, more recently, racing business partners and co-drivers at Dempsey Racing. With undergraduate and graduate degrees in Engineering from Georgia Tech, Joe brings a wealth of technical knowledge as well as winning experience to Dempsey Racing.
2010 – (Through June 1) Joined Dempsey, Maxwell and Charles Espenlaub in the No. 40 Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8 GT in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona where they finished a Dempsey Racing career-best sixth in the day-long race. Foster and Dempsey followed with seventh at the Grand Prix of Miami to move the No. 40 Mazda team off to its best season start. Also continues as a factory Ford Multimatic Mustang driver in the Continental Tire series with Maxwell.
2009 – Set several Dempsey Racing career-best marks for the No. 40 Mazda RX-8 GT, including a second-place qualifying effort at Barber Motorsports Park and a fourth-place finish in the race with Espenlaub. Foster and Espenlaub also finished fourth in Montreal and were leading the short-course race at Watkins Glen before a mechanical retirement. Foster also qualified second for the season-ending race in Utah. Also joined Dempsey and Don Kitch Jr. in a ninth place GT2 finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
2008 – Scored two top-10 finishes in 12 Rolex Series GT races, including ninth at Montreal with Dempsey and fifth at VIR with Espenlaub in the team’s first full season in the No. 40 Mazda. Won the Continental Tire series championship co-driving with Maxwell with wins at Barber and Mosport.
2007 – Debuted in Rolex Series GT competition at Miller Motorsports Park with
Dempsey and Espenlaub in the No. 40 Mazda’s first race. Finished third in Continental Tire series championship with five top-five finishes, including a win at Mosport.
2006 – Made eight Continental Tire series starts with a season-high fifth place finish at Miller.
2005 – Made only career Rolex Series Daytona Prototype starts to date at the Rolex 24 and Homestead-Miami. Earned a best result of seventh in 10 Continental Tire series starts.
2004 – With Espenlaub as one of his co-drivers, finished fifth in SGS class in the Rolex 24. Made one Continental Tire series start.
2003 – Drove both a Porsche and Panoz in American Le Mans Series (ALMS) GT.
2002 – Drove both a Lola LMP and a Porsche GT car in ALMS,
2001 – Drove a Kyser Porsche in both ALMS and the European Le Mans Series. Also drove a PTG BMW in ALMS. Raced in the GT class in the Rolex 24.
2000 – Drove a Porsche in ALMS GT.
Early Career – 1999: Raced in Motorola Cup and Audi Touring. 1997: Raced in U.S. Formula Ford 2000. Began racing in go-karts at the age of 11 and moved to Europe at 17 to pursue an open-wheel racing career in British Formula 3 that was cut short due to injuries from a road accident. Renewed his racing career after returning to the U.S.