Ducote Continues To Defy Time With Constant Improvement

Subtitle:New Orleans Driver Eager To Race At Home In Family Affair

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 3, 2015) – His team owner has called him a rock star. His son has called him a cyborg.

And this force of nature is racing at home in his chosen series for the first time this month on the heels of his best career finish. Oh, he’s also celebrating his 70th birthday during the race weekend.

New Orleans native and resident Wayne Ducote is ready to let the good times keep rolling in Rounds 3 and 4 of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama on April 10-12 during the Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana at NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale, Louisiana, located just 15 minutes from the historic French Quarter.

Ducote will drive the No. 70 Kelly-Moss Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car in the Gold Cup championship and Gold Masters division of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA)-sanctioned Single-Make Series.

“I’m all excited about it,” Ducote said. “It’s my 70th birthday on April 10. I’m going to have a crawfish party here for the drivers and team managers.

“This event is really good because there’s not many racers in New Orleans. We’re happy to be able to represent our city. It’s also fun to race with my son. It’s pretty important.”

Ducote’s son David Ducote also races in the Gold Cup class and Gold Masters division, driving the No. 6 Kelly-Moss Motorsports Porsche.

David Ducote, 46, won three races and earned two other podium finishes in six Gold Cup starts in 2014 after a midseason switch from the Platinum Cup to the Gold Cup. He had a rough start to the 2015 season March 18-20 at Sebring International Raceway, eliminated from both races after being caught in other drivers’ incidents. Still, he remains a strong contender for the Gold Cup championship this season.

But David Ducote and the rest of the paddock were buzzing at Sebring when his popular father scored the first overall Gold Cup podium of his career, finishing third overall in Round 1. Wayne Ducote is tied for second in the Gold Cup standings and is second in the Gold Masters standings after his strong start at Sebring – all just three weeks shy of his 70th birthday.

“He’s a cyborg,” David Ducote said of his colorful father. “He just gets stronger every year. He’s unbelievable. I think he’s going to do well at New Orleans, also. He’s looking forward to that. We’re all looking forward to that.”

Racing is a family affair for the Ducotes. Wayne and David raced together in the IMSA-sanctioned Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda from 2009-11, moving to the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama in 2012. David and his brother, Chapman, also raced together in the LMPC class in the American Le Mans Series in 2010 and 2011, with highlights including podium finishes at Petit Le Mans and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Chapman Ducote became involved in racing first. He encouraged his father and brother to join him, but that needling fell on deaf ears.

Wayne Ducote was busy with his varied businesses in New Orleans and elsewhere, including a parking management company, a valet parking business, a precast concrete company and interests in real estate and hospitality properties. David Ducote also was working in business in the New Orleans area before work brought him to Houston about 10 years ago.

An injury led Wayne Ducote toward racing. He had suffered a broken foot and was riding a motorcycle around Aspen, Colorado, where the family owns a vacation home. He stumbled upon a road course near Aspen that was built in the early 1960s.

“So I knocked on the door, found out about it and joined the club,” Wayne Ducote said. “I had never been in a race car in my life.

“I started driving Spec Racers, and I was pretty bad for a while. But it’s a very good learning tool.”

Wayne Ducote stayed at it. He eventually improved enough in Spec Racers to graduate to Prototype Lites and then moved to Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama, with his son David joining him in both steps.

Wayne, David and Chapman Ducote have raced together in various endurance events. And another generation may join Team Ducote soon: David’s 15-year-old daughter, Gabrielle Ducote, recently excelled in a Skip Barber competition course at NOLA Motorsports Park and wants to compete with her father and grandfather.

“She’s pretty damn quick, but we’ve got to work on mom,” David Ducote said with a laugh about his daughter’s future in racing.

While Gabrielle Ducote may be on the fast track toward IMSA competition, Wayne Ducote took a more calculated path to his first Gold Cup overall podium at Sebring after entering the sport much later in life.

Even approaching 70, Ducote never stops trying to learn more of the subtleties of the black art of racing. It came as no surprise to see him sitting with Kelly-Moss Motorsports driving coach Andrew Davis on a rainy day in February during testing at NOLA, poring over telemetry sheets and probing every corner of Davis’ vast professional experience for advice.

“What I’ve learned and in my experience is that most of the people who own high-performance cars have no idea how to drive,” Ducote said. “They want to drive them fast, but they don’t want to step back and take the learning curve it takes to learn to drive them.

“It’s a long process. I’m doing pretty good right now. This is my eighth or ninth year doing this (in IMSA), and I’m just figuring it out. It takes a long time. I think it’s important for people to start from scratch and take their time.”

There’s also a sense Ducote has taken a longer, more methodical route to racing because he savors every aspect of the experience as much any driver in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama paddock. His passion for the sport still flows freely; he sees no end in sight to the good times rolling with his family at the racetrack – especially next weekend in his beloved hometown of New Orleans.

“It’s the most relaxing thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Ducote said about racing. “There’s no adrenaline rush. There is nothing on your mind. If your mother is dying or you’re going broke, there’s nothing you can do about that. All you’re focused on is the brake point and the turning point. It’s very relaxing, and I like it.

“It’s just fun, and it’s competitive, and I like running with the group I run with. (Kelly-Moss Motorsports Vice President Jeff) Stone puts together a very good program. I run with my son. I really do it because of the camaraderie, and it’s family, and how many times can you race with your son? And so, that’s fun.”

Said David Ducote: “We help each other out. We check in with one another when we’re not at the same race or the same race weekend. Even when we’re not physically there, we’re still there. It’s nice having that in the background. And it’s even more fun when we’re all physically there because we all know the sport, we all know the equipment, we know the tracks, we talk shorthand.

“It’s really kind of neat. I’m not sure how many other families are able to do that.”