Elias De la Torre IV Attends North American Driver Development Workshop

Porsche Motorsport North America continued its long tradition of preparing the next generation of professional race drivers last week. The Porsche Driver Development Workshop was held over two days at the headquarters of Team Penske, factory partner to Porsche in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTP class.

Elias received career experience both hands-on and in sessions with experts from the disciplines of physical training, nutrition, technology, media and career planning.The workshop is eligible only to Porsche EBOOST North America Junior Program of which Elias is part of.

The program provides an opportunity for the drivers to receive a range of educational tools, training and support to take the next step in their career. The 2024 program was held at Team Penske headquarters in Mooresville, N.C.

This year, drivers received a behind-the-scenes look at the highest level of team operations at Team Penske and the Yokohama Development Center, both in Mooresville. Other elements of the Workshop included nutritional advice, media and social media instruction as well as the opportunity to train with the Porsche Penske Motorsport GTP race team.

American Porsche factory driver Dane Cameron and former international Porsche one-make champion and current Porsche Penske driver Matt Campbell (Australia) were also on hand to offer key insights on how to navigate a career in sports car racing.

While Porsche has chosen full Junior drivers from the Porsche Global Junior Shootout for decades, Porsche Cars North America and Porsche Motorsport North America first implemented its own program to assist the best young drivers in the U.S. and Canada to the next level of professional motorsport as well. The Academy put the drivers through intensive classroom activities with the objective to broaden and sharpen talents not only behind the wheel but also out of the cockpit.

While education was the hallmark of the by invitation-only event, the PYDA also helped determine the IMSA Hurley Haywood Scholarship recipient. At the time, the scholarship was awarded annually to help provide the selected driver with a package of tangible assets to present to teams in IMSA Porsche one-make racing for the next season.