Josh Cartu
| Joshua Michael Oren Cartu | |
|---|---|
|
Josh Cartu - Team Wolfpack Pilot | |
| Born | March 11, 1979 |
| Residence | Budapest, Hungary |
| Nationality | Canadian, Israel |
| Occupation | Business Executive, Cartu Drifting Team Owner |
| Years active | 2004-Present |
| Known for | Ferrari Test Pilot, Cartu Drifting Race Team, Member of 'Team Wolfpack' |
| Home town | Canada |
| Board member of | Briggs Automotive Company |
| Awards | Gumball3000 Best Team Award (2014 & 2016), Ferrari 'Mr. Calvacade' Award (2015), |
| Website | Josh Cartu Facebook Account |
Josh Michael Cartu (born March 11, 1979) is a Canadian Ferrari racecar driver, Ferrari club president, and business entrepreneur well known in auto racing circles in the US, Europe and Israel. Cartu dreamed of one day becoming an astronaut or a fighter pilot. When neither one of those came to fruition, he settled for the adrenaline rush that speeding on the ground had to offer by becoming a gentleman race car driver with Ferrari/AFCorse Racing.[1]
Cartu currently trains with AF Corse Italia, which also includes Giancarlo Fisichella, Gianmaria Bruni, and Michele Rugolo. In 2012, he was invited to join the AFCorse Racing Team to train in the GT Sports Car Racing class. He later trained with the AFCorse team for the 2013 European Ferrari Challenge Cup and has been testing and training through 2015 in a Ferrari 458GT3 race car. For the 2016 season, he is scheduled to participate with the new AFCorse Ferrari 488GT3 developed by Italian race car designer Micheloto.
Cartu [2] is a regular participant in race rallies, including the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio, Gumball 3000. In 2014, Cartu and his team "Wolfpack" won Gumball3000's 'Best Team Award'.[3] They raised over $60,000 USD for charity and were once again awarded with Gumball3000's 'Best Team Award' in May 2016.
In October 2014, Cartu was invited [4] by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to participate in the city's Formula 1 'Road Show for Peace' event. Racing on behalf of AFCorse, he was accompanied to Israel with Ferrari teammates including former Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella, Marco Cioci and his good friend, former GP2 Series driver Nathanaël Berthon.
Besides possessing several limited edition Ferraris, Cartu owns other luxury cars including BMWs, a Rolls Royce Phantom, and a custom BAC Mono race car. In June 2014, he was honored by Ferrari and presented with the 'Mr. Cavalcade' award in 2015, was the fastest driver through the slalom exercise.
In January 2016, Cartu was interviewed by Forbes Magazine in a QA session explaining how sponsorship of racing functions work and the way in which branding and marketing takes place in the sport.[5]
Briggs Automotive Company
Cartu serves on the advisory board for the Briggs Automotive Company. The firm produced the BAC Mono single seater, rated 2nd fastest car on BBC's Top Gear test track. He began his relationship with the automotive firm in 2013 and later joined his friend, Canadian progressive house music producer Deadmau5, to custom design and test their own Bac Mono cars on the Angelsey circuit. To date, Cartu has had two BAC Mono cars cars built for himself and participated in a short production film demonstrating the car's speed and endurance on both race tracks and urban roads.
MIG-29 Flight to Edge of Space
On January 25, 2015, he traveled to Novgorod Russia where he journeyed to the MiGFlug Edge of Space Flight (22 km above the earth) in a Russian Mig29, performed several high G maneuvers himself (8G's) experienced a zero gravity bow and filmed the curvature of the earth..[6][7]
Gumball3000
Cartu is a member of 'Team WolfPack', a celebrity group of drivers owning exotic cars who together participate annually in Gumball3000, a 3,000-mile (4,800 km) international motor rally which takes place on public roads. It was started in 1999 by British entrepreneur, skateboarder and race car driver Maximillion Cooper.[8] The team won Gumball3000's 2014 'Best Team Award'.[9] In May 2016, he participated in Gumball3000 with 300: Rise of an Empire star actor Sullivan Stapleton as co-pilot and 'Team Wolfpack', subsequently winning 'Best Team Award' for the second time in 2016.
References
- ↑ "Getting to Know Ferrari Driver Josh Cartu".
- ↑ "Getting to know Ferrari".
- ↑ "Gumball3000 Best Team Award".
- ↑ "Josh Cartu Accepts Jerusalem Mayor Invitation to Participate in Holy Cities Formula 1 Event".
- ↑ "Forbes Magazine Interview of Josh Cartu".
- ↑ "Space Tourism-The Ultimate High for Adventure Lovers". 31 Jan 2016.
- ↑ "Edge of Space Flight". 20 May 2015.
- ↑ Jones, Dolly (26 April 2007). "It's a Girl Thing - Vogue.com". Vogue.
- ↑ "Team Wolfpack Win Best Team of Gumball3000 2014". 17 June 2014.