GPNY: Local Training Ground for Elite Racers
by Warren Rosenberg - MetroSports Magazine October 8, 2021
OK, so Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Danica Patrick all started their professional racing careers in go karts. More locally, so did New Jersey’s Martin Truex Jr., as well as Connecticut’s Joey Logano. But, right here in the New York Metro area’s Westchester County village of Mount Kisco, at the indoor Go Kart track of Grand Prix New York (GPNY), the accomplished professional race car drivers, Anthony Alfredo, Aurora Straus, Kristina Esposito, Josh Green, Vivek Kanthan, Nate Cicero, Gia Cicero, Robert Megennis and Michael d’Orlando got their start or practiced their craft. Will Matthew Peirce be the next among them?
Anthony Alfredo has climbed to the pinnacle of stock car racing as a full-time member of the NASCAR Cup series and, on his Instagram page, he gives much credit to his start at GPNY. "We all start somewhere, and there is nowhere easier than the local rental kart track where you don’t need to own a single piece of equipment! That little kid in the photo would never have imagined being where I am today". Shown below from his Instagram site, Anthony is showing off his GPNY license.
Aurora Straus from Cold Spring, NY, and currently an undergraduate at Harvard University is a 23 year old professional race car driver in the IMSA Continental Tire Sports Car Series and was featured in the April 2017 issue of MetroSports Magazine and again in the Sept-Oct 2019 issue. Her highest professional racing finish was 2nd, in the 2018 Pirelli World Challenge.
Kristina Esposito from Mamaroneck, NY, continues her professional racing career while pursuing a mechanical engineering degree at the University of Miami. When featured in the Sept-Dec 2020 issue of MetroSports Magazine, she had just come off notable wins at the National Auto Sports Association’s “One Last Chance North East NASA” at the New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, N.J. and at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in the Formula and Automobile Racing Association (FARA) Endurance Championship where she and co-driver, Pippa Mann, picked up the Championship Trophy in the MP-3B Class
And just this month, on the weekend of October 2nd and 3rd, two Westchester-based Indy Car Series drivers, both of whom developed their skills at Mount Kisco’s GPNY, showed their prowess at the Mid-Ohio Raceway. Capturing the pole position for the most recent race in the 2021 Cooper Tire Road to Indy USF2000 series, was Hartsdale’s Michael d’Orlando. Although he led all drivers in qualifying, it was Mount Kisco’s Josh Green who led the most laps in the race and crossed the finish line first as the race winner followed by d’Orlando in second.
2021 has been a solid year for Michael D’Orlando having captured three wins in the 18 race series crossing the finish line first at the Lucas Oil raceway and Mid-Ohio raceway. In the last four races of the series he had captured the pole position. In the final Mid-Ohio race while D’Orlando captured the pole, Josh Green took home the win. Josh Green, currently with Turn 3 Motorsports, has driven his previous ride with Cape Motorsports to a second place finish at the world famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway “Brickyard.
MetroSports Magazine was on hand earlier this week to catch Manhattan College student and Kart driver, Matthew Peirce, compete in adult league racing on the new, short-track layout at GPNY.
