Striker Motorsports

**Striker Motorsports**, formerly Polaris Motorsports, is a professional motor racing team based out of Orlando, Florida. The team currently competes in the Champ Car World Series, IndyCar Series, Atlantic Championship, GTPlanet Fandom Series, and North American Sports Car Championship. The team is best known for its successes in Champ Car, where it has won multiple Indycar World Championships between its drivers and the team itself.

## Background

Striker Motorsports began in late 2007 as Polaris Motorsports, which was co-owned by Stephanie Porter-Kelley, and her then-husband David Kelley. The team was started after Porter-Kelley, who had finished runner-up multiple years in a row as a championship contender, became increasingly frustrated with her then team, Tigersport, and their unwillingness to make gambles to try to win championships. The new Polaris outfit debuted for the 2008 season, running Chevrolet engines.

The team underwent a transformation in 2017, after it was announced that Stephanie Porter-Kelley and David Kelley were getting divorced, with the team being renamed to its current guise of Striker Motorsports. The team has remained in operation in the same facility it launched out of in Winter Park, a suburb of Orlando.

## Champ Car History

### First Race

2008 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg)

## GTPFS History

### 2021 Season

The team debuted in the GTPlanet Fandom Series for the 2021 season, entering a single Toyota Camry for Sonya Walker. The team operated independently of Toyota Team Quattro, the de-facto factory team for the Japanese marque during the 2021 campaign. The season was an extremely successful one, with Walker winning a record setting four races during the season, ultimately finishing second in points to Cearra Christensen.

### 2022 Season

Striker would return for the 2022 season, which saw radical changes come in the form of the seventh generation American stock car regulations. Sonya Walker reprised her role as the team's sole full time driver for the season, but they would also field Champ Car race winner, Sakura Ishibashi, for the 2022 Daytona 400. Ishibashi made one prior start, the dirt race at Eldora Speedway as an invited guest of the series.

## IndyCar history

### 2022 Season

Striker announced it would be a founding team for the revival of the Indycar National Championship, taking place in 2022 with the Microsoft IndyCar Series. The team would utilize its developmental driver depth to fill its two cars, poaching Katarina Milenkovic from the departing Black Rose Racing team, while hiring Nick Hugh and placing him in their second car.

## Drivers

### Current Drivers

#### Champ Car World Series

* Natalia Kirichenko (2017-present)
* Elise Alexander (2021-present)
* Matheus Michelin (2022-present)

#### IndyCar Series

* Katarina Milenkovic (2022-present)
* Nick Hugh (2022-present)

#### Atlantic Championship

* David Germain, Jr. (2022-present)
* Dale Blanco (2022-present)

### Former Drivers

* Stephanie Porter-Kelley (2008-2021), Champ Car
* Tanya Porter (2010-2014), Champ Car
* Siri Lundqvist (2011-2012), Champ Car
* Jamie Ngaire-Jardine (2017-2019), Champ Car
* Diego Jaramillo (2017-2019), Champ Car
* Jacob Descoteau (2017-2019), Champ Car
* Giuliano Ansaldi (2020), Champ Car
* Lucien Lachapelle (2020-2021), Champ Car