Josh Cartu
| Joshua Michael Oren Cartu | |
|---|---|
|
Josh Cartu - Team Wolfpack Pilot | |
| Born | March 11, 1979 |
| Nationality | Canadian, Israel |
| Education | AF Corse, Audi, Lamborghini, & Myway - BMW Drift School |
| Alma mater | AF Corse |
| Occupation | Business Executive, Cartu Drifting Team Owner |
| Years active | 2004-Present |
| Known for | Ferrari Test Pilot, Online Media Tycoon, Owns Cartu Drifting Race Team, Gumball3000 Participant & Member of Award Winning 'Team Wolfpack' |
| Home town | St. Catharines, Canada |
| Board member of | Briggs Automotive Company |
| Awards | Gumball3000 Best Team Award (2014), Tony Hawk Foundation Charity Award |
| Website | Josh Cartu Facebook Account |
Josh Michael Cartu (born March 11, 1979) is a Canadian Ferrari racecar driver test pilot, Ferrari club president, and business entrepreneur best known in auto racing circles in the US, Europe and Israel. In the course of his career, Cartu has trained with some of the biggest names of the sport. Cartu currently trains with AF Corse Italia, which also includes Giancarlo Fisichella, Gianmaria Bruni, and Michele Rugolo. In 2012, Cartu was invited to join the AFCorse Racing Team to train in the GT Sports Car Racing class.
Josh Cartu 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, Cartu is scheduled to participate with the new AFCorse Ferrari 488GT3 developed by Italian race car designer Micheloto.
Josh Cartu is a regular participant in race rallies worldwide, namely Mille Miglia, Targa Florio, Gumball 3000. In 2014, Cartu and his team "Wolfpack" won Gumball3000's 'Best Team Award'. [1]
Besides possessing several limited edition Ferraris, Cartu owns other luxury cars including BMWs, a Rolls Royce Phantom, and a custom BAC Mono race car, to name just a few. In June of 2015, Josh was honored by Ferrari with the Mr. Cavalcade award after winning first place in race trials held in Rome, Italy.
In October 2014, Josh Cartu was invited [2] by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to participate in the holy city's Formula 1 'Road Show for Peace' event. Racing on behalf of AFCorse, Cartu was accompanied to Israel with legendary Ferrari teammates including former Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella, Marco Cioci and his good friend, former GP2 Series driver Nathanaël Berthon.
On January 25th, 2015, Cartu traveled to Novgorod Russia where he journeyed to the edge of space (22km 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.
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. [3]
| Ferrari Race Cars | Track Locations |
|---|---|
| One Day Testing 458 Challenge: | Varano, Italy |
| Two Days Testing 458 Challenge + 458 GT3 | Italy |
| Two Days Testing 458 Challenge | Hungary |
| Two Days Testing 458 Challenge | Slovakiaring, Slovakia |
| One Day Testing 458 Challenge | Italy |
| Two days Testing 458 Challenge | Navarra Spain |
| Two Days testing 458 GT3 | Valencia |
Briggs Automotive Company
Josh serves on the advisory board for the Briggs Automotive Company. The firm is responsible for producing the BAC Mono single seater, rated 2nd fastest car on BBC's Top Gear test track. Cartu began his relationship with the automotive firm back 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, Josh has had two BAC Mono cars cars built for himself and participated in a short production film demonstrating the cars speed and endurance on both race tracks and urban roads.
MIG-29 Flight to Edge of Space
In January of 2015, Cartu took a dangerous journey to the edge of space where he flew a suborbital flight in a Russian MIG-29. During the flight exercise, Josh took the controls and performed various maneuvers which were recorded live on video stream. [4]
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.[5] Team Wolfpack won Gumball3000's 2014 'Best Team Award'.[6]
Philanthropy
In July 2014, at the annual rally of Gumball3000, just moments after winning 'best team award' with fellow team-mates "Team WolfPack", Josh Cartu [7] donated $60,000 to the Tony Hawk Foundation in effort to build skate parks for troubled youth across America. In September 2014, Josh contributed $10,000 to the ALS Association after having 300 Rise of an Empire star actor Sullivan Stapleton pour 4 buckets of ice over his head [8] and soon after published a request to his 600k [9] fans to follow in his footsteps by promoting and donating to Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis research.
References
- ↑ "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.
- ↑ Jones, Dolly (26 April 2007). "It's a Girl Thing - Vogue.com". Vogue.
- ↑ "Team Wolfpack Win Best Team of Gumball3000 2014". 17 June 2014.
- ↑ "Gumball3000 Driver Josh Cartu Donates $60k to Tony Hawk Foundation". CBS News. 22 July 2014.
- ↑ "Team WolfPack Ferrari Racer Josh Cartu Iced by Sullivan Stapleton for ALS". Yahoo Finance. 4 September 2014. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
- ↑ "Josh Cartu - Facebook Verified Account". 1 September 2014.