Founder Portfolio
Learn about Jay O'Connell's decades of high-performance vehicle experience
1986 Competition: finished 3rd in design (407 lb car with single cylinder 600 cc engine - lightest of 15 entries) with Brown University team of 6 students - left photo.
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1987 Competition: finished 2nd in design and 3rd overall (427 lb car with 4 cylinder engine - lightest of 23 entries) after transferring to Cornell University to start a new team with ME professor Al George - center photo.
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1988 Competition: 1st overall, Cornell's first FSAE win with an expanded team of 20 students - photo below. Follow link to Autoweek FSAE article "All This Fun and Credit, Too?" published June, 1988.
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Professional Open Wheel Racing since 1998
Appointed Ford Racing CART program manager in 1998. Attended 60 races in 3 years to support Ford sponsored teams with Cosworth XD and XF engines. Ford Cosworth XF won the engine manufacturer's championship in 2000. Developed and produced parts to reduce refueling time by 10% for Ford teams.
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Appointed Research and Development Manager at Jaugar Racing F1 and moved to Milton Keynes, UK in 2001. Helped developed the R1 (photo right) and design the R2 Jaguar Formula 1 race cars including: pushrod on upright front suspension, 7 post rig testing between practice sessions, front side and roll bar carbon crash testing, and new technology development.
IndyCar and Jaguar Formula 1
Engineering sports cars since 1989
Crewed and engineered IMSA GT race cars since 1989 Summit Point race including: 17 Rolex 24 Daytona races (2 class wins), 16 Sebring 12 hour races (3 class wins). Total of 30 IMSA class wins.
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Designed and built first Porsche 911 GTU class car with double a-arm front and multilink rear suspension in 1990 for Jay Kjoller Motorsport - see photos left.
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Chief Race Engineer and Technical director for BMW Team RLL GT2/GT/GTLM entries from 2006-2016. See link to "The Strategist" article published in Bimmer in October, 2012.