The Drive Within Presented by Hagerty Premieres on MotorTrend TV
Follow Round 3 Racing’s Journey in the World Racing League Championship.0:00 / 0:00
What is it like to go racing? Tiring, expensive—addicting. It takes a special breed of human to want to subject themselves to the crucible of motorsport, but those who compete in endurance racing are something else. Short of actually racing, The Drive Within Presented by Hagerty is the closest you can get to experiencing what it's like to compete in sports car racing's most grueling genre.
Following Round 3 Racing (R3R) and their efforts in the World Racing League (WRL) 2021 season, The Drive Within Presented by Hagerty —premiering only on MotorTrend TV, November 12, 2021, at 6 p.m. PST/5 p.m. CST— provides a deeper look into what it takes to survive a full season of sports car endurance racing in a semi-professional series.
We were able to talk to Brad McCall, co-owner of R3R and co-driver of the GTO No. 702 Porsche Cayman , and Mo Dadkhah, co-driver of the GP1 No. 701 Porsche Cayman, as they were preparing for the first ever 24-hour race at Sebring International Raceway and asked them what it's like to be a semi-professional racer as well as what it takes to survive a season of racing.
What Is Round 3 Racing?
Brad McCall grew up following his father, Buz, around to racetracks all over the country. Buz McCall—along with owning and operating an international railroad equipment distribution company with Brad—has been a professional race car driver and team owner for decades. Buz campaigned successful teams in the NASCAR Busch and Cup Series, raced in the Pirelli World Challenge, even won four consecutive SCCA Trans Am championships as team owner of Chevrolet's factory racing efforts.
It was natural for Brad (who has won SCCA amateur championships of his own) to follow in his father's footsteps, but Dad McCall didn't join R3R until 2016, while R3R was still running in sprint races with the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and National Auto Sport Association (NASA). It took three years of short-format racing together before the team realized endurance racing was where they're happiest and in 2019 they competed in their first season with WRL.
<blockquote> <h4><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We all sacrifice to do this, whether it's sacrificing time at home, time in our main business, our work, we don't make any money doing this, we sacrifice our time but we do it because we all love it." —Brad McCall</span></h4> </blockquote>
As mentioned, the McCalls have day jobs. So does everyone else at R3R. Buz and Brad own and operate American Equipment Company together, selling American-made railroad and locomotive maintenance equipment, tools, and spare parts to international markets. Mo Dadkhah runs a law firm, Dadkhah Law group, and a real estate brokerage, Main Street Real Estate Group, in Chicago. Sarah Montgomery (co-driver in car No. 702) is an instructor at the Porsche Experience Center in Atlanta as well as a real estate agent. Not a single team member of R3R solely works for R3R.
Hagerty helps to cover some of R3R's racing costs by sponsoring the team, but it's the sacrifice of time and money from every team member that have allowed them to run as successfully as they have. Unlike other teams in WRL, R3R is not constantly searching for new drivers at every race. The four cars they are campaigning in the 2021 season will have the same teams of 3 to 4 drivers the entire season.
