According to a story in Wealth Management, the two met when Walker, at a track event, noticed that Rodas was driving a Porsche GT3 that Walker used to own. They ended up racing together at events like the 25 Hours of Thunderhill, but his schedule limited Walkers racing mostly to time attack-type events at Buttonwillow or other California tracks. Rodas, though, moved up through the ranks from Porsche-only series like the Pirelli Drivers Cup, where he won twice in 2012, into the Pirelli World Challenge, leading a two-car Ford Mustang Boss 302S team, sponsored by Always Evolving and charities that he and Walker supported. Rodas raced car number 52; his co-driver, in car 75, was Erik Davis, owner of Autotopia, a massive, near-legendary car collection in Los Angeles that supplies cars for movie and TV productions. Both rookies in the series, Rodas finished 13 in GTS points, Davis 16th, despite missing the races in St. Petersburg and Lime Rock. Had Rodas competed in those races, he almost certainly would have been the series rookie of the year. Rodas highest finish was fifth at Toronto, impressive since the GTS class has such veteran drivers as season champ Lawson Ashenbach, Jack Baldwin and Peter Cunningham. By sad coincidence, Rodas and Davis raced against another Mustang driver in the class, Roger Miller, who died unexpectedly at age 44 last August – Millers family owned the Utah Jazz and Miller Motorsports Park near Salt Lake City. Rodas, who turned 38 a month ago, and his Rodas Group company were well known in financial circles in California, largely through an enduring relationship with the investment firm Merrill Lynch. According to his biography, he was “instrumental in developing waste to energy power plants and wind farms in Central America,” and he was also owner of Cielo Recycling, a Central American recycling plant. He was ranked by Barrons three years in a row as one of Americas top financial advisers. Read more: autoweek/article/20131201/carnews/131209999#ixzz2mNOUAA44 Follow us: @AutoweekUSA on Twitter | AutoweekUSA on Facebook
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 02:49:21 +0000
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