NEWS

Mullan Finds Way to Tie Together Family, Passion for Cars with Support for Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (IMSA)

September 20, 2019

While his racing career has taken off, Colin Mullan’s priorities have remained the same.

This weekend, the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge driver will be participating for the fourth consecutive year in the Danville d’Elegance in his hometown of Danville, California. The weekend consists of three events aimed at raising money for research and patient care for those with Parkinson’s disease.

The first element is the Tour d’Elegance, during which 60 participants tour around northern California in their classic or exotic cars on Saturday morning before a gala dinner and silent auction later that evening as the second event. The third element, the Concours d’Elegance, takes place in downtown Danville on Sunday with classic show cars, race cars and motorcycles lining the streets along with raffles and vendors.

Mullan has two family members with Parkinson’s disease, his paternal uncle and maternal grandfather.

“It affects both sides of my family,” said Mullan. “I got involved with the d’Elegance four years ago. It just seemed like a perfect combination and connection of being in my hometown, being involved with cars and also the family connection and trying to give back. I’ve seen firsthand how it affects my family.”

The 17-year-old first joined the IMSA ranks in 2018, competing in all but two races with Luis Perocarpi’s MINI JCW Team run by LAP Motorsports. Ahead of that year’s season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, he was named a Team USA Scholarship recipient and went to compete in the one-off Formula Ford Festival in England. He then returned to Pilot Challenge again this year in the TCR class with Perocarpi’s rebranded L.A. Honda World Racing team.

Mullan’s relationship with the team quickly extended off the track.

Last year, Mullan and Perocarpi paired up to display the No. 52 MINI JCW at the d’Elegance. This year, the team’s transporter stayed an extra week in northern California following the series’ race this past weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. This year, all three of the L.A. Honda World Honda Civic TCR cars will be on display. Mullan will also be participating in the Tour with a Honda Civic Type R from the team.

“It’s really incredible just to have the amount of support, even at Laguna Seca,” said Mullan. “We probably had 40 employees plus their families at the track. It was neat to have support even from the dealership there, and then to have the team support me year after year with this event, it’s amazing and I’m so happy to be part of this LAP Motorsports family.”

It’s not lost on Mullan how far he’s come in the last four years since first participating in the fundraiser. Prior to his IMSA days, he used to bring his karts and stock cars out for display throughout the weekend.

“It was crazy last year alone,” said Mullan. “My dad and I would always come out to watch the Michelin Pilot Challenge races when I was little. It’s really neat for me to be racing at this level in IMSA at such a young age. Bringing these cars to the local shows is neat. It’s pretty crazy how rapidly these things come together that think, only four years ago I was racing karting. This never seemed possible to me at the time.”

In addition to the Honda Civic TCRs, a Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi will be on display courtesy of Eric Curran and Sonny Whelen.

VIA IMSA.com September 20, 2019