Zak Brown
Zak Brown is a businessman and professional race car driver, currently residing in Zionsville, Indiana. Since his karting debut in 1986, he has won numerous events in international competition as well as in the United States. He is team owner and driver of United Autosports. Brown is also the founder and CEO of the world’s largest motorsports marketing agency Just Marketing International. In 2009 he also co-founded Historic Motorsports Productions with Indianapolis 500 winner and entrepreneur Bobby Rahal.
Zak launched Just Marketing International in 1995. Today, JMI is the world’s largest motorsports marketing agency. The company is partnered by Spire Capital Partners, Credit Suisse and WPP. Brown is the CEO of the business and significant shareholder.
Brown took a sabbatical from professional racing between 2001-2005 to concentrate on Just Marketing International. In 2006 Brown returned to the Britcar 24 Hours race, winning the event as part of a four-driver team. In 2007, Brown returned to racing in the 2007 Ferrari Challenge Series as part of a six-car stable fielded by Ferrari of Washington. At his debut in Fontana he started in pole position and led every lap of the race to take victory. The following year saw Brown return to full-time competition where he was consistently at the front of the field. The 2008 campaign was highlighted by a win at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
In 2009 Brown and Richard Dean co-founded United Autosports. It is a professional sports car racing team with an engineering base in the United Kingdom and a marketing base in the United States. In 2010 the team scored a 3rd place finish at the Total 24 Hours of Spa. The team scored its maiden victory in 2011 in the British GT Championship. In 2012, the team are racing in the Blancpain Endurance Series in McLaren MP4-12C cars and the British GT Championship in Audi R8 LMS cars. The team also competes in feature events globally including the Dubai 12 Hour race, the Bathurst 12 Hour race in Australia, the Macau GT Cup and the Spar 24 Hour race.
Brown owns a number of historic racing cars, including James Hunt’s 1977 McLaren M26, Ayton Senna’s 1986 JPS Lotus Renault Turbo and Michael Schumacher’s 1992 Benetton B191. He regularly races in Historic racing events such as the Grand Prix Historique de Monaco.