PETALUMA, CA (Apr. 29, 2014) – The 2014 GT4 Challenge Series of North America continues to prepare for its inaugural event at Watkins Glen May 16 – May 18 with several new additions to its corporate family.

Jeff Yeakel has been announced as Series Director along with Lucie Yeakel as Series Administrator for 2014. Brandon Davis has been appointed Director of Driver Development, with James Davison as Professional Driver Coach for the 2014 season. In addition, Clayton and Janeen Romie, founders of R&D Motorsports in Baton Rouge, LA, have come onboard to provide full race support for Aston Martin GT4 race cars.

Jeff is a senior IT professional with more than 23 years experience managing a wide array of IT projects, data collection systems, financial applications, and business operations for notable organizations. Prior to his IT and professional management careers, Jeff served 10 years in the United States Air Force as an airborne cryptologic linguist. In 2000, his passion for professional motorsports led him to a second and parallel career as a data acquisition engineer for a championship winning sports car team with key roles in team management and logistics. Since 2007, he has dedicated much of his time officiating live race events from pit lane and providing technical support for on-board data acquisition systems to series managers in both the Grand-Am and IMSA sports car series.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Lucie has more than 20 years experience working in the motorsports industry. Her diverse career includes stints in marketing management, event planning, hospitality, team travel, and administration.

Lucie is also trained in the culinary arts and previously owned her own pastry shop. Prior to her culinary career, she worked extensively as a production assistant in the television and film industry.

California-native and professional driver, Brandon Davis enters his second year with TRG-AMR, having scored TRG-AMR’s inaugural victory for the team driving a Vantage GT4 in the Pirelli World Challenge race at Sonoma in 2013 and has been a front-runner in the series for years. Davis also drove for TRG-AMR at the Grand-Am event at Laguna Seca in both the GT and GS classes. He scored a pole in the Continental Tire GS class with the Vantage GT4 and drove the V12 Vantage GT3 to a top ten finish in the Grand-Am Rolex GT class.

Brandon has an extensive background in driver coaching and instructing. This includes coaching Truspeed clients in IMSA Challenge / Pirelli Cup, coaching for Ford NASCAR Sprint Cup / Nationwide drivers for road courses, instructing for Corvette Stingray launch at Spring Mountain, driver coaching for TRG-AMR in Pirelli World Challenge, instructing for the Ford Racing school at Miller Motorsports Park.

Davison, a native of Australia, has been a part of the entire off-season testing program for the V12 Vantage GT3 and has competed at Daytona and Sebring for TRG-AMR, driving the car into first place during each of the races.

He competed in Grand-Am Daytona Prototype for MSR and Starworks in 2011. He also drove IndyCar for Dale Coyne Racing in 2013 with an incredible drive at last year’s Sonoma IndyCar race. Davison drove into a Top 10 position before a late race incident that was out of his control ended his run.

He is currently teaming with David Block for the NAEC and Al Carter for the full TUDOR USCC season.

As a driver coach James has coached for Milka Duno in the 2010 IZOD Indycar Series, instructed at the Mario Andretti Indycar Racing Experience, NASCAR Racing Experience, coached young drivers in F2000, Star Mazda, Indy Lights, and coached gentleman drivers in Grand-Am, IMSA Lites, and SCCA.

R&D Motorsports, based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, will provide full race support for Aston Martin GT4 race cars. R&D provides their clients with the exceptional level of support and required to be competitive. R&D is in close proximity to NOLA Motorsports Park in New Orleans and uses the newly built, world class road course track for development and testing.

The Romies opened the doors to R&D Motorsports as an avenue to create beautiful custom vehicles for their discerning clients. Their history of design and building show-winning collectible cars, and partnerships with quality contractors, positions them as a conduit for automotive Excellence and Performance, its hallmarks.

Recently, chassis 016 arrived in the U.S. and will become a part of the 2014 GT4 Challenge Series under R&D Motorsports.