Team Owner – Marty Gaunt
Marty Gaunt built his motorsports career from the ground up, with the Toronto-native rising from local street-stock racer at bullrings in southeastern Canada to that of team owner in the elite NASCAR Cup Series.
Gaunt founded Gaunt Brothers Racing (GBR) in 2010, with his eponymous team starting out in the Canada-based NASCAR Pinty’s Series and the U.S.-based NASCAR K&N Pro Series. Its first driver, Jason Bowles, scored GBR’s maiden victory in the 2011 Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway, with the precursor to that win being the pole position in track-record time at the 2011 Streets of Toronto 100.
After seven years competing in NASCAR’s development divisions, Gaunt stepped up to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2017, entering the Daytona 500 with driver D.J. Kennington. With more than 70 starts among a handful of drivers since, Gaunt is taking a methodical approach to building his race team, focusing on the long term, specifically with the series’ NextGen car and its 2022 debut, whereupon GBR will contest the entire NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
The scope of this endeavor is large, but thanks to a diverse motorsports lineage, Gaunt is well suited to the task.
Gaunt is a hands-on team owner, a trait that goes back to his 10-year tenure as a service manager at Canadian Tire. That early career role allowed him to touch motorsports, which led to opportunities in the ARCA Racing Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series that prompted Gaunt to move to North Carolina in 1996, where he has become a NASCAR mainstay.
Gaunt’s work ethic caught the eye of Michael Kranefuss, the former head of Ford Motor Company’s Special Vehicle Operations. After a 15-year career at Ford, Kranefuss went NASCAR racing, forming Kranefuss-Haas Racing in 1994 with motorsports magnate Carl Haas. Kranefuss hired Gaunt in 1997 to be the team’s general manager and he soon oversaw massive change. Kranefuss-Haas became Penske-Kranefuss Racing in 1998, going from a single-car team to a multi-car team and, ultimately, becoming Penske Racing in 2000.
Gaunt took on a diverse role in 2001-2002, spotting for Kyle Petty in the NASCAR Cup Series while also working with the Petty family on the construction of Victory Junction Gang Camp, a children’s camp in Randleman, North Carolina, founded by Kyle and Pattie Petty in honor of their late son, Adam.
Race team management lured Gaunt back to NASCAR fulltime in 2003. He joined Robby Gordon Motorsports and stayed there through 2004 as Gordon competed in the Xfinity Series a driver/owner.
The experience pushed Gaunt into team ownership in late 2004, forming Clean Line Motorsports in the NASCAR Truck Series with driver Brandon Whitt. Clean Line Motorsports became Red Horse Racing in 2005 and, as that team grew, Gaunt was lured to help start Red Bull’s nascent NASCAR team in 2006. He stayed there through 2007 as the team’s vice president and general manager. From Clean Line to Red Horse to Red Bull, Gaunt’s association with Toyota began, with the Truck Series teams fielding Tundras while Red Bull campaigned Camrys.
Team ownership, however, continued to beckon Gaunt. He joined Bill Davis Racing in 2008, again serving as general manager, and when Davis decided to sell the NASCAR team at the end of the season, Gaunt seized the opportunity to not only become a team owner again, but an engine manufacturer by also purchasing Triad Racing Technologies. This is where Gaunt’s Toyota ties strengthened.
Triad Racing Technologies grew to become the exclusive distributor of Toyota parts in NASCAR. Triad leased engines to teams across all three NASCAR national touring series – Cup, Xfinity and Truck – as well as the Lucas Oil Off-Road Racing Series, the USAC Silver Crown Series, a handful of dirt modified series, and other customer programs in the off-road community. Triad made its mark under Gaunt’s watch, powering 10 manufacturer championships, five drivers’ titles, 112 race wins and 91 pole positions.
Gaunt focused on Triad Racing Technologies in 2009 and, once established, waded back into the waters of team ownership in 2010 with the formation of GBR.
From those humble beginnings in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series and K&N Pro Series, GBR is preparing to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the powerhouse teams of the NASCAR Cup Series.
Gaunt and his wife Cindy reside in Cornelius, North Carolina. They have two children, Shannon and Parker.
General Manager – Mark Chambers
Mark Chambers is the general manager at Gaunt Brothers Racing, responsible for all the competition-related elements of the NASCAR Cup Series team, including holistic oversight of its engineering capabilities.
Chambers holds an electrical engineering degree from Indiana State University and a master’s degree in business and data analytics from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC).
Shortly after graduating from Indiana State in May 1990, Chambers joined AlliedSignal, an aerospace, automotive and engineering company. There, he worked in the company’s aircraft wheel and brake systems division. But his true passion was motorsports, and Chambers was determined to break into the industry.
That break came with Pi Research, a U.K.-based manufacturer of data acquisition hardware and software designed specifically for race teams. Chambers provided product sales, management and support to a variety of series, most notably, NASCAR, INDYCAR and IMSA, as well as for such manufacturers as General Motors and Ford. By 1999, he was the vice president of business development for Pi Research, and with the company’s NASCAR business expanding, Chambers relocated to North Carolina to oversee a new office specifically created to serve the needs of Pi Research’s NASCAR customers.
That NASCAR connection led Chambers to join Richard Childress Racing in 2003, where he took a position within the NASCAR team’s burgeoning engineering department.
But Chambers’ entrepreneurial instincts drove him to start Race Data Solutions, Inc., in April 2014. His company provided data acquisition services to GM Racing and, specifically, Pratt Miller, an engineering and product development company that supports GM Racing’s interests, particularly in sports cars and NASCAR. Chambers’ efforts helped Corvette Racing win back-to-back American Le Mans Series GTS championships in 2004 and 2005, along with the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans in those same years.
Chambers was drawn back to NASCAR in October 2005 when he joined Bill Davis Racing as general manager of the team’s NASCAR Truck Series program. Chambers led Bill Davis Racing to more than 40 combined wins and poles, highlighted by the 2008 Truck Series championship with driver Johnny Benson.
Concurrently, Gaunt Brothers Racing team owner Marty Gaunt joined joined Bill Davis Racing in 2008, serving as general manager of the team’s NASCAR Cup Series operation. When Davis decided to sell the NASCAR team at the end of the season, Gaunt seized the opportunity to not only become a team owner, but an engine manufacturer by also purchasing Triad Racing Technologies.
Gaunt installed Chambers as the general manager and Triad Racing Technologies grew to become the exclusive distributor of Toyota parts in NASCAR. Triad leased engines to teams across all three NASCAR national touring series – Cup, Xfinity and Truck – as well as the Lucas Oil Off-Road Racing Series, the USAC Silver Crown Series, a handful of dirt modified series, and other customer programs in the off-road community. Triad made its mark, powering 10 manufacturer championships, five drivers’ titles, 112 race wins and 91 pole positions.
With Triad Racing Technologies well established, Gaunt formed Gaunt Brothers Racing in 2010, and of all the decisions that needed to be made to get the team up and running, choosing a general manager was easy. Chambers has been with the team since its inception, and in 2018 he picked up his master’s degree from UNCC.
Chambers resides in Huntersville, North Carolina, with his wife, Kim. The couple has two children, Kris and Lydia.
