COSMO-SPORT's Professional INSTRUCTORS

Guy Cosmo

Founder of Cosmo-Sport, Guy Cosmo is one of the most successful and versatile young racing drivers of his day.  Having begun his driving career as a father-son hobby racing go-karts, the two 'Guys' quickly realized a career in motorsports was no pipe-dream.  After seven years of intense karting competition with numerous race wins and championships throughout North America, Guy was invited to compete in the World Championship of Karting in France, where he not only proved his speed and skill as an internationally-competitive driver, but also proved that American drivers weren't so well recieved in European kart racing, such as in Formula One, and returned home from his trip with a number of bumps and bruises!  Guy and his father then moved to Formula Cars where Guy won both races and championship titles in Formula Ford, Formula 2000 and the Star Mazda North American Championship- and notched solid results in the Toyota Atlantic Championship and tested an Indy Lights car - all with hopes of a career in Champ Cars.  However, as with countless drivers world-wide, opportunity was slim and Guy quickly found opportunity and succes in Sportscar Racing.  Guy has since proven himself as a top-level front-runner in the Grand-Am Rolex Series driving Daytona Prototypes, became the 2005 Rookie of the Year in the American Le Mans Series driving an LMP-2 Prototype for the factory Mazda program and claimed wins in the KONI Challenge Series GS and ST categories.  Guy keeps busy between his hectic racing schedule as a much sought-after driver coach for clients nation-wide, providing private driver coaching and instruction in series like Ferrari Challenge, IMSA Cup, Porsche Club, Star Mazda, Formula BMW, Rolex GT, KONI Challenge, Historics and many others, in addition to teaching for a number of sports car and super car driving programs.  In his remaining few minutes of the day, Guy exercises his entrepreneurial side focusing on the day-to-day management and operation of Cosmo-Sport, COSMEDIA and his continually growing driving career.

Experience: Grand-Am Rolex Series, KONI Challenge, American Le Mans, Toyota Atlantic, Star Mazda, USF2000, Scandinavian F2000, SCCA, PBOC, PCA, CHIN, NASA

Shane Lewis

Daytona Prototype driver Shane Lewis has been racing since 1989.  He has won multiple races in Grand-Am, IMSA ,SCCA Pro Racing and has podium finishes, class victories and overall wins throughout the world.  Lewis has driven in twenty four 24-hour races including three 24 Hours of Le Mans , ten 24 Hours of Daytona, two 24 hours of Nurburgring and has two overall and one class-victory at the 24 Hours of Nelson Ledges.   He has raced in seven 12 Hours of Sebring, five Petit Le Mans, four One Lap of Americas and was the 1998 Professional Sports Car Racing Rising Star award winner.  He acted as lead test driver for Don Alexander's best selling book 'Performance Handling for the 90's'.  In addition to racing, Lewis offers private driving instruction and race coaching.

Experience: Grand-Am Rolex Series, KONI Challenge, American Le Mans, IRL, Indy Pro, FIA GT, PCA, PBOC, SCCA, Historic GP, CHIN

 

Buzz Marcus

4 Time SCCA Champion
Major wins include:
Mid-Ohio IMSA 6 hour
Vineland 4 hour in Lola T-0
Raced in all major Enduro's Daytona 24 and Sebring 12 hour

Experience: SCCA, IMSA, Grand-Am Cup, Chin Motorsports, PBOC, 47 Years of racing

Doug Smith

Like most rising young stars, Doug Smith began his career racing go-karts at a young age, and quickly graduated to the Formula Car ranks where he pursued his dream of racing Indy Cars.  After competitive runs and race wins in the Formula Ford and Formula 2000 Championships Doug realized his passion for Sportscar Racing after getting behind the wheel of numerous historic IMSA GTP and Le Mans Prototype cars.  Doug successfully made the transition to sportscar racing and continues to drive historic cars in vintage racing events such as HSR and SVRA, as well as competing on occasion in the KONI Challenge Series and Grand-Am Daytona Prototype and GT categories.  Doug is also a long-time lead instructor for the Panoz and Skip Barber Racing Schools, Audi Driving programs and private instructor to numerous club racers in all levels of racing.
Experience: KONI Challenge Series, Grand-Am Rolex, USF2000, Historic GP, SCCA, NASA, PBOC, PCA

 

Nick Fanelli

A native Floridian, Nick Fanelli first got his taste for speed from his father, who served as a fighter jet pilot in the Air Force flying F-15's.  However, Nick prefered the twisting asphalt instead of the open skies.  Working at a young age for a Kart Racing school, Nick began his driving career in go-karts and graduated to open-wheel formula cars racing Formula Ford in SCCA and then in the Formula 2000 Series.  After a hiatus from racing Nick returned to the track competing in the KONI Challenge Series where he continues to make appearances every year.  Nick's value as a natural leader and driving instructor was duly recognized, having secured lead instructor positions for the Panoz and Skip Barber Racing Schools, the Porsche Driving Experience and serves as program lead for Automotive Marketing programs nation-wide for companies such as Toyota, Lexus, Acura, Maserati, Goodyear, BF Goodrich, and AMG Mercedez, to name a few.  Nick  also holds one of the coveted positions as a driver in the American Le Mans Series Vitesse program.
Experience: KONI Challenge Series, USF2000, SCCA, PBOC, PCA

  

Chris Hall

Experience: Grand-Am Rolex Series, KONI Challenge Series, NASCAR, USAC, IMSA, SCCA, PBOC, NASA, Historics, British Formula Ford & Renault. 30 years racing, coaching, teaching experience.

 

Jeff Segal

The youngest of the Cosmo-Sport instructors, Jeff Segal quickly moved through the karting ranks to graduate to GT racing, where he became the youngest-ever race winner in the North American Ferrari Challenge Series - where he was shortly thereafter banned from competition for being far too fast for the 'Gentleman Racing'  series.  Jeff then had a successful run in the Formula BMW development series before competing in his first 24 Hours of Daytona event in Grand-Am competition.  As Jeff forewarned from his first laps at Daytona, he would be a respected as a fierce competitor by drivers with far more experience than he.  Jeff immediately found success in Grand-Am and went on to win overall the 2007 KONI Challenge Championship driving a BMW M3 against many of the world's best drivers, while also competing in select Rolex GT events yet again proving his skill.  Jeff will defend his championship this season in KONI Challenge competition while pulling double-duty and contesting a full season of Rolex GT competition serving as lead driver for the Factory Mazda RX-8 program.  Jeff spends his time between races with private driver instruction and coaching in series such as Ferrari Challenge and high-end sportscar program nation-wide.