After a short hiatus, the Gorsline Scholarship for Young Racers has been renewed in 2021. Joining such notable racers as inaugural recipient Bryan Herta, Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice, two-time IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden, NASCAR star Ricky Stenhouse and current sports car racing standouts Patrick Long, Colin Braun and Dane Cameron, Courtney Crone has been named the 2021 recipient of the Scholarship.
At only 20 years old, Crone already has a 16-year motorsports career that began on flat-track speedway motorcycles and included quarter midgets and sprint cars before moving to road racing in formula cars — all while completing her schooling with honors. For 2021, she is competing in IMSA’s Prototype Challenge in an LMP3 prototype fielded by Forty7 Motorsports. The Corona, California resident is the third female recipient of the Gorsline Scholarship, joining Danica Patrick and Katherine Legge — excellent company for a racer who has her eyes set on IndyCar and the Indianapolis 500.
“This is been such an honor,” said Crone upon being awarded the scholarship on a Race Industry Now Webcast presented by EPARTRADE and RACER. “I would like to express my deep gratitude to John and everyone at Gorsline Company for the nomination and the scholarship. It’s been such an honor to see my name against the likes of the past recipients.”
Some of the benefits of the scholarship, aside from Gorsline’s deep connections throughout the motorsports world, include training with Jim Leo of PitFit Training in Indianapolis, the leader in training for motorsports athletes. It also includes mental training from Jacques Dallaire, Ph.D, the founder of Performance Prime, and whose advice and book, Performance Thinking, have been heavily relied on by not only racers, but athletes in many other arenas as well.
“It was a great honor to be able to give a future champion, Courtney Crone, the Gorsline Company Scholarship,” said Gorsline. “Our business colleagues, Jim Leo at Pit Fit, Jacques Dallaire at Performance Prime and the team at Gorsline Company will support and guide Courtney to hone her skills and help her reach her goals.”
While Crone’s motorsports background is exceptionally varied, for the past few years she has concentrated on road racing and her ultimate goal of the Indy 500, although she can certainly see a future in sports car racing as well.
“The diversity comes from not having a big budget for a plan; I really got into anything I could possibly get into growing up,” she said. “The last few years I kind of defined my goal for where I really want to be, which is road racing. Just to be able to get into a lot of different forms of formula cars and this year transitioning into IMSA Prototype Challenge, it’s been very humbling and a lot of fun to be a part of all these different types of motorsports and get to know the variety of racing — not only the people, but the ways of racing. I think it’s been able to define my skills in the motorsports paddock.
“Deep down inside, I knew this is what I wanted to do,” she added. “It’s always been my passion and nothing else has really mattered to me other than getting to be at the track.”
Crone’s next IMSA Prototype Challenge race will be at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in May. You can learn more about her at https://courtneycroneracing.com.
Watch a video of the presentation below, or click here to watch on YouTube.