It’s a long way from the streets of Manhattan to the podium in Porsche Carrera Cup North America at Formula 1 events—but Yves Baltas has made that leap.
With no racetracks in sight growing up on New York City’s Upper West Side, Baltas’ rise through the ranks has been anything but conventional. Now a race winner and title contender in Porsche Carrera Cup North America, he’s proving that talent, resilience, and bold choices can overcome even the most unlikely beginnings.
“It was a complete mistake that we ended up on the track,” Baltas said. “It started more as a father-son hobby, and it kind of took off from there.”
What started as a weekend activity quickly escalated. The Baltas family traveled for karting events across the Northeast before committing fully to a European open-wheel path. At just 14 years old, Baltas moved to the United Kingdom to pursue racing.
“I didn’t really think about it at the time,” Baltas (now 23 years old) said. “My parents told me the best competition was in the UK. They said, ‘You can go to school and be with your friends or pursue racing.’ I didn’t hesitate. I said I’m going racing.”
With his parents still based in New York, while Baltas had family in London, he was mainly on his own, traveling between team facilities, simulators, and race tracks.
“I would be getting up at five in the morning to take the train, and then would be getting home at 10 p.m., every day of the week. At the time, it felt normal, but looking back now, it was pretty intense for a 14-year-old.”
He worked his way through British F4 and F3 before shifting gears into sports car racing. His first experience in GT competition came in Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup—one of the most competitive one-make series in the world, showcased on the Formula 1 stage.
“It was my first season of GTs, and I did it in Supercup with no testing or anything,” he said. “You’re up against the top 20 guys in the world, and three-tenths is the difference between first and twelfth. You don’t get time to settle in. It’s kill or be killed.”
Baltas described the 911 GT3 Cup car as a unique challenge, especially with limited seat time on Supercup weekends. “Each session’s 30 minutes, so you only get an hour and a half of driving per weekend,” he said. “You have to go in there fully knowing the car and trusting yourself. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend what I did, but I learned a lot.”
In 2024, he returned stateside to compete in Porsche Carrera Cup North America for the first time. The season was anything but smooth—he drove for three teams over the course of the year—but it ultimately led him to a full-time seat with ACI Motorsports.
This season, Baltas and ACI came to Miami determined to leave no doubt. The result: two huge wins and the team’s first-ever Pro class victories.
“We worked so hard at ACI to have those results,” he said. “Going from last year, where we’d never had a Pro win, to having two in one weekend was something extremely special. The car was amazing. It was really nice to kind of prove myself and put my name on the table.”
With another trip to Montreal coming up, Baltas wouldn’t mind a repeat of last year’s weather, within reason.
“I’d love to see a wet race,” he said. “Not as wet as last year, because I’d actually like the race to finish and not end under safety car. But maybe a wet qualifying and dry races. That’d be fun.”
The 2024 title fight has only intensified with the return of defending champion Riley Dickinson, but Baltas welcomes the competition.
“When I found out Riley was coming back, I was happy because I’d rather compete for a championship against someone who people call one of the best.”
Split between shops in Braselton, Georgia, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, ACI Motorsports has its eyes on Porsche Carrera Cup North America and Pirelli GT4 America for 2025. While the former series sees drivers take on solo efforts, Swearingin’s latter entry welcomes past Carrera Cup champion Riley Dickinson as a co-driver and also for his debut in the SRO paddock.
The team’s second car features former Porsche Sprint Challenge North America racer Dan Sibille with Dutch former Carrera Cup aces Loek Hartog and Kay van Berlo splitting the co-driving duties. Van Berlo is filling in for his fellow Dutchman at a number of rounds despite officially “retiring” to concentrate on his business career after his championship success last year.
“Kay being the dedicated person that he is, I wasn’t surprised by his retirement and going to live his dream in a different way,” said Swearingin.
“When Kay let me know he was going to be doing that, we consulted with him on the guys we were looking to replace him. We all put our heads together, and it was a pretty easy choice.”
Looking further ahead, Baltas sees his future in endurance racing, with Porsche still central to that vision.
“I’d love to be driving a Porsche in an endurance championship—whether that be in the U.S. or Europe,” he said. “But right now, my 100 percent focus is on this season. It’ll dictate my career in the future.”
For a kid who stumbled into racing by accident and left home at 14 to chase a dream, Baltas has come a long way. Now firmly part of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America front-running group with ACI Motorsports, he’s not just proving he belongs—he’s aiming for more.
