Cars Yeah With Mark Greene

Jeffrey O’Neill is the Founder of The Velocity Invitational, an auto racing event that showcases the evolution of motorsports technology and ingenuity. The event started in 2019 at the Sonoma Speed Festival and after the COVIC-forced pause in 2020 the vent came back with a vengeance and new name. The new event took place at Laguna Seca as a three-day weekend filled with hundreds of iconic race cars, historic racing, special exhibitions, food, wine, and more. This year’s event returns to Sonoma Speedway on November 10, 11, and 12 and expects to attract over 10,000 visitors. Jeffrey has always had a passion for race cars alongside his passion for wine and distilling. He is the Founder and CEO of O’Neill Vintners and Distillers located in California’s Central Valley.

Jerry Cox is a Washington-DC based lawyer and crisis communications advisor with 40 years of experience with airbags in automobiles. He played a substantial role in implementing the airbag requirement and has represented numerous auto industry organizations, including the used car dealers’ association, auto auctions, Carfax and state motor vehicle administrators. Takata Corporation hired him in 2014 to help explain a problem the company was having with its airbags. They were blowing up in driver’s faces, shooting shrapnel, killing and severely injuring people. Jerry wrote a book titled, Killer Airbags: The Deadly Secret Automakers Don’t Want You to Know, how that turned into the biggest recall of any consumer product in history. Today he returns for some potentially life-saving updates on this airbag disaster.

Karen Brown is the Vice President of Events and Experiential Marketing for the Motor Trend Group, part of Warner Brothers Discovery. She is a powerhouse communicator, collaborator, innovator, and ideator. Karen continues to cultivate an expansive variety of events and initiatives while leading the internal team in development and execution of high-level events and sponsorship activations. She has had an extensive career in account management, experiential marketing, sponsorship activation, digital account management and program creation within such organizations as The Garage Team Mazda, Deutsch, David & Goliath as well as Disney ABC Television Group prior to joining the Motor Trend Group.

Dr. David Whyley is recognized as the world’s leading authority on Austin pedal cars. His previous book on Austin pedal cars has become much sought-after and his new book titled The Austin Pedal Car Story is a fascinating history of Austin’s J40 and Pathfinder from 1946 to present day. David has owned and restored several classic Austins and is an acknowledged expert and advisor for the rare Austin A40 Sports and Austin Atlantic Convertible. He has also written a number of books about the Austin Counties cars, such as the A40 Dorset, Devon and Somerset models, from 1945–54 and writes regularly for the Austin Counties Car Club magazine. 

Brian Jones is the Vice President of Engineering at Hennessey Special Vehicles and Hennessey Performance Engineering. He oversees all engineering and development applying his experience and expertise to advanced Powertrain development integration, testing, regulatory certification, and manufacturing of the Hennessey Venom F5 hypercar plus the range of high-performance vehicles modified by Hennessey Performance at the company’s Texas production facility. 

Colleen Sheehan is the Sales Manager at Ferraris Online, a company her father Michael Sheehan founded in 1972, 49 years ago. They offer decades of experience as specialty brokers of exotic cars including Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Maserati. Colleen’s passion for cars started at the age of 8 when her father gave her a 1930 BMW 3/15 DA2 that they restored. In 2003, when she was 11, that car was accepted onto the lawn at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and she drove it across the podium to accept an award setting a record as the youngest to ever do so. Today she shares her passion for cars while helping clients achieve their dream car or selling to the next caregiver.

Don Weberg and Eric Monterestelli have both been in the automobile industry for years. Don launched Garage Style Magazine in 2008 and Eric has been involved in motorsports and automobiles founding Gran Touring Motorsports in 2014 and his Break-Fix podcast. Both men have teamed up to create an affiliate network with five digital publications and are working toward creating a single company that will house all their business entities under one roof. The plans include publishing  specialty books and cultivating new clients to help facilitate their marketing and PR needs providing a multitudes of services.

Jasper Drengler is a racer who last spring became the first driver to race in all 50 states. Since he could crawl, Jasper has been infatuated with cars and the first 17 years of his life he attended the Indy 500. He spent most weekends at Wisconsin short tracks watching races and after finishing school he hopped into a race car and started racing himself, sometimes as much as 5 times a week. Over the last 23 years he’s earned some championships at local tracks, touring series, and an SCCA conference championship. Jasper also spent several years racing professionally.

RJ de Vera is the Vice President of Marketing for the Specialty Equipment Market Association, known as SEMA. It’s a nonprofit trade association founded in 1963 that represents the $51.8 billion specialty-automotive industry. RJ joined SEMA in 2022 after 12 years at 3M Company, a multi-national Fortune 100 organization, helping lead the Meguiar’s Car Care Brand under various roles, including Global Leader of Communications & Digital Marketing, Leader of Customer Engagement Group, Associate Director of Public Relations & Event Marketing, and Business Development & Product Marketing Manager.

Luiz Veiga is an automotive designer, fine artist, and a musician. His long career includes working at General Motors Brazil, Volkswagen, Chrysler, and he worked as a professional marketer, illustrator, stylist, senior designer, director of design, and as a member of the Volkswagen Design Group in Germany. Luiz has worked in numerous design studios around the world including Sao Paulo, Wolfsburg and Berlin in Germany, Detroit, Italy, China, Mexico, and the United States. He was awarded with the IF Design Award in Germany and today, among other projects, Luiz is developing exotic electric vehicles for AQUAM, a United States startup.

Nathan Hecht is the Founder and CEO of Cario, his latest venture that recently spun out of Rodo, another company he founded. Cario as a transformational platform to digitize and transfer the vehicle title in a matter of minutes on a blockchain infrastructure. Nathan founded Rodo after his first attempt to lease a car from a dealership. Nathan’s past projects and roles include Founder and CEO of Dstrux, acclaimed platform for self-destructing files on the web, as well as Kurrenci, the internet’s first virtual currency platform. 

Alex Qi is the Chief Executive Officer at Pontosense where they are at the forefront of driving innovation through cutting-edge sensor technologies that enhance your driving experience and can save lives. Pontosense was founded with a mission to fundamentally change everyday technology by expanding the relationship between humans and machines. Pontosense is the first company in the world to adhere to EuroNCAP regulations. 

Dan Palatnik is a graphic artist whose career included freelance illustration for ad agencies in the 80s. What began as a new technique evolved into a full time occupation. Since 2003 he has been creating classic car 3dmodeling for restoration projects, real builds, scale models, and custom cars plus visualizations for clients worldwide. He made renders for various local classic car chapter events and contributed with visual information creating cars that became extinct along the course of History. A passion turned into business, having created more than 300 US, European, Brazilian, and Japanese car models, in stock, custom and phantom concept form.

Craig Blake-Jones is the Founder and CEO of Paddock-Life magazine and Paddock-Speedshop TV show. A born petrol head whose career started in fashion, turned a corner into music, which in turn landed in film & television. Criag created Paddock Life magazine in 2014 as a lifestyle journal and into the wonderful world of racing, classic cars and all things automotive. Designed to be a cool coffee table collectable, Paddock Life is 180 pages of gloriously printed and presented petrol hedonism. In 2020, working with his 2 sons Ethan and Harvey, they brought petrol head Lucy Busby on board and built the Paddock Speedshop to create a TV series restoration show that appealed to a younger audience. They are using the Speedshop to bring a new generation of petrol heads into our established brand.

Judson Dayton is one of this year’s Willard J. Marriott Ferrari Club organizers at the fourth annual Chattanooga Motorcar Festival. Jud’s been an automotive enthusiast his entire life and has participated in many automotive events including the Cavallino, numerous Ferrari Club of America avents, Wheels of Italy in Minneapolis, and his Ferrari 250 SWB won best of show at Amelia Island Concours Festival of Speed. Jud shares some great stories abouthis Ferrari.

Ken Gross is the Concours Director for this year’s Fourth Annual Chattanooga Motorcar Festival, a three-day festival that includes multiple events including a wheel-to-wheel race car exhibitions, and a Concours d’Elegance and more. Ken’s career in the automotive world includes time as the Executive Director and Guest Curator for the Petersen Automotive Museum. He’s curated numerous highly acclaimed exhibitions across the country. He’s authored over 25 automotive books on a wide variety of historic vehicles, and is a member of ICJAG, the International Chief Judge Advisory Group. Ken has judged in most of the finest Concours d’Elegances in the world and had received the Automotive Hall of Fame Distinguished Service Citation, the Lorin Tryon Trophy at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, The Ken Purdy award from the International Motor Press Association, and the Dean Bachelor Lifetime Achievement Award to name just a few.

Corky Coker is the Grand Marshal Emeritus for this year’s Fourth Annual Chattanooga Motorcar Festival, a three-day event that includes a Rallye, multiple events, and Concours d’Elegance. Corky assumed the leadership role in the Coker Family’s BF Goodrich tire dealership in 1974 and for the next 45 years he and his team helped define the collector-car hobby. Coker tires solved the challenge of finding the right tires for your collector cars. The company grew to the largest supplier of collector vehicle tires with distribution in over 50 countries. He sold his business in 2018 and retained the Honest Charley Speed Shop in downtown Chattanooga where he shares over 180 vintage cars and motorcycles. 

Luigi Chinetti Jr. is this year’s Grand Marshal at the fourth annual Chattanooga Motorcar Festival. His father’s pre-World War II life in Milan and Paris with Alfa-Romeo as well as Talbot-Lago, led to his becoming the exclusive North American importer of Ferrari automobiles and the founding of the North American Racing Team. NART gave Luigi the opportunity to fulfill his own ambitions of racing and designing automobiles. He has done both, finishing 5th overall at Le Mans as well as winning his class at the Daytona 24hour Endurance race in a 312P Ferrari with a body he designed himself. He has also overseen the restoration of a number of highly significant Ferrari racing cars several of which required complete restorations. Luigi has distinguished himself both as a driver and designer.

Donald Osborne is the Chief Executive Officer at Audrain in Newport, Rhode Island where he oversees the Audrain Automobile Museum, Audrain’s Newport Concours d’Elegance & Motor Week, and Linkage, a quarterly automotive publication and website. With their tagline “Geard for the Automotive Life” Linkage is all about the automotive marketplace, driving, restoration, collecting, events, and discovering the passion for vehicles. You’ll recognize Donald from his appearances on Jay Leno’s Garage and the Audrain videos and you’ll find him walking the lawns of numerous concours events around the world.

Jeff DeMarey is a passionate auto enthusiast, collector, and insurance agent. Nearly twenty years ago, he started Stonewall Insurance Group, to specialize in protecting classic cars and getting them the coverage they deserve. He currently serves on the National Board of Directors for the Classic Car Club of America. He also serves as a judge at some of the most prestigious auto events in the country, such as The Amelia and Greenwich Concours d’Elegance. Recognizing the aging crowd at classic car events, he has recently, started the Springfield to Boston Education Foundation, a charity aiming to inspire, educate, and motivate students, while providing them with the necessary tools to learn about the world of classic and collector cars.