Marotti Autosport is working to field a co-entry for the Indianapolis 500.

Will Marotti’s first Indy 500 participation came in 2016 with an associate sponsor he brought in a co-entry arrangement with the team known today as Arrow McLaren SP (main image), and he returned with other companies to share the entry billing with Dale Coyne Racing/Thom Burns Racing and Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan in subsequent 500s using Honda power.

Through his New Haven-based Marotti Autosport business, the pastor from Connecticut says he’s raised funds to engage with a team and driver for the Indy 500 that would be new for him.

“I’m leaving tomorrow for Indianapolis, and I’ll be there Wednesday all day for sponsor meetings,” Marotti told RACER. “We’ve got we’ve got some resources squirreled away through an investor club that we put together, and some commitments from some other sponsors, and I think we’re close to getting where we need to be. And we’ve got a commitment from a team and a driver.”

Although Marotti wouldn’t be drawn on the identity of the former and the latter, he did indicate which engine supplier camp he’d fall in if the full budget is secured.

“We were hoping to break into ownership this year with a car, but as we were in the process of trying to raise money for it, nobody was really interested in selling any cars,” he said. “And then the real trajectory change came in December when I spoke with Chevrolet and they suggested I really needed to find an existing team and partner. So that’s what we’ve done.”

Marotti has given himself until the end of February to reach his sponsorship goal to field the ‘Spirit of Speedway’ entry which would celebrate the home town of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and its people. The Indy 500 has a rich tradition of city-themed entries, with Spike Gelhausen’s ‘Spirit of Indiana’ from 1976 and a variety of others featuring Santa Ana, Tulsa, Daytona Beach, New Orleans and more that have made the great race.

“I have a timeline of the end of the month to make this happen, and I’m feeling encouraged about where it’s going,” he said. “There have been some famous ‘Spirit of’ entries in the Indy 500 that have gone before, but we did a lot of research and don’t see anywhere in the 105-year history of the race where Speedway has been the city that was honored on a car, so that’s what we’re aiming to do.”