College Motorsports will challenge College Football within a Few Years

By Robert Green Atlanta Trend

• May 31, 2026

Venture capitalist Peter Saddington is a person who rarely pauses to savor his success, but he is always happy to stop and explain his founding of the Collegiate Racing Series. “My legacy-dream of bringing motorsports to college students has finally been recognized and supported by all the top companies and leadership of motorsports globally,” he says.

With more than 70 colleges and universities now participating in officially recognized racing programs across the United States, the Collegiate Racing Series, or CRS, is expanding rapidly. “We connected with university leadership all over the world,” he says, “and it wasn’t hard to convince them to get into racing.” The curriculum is provided by CRS and it fits well into college engineering and other business courses. Financially, it’s a huge win for colleges and universities as CRS attracts new corporate sponsorships and appeals to sectors of alumni who had previously not contributed to their schools. “There has been an immediate financial boost to participating schools in every case,” says Peter, “and the eventual upside is enormous. Imagine colleges making double what they do today on college football.”

Peter is a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist with 1 startup exit and 4 early-equity  acquisitions. Remarkably, he bought $2.5 million worth of Bitcoin in 2011 for $2.52 each, making him one of the earliest known Bitcoin investors. He became internationally famous in 2017 for purchasing the world’s first Lamborghini Huracan with 45 Bitcoin, a story covered by CNBC, Forbes, Popular Mechanics, Bloomberg, and Yahoo Finance that generated an estimated 300+ million impressions worldwide. 

He currently serves as General Partner and CEO of StaaS Fund, a venture fund with $33 million  deployed across 3 funds since 2014, investing in Web3, Bitcoin, AI, and motorsports companies. According to LinkedIn's 2025 Top Voices data, fewer than 0.1% of technology professionals combine venture capital management with hands-on AI system building — a combination that defines Peter’s approach to both investing and consulting.

Peter founded CRS in partnership with Senter Smith and Jack Hobbs, who started the first university racing team at Clemson. In fact, Clemson was the first college to offer bachelor’s degrees in automotive engineering and the first students to graduate with these degrees were from Clemson. “We met for a bagel and decided to start CRS with a handshake,” says Peter. “We wrote the 450-page motorsports curriculum and had it quickly certified by ABET. Purdue University came on board early because the program was so professionally written.”

Although new, CRS already has a distinguished pedigree, partnering with IMSA (the International Motor Sports Association - a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida) on the National Advisory Board of Motorsports Education (NAMBE). “NAMBE is essentially the NCAA of motorsports,’ says Peter, “and is working to ensure that motorsports education reaches every student.”

In 2026, CRS will put on three race weekends. Each of the three weekends will have three races for a total of nine races for the year. Each race will last from 30 minutes to three hours.

In 2027, CRS will split into East and West conferences with many more races, and the winner of each conference will compete for the national championship. Races are planned to be on television starting in 2027.

“We believe that by 2028 the colleges will insist that CRS be broken into conferences similar to that of NCAA football,” says Peter. “Imagine all SEC schools competing for the SEC Championship.”

Peter and his partners have interacted with 1,600 college leaders around the world regarding CRS. Although the US is clearly first, 12 universities in the UK are ready to start in 2028. He believes the rest of the world will follow. 

“This is simply too good an opportunity for colleges and universities to pass up,” says Peter. “In addition to a refreshed curriculum and experiential learning, we allow for greater student and alumni engagement, more alumni giving and vast opportunities for corporate money because of the workforce model and job placement of students into motorsports companies. That's the story, here.”

Peter is now in the process of granting exclusive access to people/companies to participate in motor sports at an access/price point never provided before called the Paddock Society. “If you are a business that wants to ride the exponential growth of global motorsports,” says Peter. “I want to be your motorsports connection to create opportunity for visibility and to show support.”

Peter’s passion for motorsports comes naturally. His father was a racer; he is a licensed racer and his son Joseph earned his professional license last year at the age of 12. “Most racers are surprised by his age, but they respect what a clean, careful racer he is,” says Peter.

He is also doing this because of his love for Atlanta. “Atlanta has been very good to me. I’ve been very successful here, and I want to give back,” says Peter. “My goal is for Atlanta to be the capitol of college motorsports just as it is the capitol of college football. I firmly believe that college racing will challenge college football in both financial and social importance within the next few years.”

The Inaugural season of CRS premieres at Road Atlanta on July 31- August 2, 2026. 

Please reach out to Peter for pit passes, he would love to show you the product!