PitLane Director was born inside a Longhorn Sim Racing broadcast booth at UT Austin. Today, that same university is backing the company forward.
PitLane Systems has been selected as a 2026 McCombs Entrepreneur Summer Fellow by the Harkey Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at The University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business, with funding awarded to support PitLane through the summer of 2026.
For a small, founder-led company building software for a niche corner of motorsport, this kind of independent recognition matters.
Backed by where it started
PitLane Director didn't begin in an incubator or a pitch deck. It started inside a Longhorn Sim Racing broadcast booth, born out of a problem the team kept running into every race weekend: the tools sim racing broadcasters needed simply didn't exist.
The first version was rough — built quickly to solve a problem that wouldn't go away. The current version is a real product, in real use, refined alongside the broadcasters who actually need it.
That arc — from a broadcast booth at UT Austin to a company backed by UT Austin's own entrepreneurship program — makes this fellowship feel particularly fitting.
What the fellowship means
The Harkey Institute supports a cohort of student founders from across the University each year. Selection is competitive, and the recognition itself matters as much as the funding — independent validation from outside the sim racing world that what we're building is worth building.
We're glad to be in this year's cohort, and grateful to the Harkey Institute and McCombs for the support.
What's next
Recognition aside, the work continues. PitLane Director AC is in closed beta testing with the first wave of broadcasters, being refined against real production feedback, and continuing to build toward a public launch.
If you run a sim racing league, produce broadcasts, or want to follow along, you can join the waitlist or reach out directly at gray@pitlanesystems.com.
Thank you to the Harkey Institute, McCombs, and everyone who's been a part of PitLane's story so far.