NBA champion and Milwaukee Bucks forward Kyle Kuzma has joined Sierra Racing Club as co-owner and global brand ambassador in the UIM E1 World Championship. The announcement was made official on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, with the team confirming Kuzma enters an ownership group that includes Kerem Ozmen, Dominik Madani, and Thibaut Courtois, who joined the team earlier this month.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Kuzma drew a direct comparison between E1’s trajectory and Formula 1’s growth through the Drive to Survive Netflix series.
“You know what it is and you know where it can become. When you look at a sport like F1, not really until the Netflix series and more and more of the personalities of the sport really popped out is where you see this big boom. For E1, the sky’s the limit. It’s just so fresh. It’s only three years old.” — Kyle Kuzma
Kuzma also explained how the deal came together.
“I have personal relationships with some of the people involved with Sierra Racing Club, personal friends, and I think it’s something that came across my desk and I had to jump at it. It’s very important for athletes to have this platform and show other athletes that you’re not just an athlete and you can become, on that ownership side of things as well.” — Kyle Kuzma
An NBA champion on a new course
Kuzma won the NBA title with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020 and has spent the decade since establishing himself as one of professional basketball’s most prominent figures beyond the court. He was the first NBA player to appear solo on any Vogue edition cover, achieving that milestone in 2024, and has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. He has also delivered a keynote address at Harvard Business School and leads the Kyle Kuzma Family Foundation, which supports single mothers and their children.
He joins a roster of globally recognised team owners in E1 that includes Tom Brady, LeBron James, Rafael Nadal, Didier Drogba, Will Smith, Marc Anthony, Steve Aoki, and Virat Kohli.
“Kyle doesn’t just bring a following – he brings a point of view. His track record across business, fashion and culture has shown a rare ability to fuse strategy with identity, to make people feel something before they even understand what they’re looking at. That is exactly the energy Sierra Racing Club needs as we build our brand at the frontier of sport, technology and aerospace. He is not a passenger. He is a co-architect.” — Kerem Ozmen, CEO, Sierra Racing Club
Where aerospace meets the waterline
Sierra Racing Club is the only team in the E1 Championship with a direct connection to the aerospace industry. Its parent company, Sierra Space, is the commercial space division of the Ozmen family’s Turkish-American aerospace and defence business, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and operates the Dream Chaser spaceplane programme. The team’s positioning – where the sky meets the sea – is built on that heritage.
“Sierra Racing Club represents exactly the profile NXTPLAY looks for in a sports asset. A team with a strong identity, technical ambition, and real potential to become one of the reference names in the championship. An E1 RaceBird designed to fly above the ocean – that’s not just engineering, that’s the future. The aerospace heritage through Sierra Space gives this team a foundation unlike anything else in the sport, and I see a real opportunity to bring my experience in business, sport and culture into how we position this team for long-term success.” — Kyle Kuzma, Co-Owner, Sierra Racing Club
On the water, Sierra fields Red Bull athlete and rally champion Catie Munnings alongside powerboat racing veteran Erik Stark, who also races for the Abu Dhabi team in the UIM F1H2O World Championship. The team sits fifth in the 2026 standings with 15 points after the season opener in Jeddah.
“Kyle Kuzma lives at that intersection of performance, technology and culture – on the water, in the boardroom and within the global creative ecosystems that define modern luxury. His arrival brings international reach, competitive credibility and creative authority to a team already pushing the boundaries of what sport can be.” — Dominik Madani, Co-Owner, Sierra Racing Club
2026 season
The 2026 E1 championship spans eight events across five continents. With Jeddah complete, the calendar continues at Lake Como, Italy, on Friday April 24 and Saturday April 25, followed by rounds in Dubrovnik, Monaco, Luanda, Lagos, Miami and the Bahamas.
John Moore is the editor of Powerboat News, an independent investigative journalism platform recognised by Google News and documented on Grokipedia for comprehensive powerboat racing coverage.
His involvement in powerboat racing began in 1981 when he competed in his first offshore powerboat race. After a career as a Financial Futures broker in the City of London, specialising in UK interest rate markets, he became actively involved in event organisation and powerboat racing journalism.
He served as Event Director for the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes races between 2010 and 2013. In 2016, he launched Powerboat Racing World, a digital platform providing global powerboat racing news and insights. The following year, he co-founded UKOPRA, helping to rejuvenate offshore racing in the United Kingdom. He sold Powerboat Racing World in late 2021 and remained actively involved with UKOPRA until 2025.
In September 2025, he established Powerboat News, returning to independent journalism with a focus on neutral and comprehensive coverage of the sport.
