Alex Tagliani

Alex Tagliani 2016

Alex Tagliani 2012 in Detroit

Alex Tagliani in the 2015 Canadian Tire Series

Alexandre "Alex" Tagliani (born October 18, 1972 in Montreal ) is a Canadian racing driver . He competed in the Champ Car series from 2000 to 2007 . He was active in the IndyCar Series from 2008 to 2016 . From 2007 to 2016 he started with interruptions in the NASCAR Pinty's Series .

Career

Tagliani, whose father was from Italy , came into contact with karting for the first time at the age of ten when his grandfather visited Italy . After Tagliani was active in karting for a few years, he began his formula racing career in the Canadian Formula Ford in 1994 , in which he finished fourth in the overall standings in the 1995 season.

In 1996 Tagliani moved to the Atlantic Championship for P-1 Racing . While his teammate Lee Bentham was runner-up, Tagliani finished his debut season in seventh place overall. Third place was his best result. In 1997 Tagliani played his second season in the Atlantic Championship for Forsythe Racing . He won two races and was third in the championship. Within the team he prevailed against Bertrand Godin with 123 to 121 points . In 1998, Tagliani stayed with Forsythe Racing and achieved fifth place in the drivers' championship with two wins. Bentham, his team-mate, became champions that year. In 1999 Tagliani completed his fourth season of the Atlantic Championship and started again for Forsythe Racing. As in the previous season, he won two races and was fourth in the championship. So he prevailed this season against Bentham, who was again his teammate and finished the season in sixth place.

In 2000 Tagliani switched to the CART series and stayed with Forsythe Racing. In his debut season, Tagliani scored points in a number of races and finished 16th overall at the end of the season. Tagliani achieved his best placement in the second race of the season in Long Beach , where he finished fourth. 2001 Tagliani contested his second CART season for Forsythe Racing. At the Lausitzring, Tagliani had an unfortunate collision with the spinning Alessandro Zanardi , who was seriously injured in the accident and lost both legs. Tagliani achieved three podiums in 2001 and was eleventh in the overall standings, just behind his teammate Patrick Carpentier . In 2002 , Tagliani completed his third season in the CART series and stayed with Forsythe Racing with Carpentier. He got two second places and in the overall ranking Tagliani took eighth place overall. In 2003 Tagliani switched to Rocketsports Racing after he was replaced at Forsythe Racing by the eventual overall winner Paul Tracy . Tagliani finished on the podium three times during the season and was tenth overall. In 2004 Tagliani stayed with Rocketsport. Tagliani won his first race at the Elkhart Lake race. At the end of the season, Tagliani was in seventh place overall.

In 2005 Tagliani moved to Team Australia and was again seventh in the overall standings. He also completed two races in the V8 Supercar Championship Series . In 2005 Tagliani, who remained loyal to his team, finished eighth overall. In 2007 Tagliani returned to Rocketsport and finished tenth overall at the end of the season. Tagliani was the best pilot from Canada for the first time in 2007. He also made his debut in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series , where he participated in two races. For 2008 Tagliani planned to compete in the Champ Car Series for KV Racing Technology . However, due to the reunification of the Champ Car and the IndyCar Series , this engagement no longer took place. Tagliani started for Walker Racing in the last race of the Champ Car Series in Long Beach . Tagliani contested a total of 132 races in the Champ Car Series.

Due to an injury to Enrique Bernoldi , Tagliani contested the last three races of the 2008 IndyCar Series season for Conquest Racing . In addition, he entered nine races of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series and won one race. For the 2009 season Tagliani was signed by Conquest Racing. He only took part in six races of the season and finished 22nd in the overall classification at the end of the season. He also completed two races each in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series and the NASCAR Nationwide Series . In 2010 the Tagliani took part in the IndyCar Series for the new FAZZT Race Team . In the first race he retired after a collision after starting the race from second place on the grid. In the further course of the season, fourth place followed as the best result. At the end of the season he finished 13th overall. He also made two guest starts in the V8 Supercar Championship Series.

In 2011 Tagliani should complete his second season for the FAZZT Race Team. Shortly before the start of the season, the racing team was taken over by Sam Schmidt Motorsports . Tagliani's contract remained. Tagliani took pole position in the Indianapolis 500 . In the race, however, he retired in 28th place. Since he had been noticed in the first ten events by two collisions he had caused, he drove on parole until the end of the season. Two races before the end of the season he was replaced by Dan Wheldon , who had a fatal accident at the season finale, and in return received Wheldon's cockpit at Bryan Herta Autosport at the season finale . At the end of the season he finished 15th overall with two fourth places as the best results. In addition, Tagliani took part in 2011 in two races each of the V8 Supercar Championship Series and the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series and entered a NASCAR Nationwide race, which he finished in second place.

In 2012 Tagliani competed in the IndyCar Series for Bryan Herta Autosport. Tagliani and his team initially received factory support from the engine manufacturer Lotus . After the third race, his team ended their collaboration with Lotus and switched to Honda . The team decided not to take part in the fourth race in São Paulo . Since Tagliani was not in the top 22 at the time, the series would not have covered the travel expenses. In qualifying for the sixth race in Detroit , he qualified for third place, but had problems in the start phase, so that he followed the field from last place. In the race, however, he achieved his first top 10 finish of the season in tenth place. A race later in Fort Worth , he started from pole position and finished in ninth place. At the Edmonton Indy he was in the lead for most of the laps, but did not manage to maintain it until the end of the race. He finally achieved his best result of the season with a fifth place. Tagliani finished the season in 17th place. He also went to a race in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. He achieved pole position. Tagliani also took part in two races in the Rolex Sports Car Series . In 2013 Tagliani initially stayed with Bryan Herta Autosport in the IndyCar Series. After he had finished tenth twice in the first 13 races, he was replaced for the remaining six races of the season by Luca Filippi and JR Hildebrand , who shared the cockpit. For the last race in Fontana , Tagliani got a place with Chip Ganassi Racing at short notice . He represented Dario Franchitti there , who was out due to an injury. Tagliani was in 24th place in the drivers' standings at the end of the season. In addition, he started a race in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series and three races in the Rolex Sports Car Series.

In 2014 Tagliani competed in a number of races for RSR Racing in the PC class of the United SportsCar Championship . He reached 17th place overall. He also drove in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, in which he was ninth. He completed individual races in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series . He also returned to formula racing for the Indianapolis 500 . He competed for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing . In 2015 Tagliani started in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. He won a race and was ninth in the drivers' championship. He also competed in one race each in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (formerly NASCAR Nationwide Series) and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. He also went to some rounds of the Canadian Touring Car Championship (CTCC) to the start and finished fourth in the Grand Touring Class . He also participated in the Indianapolis 500 for AJ Foyt Enterprises .

In 2016 Tagliani returned to the Canadian NASCAR series, which was called NASCAR Pinty's Series from this season on. He won three races and came third in the drivers' championship. He also completed a race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He also started some races in the Canadian Touring Car Championship and he drove a race in Europe in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup . In formula racing, he contested the two Indianapolis races of the IndyCar Series 2016 for AJ Foyt Enterprises .

Private

Alex Tagliani has been married to Bronte Tagliani, an Australian model, since 2003. He lives in Las Vegas and laughs aaie .

statistics

Career stations

1987-1994: karting 1994: Canadian Formula Ford 1995: Canadian Formula Ford (4th place) 1996: Atlantic Championship (7th place) 1997: Atlantic Championship (3rd place) 1998: Atlantic Championship (5th place) 1999: Atlantic Championship (4th place) 2000 : Champ Car (16th place) 2001 : Champ Car (11th place) 2002 : Champ Car (8th place) 2003 : Champ Car (10th place) 2004 : Champ Car (7th place) 2005 : Champ Car (7th place) 2005: V8 Supercar Championship Series (53rd place) 2006 : Champ Car (10th place) 2007 : Champ Car (10th place)

2007 : NASCAR Canadian Tire Series (35th place) 2008 : IndyCar Series (32nd place) 2008 : NASCAR Canadian Tire Series (19th place) 2009 : IndyCar Series (22nd place) 2009 : NASCAR Nationwide Series (115th place) 2009 : NASCAR Canadian Tire Series (40th place) 2010 : IndyCar Series (13th place) 2011 : IndyCar Series (15th place) 2011 : NASCAR Nationwide Series (64th place) 2011 : NASCAR Canadian Tire Series (37th place) 2011: V8 Supercar Championship Series (68th place) 2012 : IndyCar Series (17th place) 2012: Rolex Sports Car Series , DP 2012: NASCAR Nationwide Series (77th place) 2013 : IndyCar Series (24th place) 2013: Rolex Sports Car Series, GT (36th place)

2013: NASCAR Canadian Tire Series (45th place) 2014 : USCC , PC (17th place) 2014: NASCAR Canadian Tire Series (9th place) 2014: NASCAR Nationwide Series (39th place) 2014: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (99th place) 2014 : IndyCar Series (31st place) 2015: NASCAR Canadian Tire Series (9th place) 2015: NASCAR Xfinity Series (55th place) 2015: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series 2015 : IndyCar Series (37th place) 2015: CTCC , GTC (4th place) 2016: NASCAR Pinty's Series (3rd place) 2016: NASCAR Xfinity Series 2016: CTCC, GTC 2016 : Blancpain Endurance Series 2016 : IndyCar Series (31st place)

Individual results in the IndyCar Series

year	team	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	Points	rank
2008	Walker Racing	HMS	STP	MOT	LBH	KAN	INDY	Mil	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	EDM	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI	SRF	56	32.
							7th
	Conquest Racing																	22nd	12	4th
2009	Conquest Racing	STP	LBH	KAN	INDY	Mil	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	GOAL	EDM	KTY	MDO	SNM	CHI	MOT	HMS			114	22nd
		10	10		11 2		14th				9	13
2010	FAZZT Race Team	SAO	STP	ALA	LBH	KAN	INDY	TXS	IOW	WGL	GOAL	EDM	MDO	SNM	CHI	KTY	MOT	HMS			302	13.
		19th	6th	10	21st	8th	10 5	18th	12	17th	17th	23	4 *	14th	25th	15th	13	14th
2011	Sam Schmidt Motorsports	STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY	TXS		Mil	IOW	GOAL	EDM	MDO	NHA	SNM	BAL	MOT	KTY	LSV		296	15th
		6th	15th	5	19th	28 1	4th	14th	18th	16	23	17th	6th	19th	20th	7th	4th
	Bryan Herta Autosport																		C.
2012	Bryan Herta Autosport w / Curb-Agajanian	STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY	DET	TXS	Mil	IOW	GOAL	EDM	MDO	SNM	BAL	HAIRDRYER					272	17th
		15th	26th	21st		12 11	10	9	7th	16	10	5 *	10	9	8th	20th
2013	Bryan Herta Autosport w / Curb-Agajanian	STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY	DET		TXS	Mil	IOW	POC	GOAL		MDO	SNM	BAL	HOU		HAIRDRYER	180	24.
		10	11	19th	12	24 ° 11	23	21st	22nd	23	24 12	17th	17th	10
	Target Chip Ganassi Racing																			14 °
2014	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	STP	LBH	ALA	IMS	INDY	DET		TXS	HOU		POC	IOW	GOAL		MDO	Mil	SNM	HAIRDRYER		28	31.
						13 ° 31
2015	AJ Foyt Enterprises	STP	NOL	LBH	ALA	IMS	INDY	DET		TXS	GOAL	HAIRDRYER	Mil	IOW	MDO	POC	SNM				27	37.
							17 °
2016	AJ Foyt Enterprises	STP	PHO	LBH	ALA	IMS	INDY	DET		ROA	IOW	GOAL	MDO	POC	TXS	WGL	SNM				35	31.
						23	17 ° 33

Remarks

1. ↑ Took place on the same day as the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
2. ↑ Took place on the same day as the Indy Japan 300.
3. ↑ No points were awarded.

( Legend )

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2014	Rocketsports Racing	Oreca FLM09	Chris Cumming	Rusty Mitchell	failure	accident

Web links

Commons : Alex Tagliani  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of Alex Tagliani
• Career statistics of Alex Tagliani (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "IndyCar-Cockpits 2010: Who is driving where?" (Motorsport-Total.com on January 12, 2010)
2. ↑ "FAZZT and Tagliani: Great disappointment and yet joy" (Motorsport-Total.com on March 14, 2010)
3. ^ "Sam Schmidt buys the FAZZT team" (Motorsport-Total.com on March 2nd, 2011)
4. ^ "Three IndyCar drivers on probation" (Motorsport-Total.com on August 3, 2011)
5. ^ "Tagliani: Full season with Bryan Herta" (Motorsport-Total.com on January 9, 2012)
6. ^ "Officially: Lotus separates from two teams" (Motorsport-Total.com on April 24, 2012)
7. ^ Glenn Freeman: "Bryan Herta Autosport confirms Honda switch for Indianapolis 500". autosport.com, May 10, 2012, accessed May 10, 2012 . 
8. ↑ "Tagliani not in Brazil" (Motorsport-Total.com on April 20, 2012)
9. ^ Matt Beer: "Alex Tagliani retains Bryan Herta Autosport IndyCar drive for 2013". autosport.com, January 24, 2013, accessed January 29, 2013 .