David Saelens

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The Panoz LMP-1 (right) by Benjamin Leuenberger , Scott Maxwell and David Saelens at the 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans

David Saelens (born July 2, 1975 in Ypres ) is a former Belgian racing driver . In 1998 he won the French Formula 3 championship .

Career

Saelens began his motorsport career in karting in 1986, where he was active until 1993. After taking part in the Belgian touring car championship in 1993, he switched to formula racing in 1994 and immediately finished third in the Benelux Formula Renault . In 1995 he switched to the European Formula Renault . After finishing the first season in ninth place, a year later he was runner-up behind Enrique Bernoldi . He also took part in some races of the French Formula Renault, which he finished in ninth place overall.

1997 Saelens moved to ASM F3 in the French Formula 3 championship . With two wins he finished the season in third place in the overall standings. In 1998 he completed his second season in the French Formula 3 championship for ASM F3. The Belgian won 6 out of 11 races and won the championship ahead of Franck Montagny . Saelens was the first non-French to win the French Formula 3 championship. The racing driver also won the Formula 3 Masters in Zandvoort .

In 1999 he switched to the international Formula 3000 championship and initially competed for WRT Fina . After he could not qualify for the first three races, he switched to Super Nova Racing , where he replaced Ricardo Maurício . Saelens finished the first race for his new team in third place on the podium. At the end of the season he finished ninth overall while his team-mate Jason Watt had become runner-up. In 2000 he stayed with Super Nova Racing and got a new teammate in Nicolas Minassian . As in the previous year, his team-mate was runner-up. With three third places, Saelens was seventh overall as the best results.

In 2001 the Belgian moved to the Italian team European Minardi F3000 . He had his teammate Andrea Piccini under control this season, but he was denied podium finishes. After missing two races due to injury, he finished tenth overall at the end of the season. Parallel to his involvement in Formula 3000, Saelens started for Team Rosberg in the DTM in the 2001 season and came 21st in the overall standings. In 2002 the Belgian competed in the first five Formula 3000 races for the European Minardi F3000. He only crossed the finish line once and finished the season in 24th place overall. He also completed Formula 1 test drives for the Minardi Formula 1 team.

In 2003 Saelens left formula racing and switched to the American Le Mans Series . With five podium finishes, he finished the season in sixth place in the drivers' standings. He also took part in the Le Mans 24-hour race . In 2004 he switched to GT racing and competed in the Porsche Supercup . After finishing sixth in his first season, he achieved third place overall with three wins in 2005, which is his best finish in the series. Saelens stayed in the Porsche Supercup for three more seasons and was fifth in the overall standings with his last win in 2005. In 2007 he finished sixth and in 2008 twelfth overall.

Saelens has not been a racing driver since 2009.

statistics

Career stations

Le Mans results

year team vehicle Teammate Teammate placement Failure reason
2003 United StatesUnited States JML Team Panoz Panoz LMP-1 SwitzerlandSwitzerland Benjamin Leuenberger CanadaCanada Scott Maxwell failure accident

Sebring results

year team vehicle Teammate Teammate placement Failure reason
1999 ItalyItaly Team Rafanelli SRL Riley & Scott Mk III BelgiumBelgium Eric van de Poele Czech RepublicCzech Republic Tomáš Enge failure Oil leak

Web links

Commons : David Saelens  - Collection of images, videos and audio files