Guy Smith

Guy Smith at the Spa-Francorchamps 1000km race in 2009

The Bentley Speed ​​8 with which Guy Smith won the Le Mans 24-hour race in 2003.

Guy Smith in the MG-Lola EX257 in 2005

Guy Smith (born September 12, 1974 in Beverley ) is a British racing driver . His greatest success was winning the 2003 Le Mans 24-hour race alongside Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen in a Bentley Speed ​​8 .

Career

Smith started karting at the age of 12 . In 1987 he won the British and Scottish Junior Karting Championship as well as the PROTRAIN Junior Karting Championship , in 1988 he was Belgian Kart Champion and eleventh at the Kart World Championship.

In 1991 Smith switched to Formula Vee for the First Time Racing team and immediately finished second in the championship, winning two races and starting from pole position twice . In the same year he became champion of the New Zealand Formula Ford Championship and was honored as McLaren / Autosport Young Kartist of the Year . In 1992 he won five races in the Vauxhall Junior Championship and in 1993 he finished second in the British Formula Ford Championship with two wins and three pole positions. 1995 won Smith the Formula Renault for the team Manor Motorsport and was a test driver for Williams - Formula 1 team. After involvement in Formula 3 , the Briton switched to the Indy Lights series in 1998 and won the races in Portland and Toronto , as well as the Rookie of the Year Award . In 1999 Smith tested a Champ Car vehicle for the Forsythe Racing Team , in 2000 he drove in the American Le Mans Series and finished fourth in the 24 Hours of Daytona . He also took part in the Le Mans 24-hour race for the first time.

In 2003 he finally won the Le Mans 24 Hours, and he also came third in the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race . After Bentley's involvement in Le Mans was discontinued after the victorious, Smith switched to the British Audi team UK Team Veloqx. For the team he drove the two endurance races at Sebring and Le Mans, which he finished on the podium with Johnny Herbert and Jamie Davis , and he also completed 10 races in the US Champ Car series for Rocketsports Racing . In 2005 he also competed in two racing series. On the one hand Smith drove an MG-Lola EX257 in the American Le Mans Series, on the other hand a Riley Mark XI in the Grand-Am. While Orbit Racing ended the season prematurely after several midfield placements, he finished on the podium for Dyson Racing at the Petit Le Mans . So Smith stayed with team owner Rob Dyson for the following years and started in various Le Mans prototypes from Lola . Over the years he drove the majority of the races with Chris Dyson and finished several championship runs on the podium. In 2007 he and his team switched to the LMP2 category and were the first customer team to rely on a Porsche RS Spyder , which he drove again with Chris Dyson until the end of the 2008 season. The following year, his team returned to Lola, while also driving a Ginetta-Zytek sports car in the Le Mans Series and the Le Mans 24 Hours .

Champ Car Record

year	team	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	rank	Points
2004	Rocketsports Racing	LBH	MTY	Mil	POR	CLE	GOAL	VAN	ROA 10	DEN Ret	MTL Ret	LS 9	LVS Ret	SRF 9	MXC 17	18th	53

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2000	Johansson-Matthews Racing	Reynard 2KQ	Stefan Johansson	Jim Matthews	failure	Engine failure
2001	Team Bentley	Bentley Exp Speed ​​8	Martin Brundle	Stéphane Ortelli	failure	Fire
2003	Team Bentley	Bentley Speed ​​8	Tom Kristensen	Rinaldo Capello	Overall victory
2004	Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx	Audi R8	Johnny Herbert	Jamie Davies	Rank 2
2008	Quifel ASM team	Lola B05 / 40	Miguel Amaral	Olivier Pla	Rank 20
2009	Quifel ASM team	Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S / 2	Miguel Amaral	Olivier Pla	failure	Brakes
2010	Rebellion Racing	Lola B10 / 60	Jean-Christophe Boullion	Andrea Belicchi	failure	accident
2011	Rebellion Racing	Lola B10 / 60	Jean-Christophe Boullion	Andrea Belicchi	failure	accident

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2000	Johansson Matthews Racing	Reynard 2KQ	Stefan Johansson	Jim Matthews	failure	Engine failure
2001	Johansson Motorsport	Audi R8	Stefan Johansson		Rank 4
2002	Riley & Scott Racing	Riley & Scott Mk IIIC	Marc Goossens	Jim Matthews	Rank 3
2003	Team Bentley	Bentley Speed ​​8	Rinaldo Capello	Tom Kristensen	Rank 4
2004	Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx	Audi R8	Johnny Herbert	Jamie Davies	Rank 3
2005	Dyson Racing Team	MG-Lola EX257	Chris Dyson		failure	Clutch damage
2006	Dyson Racing Team	Lola B06 / 10	Chris Dyson		failure	Motor overheated
2007	Dyson Racing Team	Porsche RS Spyder	Chris Dyson		Rank 10
2008	Dyson Racing Team	Porsche RS Spyder	Chris Dyson		Rank 4
2009	Dyson Racing Team Inc.	Lola B09 / 86	Chris Dyson	Andy Lally	failure	mechanics
2010	Dyson Racing Team	Lola B09 / 86	Chris Dyson	Andrew Meyrick	Rank 20
2011	Dyson Racing Team Inc.	Lola B09 / 86	Chris Dyson	Jay Cochran	Rank 6
2012	Dyson Racing Team	Lola B12 / 60	Chris Dyson	Steven Kane	Rank 8
2013	Dyson Racing Team Inc.	Lola B12 / 60	Chris Dyson	Butch Leitzinger	failure	malfunction

Web links

Commons : Guy Smith  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• official homepage