Irady Alexander

Iradj Alexander (born September 17, 1975 in Locarno ) is a Swiss automobile racing driver .

Career

Alexander earned his first spurs in motorsport in the Swiss Formula Ford Championship , which he entered in the mid-1990s. In 1996 he won the overall ranking of this championship. Circuit races have been prohibited in Switzerland since the 1955 Le Mans disaster . The championship therefore had to be held on race tracks in Germany, Austria and Italy. Due to a lack of alternatives, Alexander initially moved to the USA and drove there from 1999 in the Barber Dodge Pro Series , came back to Europe in 2001 and has been involved in sports cars ever since .

First, Alexander received a cockpit of a Ferrari 360 Modena from JMB in the French GT championship. However, the team also drove in the FIA GT and made it possible for Alexander to run several times there. The races of both series took place mainly with Peter Kutemann as a partner and were characterized by several failures and midfield placements. Nevertheless, in 2002 Alexander entered the FIA ​​GT Championship with JMB . Despite the regularly changing driver pairings, he finished the race in Pergusa at the end of the year with Andrea Montermini as a team-mate on the podium. For the following season, Alexander returned to the French GT Championship and now drove a vehicle in the more powerful SGT category with a Chrysler Viper GTS-R . The team paused for a race in late summer, but Alexander was given the opportunity to participate in the 24-hour race of Spa-Francorchamps for JMB and then return to the USA. JMB was meanwhile also active in the American Le Mans Series and introduced some pilots for the Petit Le Mans endurance race into the series. Alexander competed in the run-up to the championship run in Road Atlana, a total of three more races until he returned to the French GT championship at the end of the season. At the beginning of 2003, JMB registered him in the Daytona 24-hour race . Alexander then stayed for another championship run in the Grand-Am before he switched to the FIA ​​GT championship and made two guest starts for the GPC and JMB .

In 2005 he ended his engagement with JMB and switched again to Red Racing in the French GT championship. The team meanwhile used a Lister Storm in the GT1 category. Together with Gaël Lesoudier , he won a championship run on the Circuit de Pau Ville before the team ended the season prematurely after several failures. In 2006, again at JMB , he drove with Tim Sugden for another year in the FIA ​​GT Championship. A class win and further podium placements faced several failures at the end of the year.

In 2007 he drove the entire season for Swiss Spirit in the Le Mans Series, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where he made his debut. As a partner of Jean-Denis Delétraz and Marcel Fässler , he is driving a Lola B07 / 10 with turbo engine from the Audi R8 . For the 2008 season , Alexander signed with the Swiss team Speedy Racing Team and strengthened the racing team around Andrea Chiesa and Benjamin Leuenberger at the 1000 km race at Spa-Francorchamps and the 24-hour race at Le Mans. He was also registered for the first two championship races of the International GT Open , where he drove a Ferrari F430 GTC until he was replaced by his compatriot Henri Moser . In 2009 Alexander stayed in the International GT Open, but switched to Jean-Claude Lagniez in the GT3 category . However, he only took part in three racing weekends in the series. When the driver duo finished their first two races in Algarve on the podium, the results in the following two events deteriorated. In addition, team owner Lagniez in Donington cleared his driver's seat in favor of Miquel Julià Perello . On the next race weekend, however, Alexander had to resign from the team owner. At the beginning of the year, Lagniez also registered the team in the FIA ​​GT Championship. Since the Corvette Z06R GT3 was the only participant in the G3 class , he and Lagniez finished the race as class winners.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2007	Swiss Spirit	Lola B07 / 10	Marcel Fässler	Jean-Denis Delétraz	failure	Electrics
2008	Speedy Racing Team	Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2-R	Andrea Chiesa	Benjamin Leuenberger	failure	Engine failure

Web links

• Results at FIA-GT