Paul Tracy
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Paul Tracy (born December 17, 1968 in Scarborough , Ontario , Canada ) is a retired Canadian racing car driver . He was active in the Champ Car series from 1991 to 2007 and won the championship title in 2003. He participated in 261 races and achieved 31 victories. From 2008 to 2011 he competed in individual races in the IndyCar Series .
Career
Beginnings in motorsport
Tracy was already active in karting as a child . In 1984 he switched to the single-seater racing in the Canadian Formula Ford 1600. After becoming 1984 Fourth, he won in 1985 as the youngest driver to date, the Canadian Formula Ford Championship. In addition to his involvement in the Canadian Formula Ford 2000 Championship, which Tracy finished in fourth place in 1986 and 15th in 1987, he also took part in sports car races during the two years . He won his only race in the Canadian-American Challenge Cup (Can-Am) as the youngest driver to date. He also drove in the Canadian Porsche 944 Cup.
In 1988, Tracy focused on his formula racing career and switched to the American Racing Series for Hemelgarn Racing . He won a race and finished the season in ninth place overall. In his second season, in which he competed for Maple Leaf Racing , he remained without a win, but improved to eighth place in the drivers' standings. After moving to Landford Racing , Tracy decided nine out of fourteen races in 1990 and won the championship with 214 to 135 points ahead of Ted Prappas .
ICWS / CART / Champ Car
In 1991 Tracy made his debut in the Indy Car World Series (ICWS) for Dale Coyne Racing . He started for the team in Long Beach . In the middle of the season he moved to Penske Racing . He made his debut for the team at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn . In this race he broke his left leg and was out for several races. For the last two races of the season he returned to the cockpit and finished the season with a seventh place as the best result in 21st place in the overall standings. In 1992 Tracy contested 11 of 16 races of the season for Penske and made her debut at the Indianapolis 500 . In some races he replaced the injured Rick Mears . Two second places in Brooklyn and Lexington were his best results and he finished twelfth in the championship.
In 1993 Tracy completed his first full season in the Indy Car World Series for Penske. After showing five retirements and one win in Long Beach after the first six races, he won the races in Cleveland , Toronto , Elkhart Lake and Laguna Seca as the season progressed . In addition, Tracy was the pilot with the most leading laps this season. In the championship he was defeated by his teammate Emerson Fittipaldi and the champion Nigel Mansell and finished third. In 1994 Tracy stayed with Penske, who this season with Al Unser jr. use a third pilot. After Tracy won the first 14 races only in Detroit , he won the last two races of the season in Nazareth and Laguna Seca. He finished the championship again in third place. This time he only had to admit defeat to his teammates Fittipaldi and Unser. In September Tracy also took part in Formula 1 test drives for Benetton . According to media reports, he was offered a three-year contract, which he refused.
1995 Tracy moved to Newman / Haas Racing and became a teammate of Michael Andretti . Tracy won the races at Surfers Paradise and West Allis and finished the season in sixth place in the drivers' standings. Although he had one more win than Andretti, he lost to him within the team with 115 to 123 points. In 1996 Tracy returned to Penske. Both Tracy and his team-mate Unser didn't win a race for themselves this season. While Unser finished fourth in the season, Tracy, who did not start two races due to a back injury, was 13th in the championship. His best result was a third place. In 1997 , Tracy had his final season for Penske. The racing series had been renamed CART between seasons . Tracy won three consecutive races in Nazareth, Jacarepaguá and Madison . Although only the eventual champion Alex Zanardi had won more races than Tracy, Tracy only finished the season in fifth place. Within the team, he clearly beat ours with 121 to 67 points.
In 1998 Tracy switched to Team KOOL Green , where he became Dario Franchitti's teammate . While Franchitti was third in the championship with three wins, Tracy never got past fifth place and finished the season in 13th place overall. Since Tracy had been noticed by several incidents on and off the track, he was suspended for the 1999 season opener . Later in the season, Tracy made seven podiums and finished third in the drivers' championship with wins in West Allis and Houston . In contrast to his team-mate, who eventually became runner-up behind Juan Pablo Montoya , he had no realistic title chances this season.
2000 Tracy denied his tenth CART season. In Long Beach, Elkhart Lake and Vancouver , he won the races and finished the season with six podium finishes in fifth place overall. For the first time he managed to leave his Green teammate Franchitti, who was 13th, behind at the end of the season. For the next two seasons, Tracy Franchitti was defeated and never made it into the top ten overall. He finished the 2001 season on the 14th, the 2002 season on the 11th place in the championship. Overall, he achieved six podium finishes in these two years and a win at West Allis in 2002. Tracy also made his debut in 2002 in the Indy Racing League (IRL). He only competed in the Indianapolis 500 and finished this race in second behind Hélio Castroneves . There were discussions about the outcome of the race after the race, as a yellow phase was triggered shortly before Tracy drove past Castroneves. From the existing camera perspectives, it was not possible to clearly determine which driver was in the lead.
After Team Green left the CART, Tracy switched to Forsythe Racing in 2003 and formed a purely Canadian driver duo with his compatriot Patrick Carpentier . Tracy started the season well with three wins in St. Petersburg , Monterrey and Long Beach. After six races without a win, won the successive races in Toronto and Vancouver. With further successes in West Allis and Mexico City , he finally won the championship with 226 to 199 points against Bruno Junqueira . In the following two seasons, Tracy was fourth in the championship, which since 2004 was called the Champ Car World Series . In 2004 he won in Long Beach and Vancouver, in 2005 in West Allis and Cleveland. While Tracy had to admit defeat to Carpentier in 2004, he prevailed against his new teammate Mario Domínguez .
2006 was supposed to be a year of transition for Tracy. In the Champ Car he remained without a win with three second places as the best results and finished seventh in the championship, while his team-mate AJ Allmendinger won five races. In addition, Tracy started in the NASCAR Busch Series and participated in six races. At the end of the season, Tracy decided against a move to NASCAR and he extended his contract with Forsythe Racing. In 2007 Tracy started the season with a third place. In training for the second race in Long Beach, Tracy suffered a broken lumbar vertebra. The injury forced him to take a break for a few weeks and two races. In the fourth race he finally made his comeback and 14 days later he managed to win the race in Cleveland. It was Tracy's last champ car win. He finished the championship in eleventh place.
IndyCar Series
After the merger of the monoposto racing series Champ Car and IndyCar Series, Tracy was initially without a cockpit in 2008 , as Forsythe only participated in the race in Long Beach and did not switch to the IndyCar Series. Tracy finished this race in eleventh place. In the further course of the season he finally took part in the race in Edmonton . He started there in a car maintained by Walker Racing , which was officially part of the Vision Racing team . He finished fourth in this race. In the IndyCar overall standings Tracy was 33rd He also started a race in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series .
In 2009 Tracy took part in six IndyCar races. KV Racing Technology used an additional car for Tracy four times, and in the two other races he represented Vitor Meira at AJ Foyt Enterprises and Mario Moraes at KV Racing Technology. Tracy finished three races in the top ten drivers and finished the season in 23rd place in the drivers' standings. In 2010 Tracy signed a contract with KV Racing Technology for the Indianapolis 500, for which he did not qualify, as well as for the two Canadian races. Tracy also represented the injured Mike Conway for three races at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing . With a sixth place in Edmonton as the best result, he was 27th in the championship.
In 2011 Tracy was about to sign a contract with KV Racing Technology for the entire IndyCar season. However, the team chose Tony Kanaan . Tracy then signed a contract with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing for the Indianapolis 500. Before this race, Tracy also had the opportunity to do other IndyCar races. For Dragon Racing he took part in five events. The team principal of Dragon is Jay Penske , the son of Roger Penske , for whom Tracy drove at the beginning of his career. Tracy finished the season in 29th place overall.
Personal
Tracy lives in Las Vegas . He is married and has two children.
statistics
Career stations
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|
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Individual results in the IndyCar Series
| season | team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14th | 15th | 16 | 17th | 18th | 19th | Points | rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Team Green | HMS |
PHX |
HAIRDRYER |
NZR |
INDY 2 |
TXS |
PPI |
RIR |
KAN |
NSH |
MIS |
KTY |
STL |
CHI |
TX2 |
40 | 34. | ||||
| 2008 | Forsythe / Pettit Racing | HMS |
STP |
MOT 1 |
LBH 1 11 |
KAN |
INDY |
Mil |
TXS |
IOW |
RIR |
WGL |
NSH |
MDO |
KTY |
SNM |
DET |
CHI |
SRF 2 |
51 | 33. | |
| Vision racing | EDM 4 |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| 2009 | KV Racing Technology | STP |
LBH |
KAN |
INDY 9 |
TXS |
IOW |
RIR |
WGL 20 |
GATE 19 |
EDM 6 |
KTY |
MDO 7 |
SNM |
CHI |
MOT |
HMS |
113 | 23. | |||
| AJ Foyt Enterprises | MIL 17 |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| 2010 | KV Racing Technology | SAO |
STP |
ALA |
LBH |
KAN |
INDY DNQ |
TXS |
IOW |
GATE 13 |
EDM 6 |
MDO |
SNM |
CHI |
HMS |
91 | 27. | |||||
| Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | WGL 14 |
KTY 12 |
MOT 22 |
|||||||||||||||||||
| 2011 | Dragon Racing | STP |
ALA |
LBH 16 |
SAO |
TXS1 12 |
TXS2 13 |
Mil |
IOW |
GATE 16 |
EDM 26 |
MDO |
NHA |
SNM |
BAL |
MOT |
KTY |
LSV C |
68 | 29 | ||
| Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | INDY 25 |
( Legend )
- 1 The races took place on the same day.
- 2 No points were awarded.
Web links
- Paul Tracy's website. Archived from the original on June 2, 2017 .
- Paul Tracy at champcarstats.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ September 1994 Motorsport News. In: teamdan.com. Archived from the original on August 16, 2004 ; accessed on May 5, 2020 (English, see section: 29.09.94 - F1 ).
- ↑ "Official: Paul Tracy drives in Edmonton!" (Motorsport-Total.com on July 15, 2008)
- ↑ "Tracy angry: 'The deal was mine'" (Motorsport-Total.com on May 12, 2011)
- ↑ "Tracy Puzzle: Only the Indy 500 is Steady" (Motorsport-Total.com on March 22, 2011)
- ^ "Tracy and Penske reunited!" (Motorsport-Total.com on April 4, 2011)
- ^ "Crash again: Out for Scott Speed and Ho-Pin Tung" (Motorsport-Total.com on May 22, 2011)
- ↑ "Profiles" (paultracy.com; accessed June 4, 2011)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tracy, Paul |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian racing driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 17th December 1968 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Scarborough (Ontario) , Ontario , Canada |