Rob Nguyen

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Rob Nguyen (born August 16, 1980 in Brisbane ) is a retired Australian racing driver of Vietnamese descent. Nguyen started in the international Formula 3000 championship in 2002 and 2003 .

Career

Nguyen, who was born and raised in Australia, did not originally plan a career in motorsport . In 2000 he moved to Switzerland to study economics at the University of Lausanne . As a reward for good performance in his studies, his parents financed him a test drive in a Formula Opel car at Walter Penker's Austrian racing school . Nguyen had never sat in a racing car before and was never active in karting , but convinced Penker with good times so much that he invited him to another test, in which the regular Penker drivers should also take part. The Australian was able to keep up with the more experienced drivers in this test and was then signed by Penker for his Penker Racing team for the 2001 German Formula Volkswagen season .

Nguyen started with a Swiss license in the German Formula Volkswagen and finished fifth with two podium finishes. At the end of the year, Penker organized a test with the Belgian Formula 3000 team Astromega . In his first test, the Australian was only seven tenths of a second slower than his teammate Mário Haberfeld , who had already completed several seasons in the Formula 3000. Astromega was so impressed with Nguyen's achievements that they signed him for two years. At this point in time, the Australian had only completed nine motorsport races. Nguyen achieved his best result at the Nürburgring , where he finished the race in fifth place. The racing driver did not get any further placements in the points. He finished the season in 14th place overall. A highlight of the season was that he set the fastest time on tests in Monza .

Although he was originally supposed to stay with Astromega for two years, the Australian moved to BCN Competición in 2003 . In the first three races, the racing driver crossed the finish line twice in the points. Nevertheless, he was replaced by Will Langhorne after the first three races , as he ran out of sponsorship funds. Nguyen did not find a cockpit with another team and was no longer used in the season. He finished 15th overall. Although BCN Competición use a total of seven drivers in the 2003 season, Nguyen was the only BCN driver who could score points. He took part in tests at the end of the season for Coloni and achieved the third fastest time. Despite the good performance, Nguyen was not given a cockpit in any European formula racing series in 2004.

Instead, the Australian returned to his homeland and started in Formula Holden . Nguyen won two races and finished the season in third place overall.

After he had not found a cockpit for the 2005 season, he ended his motorsport career after only four active years.

statistics

Career stations

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c “Fairytales” ( Memento of the original dated December 14, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (grandprix.com on February 1, 2002) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.grandprix.com
  2. ↑ "Nguyen wows them again" (grandprix.com on 19 June 2002)
  3. ↑ "Langhorne joins Formula 3000 trail" (grandprix.com on May 30, 2003)
  4. ↑ “Nguyen back in Formula 3000” (grandprix.com on November 20, 2003)
personal data
SURNAME Nguyen, Rob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian racing driver
DATE OF BIRTH August 16, 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH Brisbane , Australia