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Justin Wilson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the English motor-racing driver Justin Wilson. For the American chef and humorist, see Justin Wilson (chef).
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Justin Wilson |
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 Justin Wilson |
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| Champ Car World Series Record | |
| Nationality |  British |
| Car # | 9 |
| Current team | RuSPORT |
| Race starts | 38 |
| Series Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 3 |
| Podium finishes | 9 |
| Pole positions | 2 |
| First Champ Car race | 2004 Grand Prix of Long Beach |
| First win | 2005 Molson Indy Toronto |
| edit | |
| Justin Wilson | |
| Nationality | British |
|---|---|
| World Championship Career | |
| Active years | 2003 |
| Team(s) | Minardi, Jaguar |
| Races | 16 |
| Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Podium finishes | 0 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| First race | 2003 Australian Grand Prix |
| Last race | 2003 Japanese Grand Prix |
Justin Wilson (born 31 July 1978, Sheffield, England) is a British racing driver from England. In 2006 he competed in the Champ Car series. He competed in Formula One in the 2003 season and was the winner of the 2001 Formula 3000 championship.
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Brought up in the tiny hamlet of Woodall, near Harthill, South Yorkshire[1] , Wilson began racing karts in 1987. During the early 1990s, he spent several years in Formula Vauxhall with Paul Stewart Racing before earning international attention when he won the inaugural Formula Palmer Audi championship with nine race wins. In 1998, he was a finalist in the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award. A year later, he graduated to the FIA International Formula 3000 championship and won the championship in 2001, setting a record winning margin in the process.
Despite his success, his height proved a liability, and prevented him from securing a Formula 1 ride for 2002. He found a ride in the Telefonica World Series by Nissan, where he continued his winning ways with race victories at Interlagos and Valencia.
Wilson also tested for the Minardi Formula 1 team, but although an opportunity arose to replace regular driver Alex Yoong for two rounds, Wilson was unable to drive the car due to his height[1].
For 2003, Minardi designed the car around Wilson's 6'3" frame and signed him up to race. The car was off the pace but Wilson performed favorably against his more experienced teammate, Jos Verstappen. He switched to Jaguar Racing to replace Antônio Pizzonia for the last five races of the season, and scored his first championship point at the United States Grand Prix.
Wilson did not retain his position with Jaguar Racing, because Ford were not prepared to pour unlimited funds into F1 and advised the team that they would have to take on a pay driver. Christian Klien, who was funded by Austrian drink company Red Bull, and who had tested for Jaguar in November 2003, was able to bring sponsorship and thus secure a driver's seat for 2004.
At the beginning of 2004, Wilson joined the Champ Car World Series with Mi-Jack Conquest Racing. He qualified as high as 2nd in his rookie season and finished the year 11th place in points. In addition to Champ Cars, Wilson also raced at the famous 24 hours of Le Mans endurance race, sharing the Racing for Holland Dome-Judd S101 with Tom Coronel and Ralph Firman, personally setting the 5th fastest lap.
In 2005, Wilson moved to the RuSPORT team to partner A. J. Allmendinger. He won his first Champ Car race at Toronto. Continuing with his success in Canada, Wilson finished third at Montreal, then rounded off the year with a victory from pole in the final race of the season in Mexico City circuit. Wilson finished the season in third place in the drivers standings behind series champion Sébastien Bourdais and second-placed Oriol Servia.
In 2006 Justin took part in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona event for the first time in his career, racing for the Michael Shank Racing team in a Lexus powered Riley & Scott Daytona Prototype chassis. Teaming up with Champ Car teammate A.J. Allmendinger, Oswaldo Negri and Mark Patterson the car made it to the chequered flag in 2nd place.
Wilson is staying with RuSPORT for the 2006 season. He currently lies 3rd in the points standings, with one win at Edmonton and five podium finishes so far. On October 30 2006 in the Friday qualifying for the Surfers Paradise race, Wilson hit a small barrier of tires in a chicane. When the front tires lurched sideways after the hit, the steering wheel spun sharply in Justin's hands and broke a small bone in his right wrist.[2]
Wilson struggled to raise the money needed to get a Formula One seat with the Minardi team in 2003, so his management team came up with the idea of selling "shares" in him to the public to raise the £1.2 million needed. The scheme was supported by television commentator Murray Walker amongst others and ended up being oversubscribed. There are nearly 900 shareholders, each of whom invested a minimum of GBP500. Justin is presently managed by former Grand Prix driver Jonathan Palmer.
(key)
| Yr | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Team | WDC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Minardi | AUS Ret |
MAL Ret |
BRA Ret |
SAN Ret |
SPA 11 |
AUT 13 |
MON Ret |
CAN Ret |
EUR 13 |
FRA 14 |
GBR 16 |
DEU Ret |
HUN Ret |
ITA Ret |
USA 8 |
JPN 13 |
Jaguar | 20th | 1 |
(key)
| Yr | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Team | Rank | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Conquest | LBH 6 |
MTY 6 |
MIL 11 |
POR 5 |
CLE Ret |
TOR 12 |
VAN 14 |
ROA 7 |
DEN 7 |
MTL Ret |
LAG Ret |
LAS 8 |
SUR 8 |
MEX 4 |
Conquest | 11th | 188 |
| 2005 | RuSPORT | LBH 4 |
MTY 4 |
MIL 4 |
POR 17 |
CLE 7 |
TOR 1 |
EDM 4 |
SAN 4 |
DEN Ret |
MTL 3 |
LAS 11 |
SUR 7 |
MEX 1 |
RuSPORT | 3rd | 265 | |
| 2006 | RuSPORT | LBH 2 |
HST 5 |
MTY 2 |
MIL 2 |
POR 2 |
CLE Ret |
TOR 4 |
EDM 1 |
SAN 3 |
DEN 8 |
MTL Ret |
ROA 5 |
SUR Inj |
MEX 2 |
RuSPORT | 2nd | 298 |
- ^ Who's Who: Anthony Davidson. F1Fanatic.co.uk (2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-13.
- ^ Broken wrist ends Wilson's Indy 300 (October 20, 2006). Retrieved on October 21, 2006.
| Preceded by Bruno Junqueira |
International Formula 3000 Champion 2001 |
Succeeded by Sébastien Bourdais |
| 2007 Champ Car World Series | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newman/Haas | Forsythe | Minardi | Australia | PKV | Rocketsports | RuSPORT | Coyne | Conquest | PCM |
| 1 Bourdais 2 TBA |
3 Tracy | 4 Clarke 14 Doornbos |
5 Power 15 Pagenaud |
6 Gommendy 21 Jani |
8 Tagliani | 9 Wilson | 11 TBA 19 TBA |
27 TBA | 28 Dalziel 29 Figge |
| Las Vegas - Long Beach - Houston - Portland - Cleveland - Mont-Tremblant - Toronto - Edmonton - San Jose - Road America - Assen - Zolder - Surfers Paradise - Zhuhai - Mexico City - Phoenix | |||||||||