Jimmy Vasser

James "Jimmy" Vasser (born November 20, 1965) is an American former racing driver and current co-owner of KV Racing Technology. Vasser won the 1996 IndyCar season championship with Chip Ganassi Racing, and scored ten victories in the series.^[1] Vasser was the last American to win the Champ Car championship.

Driving career

Vasser made his CART debut in 1992 and qualified for the Indianapolis 500, setting a record for the fastest qualifying run by a first-year driver.^[2] Although he did become a top driver, his rise to prominence coincided with the CART–IRL split, so Vasser's best years were spent away from the Indianapolis 500. He has raced in the event on a one-off basis a few times since, finishing as high as fourth in the 2001 race.

Vasser won four races in 1996 and did enough to maintain a lead in the standings for most of the season, clinching the championship at the season's final race.^[3] Teammate Alex Zanardi outperformed him over the next two years, winning the points championship both years.^[4] Vasser teamed with Juan Pablo Montoya in 1999, finishing ninth in the points standings. In 2000, his last year with Chip Ganassi Racing, Vasser won the Houston Grand Prix for his first victory since 1998.^[5]

For 2001, Vasser moved to the Pat Patrick team to drive the #40 Reynard Toyota. Despite having limited sponsorship for the car at first, Vasser started the season strong with four straight finishes of 4th to 6th place. Continuing the strong start to 2001, Jimmy was reunited with Target Chip Ganassi Racing driving for them in the Indianapolis 500. Jimmy ran well and finish 4th place as ChampCar drivers swept the top five spots at the 500. However, once returning to the ChampCar circuit, back to back crashes in race #5 at Milwaukee and race #6 at Detroit seemed to derail the season as Jimmy finished the final sixteen races of the season with only four more finishes of 5th to 7th.

After a disappointing year without even a podium, Vasser was able to secure the seat of the #8 Shell Lola Ford with Rahal Letterman Racing for 2002 which had finished 2nd in ChampCar points the previous season. In the Shell car, Vasser showed some muscle at Long Beach scoring the pole, leading laps late, and finishing 2nd behind Michael Andretti. Vasser and Rahal Letterman also crossed over into the IRL where they ran the IRL race in Fontana to prepare for Indianapolis and then the Indianapolis 500. Success was limited as Vasser scored only a 9th at Fontana and a gearbox failure cut short his Indy 500 race. Vasser's 2002 season in the Shell car was much improved over the previous year with Patrick Racing. Vasser really finished the year strong with scoring points in each of the final nine races including a podium at Miami and a dominating win at Fontana after a late-race pass of Michael Andretti. Vasser's Fontana win was to be the final win of his ChampCar career.

Without sponsorship at Rahal for 2003, Vasser had to look for opportunities with other teams and without many seats available for the 38-year-old he ended up with Stefan Johansson's startup American Spirit team. The team was not fully funded and they ran the Reynard chassis which were not up to the pace of the current Lola chassis cars. Additionally, Reynard had gone bankrupt so further development of the chassis had to be taken on by the teams so the performance gap to the Lolas continue to widen during the season. Except for a couple of fourth-place finishes, leading 15 laps at Cleveland, and podium at Surfer's Paradise in a wet/dry race the season was not very successful as rookie teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay was outpacing Vasser. Vasser reunited with Rahal Letterman for his final run at an Indianapolis 500 win but was again sidelined with gearbox failure during the race.

In 2004 he became co-owner of PKV Racing (later renamed to KV Racing Technology) along with Dan Pettit and Kevin Kalkhoven and was a driver for the team. In 2004, he broke the modern CART–Champ Car record for the most consecutive starts.^[6] Vasser retired from open wheel racing in 2006, but remains active in his ownership role. He temporarily came out of retirement to drive in the final Champ Car World Series event at the 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.^[7]

In 2006, Vasser competed in three Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series races, including the 24 Hours of Daytona, driving for GAINSCO/Blackhawk Racing. In 2007, he again drove for the renamed GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing at the 24 Hours of Daytona, and on Sept. 4, 2007, it was announced that he would return to the team for the season-ending Sunchaser 1000 km. Vasser drove again for Stallings' team beginning at Laguna Seca in May 2008, pairing with fellow Champ Car champion Cristiano da Matta.

In 2013, Vasser joined the Stadium Super Trucks, making his debut at Honda Indy Toronto.^[8]

Early career

• Won the 1986 Formula Ford National Championship, SCCA.^[9]
• Competed in the 1988 Corvette Challenge.
• Competed in the 1989 and 1990 Pro F-2000 Canadian Championship. Vasser and his teammate Ken Murillo were sponsored by LucasFilm.
• Competed in Atlantic Championship in 1990 and 1991 for Della Penna Motorsports.
• Won the Formula Atlantic East/West Challenge in 1990.
• Finished Runner-up (by 4 points Jovy Marcelo) in the 1991 season, six wins and seven pole positions.

Motorsports Career Results

American open–wheel racing results

(key)

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

Indy Lights

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Rank	Points
1988	R & K Racing	PHX	MIL	POR	CLE	TOR	MWL 10	POC	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG	MIA	26th	3
1989	Barclay Racing	PHX	LBH	MIL	DET	POR	MWL	TOR	POC	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG 8	24th	5

CART/Champ Car

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	Rank	Points
1992	Hayhoe/Cole Racing	SRF Ret	PHX Ret	LBH 7	IND Ret	DET	POR Ret	MIL Ret	NHA	TOR Ret	MIC	CLE 14	ROA	VAN Ret	MDO Wth	NAZ DNQ	LS 12						22nd	8
1993	Hayhoe/Cole Racing	SRF Ret	PHX 3	LBH Ret	IND 13	MIL 8	DET Ret	POR 11	CLE	TOR 11	MIC	NHA 9	ROA	VAN Ret	MDO Ret	NAZ 10	LS 21						16th	30
1994	Hayhoe/Cole Racing	SRF 4	PHX 5	LBH Ret	IND 4	MIL 11	DET Ret	POR Ret	CLE Ret	TOR Ret	MIC Ret	MDO 14	NHA 7	VAN 15	ROA Ret	NAZ 13	LS Ret						15th	42
1995	Chip Ganassi Racing	MIA 8	SRF Ret	PHX Ret	LBH Ret	NAZ Ret	IND Ret	MIL 9	DET 2	POR 2	ROA 3	TOR Ret	CLE 3	MIC 7	MDO 9	NHA 6	VAN Ret	LS 8					8th	92
1996	Chip Ganassi Racing	MIA 1	RIO 8	SRF 1	LBH 1	NAZ 7	500 1	MIL 10	DET 12	POR 13	CLE 10	TOR 8	MIC 9	MDO 2	ROA 6	VAN 7	LS 4						1st	154
1997	Chip Ganassi Racing	MIA 3	SRF 12	LBH 9	NAZ 5	RIO 9	GAT 5	MIL 3	DET 4	POR Ret	CLE 13	TOR 7	MIC Ret	MDO 5	ROA 8	VAN 2	LS 1	FON 2					3rd	144
1998	Chip Ganassi Racing	MIA 16	MOT 7	LBH 8	NAZ 1	RIO 6	GAT 4	MIL 1	DET 6	POR 8	CLE 7	TOR 3	MIC 2	MDO Ret	ROA 9	VAN Ret	LS 5	HOU 4	SRF Ret	FON 1			2nd	169
1999	Chip Ganassi Racing	MIA 4	MOT 12	LBH 10	NAZ 11	RIO Ret	GAT 10	MIL 4	POR 12	CLE Ret	ROA Ret	TOR 8	MIC 9	DET 5	MDO 4	CHI 3	VAN 3	LS Ret	HOU Ret	SRF Ret	FON 5		9th	104
2000	Chip Ganassi Racing	MIA 4	LBH 3	RIO 2	MOT Ret	NAZ 7	MIL 13	DET 7	POR Ret	CLE 8	TOR 9	MIC Ret	CHI 8	MDO Ret	ROA 5	VAN 6	LS 8	GAT 7	HOU 1	SRF 3	FON Ret		6th	131
2001	Patrick Racing	MTY 6	LBH 5	FTW Canc	NAZ 4	MOT 5	MIL Ret	DET Ret	POR 16	CLE 5	TOR Ret	MIC Ret	CHI 14	MDO Ret	ROA Ret	VAN Ret	LAU 15	ROC 7	HOU 11	LS 5	SRF 6	FON 12	12th	77
2002	Team Rahal	MTY 20	LBH 2	MOT 20	MIL 9	LS 8	POR 16	CHI 17	TOR 6	CLE 6	VAN 17	MDO 8	ROA 5	MTL 5	DEN 10	ROC 7	MIA 3	SRF 12	FON 1	MXC 11			7th	114
2003	American Spirit Team Johannson	STP 6	MTY 14	LBH 4	BRH 19	LAU 8	MIL 11	LS 8	POR 7	CLE 13	TOR 13	VAN 11	ROA 9	MDO 15	MTL 16	DEN 11	MIA 4	MXC 17	SRF 3	FON NH			11th	72
2004	PKV Racing	LBH 16	MTY 12	MIL 4	POR 8	CLE 5	TOR 2	VAN 10	ROA 8	DEN 17	MTL 8	LS 17	LVG 5	SRF 12	MXC 5								8th	201^
2005	PKV Racing	LBH 9	MTY 14	MIL 5	POR 6	CLE 6	TOR 4	EDM 11	SJO 11	DEN 15	MTL 7	LVG 3	SRF 3	MXC 6									6th	217
2006	PKV Racing	LBH 14	HOU	MTY	MIL	POR	CLE	TOR	EDM	SJO	DEN	MTL	ROA	SRF	MXC								24th	7

• ^ New points system implemented in 2004

IndyCar

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2000	Chip Ganassi Racing	WDW	PHX	LVS	INDY 7	TXS	PPIR	ATL	KTY	TX2											32nd	26
2001	Chip Ganassi Racing	PHX	HMS	ATL	INDY 4	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	KTY	STL	CHI	TX2							36th	32
2002	Team Rahal	HMS	PHX	FON 9	NZR	INDY 30	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	KTY	STL	CHI	TX2					40th	23
2003	Team Rahal	HMS	PHX	MOT	INDY 26	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	STL	KTY	NZR	CHI	FON	TX2				36th	4
2008	KV Racing Technology	HMS	STP	MOT1 DNP	LBH1 10	KAN	INDY	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	EDM	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI	SRF2	NC	–

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

Indianapolis 500 results

Notes

Winner of fastest Champ Car race: Fontana 2002, Average Speed: 197.995 mph (318.642 km/h)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jimmy Vasser.

• Official bio at PKVRacing.com
• Jimmy Vasser driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Jimmy Vasser now savors taste of Indy milk - The Indianapolis Star, 23 May 2014