Racing | Sports Montage

Archive for the ‘racing’ tag

Juan Pablo Montoya

Born in Bogota, Colombia, Juan Pablo Montoya was delivered on September 20 in 1975.The former Formula One and Indycar driver started with go-karts at a young age with his father, Pablo Montoya by his side. By the time he was 9 years old, Montoya had already captured several local and national Karting championships in Colombia including the Kart Komet category. By the time he was 15, Montoya was a Kart Junior world Championship.

He moved on the Copa Formula Renault Series in 1992 and during the same year, he took part in the Skip Barber Course in the USA. That year he had four wins out of eight races with five pole positions as well. The next year proved to be a better year when he joined the Nationale Tournament Swift GTI Championship in Colombi and came home with seven wins in eight races with seven poles as well. In 1994, Montoya saw himself in racing the Sudam 125 Karting, the USA Barber Saab and the Formula N , Mexico. He emerge the victor in the last race. He carved a niche for himself as he went on to take on the 1995 British Formula Vauxhall Championship, the 1996 British Formula 3 and he was also a participant in racing events in Zandvoort, Netherlands and Silverstone. In 1997 he was second in the FIA International Formula 3000 Championship and had his first Formula One test drive with the WilliamsF1 team. The next year proved victorious for this ambitious Colombian when he won the FIA International Formula 3000 Championship. He then moved to North America to team up with the Target Chip Ganassi Racing and was still a WilliamsF1 driver.

In 1999, Montoya managed to bring home the CART Championship Series with the CART Rookie of the Year title and thus becoming the youngest champion in the history of that series. Even though he was offered to drive in the Formula One race that year, Montoya decided to race in the USA for a year more. The next year, Montoya was voted most popular driver but he could not qualify for the championship as he did not manage to finish 40% of the races. He did however emerge winner of the Indianapolis 500 on his debut and was in 9th place in the CART Championship Series.

Montoya made his Formula One debut in 2001 for the WilliamsF1 team. Although he was close to winning the race, the victory lane was snatched from him when he collided with Jos Verstappen however, his talent and energy was noticed by many of the Formula One commentators and fans. He did come home with three pole positions and was victorious during the 2001 Italian Grand Prix.

The next year he went on to set the record for the fastest lap during a qualifying session at the 2002 Italian Grand Prix and although he did not win, he was one of the few drivers that competed neck to neck with Ralf Schumacher. He was second in Australia, Malaysia, Spain, Germany and third in Austria, Britain and Belgium. The next year he was the winner at the Monaco and Germany Formula One race while he came in second in Europe, France, Britain and Italy.

2004 wasn't a very good year for Montoya although he did win in Brazil, the relationship between him and his team mates were strained as Montoya was signed on to leave the next year to join the McLaren team the next year. In 2005, Montoya injured his shoulder in Spain while playing tennis and had to sit out two races until his shoulder was healed. He did however, went on to win in Britain, Italy and Brazil. In the next year, after being involved in a crash that involved his McLaren teammate Raikkonen, Montoya then signed on a contract to race in the NASCAR series from 2007 onwards.

Montoya started out his NASCAR career with a bang during the Automobile Racing Club of America event at Talladega Superspeedway when he finished third. He made his debut in the Busch Series but did not win. He then qualified for the NEXTEL Cup Series and was in the top ten position until his car went on fire. Before he started the 2007 season, Montoya with his teammates Scott Pruett and Salvador Duran won the 24 Hours of Daytona race. He ended at 19th during the first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup and wet on to win the Busch Series TelCel-Motorola 200. He also won at the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma and made history as being the first foreign born driver to win.

It would be a vast understatement to say that we can expect to see plenty more from Montoya's future undertakings with NASCAR.

Juan Pablo Montoya interview after the Auto Club 500