Dan Clarke | |||||||
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Clarke at Silverstone in 2005
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Nationality | British | ||||||
Born |
Mexborough, South Yorkshire, England |
4 October 1983 ||||||
Achievements | 2004 Formula Ford Festival Winner | ||||||
Champ Car career | |||||||
27 races run over 2 years | |||||||
Years active | 2006–2007 | ||||||
Team(s) |
CTE Racing-HVM (2006) Minardi Team USA (2007) |
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Best finish | 12th – 2006 | ||||||
First race | 2006 Grand Prix of Long Beach (Long Beach) | ||||||
Last race | 2007 Gran Premio Tecate (Mexico City) | ||||||
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NASCAR Xfinity Series career | |||||||
1 race run over 1 year | |||||||
2011 position | 87th | ||||||
Best finish | 87th – 2011 | ||||||
First race | 2011 Zippo 200 (Watkins Glen) | ||||||
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Statistics current as of 29 May 2012. | |||||||
Previous series | |||||||
2010 2009 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 |
Firestone Indy Lights A1 Grand Prix Champ Car World Series Champ Car World Series British F3 UK Formula Ford UK Formula Ford UK FFord Jnr BRDC FFord |
Daniel "Dan" Clarke (born 4 October 1983) is a British auto racing driver, most recently competing in the Firestone Indy Lights series with Walker Racing, having previously competed in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport and the Champ Car World Series.
A veteran of British Formula Ford where he won the prestigious Formula Ford Festival in 2004, he moved up the British Formula 3 Championship in 2005 in a team part owned by Kimi Räikkönen, Räikkönen Robertson Racing, and finished 5th overall, taking the team's first win at Castle Combe and setting the circuit outright lap record which he still holds.
With a series of impressive tests he was signed to drive in the Champ Car World Series for CTE Racing-HVM, owned jointly by Cedric the Entertainer and Keith Wiggins, in 2006 as a teammate to the even younger Nelson Philippe. This was despite Danish driver Ronnie Bremer having publicly claimed to have a drive with the team.
He finished 6th at Portland and 7th at Burke Lakefront Airport, where he was battling for 2nd with Mario Domínguez when they collided on the penultimate lap. Dan was again competitive at San Jose, moving up from 9th to 2nd before a gearbox failure put him out at mid-distance. At his next race, in Denver, Clarke moved into 3rd place in the final lap (because of a collision of two drivers ahead of him) to achieve his first podium finish as a Champ Car driver. Indeed, the Denver 3rd place was the first podium finish for a Champ Car Rookie driver in the 2006 racing season.