Jimmy Vasser
| Jimmy Vasser | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Vasser at Long Beach, 2008
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| Nationality | American | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
November 20, 1965 Canoga Park, California, U.S. |
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| Championship titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1996 PPG Indy Car World Series Champion | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Champ Car career | |||||||
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| 233 races run over 16 years | |||||||
| Years active | 1992–2006, 2008 | ||||||
| Team(s) | Hayhoe/Cole Racing (1992–1994) Target Chip Ganassi Racing (1995–2000) Patrick Racing (2001) Rahal Letterman Racing (2002) American Spirit Team Johansson (2003) PKV Racing (2004–2006) KV Racing (2008) |
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| Best finish | 1st - 1996 | ||||||
| First race | 1992 Dailkyo IndyCar Grand Prix (Surfers Paradise) | ||||||
| Last race | 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach (Long Beach) | ||||||
| First win | 1996 Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami (Homestead) | ||||||
| Last win | 2002 The 500 Presented by Toyota (California) | ||||||
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| NASCAR Xfinity Series career | |||||||
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| 2 races run over 1 year | |||||||
| Best finish | 97th – 2003 | ||||||
| First race | 2003 Koolerz 300 (Daytona) | ||||||
| Last race | 2003 GNC Live Well 250 (Milwaukee) | ||||||
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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. Vasser was the last American to win the Champ Car championship.
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. 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. Teammate Alex Zanardi outperformed him over the next two years, winning the points championship both years. 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.
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.
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