Paul Tracy
| Paul Tracy | |
|---|---|
Tracy at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Second Qualification Day for the 2009 Indianapolis 500
|
|
| Nationality |
 Canadian
|
| Born |
December 17, 1968 Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| IndyCar Series career | |
| Debut season | 2002 |
| Car no. | 8, 23 |
| Former teams |
Team Green Vision Racing A.J. Foyt Enterprises KV Racing Technology Team Penske |
| Starts | 20 |
| Best finish | 22nd in 2009 |
| Previous series | |
| 1986 1988–1990 1991–2007 2006–2007, 2012 2006 2008 |
Can-Am Series American Racing Series CART/Champ Car World Series Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Busch Series Craftsman Truck Series |
| Championship titles | |
| 1990 2003 |
American Racing Series CART/Champ Car World Series |
| Awards | |
| 1990 1993 1999 2000 |
Bruce McLaren Trophy Most Improved Driver All-Star Team All-Star Team |
Paul Anthony Tracy (born December 17, 1968) is a Canadian former professional auto racing driver who competed in CART, the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series. He is known by the nickname "the thrill from West Hill".
Fascinated by cars since boyhood, Tracy raced go-karts at Goodwood Kartways near his hometown until he was 16. At age 16, in 1985, he became the youngest ever Canadian Formula Ford Champion. He was also the winner of the final Can-Am race in series history at the age of 17; in that same race he achieved the record of the youngest winner in Can-Am history.
Tracy worked his way up through the North American open-wheel feeder series' culminating with winning the 1990 American Racing Series Championship, and in the process set a record for single season wins with nine.
The following year, he competed in his first IndyCar event at Long Beach and at mid-season became a test driver for Penske Racing, in his first race for the team at Michigan he crashed and broke his left leg. He recovered and raced twice more for the team at the end of the season. He was scheduled to start a selected number of races for Penske in 1992 and ended up starting 11 races, many of his starts as a substitute driver for the injured Rick Mears. Mears announced his retirement at the conclusion of the 1992 season and Tracy replaced Mears in the #3.
His first full year of IndyCar competition came in 1993 and he won five times with his first win coming at Long Beach and the others at Cleveland, Toronto, Road America and Laguna Seca. Paul led the series in laps led and was voted most improved driver by his peers. The 1994 season started out slowly for Tracy as he scored just two points in the first four races. He rebounded from his poor start and finished on the podium in eight of the final twelve races with victories at Detroit, Nazareth, and Laguna Seca. His third-place showing in the points gave Penske a sweep of the top-three slots with Al Unser, Jr. winning the title and Emerson Fittipaldi second. That year, Tracy also tested with the Benetton Formula One team at Estoril.
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