David John Besnard (born 21 January 1977 in

Sydney, Australia Sydney is the capital city of the state of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about 80 km (50 mi) from the Pacific Ocean ...

) is a retired professional racing driver.

Career history

Starting in

karts Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on full-size moto ...

in 1991, he quickly proceeded into

Formula Ford Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single-seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world have historically been an important step for many prospective Formula One dri ...

in 1995. After initial success, he had a major accident at

Eastern Creek Raceway Sydney Motorsport Park (known until May 2012 as Eastern Creek International Raceway) is a motorsport circuit located on Brabham Drive, Eastern Creek (40-kilometres west of the Sydney CBD), New South Wales, Australia, adjacent to the Western ...

and broke his leg. In 1996 he made a comeback and won the Australian title. 1996 Australian Formula Ford Pointscore He made a venture to the United States, with a small budget, and limited success. In 1998, he returned to win the U.S F2000 National Championship. 1999, saw David enter the US Formula Atlantic Championship. After a heavy crash at

Nazareth Speedway Nazareth Speedway was an auto racing facility in Lower Nazareth Township, Pennsylvania, Lower Nazareth Township in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, which operated from 1910 to 2004. The racing facility operated in two distinct co ...

, the team had to buy a new chassis and ran out of budget halfway through the season. 2000 saw Besnard again in the United States, running various Sports Car races, until

Stone Brothers Racing Stone Brothers Racing (SBR) was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the International V8 Supercars Championship between 1998 and 2012. The team was formed in 1998 when Ross and Jim Stone bought Alan Jones (racing driver), Alan J ...

picked him up for the Konica V8 Supercar Series and the

Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (known for sponsorship reasons as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a Touring car racing, touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supe ...

. From there he drove with Stone Brothers for several seasons, with the highlight being winning the 2002 Queensland 500 with Simon Wills. He raced with Ford Performance Racing for one season in 2003, and WPS Racing for three seasons following that. In 2004, with his links with WPS, a drive in the

Champ Car World Series Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), ...

came about at

Surfers Paradise Surfing is a list of surface water sports, surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in Glossary of surfing, tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wind wave, wave of water, whic ...

. His finishing position of seventh is still the highest finish for an Australian at that event (but bettered by Ryan Briscoe's 2008 IRL win after the CCWS collapsed). After being dropped by WPS in 2006 Besnard has been racing in the

New Zealand Touring Car Championship The New Zealand Touring Car Championship was a motor racing title which was contested in New Zealand from 1984 to 2002. Results See also * NZ Touring Cars championship References

{{New Zealand Touring Car Racing Touring car racing series ...

, picking up an endurance race co-driver role with

in 2007, paired with

James Courtney James Anthony Courtney (born 29 June 1980) is an Australian racing driver competing in the Supercars Championship, Repco Supercars Championship. He currently drives the No. 7 Ford Mustang (sixth generation), Ford Mustang GT for Blanchard Racin ...

, which resulted in a second place at Bathurst.

Motorsports career results

Karting career summary

Career summary

GrandAm Championship

Complete American open-wheel racing results

( key)

Atlantic Championship

Champ Car World Series

Supercars Championship results

(Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Bathurst 1000 results

‡ Besnard replaced Kelly due to illness

References

Conrod V8 Profile & Stats

Speedsport Profile & stats
* *

External links

Official Web page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Besnard, David 1977 births Living people Atlantic Championship drivers Champ Car drivers Formula Ford drivers Racing drivers from Sydney Rolex Sports Car Series drivers Sportsmen from New South Wales Toyota Racing Series drivers U.S. F2000 National Championship drivers Supercars Championship drivers Garry Rogers Motorsport drivers Walker Racing drivers Stone Brothers Racing drivers Dick Johnson Racing drivers Racing drivers from New South Wales V8 Utes drivers