Emmet O'Brien (born 7 March 1981, in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

) is an Irish

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

driver.

Career

O'Brien started competing in the Irish Karting championships at a young age, he finished 2nd in the National Irish Formula A karting championship for PCR in 1998 and also finished 2nd in the All Ireland's in 1998 winning four races. His early racing included the British

Formula Palmer Audi Formula Palmer Audi, officially abbreviated to FPA, and sometimes informally abbreviated to Palmer Audi, was a one-make class of open wheel Formula racing founded in 1998 by former Formula One driver, Jonathan Palmer. It was based in the Unite ...

championship in 2000 which he competed in straight out of karting, in 2001 he competed in British

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 ...

championship for Aztec Racing. O'Brien then signed up for two years in the British

SEAT Cupra Championship The SEAT Cupra Championship was a one-make series that ran for six years between 2003 and 2008, the last five of which ran as a support package to the British Touring Car Championship. Originally the prize for winning the championship was a driv ...

. In 2005 he competed in the European Alfa Romeo 147 Challenge for PRS racing, where he went on to win the Rookie championship with 10 wins. His success led to a test drive for independent

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

team

Wiechers-Sport Wiechers-Sport is a German auto racing team which is based in Nienburg, Lower Saxony, Nienburg. The team was first established in 1999, competing in German Touring car racing, touring cars. The team currently competes in the World Touring Car Cham ...

at the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

circuit

Oschersleben Oschersleben () is a town in the Börde district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The population in 1905 was 13,271, in 2020 about 19,000. History On November 23, 994 Oschersleben was first mentioned in a document by the Emperor Otto III. In 1235 ...

, having impressed enough in the test he was signed to compete in the FIA

World Touring Car Championship The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a sing ...

, with the independent

BMW team for 2006. He competed for the first half of the season and left the team after a string of reliability retirements. Late in 2006 he was signed by the GR Asia

SEAT Leon A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

team and finished an impressive second in the European Touring Car Cup against the likes of works drivers

Alex Zanardi Alessandro "Alex" Zanardi (; born 23 October 1966) is an Italian professional racing driver and paracyclist. He won the CART championship in 1997 and 1998, and took 15 wins in the series. He also raced in Formula One from 1991 to 1994 and again ...

and other FIA

regulars. After impressing in the 2006 FIA

European Touring Car Cup The FIA European Touring Car Cup was an annual touring car racing event, which had been held at various locations across Europe from 2005 to 2017. Unlike in previous years where it was a one-off event, in 2010 the series was a three-round event. ...

, O'Brien was signed to compete in the

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

. O'Brien drove for GR Asia in the WTCC in a

. The season was a struggle, driving

SEAT A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

's first test car the

001 chassis, with aging equipment and due to no support from the Irish

distributor the season proved difficult and like the previous year, his campaign ended early due to these issues. Like the previous year O'Brien got a late call to race for the Independent Danish Poulsen Motorsport

Team in the FIA European Touring Car Cup in

Adria Adria is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Rovigo in the Veneto region of northern Italy, situated between the mouths of the rivers Adige and Po River, Po. The remains of the Etruria, Etruscan city of Atria or Hatria are to be found below ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Even though O'Brien had not driven since his departure from GR Asia

he qualified as top

driver and finished in 3rd place. In 2008 he competed in the

Danish Touring Car Championship The Danish Touringcar Championship (abbreviated as the DTC) was a touring car racing series in Denmark. The inaugural year for the DTC was 1999, after the huge success in Scandinavia of the British Touring Car Championship The British Touring ...

for Poulsen Motorsport in a

BMW 320si The fifth generation of the BMW 3 Series range of compact executive cars is designated under the model codes E90 (saloon), E91 (estate, marketed as 'Touring'), E92 (coupé) and E93 (convertible). The model was introduced in December 2004, and p ...

. O'Brien enjoyed racing in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

and had a succsefull end to the championship finishing with two podiums and third place in the Valvoline Finale just behind series champions

Jan Magnussen Jan Ellegaard Magnussen (born 4 July 1973) is a Danish professional racing driver and was a factory driver for General Motors until the end of the 2020 season. He has competed in Champ Car, Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), NASCAR, the FIA ...

and Michel Nykjaer, O'Brien was representing

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

in Denmark and carried the striking livery of the

Burn Energy A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ionizing radiation (such as sunburn, caused by ultraviolet radiation). Most burns are due to heat from hot fluids (called scalding), solids, ...

brand on his

Racing record

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) † — Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

External links

Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Emmet 1981 births Living people Irish racing drivers Formula Ford drivers Formula Palmer Audi drivers World Touring Car Championship drivers Danish Touring Car Championship drivers GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup drivers European Touring Car Cup drivers Motorsport people from County Dublin