Gustavo "''El Tigrillo''" (English: The Ocelot) Yacamán Aristizabal (born February 25, 1991) is a Colombian racing driver from

Santiago de Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,280,522 residents estimate by National Administrative Department of Statistics, DANE in 2023. The city span ...

who currently manages the

USF Juniors The USF Juniors championship, also known as USF Juniors presented by Continental Tire for sponsorship reasons, is an American auto racing series running with U.S. F2000 National Championship, USF2000 cars (as of 2023). The series was inaugurated ...

series. Yacamán began his career in

open-wheel An open-wheel car is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have their wheels below the body or inside fend ...

racing, but switched to sports car endurance racing in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

. He raced in the US until he joined

G-Drive Racing G-Drive Racing is a Russian sports car racing team. It is named after the commercial fuel distributed by Gazprom Neft, a subsidiary of oil giant Gazprom. They made their debut in the LMP2 class of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship in a p ...

in 2015, where he drove a

Ligier Ligier () is a French automobile and minibus maker created by former racing driver and rugby player Guy Ligier (1930–2015), specialized in the manufacturing of microcars. Ligier is best known for its involvement in the Formula 1 World Cham ...

in the WEC Championship and finished that season 3rd in the

LMP2 A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is a type of sports prototype race car used in various races and championships, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series, and Asian Le M ...

class. In 2016 Yacamán switched to a sprint format, driving for BMW Team Teo Martín in the International GT Open series. He finished runner-up for the

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Championship.

Racing career

Early career

After winning the American Stars of

Karting 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 motor ...

competition in 2005, he moved immediately to the

Spanish Formula Three Championship The Euroformula Open Championship (formerly the Spanish Formula Three Championship, European F3 Open Championship) is a junior formula racing series based in Spain. It was one of six national and international Formula Three championships in Europe ...

for the 2006 season, a significant jump for a young driver. He finished 16th in the championship. He also competed in Master Junior Formula in Europe and finished 4th. The following year Yacamán captured his first win and finished 8th in Spanish Formula Three. In 2008, he captured another win and finished 9th in Spanish F3.

Indy Lights

For 2009, he returned to the U.S. to race in the

Firestone Indy Lights Series Indy NXT (pronounced "Indy Next"), previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as INDY NXT by Firestone for sponsorship reasons. Indy NXT is the highest step on the Road ...

with

Sam Schmidt Motorsports The IndyCar Series operation of McLaren, competing as Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team due to sponsorship, is based in Indianapolis and was founded by former IndyCar driver Sam Schmidt in 2001 as Sam Schmidt Motorsports (SSM). The team operates the N ...

.Knapp Schilke, Nancy
Gustavo Yacaman to take on new American challenge
Motorsport.com, December 30, 2008 He finished 12th in points with a best finish of 4th at the

Milwaukee Mile The Milwaukee Mile is a oval race track in the central United States, located on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis, Wisconsin, a suburb west of Milwaukee. Its grandstand and bleachers seats approximately 37,000 spectat ...

. He returned to the series in 2010 with the rookie team Cape Motorsports with

Wayne Taylor Wayne Taylor (born 15 July 1956) is a South African sports car racing driver and team owner. He won the 1996 and 2005 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 2005 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype drivers' championship. He drove for Su ...

Racing. Yacamán improved to 10th in points and captured his first podium finish with a 3rd place at

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. He returned to the series in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

for a third season, this time with Team Moore Racing. He captured his first win late in the season at

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

and finished fourth in points. Yacamán achieved his first Indy Lights

pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the ra ...

at the

Firestone Freedom 100 The Freedom 100 was an automobile race held annually at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, as part of the Indy Lights. The event was a support race for the IndyCar Series Indianapolis 500, and since 2005, it was held on the Fr ...

. He finished the season third in points with two wins (at Detroit and Toronto) and three runner-up finishes.

Sports cars

For 2013 Yacamán moved to sports car racing after having raced in the

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car racing, sports car Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Flo ...

the previous year, driving the #6 Ford-

Riley Riley may refer to: Businesses * Riley (brand), British sporting goods brand founded in 1878 * Riley Motor, British motorcar and bicycle manufacturera 1890–1969 * Riley Technologies, American auto racing constructor and team, founded by Bob ...

Daytona Prototype A Daytona Prototype was a type of sports prototype racing car developed specifically for the Grand-Am Road Racing, Grand American Road Racing Association's Rolex Sports Car Series as their top class of car, which replaced their main prototype rac ...

entry for Michael Shank Racing in the

Rolex Sports Car Series The Rolex Sports Car Series was the premier series run by the Grand American Road Racing Association. It was a North American-based sports car series founded in 2000 under the name Grand American Road Racing Championship to replace the failed ...

. Yacaman caused a great deal of controversy during the 2013 race at Detroit's Belle Isle. On the first lap of the race Yacaman was trying to make a move inside of Memo Rojas but ran wide, pushing Rojas' car off-line and into a concrete barrier. The incident caused significant damage to Rojas' car, and also collected Yacaman's teammate John Pew. As a result of the incident Rojas and His teammate

Scott Pruett Scott Donald Pruett (born March 24, 1960) is an American former racing driver who has competed in numerous disciplines of the sport. In the 1980s, Pruett established himself as a top sports car racer, winning two IMSA GTO, and three Trans-Am ...

did not accrue any points for the race which put them at a severe disadvantage for the Championship. In the course of the season, Yacamán managed a best finish of second place at Lime Rock, to finish eleventh in the championship. For

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Yacamán has joined the newly unified

United SportsCar Championship The IMSA SportsCar Championship, currently known as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under sponsorship, is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association ( ...

with

OAK Racing OAK Racing is an Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing team specialising in sports prototypes based in Le Mans, France. In 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans, 2013 it won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in Le Mans Prototype, LMP2 class and the 2013 FIA ...

; first with a Morgan LMP2-Nissan and then with a Ligier JS P2-Honda, managed to win at Mosport Park, and three podiums, so that ended eighth in the drivers' championship Prototype class. Yacamán became a junior Lamborghini factory driver in 2017, and will compete at the Blancpain GT Series for Team Lazarus.

Racing record

American open–wheel racing results

( key)

Indy Lights

WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results

( key)(Races in bold indicate pole position, Results are overall/class)

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Complete Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup results

^* Season still in progress.

Complete Global Rallycross Championship results

( key)

GRC Lites

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yacaman, Gustavo 1991 births Living people Colombian racing drivers Euroformula Open Championship drivers Indy Lights drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers 24 Hours of Daytona drivers Rolex Sports Car Series drivers WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers European Le Mans Series drivers FIA World Endurance Championship drivers International GT Open drivers Arrow McLaren SP drivers Wayne Taylor Racing drivers Team Moore Racing drivers OAK Racing drivers AFS Racing drivers G-Drive Racing drivers Team Lazarus drivers Global RallyCross Championship drivers Teo Martín Motorsport drivers De Villota Motorsport drivers Larbre Compétition drivers Starworks Motorsport drivers Graff Racing drivers Meyer Shank Racing drivers Sportspeople from Cali