James "Jimmy" Vasser Jr. (born November 20, 1965) is an American former

racing driver 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 ...

who competed primarily in the CART series and

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

. Vasser won ten CART series races and won the 1996 CART championship with

Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing, LLC (CGR), also sometimes branded as Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, is an American auto racing organization competing in the NTT IndyCar Series. They have formerly competed in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, Global Rally ...

. Vasser was the last American to win the CART title. Vasser won the 1996 U.S. 500, and had a best finish of 4th at the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...

twice (

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

and

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

). Vasser was co-owner of

KV Racing Technology KV Racing Technology was an auto racing team that last competed in the IndyCar Series. The team was originally formed as PK Racing before the 2003 season by Australian businessman Kevin Kalkhoven and former Formula One team manager Craig Pollo ...

, winning the 2013 Indianapolis 500 with driver

Tony Kanaan Antoine Rizkallah "Tony" Kanaan Filho (born 31 December 1974), nicknamed "TK", is a Brazilian racing driver who is the team principal of Arrow McLaren. He is best known for racing in Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) from 1998 to 2002, an ...

. He currently co-owns

Vasser Sullivan Racing Vasser Sullivan is an American motorsports racing team. It was founded in 2010 by James “Sulli” Sullivan as SH Racing to compete in motocross. In 2011, the team partnered with KV Racing Technology to form KVSH Racing. Following a two-year h ...

, claiming the GTD Pro teams title at the

2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship The 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship) was the 53rd racing season sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association, which traces its lineage back to the 1 ...

Driving career

Vasser made his

CART A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs. A handcart ...

debut in 1992 and qualified for the

, as the fastest rookie qualifier. While he become a top driver on the open-wheel circuit, his rise to prominence overlapped with the IRL-CART "Split". Vasser's best years were mostly spent away from the Indy 500, although he did race at Indy on a one-off basis a few times after the Split. In 1995, Vasser joined

. At the

he was battling for the lead when he crashed with just 30 laps to go. Later in the season, Vasser finished second at both

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

and

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

. But at Portland, race winner Al Unser Jr.'s car failed post-race inspection due to insufficient ground clearance. Unser was stripped of the victory, and Vasser was elevated to the winner, tentatively his first-career Indy car triumph. A protest and appeals process dragged out through the summer, and in September Unser was reinstated the win. Vasser would finish the 1995 season 8th in points. In

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

Vasser won the

season opener at

Homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (building), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses * Nguni homestead, a cluster of houses inhabited by a single extended family, typically with a kraal ...

, officially his first win in Indy/Champ Car competition. He won four races, including the

U.S. 500 U.S. 500 may refer to multiple races held at Michigan International Speedway: * 1996 U.S. 500, a CART series race held May 26, 1996, the same day as the 1996 Indianapolis 500 * Michigan 500, a CART series race that was held under the title U.S. ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. He built a large points lead during the first half of the season, with seven top-tens in the first seven races. He clinched the championship at the season's final race, scoring points in every race except one. Vasser finished third in points in 1997 with one race win. He finished second in points with three wins in 1998, including the Marlboro 500 at

Fontana Fontana may refer to: Places Italy *Fontana Liri, comune in the Province of Frosinone *Fontanafredda, comune in the Province of Pordenone * Fontanarosa, comune in the Province of Avellino *Francavilla Fontana, comune in the Province of Brindisi ...

. But teammate

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 ...

would outshine him over those two seasons, winning the points championship both years. Vasser teamed with

Juan Pablo Montoya Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán (; born 20 September 1975) is a Colombian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to , IndyCar between 1999 and 2022, and the NASCAR Cup Series between 2006 and 2024. Montoya won seven Formula One Grand ...

in 1999. He was once again outperformed by his teammate and Montoya won the championship in his rookie season. In 2000, his last year with Chip Ganassi Racing, Vasser won the Houston Grand Prix for his first victory since 1998. In that year, Ganassi also became the first major CART major team to crossover to the IRL and compete at the

. It was Vasser's first appearance at Indy since 1995. Vasser and Montoya were well-received by fans, and were quickly up to speed with the IRL regulars. Vasser led 5 laps, but slipped to 7th at the finish. Montoya dominated the race en route to victory. For 2001, Vasser moved to the

Patrick Racing Patrick Racing was an auto racing team in United States Auto Club, USAC, Championship Auto Racing Teams, CART, Champ Car World Series, Champ Car and the Indy Racing League. Patrick Racing was started by Pat Patrick (auto racing), U.E. "Pat" Patri ...

team to drive the No. 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, Vasser was reunited with Target Chip Ganassi Racing driving for them in the Indianapolis 500. Vasser ran well and finished in 4th place as CART drivers swept the top five spots at the 500. However, once returning to the CART circuit, back to back crashes in race No. 5 at Milwaukee and race No. 6 at Detroit seemed to derail the season as Vasser 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 No. 8 Shell Lola Ford with

Rahal Letterman Racing Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) is an auto racing team that has participated in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the IndyCar Series. Headquartered in Zionsville, Indiana and Hilliard, Ohio, it is co-owned by 1986 Indianapolis 5 ...

for 2002 which had finished 2nd in CART 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 Michael Mario Andretti (born October 5, 1962) is an American former racing driver, and current team owner. Statistically one of the most successful drivers in the history of American open-wheel car racing, Andretti won the 1991 CART champions ...

. 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 Andretti. Vasser's Fontana win was to be the final win of his CART career. Without sponsorship at Rahal for 2003, Vasser had to look for opportunities with other teams and without many seats available for the 38-year-old he ended up with

Stefan Johansson Stefan Nils Edwin Johansson (born 8 September 1956) is a Swedish former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One between and . In endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing, Johansson won the 24 Hours of Le Mans ...

's startup American Spirit team. The team was not fully funded and they ran the Reynard chassis which were not up to the pace of the current Lola chassis cars. Additionally, Reynard had gone bankrupt so further development of the chassis had to be taken on by the teams so the performance gap to the Lolas continue to widen during the season. Except for a couple of fourth-place finishes, leading 15 laps at Cleveland, and podium at Surfer's Paradise in a wet/dry race the season was not very successful as rookie teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay was outpacing Vasser. Vasser reunited with Rahal Letterman for his final run at an Indianapolis 500 win but was again sidelined with gearbox failure during the race. In 2004 he became co-owner of PKV Racing (later renamed to KV Racing Technology) along with Dan Pettit and

Kevin Kalkhoven Kevin Oscar Newton Kalkhoven (1944 – 4 January 2022) was an Australian venture capitalist and auto racing magnate based in California. He was CEO of JDS Uniphase and was an investor in Cosworth Group Holdings Limited, an automotive technolog ...

and was a driver for the team. In 2004, he broke the modern CART–Champ Car record for the most consecutive starts. Vasser retired from open wheel racing in 2006, but remains active in his ownership role. He temporarily came out of retirement to drive in the final Champ Car World Series event at the

2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach The 2008 Long Beach Grand Prix, Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach was the third round of the 2008 IndyCar Series, for teams who competed in the Champ Car World Series in 2007 Champ Car season, 2007. This was because the 2008 Indy Japan 300 occurre ...

. In 2006, Vasser competed in three

Grand-Am Grand-Am Road Racing or Grand-Am was an auto racing sanctioning body that was established in 1999 to organize road racing competitions in North America. Its primary focus was the Rolex Sports Car Series, an endurance racing championship series. I ...

Rolex Sports Car Series races, including 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 ...

, driving for GAINSCO/Blackhawk Racing. In 2007, he again drove for the renamed GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing at the 24 Hours of Daytona, and on Sept. 4, 2007, it was announced that he would return to the team for the season-ending Sunchaser 1000 km. Vasser drove again for Stallings' team beginning at Laguna Seca in May 2008, pairing with fellow Champ Car champion

Cristiano da Matta Cristiano Monteiro da Matta (born 19 September 1973) is a Brazilian former professional racing driver. He won the CART Championship in 2002, and drove in Formula One with the Toyota team from 2003 to 2004. Biography Origins and early career ...

. In 2013, Vasser joined the

Stadium Super Trucks The Stadium Super Trucks (SST), formerly known as Speed Energy Formula Off-Road, also known as the Boost Mobile Super Trucks in Australia, is an American short course off-road racing series created by off-road racer and former IndyCar and NASCAR d ...

and was scheduled to make his debut at

Honda Indy Toronto The Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto is an annual Indy Car race, held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally known as the Molson Indy Toronto, it was part of the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) series from 1986 to 2003, and then the Ch ...

. However, he was injured prior to the race and was replaced by

Davey Hamilton David Jay "Davey" Hamilton (born June 13, 1962, in Nampa, Idaho) is a race car driver who competed in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series and Stadium Super Trucks. He has made 56 series starts and while never winning a race, finished second thr ...

Early career

*Won the 1986

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 ...

National Championship, SCCA. *Competed in the 1988 Corvette Challenge. *Competed in the 1989 and 1990 Pro F-2000 Canadian Championship. Vasser and his teammate Ken Murillo were sponsored by

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in December 10, 1971 in San Rafael, California, and later moved to San Francisco in 2005. It is best known for creating and producing th ...

. *Competed in

Atlantic Championship The Atlantic Championship Series is an American open-wheel racing series with races throughout North America. It has previously been called Champ Car Atlantics, Toyota Atlantics (after its then engine supplier for sponsorship reasons), or just ...

in 1990 and 1991 for Genoa Racing / Della Penna Motorsports. *Won the Formula Atlantic East/West Challenge in 1990. *Finished Runner-up (by 4 points Jovy Marcelo) in the 1991 season, six wins and seven pole positions.

Motorsports career results

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

American open-wheel racing results

( key)

Indy Lights

CART/Champ Car

* ^ New points system implemented in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

IndyCar

: ''¹ Run on same day.'' : ''² Non-points-paying, exhibition race.''

Indianapolis 500 results

Notes

* Winner of fastest

race: Fontana 2002, Average Speed:

NASCAR

( key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Busch Series

References

External links

Official bio
at PKVRacing.com *
Jimmy Vasser now savors taste of Indy milk
- The Indianapolis Star, 23 May 2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Vasser, Jimmy Living people 1965 births People from Canoga Park, Los Angeles Racing drivers from Los Angeles 24 Hours of Daytona drivers Indianapolis 500 drivers Champ Car champions Champ Car drivers IndyCar Series drivers Rolex Sports Car Series drivers Indy Lights drivers Atlantic Championship drivers NASCAR drivers International Race of Champions drivers IndyCar Series team owners SCCA National Championship Runoffs winners Chip Ganassi Racing drivers KV Racing Technology drivers Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing drivers American Spirit Team Johansson drivers