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Jimmy Vasser
Vasser atLong Beach, 2008
Born	(1965-11-20)November 20, 1965 (age 60) Canoga Park,California, U.S.
Championship titles
1996PPG Indy Car World Series Champion
Champ Car career 233 races run over 16 years Years active 1992–2006, 2008 Team(s) Hayhoe/Cole Racing (1992–1994) Target Chip Ganassi Racing (1995–2000) Patrick Racing (2001) Rahal Letterman Racing (2002) American Spirit Team Johansson (2003) PKV Racing (2004–2006) KV Racing (2008) Best finish 1st (1996) First race 1992Dailkyo IndyCar Grand Prix (Surfers Paradise) Last race 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach (Long Beach) First win 1996Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami (Homestead) Last win 2002The 500 Presented by Toyota (California) Wins Podiums Poles 10 33 8
NASCAR driver NASCARO'Reilly Auto Parts Series career 2 races run over 1 year Best finish 97th (2003) First race 2003Koolerz 300 (Daytona) Last race 2003GNC Live Well 250 (Milwaukee) Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0

James "Jimmy" Vasser Jr. (born November 20, 1965) is an American formerracing driver who competed primarily in theCART series andChamp Car. Vasser won ten CART series races and won the1996 CART championship withChip Ganassi Racing.^[1] Vasser was the last American to win the CART title. Vasser won the1996 U.S. 500, and had a best finish of fourth at theIndianapolis 500 twice (1994 and2001).

Vasser was co-owner ofKV Racing Technology, winning the2013 Indianapolis 500 with driverTony Kanaan. He currently co-ownsVasser Sullivan Racing, claiming the GTD Pro teams title at the2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship.

Vasser made hisCART debut in 1992 and qualified for theIndianapolis 500, as thefastest rookie qualifier.^[2] While he become a top driver on the open-wheel circuit, his rise to prominence overlapped with theIRL-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 joinedChip Ganassi Racing. At theIndianapolis 500 he was battling for the lead when he crashed with just thirty laps to go. Later in the season, Vasser finished second at bothDetroit andPortland. But at Portland, race winnerAl 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.^[3][4][5] A protest and appeals process dragged out through the summer,^[6] and in September Unser was reinstated the win.^[7][8] Vasser would finish the1995 season eighth in points.

In1996 Vasser won theCART season opener atHomestead, officially his first win in Indy/Champ Car competition. He won four races, including theU.S. 500 atMichigan. 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.^[9]

Vasser finished third in points in 1997 with one race win. He finished second in points with three wins in 1998, including theMarlboro 500 atFontana. But teammateAlex Zanardi would outshine him over those two seasons, winning the points championship both years.^[10] Vasser teamed withJuan Pablo Montoya in 1999. He was once again outperformed by his teammate and Montoya won the championship in his rookie season.^[11] In 2000, his last year with Chip Ganassi Racing, Vasser won the Houston Grand Prix for his first victory since 1998.^[12] In that year, Ganassi also became the first major CART major team to crossover to theIRL and compete at theIndianapolis 500. 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 thePatrick Racing 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 fourth 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 fifth to seventh.

After a disappointing year without even a podium, Vasser was able to secure the seat of the No. 8 Shell Lola Ford withRahal Letterman Racing for 2002 which had finished second 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 behindMichael Andretti. 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 ninth 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 withStefan Johansson'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 fifteen 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, Vasser became co-owner of PKV Racing (later renamed to KV Racing Technology) along withDan Pettit andKevin Kalkhoven and was a driver for the team. In 2004, he broke the modern CART–Champ Car record for the most consecutive starts.^[13] 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 the2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.^[14]

In 2006, Vasser competed in threeGrand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series races, including the24 Hours of Daytona, driving forGAINSCO/Blackhawk Racing. In 2007, he again drove for the renamedGAINSCO/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 championCristiano da Matta.

In 2013, Vasser joined theStadium Super Trucks and was scheduled to make his debut atHonda Indy Toronto.^[15] However, he was injured prior to the race and was replaced byDavey Hamilton.^[16]

• Won the 1986Formula Ford National Championship, SCCA.^[17]
• Competed in the 1988 Corvette Challenge.
• Competed in the 1989 and 1990 Pro F-2000 Canadian Championship. Vasser and his teammateKen Murillo were sponsored byLucasfilm.
• Competed inAtlantic Championship in 1990 and 1991 forGenoa Racing / Della Penna Motorsports.
• Won the Formula Atlantic East/West Challenge in 1990.
• Finished Runner-up (by 4 pointsJovy Marcelo) in the 1991 season, six wins and seven pole positions.

(key)

• ^ New points system implemented in2004

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

• Winner of fastestCART race: Fontana 2002, Average Speed: 197.995 mph (318.642 km/h)

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

Wikimedia Commons has media related toJimmy Vasser.

• Official bio at PKVRacing.com
• Jimmy Vasser driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Jimmy Vasser now savors taste of Indy milk - The Indianapolis Star, 23 May 2014

• Living people
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