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Rocketsports
Rocketsports Racing was a motor racing team based in East Lansing, Michigan in the United States. Team history Rocketsports was founded in 1985 by racing driver Paul Gentilozzi to compete in the Trans-Am series. It competed in Trans-Am until 2004, when the championship was cancelled, and achieved 57 outright wins in 20 years. It has also raced in the IMSA sports car racing championship. Rocketsports joined Champ Car in 2003 with driver Alex Tagliani, who scored the team's only victory at Road America in 2004. In 2005 and 2006 the team fielded cars for pay drivers and frequently changed drivers. In 2007, Tagliani returned full-time and the team shared technical information with RuSPORT. This alliance was dubbed RSPORTS, and took a race win with RuSPORT's Justin Wilson. However, the alliance ended at the end of the season. In 2008, following the unification of Champ Car and the IRL, Rocketsports announced that it would not transition to the IndyCar Series. They did compete in the ...
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Alex Tagliani
Alexandre Tagliani (; born October 18, 1973), nicknamed "Tag", is a Canadian professional racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series, driving the No. 18 Chevrolet Camaro for 22 Racing. Tagliani has competed in a variety of disciplines including open-wheel car, open-wheel, stock car racing, stock car, and sports car racing. He has raced in the Atlantic Championship, Champ Car, IndyCar Series, NASCAR Pinty's Series, and NASCAR Xfinity Series. Racing career Atlantic Championship Tagliani debuted in the Atlantic Championship in 1996 with P-1 Racing, where he finished seventh in the overall points standings. Switching to Forsythe Racing, he finished third in 1997, fourth in 1998, and fourth in 1999, claiming two wins in each season. Champ Car Tagliani raced in the Champ Car series from 2000, when it was still known as CART, until its demise in 2007. He was signed by Forsythe Racing for the 2000 season replacing Greg Moore (race car driver), Greg Moore. He c ...
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Trans-Am
The Trans-Am Series is a sports car racing series held in North America. Founded in 1966, it is sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). Primarily based in the United States, the series competes on a variety of track types including road courses and street circuits. Trans-Am is split into the TA and TA2 classes for silhouette racing cars, while its production classes are the GT (grand touring), SGT (super grand touring), and XGT (extreme grand touring). Origin The Trans-Am Series was created in 1966 by Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) President John Bishop. Originally known as the Trans-American Sedan Championship, the name was changed to the Trans-American Championship for 1967 and henceforth. The series has in fact gone by at least twenty different names through the years. Some were linked to sponsors, some not. It has evolved over time from its original format as a Manufacturers' Championship series for modified passenger sedans and coupés to its current fo ...
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Antônio Pizzonia
Antônio Reginaldo Pizzonia Júnior (born 11 September 1980) is a Brazilian professional racing driver who has raced in Formula One and the Champ Car World Series. Born in Manaus, he started his car racing career in the Formula Vauxhall Junior series in 1997, and then progressed through various junior formulae, winning the Formula Vauxhall Junior Winter Festival in 1997, the Formula Vauxhall Junior and Formula Renault Winter Festival in 1998, the Formula Renault 2.0 UK in 1999, and the British Formula 3 Championship in 2000. For 2001 and 2002, he entered the Formula 3000, with his best championship finish being sixth in 2001. In 2003, he was signed by the Jaguar Formula One team, but following poor results, was released during the season. In 2004, he replaced the injured Ralf Schumacher at Williams in several events, securing his first Formula One points in the process. In 2005, he replaced Nick Heidfeld at Williams, but was released from his contract at the end of the season. ...
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RSPORTS
RSPORTS was an auto racing team that competed in the Champ Car World Series. It was founded officially in 2007 as a technological partnership, but started out originally as two different teams owned by former race car drivers Carl Russo, who owned RuSPORT, and Paul Gentilozzi who founded Rocketsports. RuSPORT Carl Russo drove for the team then known as Performance Development and Racing, or PDR which was owned by Steve Wulff before Russo drove in the Toyota Atlantic Series before he gave up his seat to young driver Aaron Justus. Justus and A. J. Allmendinger were drivers in the team's 2003 Atlantic season, and Allmendinger cruised to the championship with seven victories from 11 starts. Both RuSPORT and Allmendinger moved up to Champ Car in 2004, and added a second car at the 11th hour for Michel Jourdain Jr. to keep car count at the minimum of 18. Most of the team's resources were stretched and Jourdain and the team parted ways following the season. Justin Wilson was signed ...
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Nicky Pastorelli
Nicky Pastorelli (born 11 April 1983) is a Dutch professional racing driver. Motorsports career Euro Formula 3000 Born in The Hague, Pastorelli participated in Euro Formula 3000 for Scuderia Fama in 2003. He finished on the podium twice and placed fifth in the season championship. For 2004, Pastorelli signed with the defending champion Draco Junior Team. Pastorelli won the championship by one point over Fabrizio Del Monte with 2 wins among 6 podium finishes in the 10 series races. Formula One testing This result gained him a Formula One test at Minardi, and in 2005 Pastorelli was appointed official Jordan Grand Prix test driver, and was the first driver in the Young Driver Development Program of MF1 Racing. However, none of these tests resulted in a Formula One race drive for Pastorelli. Champ Car Pastorelli made his debut at Grand Prix of Houston in the second race of the season, in Rocketsports' only entry. He qualified 16th of the 17 cars, and retired after 29 laps wit ...
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Timo Glock
Timo Glock (born 18 March 1982) is a German professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver. He raced in Formula One for the Jordan, Toyota, Virgin Racing and Marussia F1 teams. He finished 10th in the Drivers' Championship in both 2008 and 2009, scoring three podium finishes. After leaving Formula One in 2013, Glock became a works driver for BMW in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, driving for BMW Team MTEK, and achieved his first DTM podium at the Red Bull Ring, and a first win at the season finale at the Hockenheimring. Early career Born in Lindenfels, West Germany, Glock began his motorsport career in 1998 at the age of 15. He won several karting championships as well as the BMW ADAC Formula Junior Cup in 2000 and the Formula BMW ADAC Championship in 2001. In his first German Formula Three Championship season in 2002, he finished third in the standings en route to rookie of the year honours. In 2003, he competed in the Formula Three Euroseries, winning three ...
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Memo Gidley
José Guillermo "Memo" Gidley is a Mexican-born racing driver, of German and Canadian ancestry, born in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico on September 29, 1970. He holds dual citizenship - American and Mexican. In his early years, he sold his apartment to fund his career and spent 4 months homeless living in his car. He worked at the Jim Russell racing school as a mechanic to fund his career for some time, eventually getting a chance in Champ Car with Derrick Walker in 1999, although this was as a short-term replacement. He did the same task for Gerry Forsythe a year later, and Chip Ganassi in 2001, twice coming close to race victories. He nearly retained his drive for 2002 - Chip later suggested that they keep Bruno Junqueira over him as the Brazilian was under contract. He has raced assorted sports cars since, although he made two Champ Car starts for Rocketsports in 2004, and briefly ran in the rival IRL series. Since 2005 he has competed full-time in the Grand-Am Rolex Spor ...
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Nelson Philippe
Nelson Philippe (born July 23, 1986 in Valence, Drôme) is a French race car driver. Career Early career Philippe raced go-karts from 1998-2002. In 2003, he raced in the Barber Dodge Pro Series, finishing the season with one podium, and four top five finishes. With just one year of experience in cars, Philippe tested with two Champ Car teams, before signing with Paul Gentilozzi's Rocketsports Racing team. At 17, he became the youngest driver to ever race in Champ Car. Through the first five races of the 2004 season, Philippe generally stayed out of trouble but usually ran at the back of the pack. Philippe was abruptly dropped from the Rocketsports team before the Molson Indy Toronto. After sitting out several races, Philippe rejoined the series later in the year for Mi-Jack Conquest Racing. In 2005, he continued to race for the Conquest team alongside fellow teenager Andrew Ranger. Philippe made a total of 19 starts for Eric Bachelart's Conquest Racing in 2004 and 2005. Altho ...
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Guy Smith (racing Driver)
Guy Smith (born 12 September 1974) is a semi-retired British professional racing driver who has competed in various levels of motorsport, most notably the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which he won in 2003, and the American Le Mans Series, which he won in 2011. Racing career Early career Born in Beverley, Smith started racing karts in 1987, winning the British Championship, and in 1991 finished second in the Senior World Championship. In 1991 he entered his first car race, competing in the Formula First Winter Series, finishing second overall. In 1992 he entered the Formula Vauxhall Junior, finishing second overall in the championship, with five wins. In 1993, he entered the British Formula Ford series, once again finishing runner-up, whilst also finishing fourth in the Formula Ford Festival, driving for Swift Racing Cars in both series. For 1994, Smith moved to the Formula Vauxhall Lotus series, finishing fourth overall, whilst also managing to finish sixth overall in the Formula Op ...
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2003 CART Season
The 2003 Champ Car World Series, the twenty-fifth and final in the CART-era of American open-wheel car racing, consisted of 18 races, beginning in St. Petersburg, Florida on February 23 and concluding in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia on October 26. For sponsorship purposes, it was branded as Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. The intended final event, scheduled to be held in Fontana, California on November 9 was canceled due to wildfires, one of which was known as the "Grand Prix Fire", burning in and around San Bernardino County. The Drivers' Champion was Paul Tracy. Rookie of the Year was Sébastien Bourdais. At the end of the season, the operations of a now bankrupt CART were assumed by Open-Wheel Racing Series, who continued to brand its top series as the Champ Car World Series. The season was the first since 1993 not to feature Michael Andretti. Drivers and teams With the departure of Honda and Toyota to the Indy Racing League ...
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Tõnis Kasemets
Tõnis Kasemets (born March 17, 1974 in Pärnu, Estonia) is an Estonian racing driver and a former competitor in the CART Champ Car World Series. He won the 2022 IMSA Prototype Challenge championship. Career Kasemets emigrated to the United States in 1995 and began SCCA racing. He advanced through the open wheel ranks and by 2004 was in the Toyota Atlantic series. In 2005 he placed second in the series championship to Charles Zwolsman. He participated in a partial 2006 schedule in the Champ Car World Series for Paul Gentilozzi's Rocketsports Racing. To participate in Champ Car in 2006 he had to gather funds for a quarter of the participation costs. Kasemets wanted to do a full season of Champ Car in 2007 and in the future he wants to own a successful team à la Newman-Haas and Forsythe. However, he has not appeared in a Champ Car or IndyCar Series race since 2006. He continued racing in the Atlantic Championship until its closure after the 2009 season and made his Firestone Ind ...
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Juho Annala
Juho Annala, born is a Finland, Finnish racing driver. Annala was born in Lapua. After starting in Kart racing, karting, he moved to Swedish, Finnish, and Nordic Formula Ford in 2004, winning the Nordic championship and coming second in both the Swedish and Finnish championships. In 2005 he moved to the British Formula 3 International Series, British Formula Three Championship driving for Alan Docking Racing in the national class of the championship. He finished 6th in series points scoring 3 podium finishes. In 2006 he switched teams to Performance Racing, Performance Racing Europe and captured 3 wins and 3 pole positions on his way to third in the championship. In 2007 he drove in the International Formula Master series for Jenzer Motorsport and finished 11th in points with a runner up finish at Masaryk Circuit, Brno. He drove in the 2008 Grand Prix of Long Beach, the final Champ Car race, for Rocketsports
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