Bryan John Herta (born May 23, 1970) is an American former race car driver. He currently runs his own team,

Bryan Herta Autosport Bryan Herta Autosport is an American auto racing team that competes in the IndyCar Series and the Michelin Pilot Challenge. It is owned by former IndyCar driver Bryan Herta. The team won the 2011 Indianapolis 500 with driver Dan Wheldon. In 2016 ...

in the NTT IndyCar Series. His team won the

2011 Indianapolis 500 The 95th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday May 29, 2011. The race was part of the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series season. The track opened for practice on May 14 and time trials were held from M ...

with driver Dan Wheldon and the

2016 Indianapolis 500 The 2016 Indianapolis 500 (branded as the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil for sponsorship reasons) took place on Sunday, May 29, 2016, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. It was the prem ...

with driver Alexander Rossi. He is the father of IndyCar Series driver

Colton Herta Colton Thomas Herta (born March 30, 2000) is an American open-wheel racing driver currently competing in the NTT IndyCar Series for Andretti Autosport with Curb-Agajanian. He is the youngest person to ever win an IndyCar Series race. He is the ...

Racing career

CART/Champ Cars/IndyCars

Herta enjoyed considerable success in the lower formulae, winning the Barber Formula Ford and Barber Saab Pro Series, and dominating the 1993 Indy Lights championship with Tasman Motorsports. He graduated to IndyCar racing in 1994 with team owner A. J. Foyt, where he had several promising races before suffering a season-ending injury at Toronto. In 1995, Herta was hired to drive for

Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing, LLC (CGR), also sometimes branded as Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, is an American auto racing organization with teams competing in the IndyCar Series, NTT IndyCar Series, International Motor Sports Association, IMSA WeatherTech ...

. Despite a pole at Phoenix, the association was unsuccessful, with Herta managing only a 20th place in the series standings while his teammate Jimmy Vasser finished 8th. Even so, Herta landed a top ride with Team Rahal for the 1996 season. During the next few years, Herta developed a reputation for his prowess on road courses, especially at Laguna Seca Raceway. In 1996, he was the leader until the last lap, when Alex Zanardi made the spectacular pass through the "Corkscrew" chicane and took the victory. Herta, who rarely qualified below the first row at Laguna Seca, finally won two events on the twisty road course in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

and

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

. At the height of Herta's career, fan interest in the Shell-sponsored driver was dubbed by team owner

David Letterman David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He hosted late night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982 debut of ''Late Night with David Letterman' ...

as "Hertamania." In the opening laps of the

event at

Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin Elkhart Lake is a village in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States, located within the northwestern part of the county within the Town of Rhine. The population was 967 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Sheboygan, Wisconsin Metropolit ...

Road America Road America is a motorsport road course located near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, United States on Wisconsin Highway 67. It has hosted races since the 1950s and currently hosts races in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, WeatherTech SportsCar Champ ...

circuit, Herta was involved in one of the scariest incidents in the history of North American motor racing. In the road course's fifth turn, Herta got too close to the back of the car of co-owner Rahal, and spun out into a paved runoff area, facing oncoming traffic. A few seconds later, an ESPN camera that had zoomed in on Herta's head pulled back when Herta clenched his fists and put them against the sides of his head. As course workers scattered, Alex Barron slid into the front of Herta's car and rode up on top of it. Both drivers were okay. Herta reported that Barron's car had actually hit his hands, only inches from his face. From 2000 to 2003, Herta drove for a variety of Champ Car teams including Forsythe Championship Racing, Mo Nunn Racing, and

PK Racing 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 Pol ...

, but never quite regained his form from the late 1990s. In 2002 Herta drove an F1 car for the first time, piloting a Minardi at the "Thunder in the Park" event held at Donington Park. This led to speculation that he would test and even race for Minardi in F1, however this never happened.

IRL IndyCar Series

After dabbling in sports cars, he revitalized his open-wheel racing career by substituting for an injured

Dario Franchitti George Dario Marino Franchitti, MBE (born 19 May 1973) is a British former racing driver and current motorsport commentator from Scotland. He is a four time IndyCar Series champion ( 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011), a three-time winner of the Indiana ...

halfway through the 2003 IRL season. In just his third IRL start, Herta picked up his first IndyCar Series win at Kansas Speedway for Andretti Green Racing. He was retained in an expanded four-car squad in 2004, usually running development engines. On July 31, 2005, Herta took his second IndyCar Series win, defeating AGR teammate Dan Wheldon in a close finish in the Firestone Indy 400 at the Michigan International Speedway. In early 2006, he drove at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and

Fundidora Park Fundidora Park (''Parque Fundidora'' in Spanish) is an urban park located in the Mexican city of Monterrey, built in what once were the grounds of the Monterrey Foundry, the first steel and iron foundry in Latin America, and, for many years, th ...

for

A1 Team USA A1 Team USA was the American team of A1 Grand Prix, an international racing series. Management Owner Rick Weidinger became interested in A1 Team USA and the A1 Grand Prix series when national franchises were being bid for the new series. Along w ...

in the A1 Grand Prix series before returning to Andretti Green for the IRL season. As of 2006, Herta has started in the Indianapolis 500 five times (1994–1995, 2004–2006) with three top ten finishes, including a best of 3rd in 2005. Bryan has his helmets painted by AliveDesignCo.com

Sports cars

On October 31, 2006, Herta was confirmed as a driver for Andretti Green Racing's new

Acura Acura is the luxury vehicle, luxury and performance division of Japanese automaker Honda, based primarily in North America. The brand was launched in the United States and Canada on March 27, 1986, marketing luxury and performance automobiles. It ...

Le Mans prototype program for the

2007 American Le Mans Series season The 2007 American Le Mans Series season was the 37th season for the IMSA GT Championship, with the ninth labeled as the American Le Mans Series. It was a series for Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) and Grand Touring (GT) race cars divided into 4 classes: ...

. He shared the car with Marino Franchitti, brother of his former teammate

. On January 3, 2007, it was announced that Dario would also drive a limited ALMS programme with both Marino and Herta. Herta finished the season 7th in driver points with 1 class win. He also drove for

. At the event in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, Herta scored a 10th-place finish.

After racing

Since retiring from racing, Herta served as a driver coach for Vision Racing and founded a Firestone Indy Lights Series team named

, which has a technical alliance with Vision Racing's Indy Lights team. In 2009, the team fielded a full-time entry for

Daniel Herrington Daniel Herrington (born July 12, 1986) is an American racing driver from Baltimore, Maryland. Herrington began his professional racing career in Formula BMW USA in 2004 with a partial schedule. He competed full-time in 2005 for Jensen Motorspor ...

. The team campaigned Sebastián Saavedra for eleven races of the 2010 Firestone Indy Lights season and the Indianapolis 500. In 2011 the team fielded a car for Dan Wheldon in the

which resulted in a stunning victory, and a full-time entry in Indy Lights for

Duarte Ferreira Duarte Ferreira (born 1 November 1992 in Lisbon, Portugal) is a Portuguese-born Angolan racing driver, residing in Luanda. He began his career in karting in Belgium. He then progressed to Formula Renault 1.6 Belgium. In 2010 he competed in Formula ...

. For the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series season, Alex Tagliani ran the 500. The team switched to a Honda powered DW12 in May 2012 for the remainder of the season. In 2016 Herta partnered with Michael Andretti as a co-owner and won the

. Their car was driven by series rookie Alexander Rossi. Herta's son, Colton, is also a racing driver, and made his IndyCar debut in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

with Harding Steinbrenner Racing. In March 2019, Colton became the youngest ever IndyCar winner in the second round at the Circuit of the Americas.

Personal life

Herta has three children with his wife Janette, Calysta, Colton and Cade.

Career racing results

American Open Wheel

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

)

Indy Lights

CART results

CART career summary

2 wins, Best championship result: 8th

IndyCar Series results

IndyCar Series career summary

2 wins, best championship result: 8th

Indianapolis 500

Complete American Le Mans Series results

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

Herta's official siteHerta's profile from IndyCar.comBryan Herta Autosport's official siteBryan Herta's helmet painter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herta, Bryan 1970 births Living people Racing drivers from Michigan IndyCar Series drivers Champ Car drivers Indianapolis 500 drivers Indy Lights champions Indy Lights drivers A1 Team USA drivers Sportspeople from Warren, Michigan 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers American Le Mans Series drivers IndyCar Series team owners Barber Pro Series drivers Chip Ganassi Racing drivers Andretti Autosport drivers Mo Nunn Racing drivers Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing drivers A. J. Foyt Enterprises drivers Forsythe Racing drivers A1 Grand Prix drivers KV Racing Technology drivers Tasman Motorsports drivers Walker Racing drivers David Price Racing drivers