Christopher James Buncombe (born 5 May 1978 in

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

, Somerset, England) is a British racing driver who made his last appearance at the Le Mans 24 Hours was in 2011. He joined Aston Martin Racing at the end of the 2009 season when he drove in the

Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

scoring a podium finish on his debut with the team at Nürburgring driving the 008 Aston Martin LMP1 car. Chris won the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class driving for Binnie Motorsports in their

Lola B05/40 The Lola B05/40 is a Le Mans Prototype built by Lola Cars International for use in the LMP2 class for the American Le Mans Series, Le Mans Series, and 24 Hours of Le Mans. Developed in 2005, it was intended as a replacement for both the Lola B ...

Zytek Gibson Technology is an automotive and motorsport company based at Repton, Derbyshire, England. It was founded by Bill Gibson as "Zytek Engineering" in 1981. In 1981 Gibson founded the "Zytech Group" with two main divisions: Zytek Automotive, b ...

Career

2018 Blancpain Endurance GT Pro-Am Champion - Strakka Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 with Nick Leventis & Lewis Williamson Runner-Up FIA GT Nations Cup - Team UK AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Asian Le Mans Series with United Autosports 2013 Spa 24 Hours with Nissan Team RJN GTR GT-3 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours with JOTA Sport Aston Martin GTE

Silverstone 2010 American Le Mans Series

LMP2 A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were create ...

single race at Mid Ohio. Le Mans Series LMP2 single race at Hungaroring 2009 Factory driver for

Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Racing is a British auto racing team established in 2004 as a partnership between automobile manufacturer Aston Martin and engineering group Prodrive. The partnership was initially created for the purpose of returning Aston ...

in the LMP1 car number 008 for the

where the Team scored an Aston Martin 1-2-3 at the ADAC 1000 km of Nürburgring, 50 years on from Aston Martin's 1959 win at the classic German endurance race in the DBR1. 2008 Speedcar Series

Nascar The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

alongside various races for JD Classics in their

Group C Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for touring cars and ''Group B'' for GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 special production cars (closed top touri ...

Jaguar XJR-9 The Jaguar XJR-9 is a sports-prototype race car built by Jaguar for both FIA Group C and IMSA Camel GTP racing, debuting at the 1988 24 Hours of Daytona. Development An evolution of the design for the XJR-8, the XJR-9 was designed by Ton ...

& XJR-11 2007

& Le Mans 24 Hours debut for US based Team, Binnie Motorsports driving with Bill Binnie and Allen Timpany in the Lola B05/40-Zytek LMP2, winning the LMP2 class at Le Mans 2006 FIA GT1

Spa 24 Hours The 24 Hours of Spa is an Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing event for cars held annually since 1924 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium. It is currently sponsored by TotalEnergies. History The Spa 24 Hours was ...

for Team SRT in the Corvette C5-R 2005

FIA GT Championship The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout ...

driving the Red Bull

Maserati MC12 The Maserati MC12 (''Tipo M144S'') is a limited production two-seater sports car produced by Italian car maker Maserati to allow a racing variant to compete in the FIA GT Championship. The car entered production in 2004, with 25 cars produced. ...

for JMB Racing, driving with

Philipp Peter Philipp Peter (born 6 April 1969 in Vienna) is a race car driver from Austria. He started in junior formula cars with the highlight winning the Austria Formula 3 Cup in 1992. He represented Austria in the 1990 EFDA Nations Cup and also raced in ...

and

Roman Rusinov Roman Aleksandrovich Rusinov ( rus, Рома́н Алекса́ндрович Ру́синов, p=rɐˈman ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈrusʲɪnəv, born 21 October 1981 in Moscow) is a Russian auto racing driver who competed in the FIA World Endu ...

2004 Racing in the

with

JMB Racing JMB Racing is a racing team from Monaco that competes in sports car racing. It was founded in Nice, France, in 1995 as JB Racing by Jean-Michel Bouresche and Jean-Pierre Jabouille. It was renamed JMB (Bouresche's initials) in 2000 after Jabouille l ...

in the #18 Ferrari 575M GT1. Teammates included

Karl Wendlinger Karl Wendlinger (born 20 December 1968) is an Austrian professional racing and former Formula One driver. Mercedes Juniors Born in Kufstein, Wendlinger started his career in karting and in Formula Ford before entering the German Formula 3 Cham ...

Tarso Marques Tarso Anibal Santanna Marques (born 19 January 1976) is a Brazilian racing driver who competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 79 Ford Mustang for Team Stange Racing in both series. He previously ...

and

Bert Longin Bert or BERT may refer to: Persons, characters, or animals known as Bert *Bert (name), commonly an abbreviated forename and sometimes a surname *Bert, a character in the poem "Bert the Wombat" by The Wiggles; from their 1992 album Here Comes a Son ...

. 2002 RJN Motorsport Nissan FIA

European Touring Car Championship The European Touring Car Championship was an international touring car racing series organised by the FIA. It had two incarnations, the first one between 1963 and 1988, and the second between 2000 and 2004. In 2005 it was superseded by the World T ...

. 2001

British Formula Renault British Formula Renault Championship referred to one of two Formula Renault championships that were held in the United Kingdom. The main series was Renault Sport UK's Formula Renault 2.0 UK championship which was held from 1989 to 2011 and was g ...

with

Manor Motorsport Manor Motorsport Ltd, currently trading as Manor Endurance Racing Ltd is a British motor racing company that was formed in 1990 by former single-seater champion John Booth. Manor has participated as a team in many motorsport disciplines since ...

. 1997-2000 Chris raced in the

British Formula Renault Championship British Formula Renault Championship referred to one of two Formula Renault championships that were held in the United Kingdom. The main series was Renault Sport UK's Formula Renault 2.0 UK championship which was held from 1989 to 2011 and was ge ...

before joining the factory Nissan Motorsports Europe (NME) Team when he raced the

Nissan Primera The is a Mid-size car, large family car which was produced by the Japanese automaker Nissan from 1990 to 2007, for the markets in Japan and Europe. In Japan, it replaced the Nissan Stanza, Auster/Stanza, and was exclusive to ''Nissan Motor Comp ...

in the Benelux Championship during 1999 and the RJN Motorsport Nissan Primera in the 2000

. 1995-1996 Winner Formula Vauxhall Junior Young Driver Scholarship British Formula Vauxhall Junior Championship 1993-1995 Karting - British Super One Championship 1988-1993 Schoolboy motocross

Family History

Chris grew up from a motorsport family. His grandfather, John Buncombe, competed during the 1950s & '60s. His father, Jonathan Buncombe raced for over 20 years for multiple manufacturers including Ford, GM and early racing career in Minis. Chris' brother,

Alex Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple pe ...

is a Factory Nissan Nismo driver, 2015 Blancpain Endurance Series Champion and represented Nissan in multiple race series including GT3, GT4, Australian V8 Supercars, Nurburgring 24 Hours, Petit Le Mans and the Le Mans 24 Hours in LMP1.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

References

External links

Official Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buncombe, Chris 1979 births Living people English racing drivers European Le Mans Series drivers Sportspeople from Taunton 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers European Touring Car Championship drivers British GT Championship drivers AF Corse drivers Jota Sport drivers Strakka Racing drivers United Autosports drivers Asian Le Mans Series drivers Blancpain Endurance Series drivers American Le Mans Series drivers Aston Martin Racing drivers Charouz Racing System drivers FIA GT Championship drivers British Formula Renault 2.0 drivers Manor Motorsport drivers Team West-Tec drivers Le Mans Cup drivers