David Martínez (born December 8, 1981 in

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anchor ...

) is a Mexican

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

. He holds the record for the best debut ever by a Mexican driver in a premiere open-wheel series (IndyCar, Champ Car World Series, F1) with his 9th place finish at the 2006 Gran Premio Telmex (a record he now shares with

Patricio O'Ward Patricio "Pato" O'Ward Junco (born 6 May 1999) is a Mexican professional auto racing driver who competes full-time in the IndyCar Series, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren SP. He is the 2018 Indy Lights champion. Early life and care ...

, who also finished 9th on debut at the

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Indycar Grand Prix of Sonoma The Indycar Grand Prix of Sonoma was an IndyCar Series race held at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California. The USAC Championship Car circuit raced at the circuit in 1970. In 2005, American open wheel racing returned to the circuit with an IndyCar ...

Racing career

Early career in Mexico

Starting at the age of seven through his early twenties, Martínez raced in Mexico in

karts Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on f ...

, Mexican Formula 2/Formula 3000,

Formula 3 Formula Three, also called Formula 3, abbreviated as F3, is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One driv ...

, and

Formula Renault 2000 de America The Panam GP Series is the replacement of the Mexican Formula Three Championship. In 2002 began as Mexican Formula Renault, but in 2005 started an internationalization process in Central America and North of South America. In 2008, the series fe ...

. At the age of 14 he won his first formula championship (Mexican Formula 2 Neon), in 1997 Martínez was awarded the Rookie of the Year Award in Mexican Marlboro Cup Formula 3000 and in 2002 won the Mexican Formula Renault 2000. Martínez eventually expanded his racing territory, which included a year in the

Barber Dodge Pro Series The Barber Dodge Pro Series was a professional open-wheel auto racing series from 1986 to 2003. It was one of the first professional spec series for open-wheel racecars in North America. The races were primarily on road and street courses in Nor ...

(2003) winning the first race he participated in (at

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 ...

, Mexico).

Europe and Atlantic Championship (2004-2006)

In 2004 Martínez migrated to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and produced five top-five results in the

Formula Renault V6 Eurocup Formula Renault V6 Eurocup is a former type of formula racing, active from 2003 to 2004, started by Renault as a support series in Eurosport's Super Racing Weekends ( ETCC and FIA GT Championship). It was a Formula Renault 3.5 that include also ...

Series. The 25-year-old missed the first race of the year in the

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

Champ Car Atlantic Championship The Atlantic Championship is a formula race car series with races throughout North America. It has been called Champ Car Atlantics (after its former name), Toyota Atlantics (due to the series' previous history of using Toyota-powered engines) ...

but still managed to claim fifth in his rookie season. He finished third in his first race in Monterrey, Mexico, captured his first career pole and scored a total of four podiums and seven top-five finishes. Also during

, Martínez contested some rounds of the

A1 Grand Prix A1 Grand Prix (A1GP) was a "single-make" open-wheel auto racing series that ran from 2005 until 2009. It was unique in its field in that competitors solely represented their nation as opposed to themselves or a team, the usual format in most for ...

Series. In

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Martínez returned to Atlantics with the

US RaceTronics US RaceTronics (USRT) is an auto racing team based in Buttonwillow, California, that competes in the Atlantic Championship. It was founded by former Dorricott Racing Team Manager Shane Seneviratne. Seneviratne and the Dorricott Racing organization ...

Team, and repeated his fifth place in the championship despite a challenging season in which he switched teams halfway through the year, but still managed to continue his success on Mexican soil by finishing third at the Monterrey, Mexico event.

Champ Car and Indy Lights (2006-present)

In 2006, Martínez joined

Forsythe Championship Racing Forsythe/Pettit Racing was an American racing team that competed in the Champ Car World Series owned by Gerald Forsythe and Dan Pettit. The Champ Car effort ceased operations after the 2008 unification of North American open wheel racing. Histor ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

to pilot the

Lola Lola may refer to: Places * Lolá, a or subdistrict of Panama * Lola Township, Cherokee County, Kansas, United States * Lola Prefecture, Guinea * Lola, Guinea, a town in Lola Prefecture * Lola Island, in the Solomon Islands People * Lola (fo ...

Ford-Cosworth Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industrie ...

in his

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

debut. Initially announced to race a third car for the team, he ended up replacing an injured

Paul Tracy Paul Anthony Tracy (born December 17, 1968) is a Canadian-American former professional auto racing driver who competed in CART, the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series. He is known by the nicknames "PT" and "the Thrill from West Hill" ...

and finished 9th, the best debut by a Mexican driver in a premiere open-wheel series. He was idle throughout most of

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

, but was announced as the driver of Forsythe's #7 car for the final two races of the season, including a return to

. David started 10th and ran as high as 5th in the race, but during a routine pit stop on lap 45, his gearbox prevented him from returning to the race. The crew managed to repair it, but the job took several minutes and he finished 6 laps down in 14th. Martínez's last Champ Car race came in the series' final race, the

2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach The 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach was the third round of the 2008 IndyCar Series season, for teams who competed in the Champ Car World Series in 2007. This was because the 2008 Indy Japan 300 occurred on the same weekend and there was no w ...

where he finished a career-best eighth as one of three Forsythe/Petit entries. In 2009 his only professional outing was in 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 endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layou ...

driving Beyer Racing's

Riley Riley may refer to: Names * Riley (given name) * Riley (surname) Places * Riley Park–Little Mountain, a neighborhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada * Riley Creek (Ontario), a tributary of the Black River in Central Ontario, Canada * Ri ...

Pontiac Pontiac may refer to: *Pontiac (automobile), a car brand *Pontiac (Ottawa leader) ( – 1769), a Native American war chief Places and jurisdictions Canada *Pontiac, Quebec, a municipality ** Apostolic Vicariate of Pontiac, now the Roman Catholic D ...

to a 10th place DP-class finish. In 2010 he re-entered American open-wheel racing by making two starts for Genoa Racing in

Firestone Indy Lights Indy NXT, previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as Firestone Indy NXT Series for sponsorship reasons. Indy Lights is the highest step on the Road to Indy, a program ...

with a best finish of 8th at

Infineon Raceway Sonoma Raceway (originally known as Sears Point Raceway from 1967 to 1980 and 1982 to 2002, Golden State International Raceway in 1981 and Infineon Raceway from 2002 to 2012) is a road course and dragstrip located at Sears Point in the southern S ...

Racing record

*(1) = Team standings.

American open-wheel racing results

(

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 ...

)

Barber Dodge Pro Series

Atlantic Championship

Champ Car

IndyCar Series

: ''¹ Run on same day.''

Indy Lights

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(

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

References

External links

David Martínez Official Website

Career statistics
at Driver Database {{DEFAULTSORT:Martinez, David 1981 births Living people Racing drivers from Nuevo León Champ Car drivers Atlantic Championship drivers Indy Lights drivers Latin America Formula Renault 2000 drivers A1 Team Mexico drivers Sportspeople from Monterrey 24 Hours of Daytona drivers Barber Pro Series drivers A1 Grand Prix drivers IndyCar Series drivers US RaceTronics drivers Forsythe Racing drivers Formula Renault V6 Eurocup drivers Cram Competition drivers DAMS drivers NACAM F4 Championship drivers