Ernesto José "E. J." Viso Lossada (born March 19, 1985) is a
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
n professional racing driver. He has raced 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 ...
and
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
GP2 Series seasons, and has also driven the third car for
Spyker MF1 Racing
Midland F1 Racing (also known as MF1 Racing, or simply "Midland") was a Formula One constructor and racing team which competed in the 2006 Formula One season with drivers Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro. The team was created by the renami ...
. In 2007 he competed in the GP2 Series for
Racing Engineering. In 2014 he made his season debut for the
Stadium Super Trucks in the Long Beach Grand Prix. He most recently drove for
Andretti Autosport
Andretti Autosport is an auto racing team that competes in the IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, Indy Pro 2000, and Formula E. The team also has a 37.5% ownership stake in the Australian Supercars Championship touring car team, Walkinshaw Andretti ...
in the IndyCar Series.
Career
Early racing
Born in
Caracas
Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...
, Viso spent time in his early career in both Europe and America. He attended Rolling Hills Prep high school in California. Viso's career started in
karting
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 ...
back in 1993, where he stayed until 2001 when he moved to
US Barber Formula Dodge East, becoming champion with confidence. He also raced in the
Italian Formula Renault Winter Series at the end of that year, moving to
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 ...
for 2002. In 2002 he also drove in one race of
Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup
Formula Renault Eurocup was a Formula Renault motor racing championship. Eurocup raced only on European circuits.
It served as a support series to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series as part of the World Series by Renault from 2005 to 2015. Renault ...
, and at the end of the year in the
British Formula 3 Winter Series
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
.
2003 saw a move to
British Formula 3
The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single seate ...
, where he raced in the B-Class and became champion after a controversial collision with his main rival during the final race of the season. He then moved to the main class in 2004, racing part of the season for the P1 team, his performances attracting the attention of F3000 team Durango who lured him to the series for the remainder of the season.
GP2
In 2005, he raced in the inaugural season of the
GP2 Series for the
BCN Competicion team, alongside
Hiroki Yoshimoto. In 2006, he again raced in the GP2 Series for the
iSport
iSport International was a British motor racing team that competed in the GP2 Series. The team was founded by Paul Jackson, Gavin Bickerton-Jones and Richard Selwin, former members of the Petrobras Junior Team in 2004, ahead of the inaugural ...
team. He won the
San Marino
San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...
Sunday race and the
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
Sunday race. He also drove the third
Spyker MF1 Team
The Spyker F1 Team, known as the Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team for sponsorship reasons, was a Formula One team that competed in the 2007 Formula One World Championship with a Dutch licence. It was created by Spyker Cars after their buyout of th ...
car in the Friday practice sessions of the
Brazilian Grand Prix
The Brazilian Grand Prix ( pt, Grande Prêmio do Brasil), currently held under the name São Paulo Grand Prix ( pt, Grande Prêmio de São Paulo), is a Formula One championship race which is currently held at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace ...
.
Before the
2007 French Grand Prix
The 2007 French Grand Prix (formally the Formula 1 Grand Prix de France 2007) was a Formula One motor race held on 1 July 2007 at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, Magny-Cours, France. It was the eighth race of the 2007 FIA Formula One World Cha ...
, it was confirmed that Ernesto Viso would replace the underperforming
Sérgio Jimenez at Racing Engineering. His race ended on the first lap in a spectacular collision with
Michael Ammermüller
Michael Ammermüller (born 14 February 1986) is a racing driver from Germany. After competing in various junior formulae, he became a test and reserve driver for the Red Bull Racing Formula One team in the 2007 season. Following this, he repr ...
and
Kazuki Nakajima in which his car somersaulted over the barriers at tremendous speed, smashing through an advertising hoarding and narrowly missing a bridge (as luck would have it, hitting the board saved him from clouting the bridge and probably more severe injuries), leaving him only a severe concussion and painful arm. This crash was very similar to the one of
Marco Campos that happened on the same track in 1995, leading to Campos's death. Campos died of severe head trauma after hitting his head on the concrete barrier. Viso was only inches away from the same fate. For the British round, he was replaced by
Filipe Albuquerque. Viso took part in the following race meeting, but was then replaced by
Marcos Martinez.
IndyCar Series
Viso competed in the newly united
IndyCar Series in
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
for
HVM Racing
HVM Racing was an auto racing team owned by Keith Wiggins that competed in the IndyCar Series. It competed in the Champ Car World Series in 2007 as Minardi Team USA when it was co-owned by Paul Stoddart. It has a long history of changes of ownersh ...
. He made his first series start in the first oval race of his career on March 29. His next start, at St. Petersburg, was a superb performance ending with a fourth-place finish. At Milwaukee he ended with an eighth place. Shortly after the Watkins Glen race (in which he finished 10th but forced
Vítor Meira off the track, causing Meira to run back onto the track to confront Viso on the next lap) he was diagnosed with the
Mumps
MUMPS ("Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System"), or M, is an imperative, high-level programming language with an integrated transaction processing key–value database. It was originally developed at Massachusetts Gener ...
and was forced to withdraw from the next race. Viso finished 18th overall in the 2008 series and has signed a contract to drive for HVM in 2009. On February 21, 2010
KV 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 Poll ...
confirmed that Viso would drive the No. 8 car for the team for the entire
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
season.
For the 2011 IndyCar campaign, Viso remained with KV Racing. He showed flashes of speed, particularly in Brazil where he was in contention for a win. He remained one of the more accident-prone drivers in the series, which led to questions about his seat for 2012 . Viso finished 18th in the IZOD IndyCar Series championship on the strength of four top-10 finishes with a season best seventh place showing in Texas Race No. 2.
For 2013 Viso remained in the IndyCar Series with
Andretti Autosport
Andretti Autosport is an auto racing team that competes in the IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, Indy Pro 2000, and Formula E. The team also has a 37.5% ownership stake in the Australian Supercars Championship touring car team, Walkinshaw Andretti ...
, in the No. 5 with sponsorship from oil company
PDVSA
Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA, ) (English: Petroleum of Venezuela) is the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company. It has activities in exploration, production, refining and exporting oil as well as exploration and production ...
, recording a best finish of 4th at Milwaukee and finishing 15th in the final points standings.
In 2014, Viso no longer had an IndyCar Series drive.
Stadium Super Trucks
In 2014, Viso made his
Stadium Super Trucks series debut in Long Beach, California where he finished 2nd after a last lap battle with series founder
Robby Gordon. On May 30, Viso got his first ever win in an SST on only his second ever series appearance at the
Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix
The Detroit Grand Prix (currently branded as the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear Corporation for sponsorship reasons) is an IndyCar Series race weekend held on a temporary circuit in Detroit, Michigan. The race has been held from ...
, where he finished 1st ahead of Robby Gordon in an eventful last lap finish. Viso also captured his second win a day later beating 16-year-old
Scotty Steele
Scotty is a common nickname for a Scottish man, or for a Scottish Terrier dog.
Scotty may also refer to:
People Given name or nickname
* Scotty Alcock (1885–1973), American baseball player
* Scotty Allan (1867–1941), American dog musher, bus ...
. Viso swept all three Detroit events on June 1,
and won race 1 at Coronado. The Venezuelan finished fifth in the season standings.
Racing record
Complete International Formula 3000 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 ...
) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap.)
Complete GP2 Series 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 ...
) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
Complete Formula One participations
(
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 ...
)
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 ...
) (Races in bold indicate pole position)
IndyCar Series
: ''
1 Run on same day.''
: ''
2 Non-points-paying, exhibition race.''
: ''
3 Pulled out of race after contracting
mumps
MUMPS ("Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System"), or M, is an imperative, high-level programming language with an integrated transaction processing key–value database. It was originally developed at Massachusetts Gener ...
''
: ''
4 The
Las Vegas Indy 300 was abandoned after
Dan Wheldon died from injuries sustained in a 15-car crash on lap 11.''
: ''
5 Missed race after falling ill due to eating bad oysters. Replaced by
Carlos Muñoz.
Indianapolis 500
Complete American Le Mans Series results
Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship
Stadium Super Trucks
(
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 ...
) (
Bold – Pole position. ''Italics'' – Fastest qualifier. * – Most laps led.)
The race was abandoned after
Matt Mingay suffered serious injuries in a crash on lap three.
References
External links
Official websiteIndyCar Driver Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Viso, Ernesto
1985 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Caracas
Venezuelan racing drivers
IndyCar Series drivers
Indianapolis 500 drivers
International Formula 3000 drivers
GP2 Series drivers
British Formula Three Championship drivers
Formula Renault Eurocup drivers
Karting World Championship drivers
24 Hours of Daytona drivers
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers
X Games athletes
Stadium Super Trucks drivers
Manor Motorsport drivers
ISport International drivers
Starworks Motorsport drivers
HVM Racing drivers
Andretti Autosport drivers
KV Racing Technology drivers
Racing Engineering drivers
Durango drivers
P1 Motorsport drivers
OAK Racing drivers
Fortec Motorsport drivers