Harold Primat (born 12 June 1975) is a French-born Swiss racing driver who previously competed in the
Blancpain Endurance Series
The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, formerly for sponsorship reasons the Blancpain Endurance Series from 2011 to 2015 and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from 2016 to 2019, is a sports car racing series developed by SRO Motorsports Gr ...
and other long-distance events such as the
Bathurst 12 Hour
The Bathurst 12 Hour, currently known as the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour for sponsorship reasons, is an annual endurance race for GT and production cars held at the Mount Panorama Circuit, in Bathurst, Australia. The race was first held in ...
and
Nurburgring 24 Hours.
Early career
The nephew of motorcycle racer
Claude Vigreux, Primat began his career in karts before graduating to the Max Mygale and Winfield racing schools in France, as well as the
Jim Russell Centre in the UK.
He then moved to the US, where he competed in the
Formula Ford 2000
Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. Formula For ...
championship. He then moved on to the
British Formula Three Championship British Formula Three Championship may refer to:
*British Formula 3 International Series
The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of ev ...
and later the
F3 Euroseries, before concluding his single-seater career in World Series Lights with the Saulnier team.
During 2003 and 2004, Primat combined his single-seater races with
endurance racing. Debuting in 2003 with the Saulnier team, he competed in the
V de V Endurance championship, leading his maiden race at
Spa
A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (and sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa towns or spa resorts (including hot springs resorts) typically offer various health treatments, which are also known as balneoth ...
until a mechanical failure put him out of the race. Primat became vice-champion in his second season, narrowly missing out on the title after a prior World Series Lights commitment forced him to skip a race.
Top-flight endurance racing
Moving to the top level of endurance racing with
Kruse Motorsport in 2005, Primat qualified third and finished second in class at the
12 Hours of Sebring
The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second round ...
event. Remaining with Kruse on the other side of the Atlantic, Primat began the European season at Spa but retired due to engine problems. He then switched to Rollcentre Racing, which allowed him to compete for overall honours in the LMP1 category, and went on to achieve three top-ten finishes in his debut year.
2005 also saw Primat make his maiden appearance at the
Le Mans 24 Hours
The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active endurance racing event. Unlike fixed-distance races whose w ...
. After qualifying in 13th, the Rollcentre Dallara-Nissan suffered technical problems in the early stages of the race, resulting in the team not being classified.
Primat switched teams for 2006, becoming part of an all-Swiss line-up in the new Swiss Spirit outfit, under his former boss Serge Saulnier, whose team ran the programme. Primat won top 3 finishes at Spa and Jarama, finishing in joint-fourth place in the championship overall. However he was again unable to complete the Le Mans 24 Hours after gearbox problems forced him into retirement on lap 132.
He again mixed his European schedule with some US-based races in 2006, finishing third at Laguna Seca and fourth at Petit Le Mans for the
Creation Autosportif
Creation Autosportif, Ltd. was a sports car racing team based in Oxford, England. It was founded in 2003 by Ian Bickerton and Mike Jankowski and has raced in the FIA GT Championship, FFSA GT Championship, American Le Mans Series, Le Mans Enduran ...
team. However, his debut at the blue riband
Daytona 24 Hours
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 layout ...
was thwarted by an engine failure on his Spirit of Daytona Crawford-Pontiac.
In 2007 Primat signed for
Henri Pescarolo
Henri Jacques William Pescarolo (born 25 September 1942) is a former racing driver from France. He competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans a record 33 times, winning on four occasions, and won a number of other major sports car events including the ...
's eponymous team. A podium finish at Spa was his best result in the face of increased competition from the works Peugeot squad, but Primat finished in the top six at four of the six races. The season also saw him finish Le Mans for the first time, finishing sixth in class and 13th overall despite losing 90 minutes in the pits to an oil leak.
Remaining with
Pescarolo Sport
Pescarolo Sport was a motorsport team based in Le Mans, France and founded in February 2000 by French racing driver Henri Pescarolo and his friend and partner, French publisher François Granet. They raced in the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours o ...
for the 2008 Le Mans Series, Primat had a top-three finish at Monza, despite the addition of the factory Audi squad to the LMS field. Primat also took a best-yet seventh-place finish at Le Mans, which placed him first among the unofficial 'petrol' class, beaten only by the diesel machines of sportscar heavyweights Audi and Peugeot.
In January 2009 Harold was confirmed as an
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 ...
factory driver for the brand's first return to top-class endurance racing since 1989. Partnering
Darren Turner
Darren Turner (born 13 April 1974) is a British professional racing driver and owner of Base Performance Simulators. He races for Aston Martin Racing as a Factory-backed, factory driver and also works as a high performance test driver for Aston ...
, he finished fourth in the Le Mans Series standings, including a second position at the Nürburgring. Primat was joined by
Peter Kox
Peter Kox (born 23 February 1964 in Eindhoven) is a racing driver from the Netherlands.
Kox began racing in karts in 1978, winning five titles until 1982. In 1983 he moved to automobiles, winning the Marlboro Formula Ford Challenge and was sec ...
and
Stuart Hall for Le Mans, where a water leak curtailed the #009 Lola-Aston Martin's involvement after 252 laps. The highlight of Primat's season was victory alongside
Stefan Mücke
Stefan Mücke (born 22 November 1981) is a German professional racing driver.
Racing career
Born in Berlin, Mücke started his racing career in 1998, when he won the Formula BMW ADAC series, with his father's Mücke Motorsport team, also making ...
at the inaugural
Asian Le Mans Series
The Asian Le Mans Series is an Asian sports car racing endurance series created by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and based in Asia. It is the successor to the defunct Japan Le Mans Challenge which folded in 2007 after its second season. ...
race at Okayama in late autumn.
2010 saw Primat again driving for Aston Martin Racing, recording three podium finishes in the ALMS and LMS. Sixth place overall at Le Mans itself also represented his best finish at the French race to date. A third season with AMR in 2011, this time alongside Turner and Mücke, produced two more top three finishes for Primat, including an outright ALMS victory at Laguna Seca. Aston Martin's new, open-top AMR-One proved unreliable however, prompting the team to withdraw from the LMP1 ranks at the end of the year.
Primat then moved to privateer LMP1 outfit
Rebellion Racing
Rebellion Racing is a Swiss racing team that competes in endurance racing. The team competed in the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup season and won the LMP1 teams' title in the 2011 Le Mans Series season. The team started as an association ...
for the newly revived
FIA World Endurance Championship
The FIA World Endurance Championship is an auto racing world championship organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The series supersedes the ACO's former Intercont ...
in 2012. With Audi and Toyota's factory entries winning all eight rounds between them, it was left to Rebellion to fight for the LMP1 Trophy against Strakka, JRM and
OAK Racing
OAK Racing is an endurance racing team specialising in sports prototypes based in Le Mans, France. In 2013 it won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in LMP2 class and the 2013 FIA WEC World Champion drivers and teams on LMP2 class.
In 2012 the team cont ...
. Two victories by Primat - at Silverstone and Shanghai - brought the trophy to Rebellion.
In 2013 Primat swapped sports-prototype for GT machinery as part of Phoenix Racing's
Blancpain Endurance Series
The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, formerly for sponsorship reasons the Blancpain Endurance Series from 2011 to 2015 and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from 2016 to 2019, is a sports car racing series developed by SRO Motorsports Gr ...
, VLN and
Bathurst 12 Hour
The Bathurst 12 Hour, currently known as the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour for sponsorship reasons, is an annual endurance race for GT and production cars held at the Mount Panorama Circuit, in Bathurst, Australia. The race was first held in ...
driver roster. Piloting an Audi R8 LMS ultra, Primat took fourth place at the Australian classic despite losing four laps to repairs, and achieved the same result at the blue riband 24 Hours of Spa. Racing alongside
Oliver Jarvis
Oliver Jarvis (born 9 January 1984) is a British professional racing driver currently racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Mazda Team Joest.
Jarvis won the 2022 24 Hours of Daytona with Meyer Shank Racing.
Early life
Bo ...
and Christopher Hasse, the Belgian event saw the trio deliver a comeback drive that ranked among the highlights of the 24 hour contest. Primat also found success on the VLN scene, picking up several top-three finishes.
On 16 September 2015, Primat announced his retirement from racing, ending his seventeen year long career. Primat retired after the final round of the
2015 Blancpain Endurance Series season, at the
Nürburgring
The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...
. He said that "now is the right time to begin a fresh chapter in life by focusing on other projects".
Racing record
Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results
Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results
Post-Racing Career
Since 2016 Primat invested in multiple Startups, amongst others in UK-based companies
Playbrush and
Busuu
Busuu is a language learning platform on web, iOS and Android that allows users to interact with native speakers.
History
Busuu was founded in May 2008 by Bernhard Niesner and Adrian Hilti. The company launched with a free version of its websi ...
as well as Austrian-based
Tractive.
References
External links
Official Harold Primat website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Primat, Harold
1975 births
Living people
Swiss racing drivers
24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
European Le Mans Series drivers
American Le Mans Series drivers
FIA World Endurance Championship drivers
Blancpain Endurance Series drivers
24 Hours of Spa drivers
Asian Le Mans Series drivers
U.S. F2000 National Championship drivers
Aston Martin Racing drivers
Rebellion Racing drivers
Pescarolo Sport drivers
Phoenix Racing drivers
OAK Racing drivers
Nürburgring 24 Hours drivers