Joël Camathias (born 9 February 1981) is a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

race car driver born in

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

. In 2001 he raced in the

International Formula 3000 The Formula 3000 International Championship was a motor racing series created by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) in 1985 to become the final preparatory step for drivers hoping to enter Formula One. Formula Two had become t ...

championship and in 2002 in the European F3000 series. In 2003 he made 7 starts in the American

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 ( ...

series for

Dale Coyne Racing Dale Coyne Racing (DCR) is an American professional open-wheel racing team that currently competes in the IndyCar Series. The team was founded in 1984 and is owned by former driver Dale Coyne. From 1995 to 2000, the team was known as Payton-Coyn ...

, his best finish a 9th in his debut at the

Grand Prix of St. Petersburg The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is an IndyCar Series race held in St. Petersburg, Florida. In most years since 2009, the race has served as the season opener (or at minimum, the first race held on U.S. soil). The race is held annually ...

. Having previously driven sports cars part-time, he then returned to Europe to drive 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 ...

in 2004 and the

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 ...

in 2005 and 2006. He also won the GT2 Class of the

2006 Le Mans Series season The 2006 Le Mans Series was the third season of ACO Le Mans Series. It is a series for Le Mans prototype and Grand Touring style cars broken into 4 classes: LMP1, LMP2, GT1, and GT2. It began on 9 April and ended on 24 September after 5 rounds. ...

with

Marc Lieb Marc Lieb (born 4 July 1980) is a former German Porsche factory motor-racing driver. He won the FIA GT Championship in 2003 and 2005, and the European Le Mans Series in 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2010. He won the 24 Hours Nürburgring four times, one t ...

driving a

Porsche 911 The Porsche 911 (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in german: Neunelfer) is a two-door 2+2 high performance rear-engined sports car introduced in September 1964 by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. It has a rear-mounted flat-six engine and origin ...

for Autorlando Sport. Joël is the great-nephew of the late

Florian Camathias Florian Camathias (23 March 1924 – 10 October 1965) was a Swiss professional Grand Prix motorcycle and sidecar racer. Born in Wittenbach, St. Gallen in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland, Camathias owned a garage Veytaux, near Montreux. ...

, a solo motorcycle and

sidecar A sidecar is a one-wheeled device attached to the side of a motorcycle, scooter, or bicycle, making the whole a three-wheeled vehicle. A motorcycle with a sidecar is sometimes called a ''combination'', an ''outfit'', a ''rig'' or a ''hack''. ...

racer, and his father Romeo was a car racer.The Family (connections)
Retrieved 2015-12-13

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 CART results

(

)

24 Hours of Le Mans results

References

External links

* (hybrid English-Italian) * 1981 births Living people Swiss racing drivers Champ Car drivers FIA GT Championship drivers Auto GP drivers International Formula 3000 drivers European Le Mans Series drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers FIA World Endurance Championship drivers International GT Open drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers Sportspeople from Lugano {{Switzerland-autoracing-bio-stub KCMG drivers KTR drivers Dale Coyne Racing drivers Ombra Racing drivers 24H Series drivers GT4 European Series drivers Craft-Bamboo Racing drivers