Antonio García Navarro (born June 5, 1980) is a Spanish professional racing driver. He has three class wins in the

24 Hours of Le Mans 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 ...

, winning GT1 with

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 and with

Corvette Racing Corvette Racing is an American auto racing team established in 1999 by General Motors and Pratt & Miller for the purposes of competing in sports car racing internationally. Corvette Racing is an official racing program for General Motors and t ...

in (GT1) and (GTE-Pro).

Single-seater career

After a childhood 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 ...

, Madrid-born García began racing cars in Formula Renault Campus in 1997. In 1998 he moved to the new Open Fortuna by Nissan series. The series changed its name to World Series by Nissan in 1999 and in 2000, García was the series champion with

Campos Motorsport Campos Racing is a Spanish motor racing team, founded by former Formula One driver Adrián Campos. The team has been successful in Formula Three and the GP2 Series. History After retiring from racing, Campos formed his own team at the end of 199 ...

. This success saw García have a part-time opportunity to race in

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 ...

in 2001 and make his sports car debut in 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 2002 he returned full-time to World Series by Nissan, was a test driver for

Minardi Minardi was an Italian automobile racing team and constructor founded in Faenza in 1979 by Giancarlo Minardi. It competed in the Formula One World Championship from 1985 until 2005 with little success, nevertheless acquiring a loyal followi ...

, and finished 12th in FIA GT. In 2003 he moved full-time to the

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 ...

driving a

Ravaglia Motorsport ROAL Motorsport (previously known as Ravaglia Motorsport) is an Italian auto racing team, which operated the BMW Team Italy-Spain team in the World Touring Car Championship, and currently competes as BMW Team Italia in the Italian GT Championship ...

BMW to 8th place in points. He improved to 7th place with the same team in 2004. The series became the World Touring Car Championship in 2005 and he finished 9th in points. In December 2014 it was announced that García would drive for

China Racing The Nio 333 Racing is a motor racing team currently competing in the FIA Formula E Championship, an all-electric racing series. The team is owned and managed by Lisheng Sports and Gusto Engineering in China and Hong Kong respectively. The team ...

in the

2014 Punta del Este ePrix The 2014 Punta del Este ePrix, formally the 2014 FIA Formula E Julius Baer Punta del Este ePrix is a Formula E motor race held on 13 December 2014 at the Punta del Este Street Circuit in Punta del Este, Uruguay. It was the first Punta del Este e ...

in Uruguay, the third round of the 2014–15 Formula E season. He replaced

Ho-Pin Tung Ho-Pin Tung (; born December 4, 1982) is a Chinese people in the Netherlands, Chinese-Dutch racing driver who races with a Chinese license. Career Born in Velp, Gelderland, Netherlands, Tung started kart racing in the Netherlands in 1997 befo ...

who participated in the Abu Dhabi Gulf 12-hour race.

Sportscar career

García made his

debut in 2006 but did not participate in any racing full-time. He returned to full-time action in 2007 competing 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 the Team Modena

Aston Martin DBR9 The Aston Martin DBR9 is a racing car built by Aston Martin Racing, debuting in 2005 and racing actively in international sportscar racing until the end of GT1 category in 2011. The name DBR9 is derived from the original 24 Hours of Le Mans-winn ...

, finishing 6th in points. García signed on with the Cheever Racing team in the

Rolex Sports Car Series The Rolex Sports Car Series was the premier series run by the Grand American Road Racing Association. It was a North American-based sports car series founded in 2000 under the name Grand American Road Racing Championship to replace the failed ...

in 2008, but the team struggled with their new

Coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecological nich ...

/ Fabcar and García only finished 21st in points. He also participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the factory

DBR9 which won the GT1 class. He drove for Brumos Racing in the

2009 24 Hours of Daytona The 2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona Presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 is the first round of the 2009 Rolex Sports Car Series season. It took place at Daytona International Speedway between January 24–25, 2009. David Donohue won the race 40 years ...

, winning with teammates David Donohue,

Darren Law Darren Law (born April 4, 1968) is a Canadian-born American racing driver. At age 14 Law was the International Kart Federation national champion, and shortly thereafter began racing cars in various amateur classes on the west coast of the Unite ...

, and

Buddy Rice Buddy Rice (born January 31, 1976) is an American former race car driver. He is best known for winning the 2004 Indianapolis 500 while driving for Rahal Letterman Racing, and the 2009 24 Hours of Daytona for Brumos Racing. Career Early years ...

. He signed on with

to compete in the full season of the

American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The American Le Mans' h ...

starting in 2009.Corvette Racing 2009 lineup announced
GM Racing PR via Motorsport.com, February 4, 2009 Beginning in 2012, García competed in some

events with Spirit of Daytona Racing. García is a good friend of Formula One champion

Fernando Alonso Fernando Alonso Díaz (; born 29 July 1981) is a Spanish racing driver currently competing for Alpine in Formula One. He won the series' World Drivers' Championship in and with Renault, and has also driven for McLaren, Ferrari, and Mi ...

from their days together in karting. Alonso attended the

2009 24 Hours of Le Mans The 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: 24 Heures du Mans 2009) was the 77th Grand Prix of Endurance, an endurance racing (motorsport), endurance auto racing, auto race run over 24 hours. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France, ...

as a guest of García.

Racing record

Career summary

^* Season still in progress.

Complete International Formula 3000 results

( key)

Complete European Touring Car Championship results

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

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

( key)

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

24 Hours of Daytona results

Complete IMSA SportsCar Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^† Non-points event.

Complete Formula E results

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

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Antonio 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Madrid Spanish racing drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers American Le Mans Series drivers Rolex Sports Car Series drivers International Formula 3000 drivers FIA GT Championship drivers World Touring Car Championship drivers 24 Hours of Daytona drivers European Le Mans Series drivers European Touring Car Championship drivers FIA World Endurance Championship drivers WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers Formula E drivers Corvette Racing drivers NIO 333 FE Team drivers Aston Martin Racing drivers W Racing Team drivers Campos Racing drivers BMW M drivers Audi Sport drivers CRS Racing drivers RSM Marko drivers Cheever Racing drivers Durango drivers