David Besnard, (born 21 January 1977 in

Sydney, Australia Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...

) is a retired professional racing driver.

Career history

Starting 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 ful ...

in 1991, he quickly proceeded into

Formula Ford 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 ...

in 1995. After initial success, he had a major accident at

Eastern Creek Raceway Sydney Motorsport Park (known until May 2012 as Eastern Creek International Raceway) is a motorsport circuit located on Brabham Drive, Eastern Creek (40-kilometres west of the Sydney CBD), New South Wales, Australia, adjacent to the Western Sy ...

and broke his leg. In 1996 he made a comeback and won the Australian title. 1996 Australian Formula Ford Pointscore He made a venture to the United States, with a small budget, and limited success. In 1998, he returned to win the U.S F2000 National Championship. 1999, saw David enter the US Formula Atlantic Championship. After a heavy crash at

Nazareth Speedway Nazareth Speedway was an auto racing facility near Nazareth in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania which operated from 1910 to 2004 in two distinct course configurations. In its early years, it was a dirt twin oval layout. In 1987 it was reo ...

, the team had to buy a new chassis and ran out of budget halfway through the season. 2000 saw Besnard again in the United States, running various Sports Car races, until

Stone Brothers Racing Stone Brothers Racing (SBR) was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the International V8 Supercars Championship between 1998 and 2012. The team was formed in 1998 when Ross and Jim Stone bought Alan Jones's shares in Alan Jones ...

picked him up for the Konica V8 Supercar Series and the

Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (formally known as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supercars Championship, the most rece ...

. From there he drove with Stone Brothers for several seasons, with the highlight being winning the

2002 Queensland 500 The 2002 VIP Petfoods Queensland 500 was an endurance race for V8 Supercars staged at Queensland Raceway, Ipswich, Queensland, Australia on 15 September 2002. Race distance was 161 laps of the 3.121 km circuit, totalling 502 km. The e ...

with

Simon Wills Simon Wills (born 3 October 1976 in Auckland, New Zealand) is a former racing driver who currently runs a graphic design business. Racing career Formula cars Wills finished runner up in the 1995 New Zealand Formula Ford Championship. He had ...

. He raced with Ford Performance Racing for one season in 2003, and

WPS Racing WPS Racing was an Australian motor racing team that competed in Australian V8 Supercar racing between 2004 and 2007. It was owned by Queensland businessman Craig Gore and sponsored by his Wright Patton Shakespeare company. History In 2003, ...

for three seasons following that. In 2004, with his links with WPS, a drive in the

Champ Car World Series 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 ( ...

came about at

Surfers Paradise Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitable ...

. His finishing position of seventh is still the highest finish for an Australian at that event (but bettered by Ryan Briscoe's 2008 IRL win after the CCWS collapsed). After being dropped by WPS in 2006 Besnard has been racing in the

New Zealand Touring Car Championship The New Zealand Touring Car Championship was a motor racing title which was contested in New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Isl ...

, picking up an endurance race co-driver role with

in 2007, paired with

James Courtney James Anthony Courtney (born 29 June 1980) is an Australian racing driver competing in the Repco Supercars Championship. He currently drives the No. 5 Ford Mustang GT for Tickford Racing. Courtney won the 2010 V8 Supercar Championship Series ...

, which resulted in a second place at Bathurst.

Motorsports career results

Career summary

GrandAm Championship

Complete American open-wheel racing results

( key)

Atlantic Championship

Champ Car World Series

Complete Bathurst 1000 results

‡ Besnard replaced Kelly due to illness

References

Conrod V8 Profile & Stats

Speedsport Profile & stats

Driver Database profile

Racing Reference – US Racing stats

External links

Official Web page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Besnard, David 1977 births Living people Atlantic Championship drivers Champ Car drivers Formula Ford drivers Racing drivers from Sydney Rolex Sports Car Series drivers Sportsmen from New South Wales Toyota Racing Series drivers U.S. F2000 National Championship drivers Supercars Championship drivers Garry Rogers Motorsport drivers Walker Racing drivers Stone Brothers Racing drivers Dick Johnson Racing drivers