Jordi Gené Guerrero (born 5 December 1970) is a racing driver who competed in the

World Touring Car Championship The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a sing ...

between 2005 and 2010. His younger brother, Marc is also an ex-racing driver and is currently a Brand Ambassador for the

Scuderia Ferrari Scuderia Ferrari (; ), currently racing under Scuderia Ferrari HP, is the racing division of luxury Italian auto manufacturer Ferrari and the racing team that competes in Formula One racing. The team is also known by the nickname "the Pranc ...

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

team.

Early career

After winning the Spanish

Karting Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using 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 full-size motor ...

Championship in 1986,

Sabadell Sabadell () is a city and municipality in Catalonia, Spain. It is in the south of the ''comarca'' of Vallès Occidental, where it is one of the two capitals, the other being Terrassa. It is located on the River Ripoll, north of Barcelona, a ...

-born Gené moved up to automobiles, where he became instantly competitive, winning the

Fiat Uno The Fiat Uno is a supermini manufactured and marketed by Fiat. Launched in 1983, the Uno was produced over a single generation (with an intermediate facelift, 1989) in three and five-door hatchback body styles until 1995 in Europe — and un ...

Championship in 1987 and the Spanish

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 have historically been an important step for many prospective Formula One dri ...

Championship the following year. In 1989, Gené emigrated to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, where he drove in the British Formula Ford Championship, also taking part in the Formula Ford Festival, where he took 4th place. Moving up to

British Formula 3 Championship 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 sea ...

, Gené spent two years in the series, taking 4th place in

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

with

West Surrey Racing West Surrey Racing is a UK-based motorsport team run by New Zealander Dick Bennetts. He is responsible for masterminding the careers of such names as Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen, Jonathan Palmer, Rubens Barrichello, Maurício Gugelmin and Eddie ...

, driving a

Ralt Ralt was a manufacturer of single-seater racing cars, founded by ex-Jack Brabham associate Ron Tauranac after he sold out his interest in Brabham to Bernie Ecclestone. Ron and his brother had built some specials in Australia in the 1950s under ...

Honda commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...

. Gené also attended the Marlboro Masters in

Zandvoort Zandvoort () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is one of the major beach resorts of the Netherlands; it has a long sandy beach. It is bordered by coastal dunes of Zuid-Kennemerland National Park and the Amsterdam ...

, where he lost the international F3 meeting to

David Coulthard David Marshall Coulthard (born 27 March 1971) is a British former racing driver and sports broadcasting, broadcaster from Scotland who competed in Formula One from to . Nicknamed "DC", Coulthard was runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' ...

, and took part in the traditional season-ender races in Asia, the

Macau Grand Prix The Macau Grand Prix (; ) is an annual motorsport road racing event for automobiles and motorcycles held on the Guia Circuit in Macau. The event includes the Formula Regional and Motorcycle Grand Prix title races, with other races for Touri ...

and Fuji Superprix, winning the latter.

Formula 3000 and Formula One attempts

Thanks to a

Marlboro Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (PMI, now separate from Altria) in most global territories outside the ...

sponsorship, Gené found a seat in

Formula 3000 Formula 3000 (F3000) was a type of open wheel, single seater formula racing, occupying the tier immediately below Formula One and above Formula Three. It was so named because the cars were powered by 3.0 L engines. Formula 3000 championship ...

in 1992, partnering

Laurent Aïello Laurent Aïello (born 23 May 1969) is a French former race car driver, most notable for winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1998, the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) in 1999, and the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) series in 2002. His ...

for Pacific Racing. Gené won the opening round at

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The village is about south-southwest of Towcester and northeast of Brackley, both accessed via the A43 road, A43 main ...

and finished 5th in the Championship in his

Reynard Reynard the Fox is a list of literary cycles, literary cycle of medieval allegorical Folklore of the Low Countries, Dutch, English folklore, English, French folklore, French and German folklore, German fables. The first extant versions of the cy ...

- Mugen. The following year, Gené was involved in the Bravo F1 project, an attempt by former Spanish F1 driver Adrián Campos to create a

team. However, the project was aborted upon the sudden death of team owner Jean Mosnier and the failure of the car to pass the mandatory crash tests, the Team did however turn up at

1993 South African Grand Prix The 1993 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Kyalami on 14 March 1993. It was the first race of the 1993 Formula One World Championship. The 72-lap race was won by Frenchman Alain Prost, driving a Williams-Renault. ...

. Gené repeated F3000, this time with TWR Jr., but failed to score a single point. However, the

Walkinshaw Walkinshaw is a surname of Scottish origin. The surname is a habitational name derived from Walkinshaw in Renfrewshire. The name probably originates from the Old English ''wealcere'' " fuller" + ''sceaga'' "copse". People *Alex Walkinshaw, (born ...

connection led him to a test driver contract with the Benetton team in , alongside his third year in F3000, now with

Nordic Racing Coca-Cola Nordic Racing (formerly Nordic Racing 1993-2000) was an auto racing team from United Kingdom. Nordic Racing was owned by Derek Mower. It was headquartered in Thetford, UK. The team achieved its best results came in 2001 International For ...

and a

Lola Lola may refer to: Places * Lolá, a or subdistrict of Panama * Lola Township, Cherokee County, Kansas, United States * Lola Prefecture, Guinea * Lola, Guinea, a town in Lola Prefecture * Lola Island, in the Solomon Islands People * Lol ...

chassis.

Touring cars

Spanish Touring Car Championship

Failing to move up to Formula One, Gené returned to his native Spain and joined the Campeonato de España de Turismos. In 1995, he became an

Opel Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Gr ...

works driver and drove an

Opel Vectra The Opel Vectra is a mid-size car (large family car) that was engineered and produced by the German automaker Opel from 1988 until 2010. Available in Sedan (automobile), saloon, hatchback and Station wagon, estate (from model year 1997 onwards ...

to second place in the championship, but a switch to

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. A subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. The origins of the compa ...

the following year gave him the title after five wins.

European Touring Car Championship

This led to him joining

Roberto Ravaglia Roberto Ravaglia (born 26 May 1957) is an Italian former racing driver, who currently runs ROAL Motorsport, who operate a Chevrolet operation in the World Touring Car Championship. Before retiring in 1997, he was one of the most successful tourin ...

's BMW Team Italy-Spain in 2002, driving a

BMW 320i Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. The ...

in 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 ...

and finishing 8th overall, but although the BMW was one of the two most competitive cars in the field, Gené left the team at the end of year to join

SEAT A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

's new attack on the ETCC, starting in 2003. After a disappointing first season (17th place overall), the Spanish driver's (and the team's) fortunes improved in 2004, where Gené finished on the podium twice, taking the Toledo to 8th place overall in the series.

World Touring Car Championship

SEAT Sport (2005–2009)

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, Gené raced for

in the

, initially with the

SEAT Toledo The SEAT Toledo is a small family car produced by the Spanish manufacturer SEAT, part of Volkswagen Group. The Toledo name was first introduced to the SEAT line up in May 1991 being named after a Spanish city with the same name, with the fourt ...

, and took a win towards the end of the season with the brand new

SEAT León The SEAT León (), also spelled Leon in some other languages (named after the city of León, Spain, León, which also means "Lion" in Spanish), is a small family car built by the Spanish car manufacturer SEAT since October 1999.ETKA The first ...

. He finished 11th in the championship. Gené stayed at SEAT Sport in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

as part of an unchanged lineup at the team. He took two podium results from the season opening Race of Brazil in an event where SEAT filled both podiums. He briefly led race two of the Race of Mexico before being passed by multiple drivers and finishing seventh. Gené finished on the podium for race one of the inaugural Race of Morocco after passing teammate

Yvan Muller Yvan Muller (born 16 August 1969) is a French auto racing driver most noted for success in touring car racing. He is a four-time World Touring Car Championship, World Touring Car Champion, winning the title in 2008 with SEAT, in 2010 and 2011 wit ...

on the last lap, he retired from the second race with electrical problems. The start line incident in race one of the Race of the Czech Republic saw Gené along with

Andy Priaulx Andrew Graham Priaulx, Order of the British Empire, MBE ( born 7 August 1974) is a British people, British racing driver from Guernsey. In 2019 he raced for Chip Ganassi Racing, Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK in the FIA World Endurance Championship, ...

Robert Huff Robert "Rob" Peter Huff (born 25 December 1979) is a British racing driver currently competing in the British Touring Car Championship for Toyota Gazoo Racing UK. He was the 2012 World Touring Car Championship champion and the 2020 Scandinavi ...

and

Nicola Larini Nicola Larini (born 19 March 1964) is an Italian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One between and . In touring car racing, Larini won the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft in 1993 Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, 1993 and the I ...

taken out of the race by

Augusto Farfus Augusto Celestino Farfus dos Santos Jr. (born 3 September 1983) is a Brazilian professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver. He lives in Monaco. Early years Born in Curitiba, Farfus first tasted racing in minibike races and wo ...

who had veered to the left approaching the first corner. Gené along with teammate Muller failed to get through to the second part of qualifying for the Race of UK, he then had all his times disallowed because the engine speed sensor of his car's data logging system was disconnected and he dropped to the back of the grid as a result. He was involved in an incident at the first chicane in race one of the Race of Germany and he retired on the second lap. Gené dropped out of contention in race one of the Race of Italy on the opening lap. He triggered an accident when he hit Huff's

Chevrolet Cruze The Chevrolet Cruze is a compact car produced by General Motors from 2008 through 2023. It was designated as a globally developed, designed, and manufactured four-door compact sedan, complemented by a five-door hatchback body variant from 2011, ...

under braking, Huff lost control and made contact with

Rickard Rydell John Rickard Rydell (born 22 September 1967) is a retired Swedish racing driver. He won the 1998 British Touring Car Championship, the 2011 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, and has also been a frontrunner in the European/World Touring Car ...

who then hit Gené and Farfus. He had to sacrifice his position in race two of the Race of Japan in order to benefit championship contender Tarquini. He finished off the season at the Race of Macau with a podium in race one and was eighth in the drivers' championship.

SR–Sport (2010)

Following the withdrawal of the works SEAT outfit at the end of 2009, in January 2010 it was confirmed that he would partner

Gabriele Tarquini Gabriele Tarquini (born 2 March 1962) is an Italian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One between and , and World Touring Car from to 2021. In touring car racing, Tarquini won the World Touring Car Championship in with SEAT; ...

Tiago Monteiro Tiago Vagaroso da Costa Monteiro (; born 24 July 1976) is a Portuguese professional racing driver. He competed in Formula One between 2005 and 2006 for the Jordan Grand Prix, Midland and Spyker MF1 teams – all different iterations of the s ...

and

Tom Coronel Tom Romeo Coronel (born 5 April 1972) is a Dutch professional racing driver. Tom's twin brother Tim Coronel, Tim is also a racer, just like their father Tom Coronel Sr. His most important results are winning the Masters of Formula 3, Marlboro Mast ...

in the SEAT supported SR–Sport team, run by

SUNRED Engineering Sunred (short for ''Sun Race Engineering Development S.L.'') is a Spanish-based auto racing team and constructor. They are best known for competing in the World Touring Car Championship. Racing History While in the past Sunred had participated i ...

. He was the best

driver in qualifying by lining up second, he finished seventh in the first race and second in the second race. At the Race of Belgium he passed teammate

at the start of the first race but he was under investigation after it appeared he had been ahead of Tarquini at the

rolling start A rolling start is one of two modes of initiating or restarting an auto race; the other mode is the standing start. In a rolling start, the cars are ordered on the track and are led on a certain number of laps (parade or caution laps) at a prede ...

. Gené went on to take the victory but was later disqualified for a technical infringement, handing Tarquini the win. He did not finish either of the races at the Race of Portugal due to punctures. He was caught out by a first lap crash in race one of the Race of the Czech Republic which also forced teammate

to retire while a number of other drivers continued with minor damage. He was replaced at the Race of Japan by

SEAT León Eurocup The SEAT León Eurocup was a one-make touring car racing series which uses SEAT Leóns, run by SEAT Sport. Background The championship began in 2008, making its debut at Circuit de Valencia, as a support series for the World Touring Car Champi ...

racer Michaël Rossi. He did not return after that and he finished the season twelfth in the drivers' standings.

Scandinavian Touring Car Championship

Gené moved to the

Scandinavian Touring Car Championship The Scandinavian Touring Car Championship (STCC) is a touring car racing series based in Scandinavia. The series took over from the Danish Touringcar Championship The Danish Touringcar Championship (abbreviated as the DTC) was a touring car ra ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, driving a

Volkswagen Scirocco The Volkswagen Scirocco is a three-door, front-engine, front-wheel-drive, sport compact hatchback manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen in two generations from 1974 to 1992 and a third generation from 2008 until 2018. Production ended without a ...

for Volkswagen Team Biogas. His best result was a second place at

Åre Östersund Airport Åre Östersund Airport , previously known as Östersund– Frösön Airport is located about 11 km (6.8 mi) west of Östersund, Sweden and 94 km (58 mi) east of Åre, Sweden. The airport opened in 1958. Åre Östersund airpor ...

, he finished seventh in the drivers' championship while teammate Johan Kristoffersson won the championship.

Truck racing

Gené's career took a completely different path in 1998, when he accepted Manuel Santos Marcos' invitation to drive the

Cepsa Moeve, formerly known as Cepsa, (, "Spanish petroleum company, S.A.") is a Spanish multinational integrated energy and petroleum company headquartered at Torre Cepsa in the Cuatro Torres Business Area in Madrid. As of 2024, Moeve produced ...

MAN A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the f ...

in the European Truck Racing Cup. However, in spite of spending two years in truck racing, he achieved no notable results and went back to cars full-time in 2000.

Sportscars

Gené entered the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

, racing in the LMP675 category in a

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

-powered Reynard for Noel Del Bello's ROC team, and also took part in the Spanish GT Championship in a

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

. In 2001, Gené remained with ROC and took the Reynard-VW to a class win at Le Mans, also climbing to 5th place overall. The team's Reynard-VW also took part in the

European 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 ...

, winning the 500km Most in the LMP675 class. At the end of the year, Gené returned to touring cars by taking part in the

24 Hours of Barcelona The 24 Hours of Barcelona () is an endurance motor race held annually in September at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya since 1998. It is considered to be the most important endurance event in Spain and since 2011 it has been co-organized by ...

, where he drove the winning

Volkswagen Golf The Volkswagen Golf () is a compact car/ small family car ( C-segment) produced by the German automotive manufacturer Volkswagen since 1974, marketed worldwide across eight generations, in various body configurations and under various nameplate ...

. Gené also co-drove the SEAT Toledo GT car in the Spanish GT, winning the title in 2003 with Gines Vivancos, but in 2004, the new SEAT Cupra GT was not so competitive.

Racing record