Ryan Briscoe

Ryan Briscoe
Briscoe at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 2010.
Nationality	Australian
IRL IndyCar Series career
Debut season	2005
Current team	Penske
Car number	6
Former teams	Luczo-Dragon Racing Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Ganassi Racing
Starts	53
Wins	5
Poles	8
Best finish	3rd in 2009

Ryan Briscoe
American Le Mans Series
Years active	2007
Teams	Penske
Car number	6
Starts	12
Wins	3 (1 class, 2 outright)
Poles	0
Fastest laps	2
Best finish	3rd (LMP2) in 2007
Previous series
2001 2002 2003 2006	Italian Formula Renault Formula 3000 and German F3 Formula Three Euroseries Champ Car World Series
Championship titles
2001 2003	Italian Formula Renault Formula Three Euroseries

Ryan Briscoe (born 24 September 1981 in Sydney) is an Australian auto racing driver who has raced open wheel and sports cars in Europe and America.

Career biography

Early career

Like many auto racing drivers, he started his career in karting, first racing in 1993. After winning Australian, North American and Italian championships, he moved to Formula Renault in 2000. He won the Italian Championship in 2001 (winning 5 races) and finished 4th running a limited schedule in the Eurocup (with 2 wins in 6 races). In 2002, he became test driver for the Toyota Formula One constructor. He started that year racing in the Formula 3000 series, but struggled and left his ride after 7 races. He finished the year in the German Formula 3 series, taking 3 podiums in the last 6 rounds. He won the Formula Three Euroseries in 2003 (winning 8 races in the process). He became the Toyota F1 team's 'third' driver (i.e., drove the team's test car on Fridays at Grands Prix) for the last third of the 2004 season, after previous third driver Ricardo Zonta was called up to replace Cristiano Da Matta.

2005

There were rumors that Briscoe was set to race for the Jordan Grand Prix F1 team in 2005, due to the team's acquisition of Toyota power. Instead, Briscoe raced for Target Chip Ganassi Racing in the Indy Racing League, including a 10th place finish in the Indianapolis 500. He also made his Rolex Grand-Am debute with Ganassi at the 24 Hours of Daytona. He took pole position at Sears Point, but struggled on the ovals and was involved in several crashes.

On 11 September 2005 he was involved in a violent crash at Chicagoland Speedway, breaking both clavicles among other injuries. His car climbed on top of a spinning Michael Andretti and went airborne. The vehicle went flying against the wall, catching aflame and snapping in two. He was released from the hospital on 19 September and following some initial treatment in the USA, moved to the specialist Formula Medicine facility in Viareggio, Italy, for the bulk of his rehabilitation. It took 8 weeks for Briscoe to recover from the injuries he sustained in the crash. His official web site announced his return to the USA on 14 November 2005. Following Ryan's accident, he was nicknamed "Briscoe Inferno".

2006

Briscoe was dropped by Ganassi for 2006, replaced by 2005 IRL champion Dan Wheldon. During the winter, he tested with fellow Australian and Champ Car owner Kevin Kalkhoven's PKV Racing team. Briscoe also tested for the Mi Jack Conquest team. Briscoe competed in the 2006 24 Hours of Daytona with 2005 Champions Wayne Taylor, Max Angelelli and Emmanuel Collard, but the team withdrew due to accident damage before Briscoe's turn to drive.

Ryan Briscoe waits for a qualification attempt at Indy in 2007

In 2006, Briscoe was announced as an endurance driver for Holden Racing Team, set to partner Jim Richards at the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000. He also drove in the A1 Grand Prix race at Laguna Seca in the USA for A1 Team Australia, scoring three points. At the Indy 500 he was a surprise late driver of the #48 car for A. J. Foyt Racing - the deal was so late he was still having his seat fitting with less than half an hour of Bump Day qualifying left, and he never got out on the track to attempt a qualifying run. He returned to the IRL the following week and drove the #5 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara to a third place finish at Watkins Glen International, a road course. He returned to the Dreyer & Reinbold team on a three race deal for the short speedways in the second half of the season, but recorded DNF's in 2 of his 3 races with the team. He then was tabbed to replace the injured Cristiano da Matta in the final two races of the Champ Car season for the RuSPORT team, including his home country's race at Surfers Paradise.

2007

Briscoe signed a deal to drive for Penske Racing's Porsche LMP2 car in the American Le Mans Series and was named to a ride in the Indy 500 in a car owned by Stephen J. Luczo and Jay Penske with equipment leased from defending '500' champion Penske Racing.

Driving the #12 Symantec Luczo Dragon Racing machine, Briscoe qualified 7th with a four lap average speed of 224.410. In the race on 28 May 2007, he completed all 166 laps before the race was called due to a driving rain. Briscoe finished 5th amongst the 33 participants earning him $302,305 and 30 driver points.

2008

Briscoe at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 2008.

Ryan Briscoe signed to drive for Penske's IndyCar team as a race driver for the 2008 IndyCar Series season, replacing the former driver Sam Hornish, Jr., who started racing full–time in Penske's NASCAR team in 2008.

Briscoe knocked himself out of the Indianapolis 500 along with Danica Patrick when Briscoe came out of the pits and ran into Patrick tearing up her suspension and tearing the front end of Briscoe's car.

Briscoe earned his first career win at Milwaukee the week after Indy. Holding off Scott Dixon and avoiding a late crash involving Marco Andretti, Ed Carpenter, and Vitor Meira. He followed up his first career win with a victory, shortly after the halfway point of the season, at the Honda 200 on the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Briscoe also became the first Australian to claim victory at the Surfers Paradise Indy event on October 26, 2008, after countryman and favorite, Will Power, crashed out early in the race.

2009

Briscoe at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 2009.

2009 started well for Briscoe, with a restart pass on Justin Wilson giving him the win at the first round of the championship at St. Petersburg. At the second round at Long Beach, Penske were not quick, and that compounded with bad luck pushed Briscoe down to 13th.

At the third round at the Kansas Speedway, Briscoe qualified seventh. He was very quick, and was battling with eventual winner Scott Dixon when a yellow flag got him down the order. Briscoe charged back, and set the fastest race race lap and finished 4th.

Briscoe qualified 2nd for the Indianapolis 500. Briscoe was in the lead after 64 laps, but lost the lead on a bad set of tires. He was forced to make an unscheduled stop which dropped him down to 24th. He couldn't recover, and finished 15th.

The next round was at the Milwaukee Mile where Briscoe took pole position. After losing the lead to Tony Kanaan on the first lap, Briscoe took the lead on the 26th lap and led until the second round of pitstops when Dario Franchitti jumped him. However, Briscoe passed him 20 laps later and kept the lead at the final round of stops. On lap 201 out of 225, Scott Dixon took advantage of Briscoe stuck behind backmarker Tomas Scheckter and passed him on the inside to win, with Briscoe second.

Round 6 was at the Texas Motor Speedway and Briscoe qualified second. He passed polesitter Dario Franchitti on the 10th lap and pulled away. With no cautions for the next 140 laps, Briscoe pulled away and by lap 150, had a 15 second lead over second placed Marco Andretti. A caution for debris on lap 151 took away all that, and now Brisoce had Andretti, as well as teammate Helio Castroneves and the Ganassi cars of Scott Dixon and Franchitti behind him. The third round of stops took place on lap 176, at another caution. A six second stop for Castroneves got him ahead of Briscoe, and for the remaining 52 laps, Briscoe with the quicker car was unable to pass Castroneves and had to settle for second for the second consecutive race after leading the most laps.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2000	Formula Renault 2000 Italy	Prema Powerteam	1	0	0	0	0	16	17th
2001	Formula Renault 2000 Italy	Prema Powerteam	10	5	3	1	7	226	1st
	Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup		6	2	1	2	3	102	4th
	German Formula Three		2	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
	French Formula Three		1	0	0	0	1	0	NC†
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
2002	German Formula Three	Prema Powerteam	12	0	0	0	3	16	13th
	International Formula 3000		7	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	French Formula Three		2	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
	Italian Formula Three		1	0	0	?	0	0	NC†
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
2003	Formula Three Euroseries	Prema Powerteam	20	8	4	5	10	110	1st
	British Formula Three		2	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	7th
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	1	1	N/A	3rd
2005	IndyCar Series	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	14	0	1	1	0	232	19th
	Rolex Sports Car Series	CompUSA Chip Ganassi	1	0	0	?	0	24	68th
2005–06	A1 Grand Prix	A1 Team Australia	4	0	0	0	1	51	13th
2006	IndyCar Series	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	4	0	0	0	1	83	21st
	Champ Car World Series	RuSPORT	2	0	0	0	0	17	21st
	Rolex Sports Car Series	?	2	0	0	?	2	62	61st
	V8 Supercar	Holden Racing Team	2	0	0	0	0	120	58th
2006–07	A1 Grand Prix	A1 Team Australia	6	0	0	0	1	25	13th
2007	American Le Mans Series - LMP2	Penske Racing	12	3	1	5	9	186	2nd
	IndyCar Series	Luczo-Dragon Racing	1	0	0	0	0	30	24th
2008	IndyCar Series	Team Penske	17	2	3	4	5	447	5th
	American Le Mans Series - LMP2		4	1	1	1	1	53	10th
	Rolex Sports Car Series		1	0	0	0	1	30	46th
2009	IndyCar Series	Penske Racing	17	3	4	5	11	604	3rd
	Rolex Sports Car Series		1	0	0	0	0	25	41st

† - As Briscoe was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.

Complete Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
2001	Prema Powerteam	MOZ Ret	BRN 19	MAG 3	SIL	ZOL	HUN 4	SPI	NÜR	JAR 1	EST 1	4th	102

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
2002	Coca-Cola Nordic Racing	INT 12	IMO 13	CAT 12	A1R 17	MON Ret	NUR Ret	SIL 12	MAG	HOC	HUN	SPA	MNZ	NC	0

Complete German Formula Three results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	DC	Points
2002	Prema Powerteam	HOC 1	HOC 2	SAC 1	SAC 2	NOR 1	NOR 2	LAU 1 11	LAU 2 15	HOC 3 Ret	HOC 4 7	NÜR 1 Ret	NÜR 2 11	A1R 1 5	A1R 2 Ret	ZAN 1 3	ZAN 2 3	HOC 5 3	HOC 6 5	13th	16

Complete Formula Three Euroseries results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2003	Prema Powerteam	Dallara F303/008	Spiess-Opel	HOC 1 1	HOC 2 1	ADR 1 5	ADR 2 1	PAU 1 1	PAU 2 2	NOR 1 4	NOR 2 Ret	LMS 1 3	LMS 2 Ret	NÜR 1 Ret	NÜR 2 7	A1R 1 1	A1R 2 1	ZAN 1 17	ZAN 2 1	HOC 3 17	HOC 4 1	MAG 1 14	MAG 2 14	1st	110

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	WDC	Points
2004	Panasonic Toyota Racing	Toyota TF104	AUS	MAL	BHR	SMR	ESP	MON	EUR	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN TD	BEL TD	ITA TD	CHN TD	JPN *	BRA TD	-	-

* Was entered as Third Driver, but did not run due to bad weather.

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2005–06	A1 Team Australia	GBR SPR	GBR FEA	GER SPR	GER FEA	POR SPR	POR FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	UAE SPR	UAE FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	IDN SPR	IDN FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	USA SPR 10	USA FEA 8	CHN SPR 9	CHN FEA 3	13th	51
2006–07		NED SPR 13	NED FEA 3	CZE SPR	CZE FEA	CHN SPR	CHN FEA	MYS SPR 12	MYS FEA 17	IDN SPR 6	IDN FEA 10	NZL SPR	NZL FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	CHN SPR	CHN FEA	GBR SPR	GBR SPR	13th	24

American open wheel results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

IndyCar

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2005	Ganassi	HMS 20	PHX 19	STP 14	JPN 12	INDY 10	TXS 12	RIR 21	KAN 21	NSH 8	MIL DNS	MIS 10	KTY 13	PPIR 20	SNM 19	CHI 22	WGL INJ	CAL INJ			19th	232
2006	Dreyer & Reinbold	HMS	STP	JPN	INDY	WGL 3	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH 9	MIL 18	MIC	KTY	SNM 16	CHI						21st	83
2007	Luczo-Dragon	HMS	STP	MOT	KAN	INDY 5	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	MIS	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI			24th	30
2008	Penske	HMS 19	STP 23	MOT1 9	LBH1 DNP	KAN 7	INDY 23	MIL 1	TXS 3	IOW 7	RIR 15	WGL 12	NSH 23	MDO 1	EDM 6	KTY 7	SNM 2	DET 9	CHI 3	SRF2 1	5th	447
2009	Penske	STP 1	LBH 13	KAN 4	INDY 15	MIL 2	TXS 2	IOW 2	RIR 19	WGL 2	TOR 2	EDM 4	KTY 1	MDO 2	SNM 2	CHI 1	MOT 18	HMS 2			3rd	604
2010	Penske	SAO 14	STP 3	ALA 6	LBH 8	KAN 6	INDY 24	TXS 1	IOW 4	WGL 2	TOR 18	EDM 4	MDO	SNM	CHI	KTY	MOT	HMS			4th*	324*

* 2010 season in progress.

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win)**	Top 10s (Non-podium)***	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
6	4	60	10	7	13	16	0	0

** Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.

*** Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
2005	Panoz	Toyota	24	10	Ganassi
2007	Dallara	Honda	7	5	Luczo-Dragon
2008	Dallara	Honda	3	23	Penske
2009	Dallara	Honda	2	15	Penske
2010	Dallara	Honda	4	24	Penske

Champ Car

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Final Pos	Points
2006	RuSPORT	LBH	HOU	MTY	MIL	POR	CLE	TOR	EDM	SJO	DEN	MTL	ROA	SRF 11	MXC 14	21st	17

Touring/Sports Car Racing

(Races in bold indicate pole position)

V8 Supercar results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Final Pos	Points
2006	HRT	ADL	PUK	BRG	WIN	HDV	QLR	ORP	SAN 21	BAT Ret	SUR	SYM	BAH	PHI	58th	120

American Le Mans Series results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final Pos	Points
2007	Penske	SEB 8	STP 1	LGB 2	HOU 3	MMP 1*	LMR 1*	MDO 2	ROA 2	MOS 2	DET 7	ATL 5	LAG 2	T-3rd	186

* Overall victory as well as class victory.

Trivia

• In addition to his native English, Briscoe speaks Italian and French.
• Is good friends with Champ Car driver Robert Doornbos. While recovering from his crash at Chicagoland Speedway in 2005, Briscoe had surgery in Italy and stayed at Doornbos' house while he was away racing with Minardi.
• Attended Trinity Grammar School in Summer Hill, Sydney, Australia.

External links

• Ryan Briscoe's official website
• Photograph of Ryan's huge crash in 2005
• Photo sequence of infernal 2005 Chicagoland crash (from Paddocktalk).