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Érik Comas

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Érik Comas
Comas in 2005
Born (1963-09-28) 28 September 1963 (age 61)
Romans-sur-Isère, Drôme, France
Formula One World Championship career
NationalityFrance French
Active years1991–1994
TeamsLigier, Larrousse
Entries63 (59 starts)
Championships0
Wins0
Podiums0
Career points7
Pole positions0
Fastest laps0
First entry1991 United States Grand Prix
Last entry1994 Japanese Grand Prix

Érik Comas (born 28 September 1963) is a French former Formula One driver. He was French Formula 3 champion in 1988, and then Formula 3000 champion in 1990, after scoring the same number of points as Jean Alesi in 1989 but losing on a count-back of positions. He participated in 63 Grands Prix, debuting on 10 March 1991. He scored a total of 7 championship points. His last point, in the 1994 German Grand Prix, was also the last one for the Larrousse team.

Career

Formula One

At the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix Comas was mistakenly waved out of the pits and drove onto the circuit during the red flag which followed the fatal crash of Ayrton Senna. Marshals frantically tried to flag Comas down through the Tamburello corner and he only narrowly avoided rescue workers and vehicles, including an aid helicopter which had landed at the scene, before bringing his Larrousse to a stop. He retired from the race following the incident, due to the distressing scenes he witnessed as medical staff tried to revive Senna. It had been Senna who saved Comas' life at Spa in 1992 after Comas had a terrible crash at the Blanchimont corner during Friday qualifying. Senna jumped from his own car, ran over to Comas, shut down his engine and held Comas' head in a stable position until the doctors could arrive.[1] When Senna died at Imola in 1994, Comas was so shocked he decided to not participate in the restart of the race, mainly because of what happened at Spa two years earlier.

After Formula One

After ending a disappointing Formula One career at the end of the 1994 season, he went to Japan to continue his racing career in the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC), Japan's premiere racing series. Soon enough, he won the GT500 title in 1998 and 1999, and earned runner-up in the standings in 2000, all three years driving for Nissan in a factory Nismo-prepared Skyline GT-R. He left the Nismo team in 2002 to join the factory Toyota team the following year. By the end of the 2003 season, he was the most successful driver in the history of the series, with the most career championship points ever scored by a single driver. This was eventually surpassed by another Nismo driver, Satoshi Motoyama.

After a decent run with Toyota, Comas spent the 2004/2005 seasons with Masahiro Hasemi's privateer Hasemi Sport team, running non-factory Nissan 350Zs in GT500, including inheriting the team's only win (co-driving with Toshihiro Kaneishi) thus far on the evening of 18 December 2004 at the "All-Star 200" exhibition race on California Speedway's combined oval/road course after the unofficial winners were penalized 60 seconds on their finishing time for a pit window infraction. Unfortunately, the race was a non-points scoring event and as such does not count towards the drivers' or team's official win record.

In the 2006 Super GT championship season (formerly JGTC) he raced for former JGTC driver and 24 Hours of Le Mans team owner Masahiko Kondo's all new privateer Nissan 350Z racing team. He also branched out into rallying, competing in various events around the world. Along with this, he created Comas Racing Management (CRM), a firm that focuses on the management and development of young up and coming drivers, primarily from his home country of France.

At 5th race of the 2006 season at Sportsland SUGO, Comas was replaced with later Pokka 1000 km third driver Seiji Ara due to what the CRM website referred on as "ill health."[2] After coming back for the Pokka 1000 km, on 5 September 2006, Comas announced on his website that because of his health, he would not compete in the final 3 races of the season.[3]

Comas was known for not wearing a tinted visor, preferring to wear sunglasses underneath his visor. His son, Anthony used to compete in the Formula BMW UK series for Carlin Motorsport.

Comas has now effectively retired from all forms of racing. He spends his time these days running Comas Historic Racing, which provides for paying customers to enter historic rallies driving cars from his fleet of blue Alpine automobiles.[4]

In 2010 and 2011, he won the electric vehicle category of the Rallye Monte Carlo des Véhicules à Énergie Alternative (the opening event of the FIA Alternative Energies Cup) with a Tesla Roadster.[5]

Racing record

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 DC Points
1989 DAMS SIL
5 		VAL
4 		PAU
DNQ 		JER
2 		PER
Ret 		BRH
3 		BIR
Ret 		SPA
2 		BUG
1 		DIJ
1 		2nd 39
1990 DAMS DON
1 		SIL
2 		PAU
Ret 		JER
1 		MNZ
1 		PER
Ret 		HOC
4 		BRH
Ret 		BIR
Ret 		BUG
1 		NOG
2 		1st 51

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 WDC Points
1991 Ligier Gitanes Ligier JS35 Lamborghini V12 USA
DNQ 		BRA
Ret 		SMR
10 		MON
10 		CAN
8 		MEX
DNQ 		FRA
11 		GBR
DNQ 		GER
Ret 		HUN
10 		BEL
Ret 		ITA
11 		POR
11 		ESP
Ret 		JPN
Ret 		AUS
18 		NC 0
1992 Ligier Gitanes Blondes Ligier JS37 Renault V10 RSA
7 		MEX
9 		BRA
Ret 		ESP
Ret 		SMR
9 		MON
10 		CAN
6 		FRA
5 		GBR
8 		GER
6 		HUN
Ret 		BEL
DNQ 		ITA
Ret 		POR
Ret 		JPN
Ret 		AUS
Ret 		11th 4
1993 Larrousse F1 Larrousse LH93 Lamborghini V12 RSA
Ret 		BRA
10 		EUR
9 		SMR
Ret 		ESP
9 		MON
Ret 		CAN
8 		FRA
16 		GBR
Ret 		GER
Ret 		HUN
Ret 		BEL
Ret 		ITA
6 		POR
11 		JPN
Ret 		AUS
12 		20th 1
1994 Tourtel Larrousse F1 Larrousse LH94 Ford V8 BRA
9 		PAC
6 		SMR
Ret 		MON
10 		ESP
Ret 		CAN
Ret 		FRA
Ret 		GBR
Ret 		GER
6 		HUN
8 		BEL
Ret 		ITA
8 		POR
Ret 		EUR
Ret 		JPN
9 		AUS 23rd 2

Complete JGTC/Super GT results

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

Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 DC Pts
1995 Team Cerumo Toyota Supra GT1 SUZ
5 		FUJ
14 		SEN
15 		FUJ
Ret 		SUG
11 		MIN
DSQ 		19th 8
1996 TOM'S Toyota Supra GT500 SUZ
16 		FUJ
4 		SEN
1 		FUJ
Ret 		SUG
4 		MIN
2 		3rd 55
1997 NISMO Nissan Skyline GT-R GT500 SUZ
1 		FUJ SEN
2 		FUJ
10 		MIN
9 		SUG
3 		6th 50
1998 NISMO Nissan Skyline GT-R GT500 SUZ
1 		FUJ
C 		SEN
1 		FUJ
10 		MOT
4 		MIN
4 		SUG
6 		1st 67
1999 NISMO Nissan Skyline GT-R GT500 SUZ
2 		FUJ
5 		SUG
6 		MIN
1 		FUJ
3 		TAI
7 		MOT
3 		1st 77
2000 NISMO Nissan Skyline GT-R GT500 MOT
1 		FUJ
6 		SUG
Ret 		FUJ
4 		TAI
3 		MIN
3 		SUZ
5 		2nd 68
2001 NISMO Nissan Skyline GT-R GT500 TAI
13 		FUJ
4 		SUG
10 		FUJ
2 		MOT
Ret 		SUZ
3 		MIN
2 		4th 53
2002 NISMO Nissan Skyline GT-R GT500 TAI
12 		FUJ
6 		SUG
4 		SEP
16 		FUJ
14 		MOT
17 		MIN
Ret 		SUZ
8 		19th 19
2003 TOM'S Toyota Supra GT500 TAI
6 		FUJ
10 		SUG
2 		FUJ
7 		FUJ
5 		MOT
2 		AUT
8 		SUZ
8 		5th 61
2004 Hasemi Motorsport Nissan Z GT500 TAI
6 		SUG
6 		SEP
4 		TOK
3 		MOT
7 		AUT
Ret 		SUZ
3 		4th 50
2005 Hasemi Motorsport Nissan Z GT500 OKA
3 		FUJ
9 		SEP
Ret 		SUG
15 		MOT
13 		FUJ
4 		AUT
3 		SUZ
4 		8th 42
2006 Kondo Racing Nissan Z GT500 SUZ
10 		OKA
10 		FUJ
10 		SEP
8 		SUG SUZ
5 		MOT AUT FUJ 18th 18

World Rally Championship results

Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 WDC Points
2000 Éric Comas Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI MON SWE KEN POR ESP ARG GRC NZL FIN CYP FRA ITA AUS
Ret 		GBR - 0

References

  1. ^ YouTube.com
  2. ^ ErikComas.com Archived February 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Archived February 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ ErikComas.com Archived February 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Archived February 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ comashistoric.com Archived July 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine Archived July 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Rallye Monte Carlo des Énergies Nouvelles et Électrique[dead link‍], in ACM.mc.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Érik Comas.
Sporting positions
Preceded by Championnat de France Formule Renault Turbo Champion
1986 		Succeeded by
Claude Degremont
Preceded by French Touring Car Champion
1987 		Succeeded by
Preceded by French Formula Three
Champion
1988 		Succeeded by
Preceded by International Formula 3000 Champion
1990 		Succeeded by
Preceded by All-Japan Grand Touring Car Champion (GT500)
1998–1999
In 1998, with Masami Kageyama 		Succeeded by
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