Allan McNish

Allan McNish

Allan McNish is a racing driver, born on 29 December 1969 in Dumfries, Scotland. He lives in Monaco with his wife Kelly. He is a two-time American Le Mans Series champion and two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, most recently in 2008. He is currently driving an Audi R10 for Audi Sport in the Le Mans Series.

Biography

Early career

Allan McNish began his career in karting and, like fellow Scottish driver David Coulthard, was recognised with a McLaren/Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year award having moved up to car racing. In 1988 he won the Formula Vauxhall Lotus championship and in 1989 finished runner up to David Brabham in a close fought British Formula Three Championship. Tipped as a future F1 driver, he tested with both McLaren and Benetton, whilst also competing in F3000, then the recognised second tier of European motorsport, in 1990-1992 finishing 4th overall in the championship in his first season. Concentrating on F1 opportunities meant he appeared in F3000 only once during 1994, at Pau.

When an F1 drive failed to materialise, he returned to F3000 in 1995 with Paul Stewart Racing, the forerunner of the Stewart Grand Prix team. While he was arguably the fastest driver of the year, a series of mishaps saw him well beaten by Super Nova drivers Vincenzo Sospiri and Ricardo Rosset in the title race. McNish's career appeared to stall in early 1996 after a deal to race in Formula Nippon fell through and Mark Blundell was preferred for a drive with the PacWest CART team. He also tested for Benetton during the year.

Sports Cars

Having devoted his career to the pursuit of an F1 chance, it is ironic that McNish has become one of the world's most highly rated sportscar drivers. His sportscar career began in 1996 with Porsche, at a time when their 911 GT1 model revolutionized sportscar racing. With the factory team he took this car to victory in the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans, partnered by Laurent Aïello and Stephane Ortelli. He subsequently appeared for Toyota and Audi in the race, and after losing a likely victory in the dying stages of the 2007 event, scored a second triumph in 2008 with Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello driving an Audi R10. cite web | title = Audi edges Peugeot in classic Le Mans 24 Hours duel | publisher = MaximumMotorsport.co.uk | date = 2008 | url = http://www.maximummotorsport.co.uk/2008/06/15/audi-edges-peugeot-in-classic-le-mans-24-hours-duel/ | accessdate =2008-06-15] He has also raced with great success for Audi in the American Le Mans Series, winning the title with Dindo Capello in 2006 and 2007.

Formula One

McNish finally found an opening into Formula One in 2001, when the newly formed Toyota F1 team required a development driver. Given his link with Toyota through sportscars he was an obvious choice for this role, and impressed in testing to the extent that McNish was on the starting grid for the team's F1 race debut on March 3, 2002. Unfortunately, he did not score any points during the season's 17 races, and he and team-mate Mika Salo were replaced with a new line-up of Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta for 2003. Salo had scored points for the team on their debut in Melbourne and McNish had very nearly done the same with a superb drive in the Malaysian Grand Prix, only for a pit lane mistake by the team to cost him the result. Both drivers were told of their replacement before Da Matta was announced, and ITV's Martin Brundle commented that "replacing Salo and McNish with Panis and A.N. Other" was not, in his view, a step forward. As it was, the most notable moment of McNish's sole season in Formula One was his dramatic accident at the 130R corner while practising for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, in which he escaped serious injury. This led to the corner being reprofiled the following year.

After Formula One

In 2003 he was a test driver for Renault F1, also doing a little TV work for ITV, but the next year he returned to his successful sports car racing career, winning the 12 Hours of Sebring, combining this in 2005 with a venture into the highly competitive DTM (German Touring Car Championship), where he competes against the likes of former F1 men Mika Häkkinen and Jean Alesi. He also won Sportscar Driver of the Year awards from the Autosport and Le Mans magazines and the (Jackie) Stewart Medal Award for services to Scottish Motor Sport. He was made the President of the Scottish Motor Racing Club at their annual Prize Giving and Dinner in 2007, succeeding Sir Jackie Stewart.

In 2006, he continues to race as an official Audi sports car driver and was part of the driving line up which won the 12 Hours of Sebring in the new Audi R10, having set the pole position time and broken the lap record. In 2008, McNish won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Audi alongside Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello It was his first win at the Circuit de la Sarthe since 24hLM|1998.

Other formulae

As well as those above, McNish has also raced in the following racing series:
* Karting
* Formula Ford
* Vauxhall Lotus
* British Formula 3
* North American GT
* FIA GT

Complete Formula One results

()

References

External links

* [http://www.allanmcnish.com/ Allan McNish's official website]
* [http://www.allanmcnish.com/blog/ Allan McNish's official blog]

* [http://www.fiagt.com/driverinfo.php?drivername=Allan+McNish Profile] - by [http://www.fiagt.com/ FIA GT Championship official website]


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