Mike Conway


Michael Robert Conway is a British professional racing driver. He lives in Sevenoaks, Kent and is currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Toyota Gazoo Racing.

Early career

Conway who was born in Bromley, London, attended Sevenoaks Prep School from 1986 to 1996.

Karting to F3

Conway began racing in karting at the age of eight at Rye House in Hertfordshire. After that, he went on to be the Formula A British Karting Champion, then raced in Formula Ford with Van Diemen. He was the Formula Renault UK Champion in 2004 and then entered the British F3 International Series in 2005, with the same Fortec Motorsport team with which he had competed in Formula Renault UK.
In British F3, Conway was the highest placed rookie and finished third behind Alvaro Parente and Charlie Kimball, as well as managing 13th in the BP Ultimate Masters at Zandvoort, having started sixteenth. At the Macau Grand Prix, Conway ended up fourth in both the qualifying and the qualifying race around the Circuito da Guia, before a problematic Grand Prix saw him retire with engine failure, but classified fourteenth.
Following that success, Conway was signed by 2MB Sports Management run by former Grand Prix drivers Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell, and signed for the Räikkönen Robertson Racing team, owned by then McLaren driver Kimi Räikkönen and his race-manager Steve Robertson. In the 2006 season, Conway dominated the British F3 International Series, and clinched the title with three races remaining, as well as finishing first of the British F3 drivers in Race Two of the prestigious Pau Grand Prix, in France, a round of the British F3 International Series for 2006 - Romain Grosjean won the race. While at the Macau Grand Prix, after qualifying eleventh, he finished seventh in the qualifying race, before becoming the first British driver to win the Grand Prix since Darren Manning in 1999.

GP2

2006

Conway made his GP2 debut at Silverstone in June 2006, when he replaced the injured Olivier Pla in a DPR Direxiv car. Having stalled at the start of race one, he battled to eleventh place. In race two, he also finished eleventh.
Conway won the National Racing Driver of the Year Award at the 2006 McLaren Autosport Awards.

2007

Conway then signed to drive a full season for Super Nova Racing in the 2007 GP2 Series, taking a podium finish at Silverstone, and signed as a test driver with the Honda Racing F1 Team . He remained in the series for 2008, having signed for the Trident Racing team, after testing for several other teams . At Monaco he took his first GP2 series win in the sprint race, earning pole position by finishing eighth in the feature race, in which he ran third before being hit by backmarker Javier Villa on the final lap . At Magny-Cours he finished eighth in the feature race, but faded to finish sixth in a wet sprint race. He eventually finished twelfth in the drivers' championship, an improvement of two positions on the previous year.

IndyCar career

During 2008, Conway was given an opportunity to test an IndyCar Series car at Infineon Raceway and surprised several series regulars by being top of the times during one session. Conway signed with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing to compete in the IndyCar Series full-time in 2009.
On the final lap of the 2010 Indianapolis 500, Conway was battling side by side with Ryan Hunter-Reay when the two cars became entangled as Hunter-Reay's Dallara ran low on fuel and stuttered between turns 3 and 4, resulting in Conway's Dallara-Honda being launched into the air. Conway suffered a broken leg during the crash and was flown straight to the Methodist Hospital of Indianapolis. Conway also received a compression fracture of one of his thoracic vertebrae and was fitted with a back brace. The injuries effectively ended his participation in the rest of the 2010 Izod IndyCar Series season.
On 1 February 2011, Andretti Autosport announced that Conway had been signed to a full-time ride for the 2011 IndyCar season. He won his first IndyCar race at Long Beach on 17 April 2011, but the remainder of the year was disappointing, as Conway only managed to score three more top-ten finishes and failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500; he finished seventeenth in the championship.
Conway moved to the A. J. Foyt Enterprises team for the 2012 season. He also made his racing return to the Indianapolis 500, having failed to qualify the year before. He qualified near the back but appeared to have a strong car coming up several positions during the race. On lap 79, Conway entered the pits during a scheduled green flag pit stop period. He made contact with one of his crew members damaging his front wing but not injuring the crew member. The damage went unnoticed by the crew who hurried up the pit stop to keep Conway in contention. A few laps later Conway lost control of his car spinning in front of Will Power and making contact with Power causing him to hit the inside wall. At the same time Conway's car turned around backwards and flew airborne into the fence topside first. Conway was uninjured in the incident, but due to damage he was unable to finish the race and was scored in 29th position. He later finished in third place in Toronto, his best result of the season.
In the week leading up to the final race of the 2012 season—held at the Fontana superspeedway—Conway informed the Foyt team that he no longer felt comfortable competing on oval tracks, and asked not to race. He was replaced by Wade Cunningham. Conway's decision stemmed from injuries after a crash at the 2010 Indianapolis 500 and the debate over IndyCar competing on oval tracks after the October 2011 death of Dan Wheldon.
In 2013, Conway ran a one race deal with Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing at Long Beach finishing 25th with an electrical issue, then signed with Dale Coyne Racing for the doubleheader events of the year, winning his first race out at the Belle Isle Park Course. In 2014 he ran only the road courses and street circuits for Ed Carpenter Racing winning both the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach as well as the Honda Indy Toronto Doubleheader.

Sportscar career

2013

In 2013, Conway decided to enter sports car racing to supplement his IndyCar career, becoming a full-time driver for G-Drive Racing in the LMP2 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship. Having started the campaign with two points finishes, Conway and co-drivers John Martin and Roman Rusinov were excluded from a third place at Le Mans due to a fuel tank infraction. They then found form, dominantly winning from pole at São Paulo and Austin. After finishing second in Japan, the trio won the final two races to finish third in the category standings.

2014

The following year, Conway joined LMP1 outfit Toyota Gazoo Racing as a test and reserve driver in the WEC, driving for the team in three races besides his IndyCar commitments. He would score his first overall win in sportscars at Bahrain, beating the Porsche entries on pace during the middle of the contest. In addition to his duties in sportscars and IndyCar, Conway was announced as one of Dragon Racing's drivers for the inaugural Formula E season in July, though he left the team on 5 September before the first round.

2015–2016

Conway would become a full-time driver at Toyota for the 2015 season, racing with the experienced pairing of Stéphane Sarrazin and Alexander Wurz. Over the course of the year, Toyota was unable to keep up with its rivals, as Conway and his teammates finished sixth in the standings, level on points with the sister car. With the retirement of Wurz, Conway and Sarrazin were joined by Kamui Kobayashi ahead of 2016. After being promoted to second at Silverstone due to a disqualification for Audi, Conway made a mistake at Spa, hitting the No. 37 LMP2 entry and being forced to serve a drive-through penalty. The car was later retired due to an engine failure. Conway began the Le Mans 24 Hours well by overtaking the Porsches of Timo Bernhard and Neel Jani to take the lead in the opening hour. He lost the lead to Jani during the night but emerged ahead due to a superior strategy in the morning; a chance of victory went begging however when the #6 had to enter the garage to fix floor damage, thus losing a place to the No. 2 Porsche and eventually ending up second after the No. 5's retirement on the final lap. From the middle part of the campaign the No. 6 would become a constant on the podium, finishing third in Mexico and America before winning its home race at Fuji after a strong performance by Kobayashi. The trio finished second in Shanghai despite suffering two punctures but lost out on the title in the final round, eventually finishing third overall.

2017

In 2017, Conway's teammates changed again, as he and Kobayashi were now partnering José María López in the No. 7. An early lead battle at the season opener was ended when López crashed heavily, though the team bounced back to claim second at Spa. Drama followed at Le Mans: Conway had re-taken a lead he had lost during the second hour, which later became substantial because of reliability struggles for the entire LMP1 field. The No. 7 would not be spared however, as the car's clutch broke during the night and forced them to retire. Over the rest of the campaign, Conway and his teammates only scored two more podiums and finished last of the four full-time LMP1 entries in the standings.

2018–19

With the absence of any manufacturers outside of Toyota in the top class for the 2018–19 season, Conway, Kobayashi, and López would be battling the sister car throughout the year. Their dominance showed at round one, where Conway made his way through all other classes within the first hour despite starting from the back of the grid and later narrowly lost out on victory to Fernando Alonso in the No. 8. The No. 7 finished second to the sister car at Le Mans and once again lost out at Silverstone despite a pole from Conway and López, though both cars would be disqualified post-race. Fuji proved to be a standout race for Conway, who took the lead from teammate Sébastien Buemi in the pits at the halfway mark and extended it to almost fifteen seconds, resulting in his first win of the year. Another victory followed at Shanghai, where Conway held on to first place in spite of the pressure created by the quicker Kazuki Nakajima in the closing laps. However, this would be the last win for the No. 7 that season, as they were held back by a collision with a GT entry at Sebring and issues at Spa, where a qualifying lap record by Conway and Kobayashi was undone by a sensor failure which lost them the chance of a podium. A win at the 2019 Le Mans race was scuppered within the final hour, as the outfit suffered a puncture which put them behind the sister car. Regardless of the Le Mans outcome, the No. 7 came second in the standings, 41 points behind the #8.