Paul Tracy
Paul Anthony Tracy is a Canadian-American professional auto racing driver who participated in Champ Car World Series, the IndyCar Series, and the Championship Auto Racing Teams. He started kart racing at age five and quickly became successful and began car racing at sixteen, finishing third in the 1985 Formula Ford 1600 championship with one win and Rookie of the Year honors. Tracy became the youngest Canadian Formula Ford champion in the 1985 CASC Formula 1600 Challenge Series and was the youngest Can-Am race winner the following year. He raced in the American Racing Series for three years between 1988 and 1990, winning the series title with nine wins from fourteen races in 1990.
Tracy's CART career began in the 1991 season with Dale Coyne Racing. However, following one race, he drove three races for Penske Racing. He competed with Penske in eleven races during the 1992 season, finishing on the podium three times. In the 1993 season, Tracy finished third in the drivers' standings after winning five races. The following year, Tracy won three more races. He moved to Newman/Haas Racing for the 1995 season, winning two races before returning to Penske for the 1996 championship. Tracy won another three races in the 1997 season before being fired for criticizing the car and joined Team Green the following year. He was third in the 1999 championship with two victories but fell to fifth in 2000 season despite three more wins. Tracy's form declined over the next two seasons but won one race in 2002. He joined Forsythe Racing in the 2003 championship, winning his first series title with seven victories.
In the renamed Champ Car World Series in 2004 and 2005, Tracy won two races for fourth overall in both seasons. Tracy's performance declined during a 2006 season in which he took three podium finishes. His final Champ Car victory came in the 2007 championship. Following the unification of the CCWS and the IndyCar Series, he raced part-time for the KV Racing Technology, Vision Racing, A. J. Foyt Enterprises, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and Dragon Racing teams over the following three years. Tracy entered NASCAR-sanctioned stock car races in its Busch Series and the Camping World Truck Series, sports car racing through the Rolex Sports Car Series as well as the Stadium Super Trucks and the Superstar Racing Experience.
Nicknamed "The Thrill from West Hill" for his aggressive driving style and his bad boy image, Tracy's outspoken nature saw him placed on probation and fined several times by CART. He analysed IndyCar races for the Canadian broadcaster Sportsnet in the 2013 season and then for NBCSN between the 2014 and 2021 seasons. Tracy is an inductee of the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame and the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame.
Early life
Tracy was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada on December 17, 1968, and grew up in the working-class bedroom suburb east of Toronto. He is the son of Northern Ireland-born house painter Tony Tracy, who was the president of Trabur Painting, and his English wife Vivienne Tracy. Tony rode a Velocette in England and Ireland before injuring himself in an accident and emigrating to Canada with his two brothers in the 1960s. Tracy has two older half-sisters from his father's first marriage and a younger sister. He attended Jack Miner Public High School and continued attending while karting, graduating after passing all of his subjects.Junior racing career
Tracy got his first miniature motorized mini-bike when he was four, and received his first small motorized children's go-kart from his father aged five. His father's painting company provided enough funds for his son to compete in karts and, later, cars. He drove every weekend on tracks in Central and Eastern Canada as well as the Northern United States; Tracy had to prepare and maintain his kart because his father worked long hours. He was inspired by four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A. J. Foyt, and learnt go-karting from driver Scott Goodyear, before he progressed from the junior class to the senior category when he was twelve years old. Tracy won the Canadian Senior Karting Championship twice and 91 of 94 races in his first full senior season. He entered the North American Race of Champions and finished in the top ten of the Karting World Championship twice.Tracy stopped racing karts upon turning fifteen, and his father had Goodyear teach him how to drive and handle race cars, as well as car setup. Aged sixteen, he progressed to car racing and his father wanted him to enter several European and North American events and race series as possible. Tracy finished third in the Formula Ford 1600 Championship with one victory, and was named Rookie of the Year. He raced in the 1985 CASC Formula 1600 Challenge Series with Colin Hines Racing in a small Van Diemen RF85-Ford formula open-wheel car. Tracy was Formula Ford's youngest Canadian champion following a season-long battle with Scott Maxwell. He retired from the CASC Formula Ford 2000 Canadian Run-Off in a Van Diemen RF86 and won the CASC Formula Ford 1600 Canadian Run-Off from pole position at Circuit Mont-Tremblant. Tracy also failed to start the FAQ Challenge Labatt 50 Formula 1600 round at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
In 1986, he moved to the higher-tier Formula 2000 and raced a Rothmans-entered Van Diemen RF86 single-seater open wheel car in the Canadian Formula 2000 Championship. Tracy was fourth overall, with one win at Sanair Super Speedway and three podium finishes for 164 points. He also raced four rounds of that year's, winning the third Sanair round and did three races in the British Formula 2000 Championship with two podium finishes. Tracy raced a Porsche 944 for Mark Motors in the seven-round Porsche Challenge Series, finishing seventeenth overall with forty points. He finished twelfth in the Rothmans Porsche Canadian Run-Off and fifth in the Formula 2000 Canadian Run-Off in the Buick Grand National 1986 at Mont-Tremblant. Tracy accepted an offer from Canadian driver Horst Kroll to drive Kroll's third Frissbee KR4-Chevrolet car at the final round of the 1986 Can-Am Series—the Budweiser 650 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park—after impressing Kroll with his abilities at Sanair. He took his first Can-Am victory from pole position and became its youngest ever winner at the age of seventeen. Tracy finished fifth in the Ford Race of Champions at Brands Hatch in England.
Tracy returned to the United Kingdom in late 1986 to race in the BBC Winter Grandstand Series for Formula Ford 2000 cars, finishing fourth overall, and worked for Van Diemen owner Ralph Firman Sr. Tracy won the season-opening Mosport Park round of the 1987 Canadian Formula 2000 Championship in a Trabur Painting-run Reynard 87SF the following year, finishing fifteenth overall with 59 points. He drove a Ralt RT4 car in three rounds of the HFC Formula Atlantic Challenge, finishing thirtieth in points with nine scored, and had an accident in the SCCA SPI International Formula Atlantic Championship round at Memphis International Raceway. Tracy also competed in four Porsche Challenge Series rounds, finishing third in Mosport and Montreal. He completed his Canadian racing season early in August 1987 since he had nothing to gain by finishing the season.
Tracy competed in the ten-round New Zealand International Formula Pacific championship in early 1988, finishing third with David Brabham, with two wins at Timaru International Motor Raceway, four podium finishes, and one pole in a Ralt RT4-Ford for Graeme Lawrence Autosport. He switched to the Hemelgarn Racing team and progressed to the higher-tier American Racing Series —Championship Auto Racing Teams' developmental series— for the 1988 season with sponsorship funding acquired by his father. Driving the outdated, standard March 86A-Buick V6 Wildcat car raced by all ARS participants, Tracy won the season-opening round at Phoenix Raceway but unreliability and accidents affected the rest of his season with four more top-tens. He finished tenth in the final standings with 58 points and was voted ARS Rookie of the Year.
Tracy's father formed the Maple Leaf Racing team for his son to race in the 1989 ARS season after Tracy was reportedly one of three drivers considered to drive for Footwork's Japanese Formula 3000 squad. He finished in the top ten five times in eleven races, with best finishes of second place at Phoenix and Portland International Raceway due to his retirement from most races, and finished eighth in the drivers' championship with 65 points. Tracy also finished fifth in the 1989 Corvette Challenge round at Toronto with Jumbo Racing. In November 1989, he tested a Reynard Formula 3000 car for Eddie Jordan Racing at Silverstone Circuit to evaluate him as a full-time driver for the 1990 International Formula 3000 Championship but declined team owner Eddie Jordan's offer of a race seat due to the trouble of attracting Canadian sponsors.
Tracy joined team owner Brian Stewart and his Landford Racing team for the 1990 ARS season, acquiring sponsorship but on the condition he would be withdrawn from a race if his father attended an event outside of Toronto and the final round at Laguna Seca. He and his crew spent two weeks in Arizona, testing and preparing his car for the races. Tracy dominated the season with consistency, winning nine of fourteen races and setting records for most pole positions in a season and consecutive victories. He also led the most laps, despite CART forcing drivers mid-season rule requiring drivers to be alongside each other during a race restart following a yellow flag caution period. Tracy finished the season with a season-record 214 points and secured the series title with three races remaining. He finished second in the Canadian Formula 2000 Championship race at Mosport Park in a Van Diemen 90RF car.
American-open wheel racing career
1991–1997
Steve Horne, Truesports manager-owner, gave Tracy a test session in a Lola-Judd car at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in September 1990 and was signed on the option of a three-month retainer testing contract for 1991 in October 1990 after lapping faster than regular driver Raul Boesel. Truesports offered him a three-year contract to partner Scott Pruett, but sponsor Budweiser refused since he was 21 and too young for them to promote him. Tracy rejected an offer to drive four races for the team. Tracy received no other CART offers, so his father rented a year-old 39 Lola T90/00-Chevrolet car from Dale Coyne Racing owner Dale Coyne for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach after he could not obtain sponsorship from Canadian companies and had to refinance the family home. Making his CART debut in the second round of the 1991 season, he qualified fourteenth but his engine overheated due to a broken water pipe, leaving him 22nd. Tracy did not race again with DCR that year.Tracy's work had impressed Penske Racing owner Roger Penske, who would surprise the family by calling them while they ate dinner in Scarborough and requesting they meet him in Detroit that same night. Tracy was offered a five-year testing contract with no guarantees of competitive driving and had to relocate to Pennsylvania, with Penske not accepting any negotiation or review. He would replace Danny Sullivan, testing and developing cars for CART champions Emerson Fittipaldi and Rick Mears, and began a training program to increase muscle and lose weight on Penske's orders. Tracy completed a engine endurance test at Michigan International Speedway before proceeding to Mid-Ohio, where he outpaced regular driver Fittipaldi. After being pleased by Tracy's performance and preparing him for driving on an superspeedway before the Indianapolis 500, Penske put Tracy in his third car in the Michigan 500 in August. Starting eighth in the year-old No. 17 Penske PC-19-Chevrolet, he lost control as he got too close to driver Scott Brayton and crashed, breaking the fibula and tibia in his lower left leg. Tracy was allowed to enter the season's final two races at Nazareth Speedway and Laguna Seca after going on a therapy program on Fittipaldi's advice, and he finished seventh in the former. He was third in the Rookie of the Year standings.
Tracy raced eleven times for Penske in the 1992 season and tested the team's new Chevrolet V8B engine for Fittipaldi and Mears. Tracy lost more weight in the off-season by hiring a trainer and starting a fitness program. He drove a year-old PC-19-Chevrolet vehicle before switching to the PC-20-Chevrolet car from Detroit. Tracy qualified sixth for the season's second round, the Valvoline 200 in Phoenix, and finished fourth two laps down. Tracy debuted in the Indianapolis 500 that year, starting nineteenth and finishing twentieth due to a gearbox failure. He filled in for the injured Mears at Detroit and again for the rest of the season starting from the Molson Indy Toronto. Tracy finished a season-high second in both Detroit and Mid-Ohio and took his first CART pole at Road America. He ended the season twelfth in the Drivers' Championship with 59 points.
Tracy stayed with Penske for the 1993 championship and drove full-time after Mears retired, and was trained by the latter. He expected to be sacked after Penske tested McLaren's Formula One driver Ayrton Senna at Phoenix, but continued racing for Penske. Tracy's No. 12 Penske PC-22-Chevrolet retired from five of the first six rounds due to either mechanical failure or accidents. He started second at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the season's third race, and led 81 of 105 laps for his maiden CART victory. Tracy won consecutive races, the Grand Prix of Cleveland at Burke Lakefront Airport after leading 69 laps from pole position, and the Molson Indy Toronto a week later. He started the New England 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway fourth and led 130 laps before being passed by Nigel Mansell with four laps left for the win. Tracy won his final two races of the season by leading all fifty laps of the Texaco/Havoline 200 at Road America and 81 laps of the Toyota Grand Prix of Monterey at Laguna Seca. He was third in the drivers' standings with 157 points after a late-season duel with Bobby Rahal and Boesel.
Before the 1994 season, Tracy was assigned Dave Stevenson as his manager by Penske to relieve him of most personal and sponsorship functions. He raced in the new No. 3 PC-23 chassis, a rebuild of the previous year's car powered by an improved Ilmor V8 engine. Tracy was unreliable in three of the first four races, and was involved in a multi-car crash in Phoenix after qualifying on pole there and in Long Beach. He finished in the top ten for the first time in 1994 in the Milwaukee Mile before winning the Detroit Grand Prix after colliding with teammate Al Unser Jr. on the 55th lap, which sent Unser into a tire wall. Tracy had five more top fives with podiums in Portland, Cleveland, Mid-Ohio and New Hampshire and took pole position in Elkhart Lake before an engine failure left him eighteenth. He ended 1994 with wins in the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix at Nazareth, when he led 192 of 200 laps, and the Bank of America 300 at Laguna Seca, where he started from pole position three weeks later. Tracy was third overall with 152 points.
Following Penske's return to a two-car team, Tracy's father discovered a provision prohibiting him from driving one-year old cars for either the small, underfunded Bettenhausen Motorsport or Hogan Racing squads and Tracy did not want to race for underachieving teams. He signed a three-year contract with team owners Carl Haas and Paul Newman in October 1994 to replace the retired Mario Andretti at Newman/Haas Racing, but Penske could resign him for the 1996 season if Fittipaldi left after the 1995 championship. Tracy drove the underpowered No. 3 Lola T95/00-Ford. In the season's second round, the Australian Indy Car Grand Prix at Surfers Paradise, he won his first race of the season, passing teammate Michael Andretti with eight laps left. Tracy took the championship lead after finishing fourth at Phoenix, before winning the Miller Genuine Draft 200 at Milwaukee by holding off Unser in the final laps. The rest of the season yielded six top tens with three second places at Road America, Mid-Ohio and Laguna Seca. Tracy's left ankle was injured in a karting accident, requiring him to deflate the clutch pedal with a specially built carbon fibre shield over his left racing boot. Tracy was sixth in the drivers' standings with 115 points.
His relationship with co-owner Haas worsened when he informed him that he would return to Penske on a four-year contract in 1996. Tracy took over for Fittipaldi, driving the new Penske PC-25 with an updated Mercedes-Benz engine. He underwent radial keratotomy to improve his vision, meaning he no longer required glasses. During practice for the Marlboro 500 at Michigan, Tracy broke the sixth vertebra, sustained a soft tissue injury and bruised his knees in a major accident. He was replaced by Jan Magnussen for the round at Mid-Ohio. Tracy finished the season with three pole positions in fourteen races marred by accidents and a noncompetitive car that forced him to push its tyres beyond their capability, six top-ten finishes, including a third-place finish at Milwaukee, and on-track rivalries with Robby Gordon and Michael Andretti. He finished thirteenth in the drivers' championship with 60 points, his worst finish since the 1992 season.
Tracy remained at Penske for the 1997 season, driving the Penske PC-26-Mercedes-Ilmor car, which was aerodynamically inefficient and lacked grip, especially on road courses. Penske shifted his focus on letting Tracy use his testing abilities to develop the car that he did not switch to the more competitive Reynard. He started the season second at Homestead-Miami before colliding with Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Zanardi at Surfers Paradise and finishing eighth in Long Beach following collisions with Greg Moore and Paul Jasper, respectively. Tracy qualified on pole for the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix at Nazareth and led for 186 of the 225 laps to claim his first victory in 27 races. He won the following Rio 400 to move into the lead of the points standings and the Motorola 300 at Gateway International Raceway for a third successive victory two weeks later. Tracy qualified on pole in Milwaukee, missed the race in Detroit due to a diagnosis of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, which made him dizzy and clouded his vision, and had four top-ten finishes that were followed by crashes in four of the final five rounds. He was fifth in the final points standings with 121.
Tracy's criticism of the car's performance grew louder, especially after what he viewed as an embarrassing finish at his home race in Toronto. His now public lobbying for the team to move away from the in-house chassis, Ilmor engine, and Goodyear tires were viewed by Penske as detrimental to the team's sponsors and suppliers, prompting the team to release him from his contract two years early before the 1998 season.