Jan Magnussen

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Jan Magnussen bigraphy, stories - Danish racing driver

Jan Magnussen : biography

July 4, 1973 –

Jan Magnussen (born 4 July 1973 in Roskilde) is a racing driver from Denmark and a GM factory driver. He has competed in several of the most prestigious events in motor sport including CART, NASCAR, the FIA Formula One World Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Family

Magnussen’s oldest son, Kevin Magnussen is also a racing driver. Having driven in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, he signed to McLaren’s Young Driver Programme and took part in the German F3 championship in 2010.http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/formula-1-news/230437/kevin-magnussen-signed-up-by-mclaren/ Kevin made a guest appearance at Valencia in the F3 EuroSeries.

Career history

Lower series racing

Magnussen dominated the 1994 British Formula Three championship with Paul Stewart Racing, winning 14 of the 18 events and breaking Ayrton Senna’s F3 record. Magnussen scored his first British F3 win that April at Donington Park, also taking pole for the race. He also won at Brands Hatch, twice at Silverstone, and at Thruxton. He won six of the first eight races. He then won again at Donington Park, and both season-ending rounds at Silverstone.

Major series racing

His F1 debut was a one-off for McLaren, but he returned to the series full-time in 1997 and part of 1998.

He has qualified for 25 Formula One grands prix, debuting on 22 October 1995 in the Pacific Grand Prix in Aida, sitting in for the unwell Mika Häkkinen. He has actually only raced in 24 GPs, because his car was damaged in an accident during the start of the 1997 Brazilian GP causing Magnussen to retire before the restart.

In 1996 Magnussen drove in the CART series and International Touring Car Championship.

For 1997-1998 he had a seat in Formula One with the Stewart-Ford team, owned in part by his old F3 boss Paul Stewart. Team founder Jackie Stewart once described him as the best prospect since Ayrton Senna, so his failure to succeed was embarrassing for the team. He scored a total of one championship point (in his last race in F1, the 1998 Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal). He was replaced by Jos Verstappen for the rest of the 1998 season.

In 1999 he participated in 7 CART races. In 1999 and 2000 he raced in the American Le Mans Series with Panoz. 2001 he drove a Peugeot in Danish Touring Car series (DTC) and raced in 8 ALMS races. 2002 he also raced for Peugeot in DTC and in 10 ALMS races.

Magnussen has participated in various classes in the 24 hours of Le Mans every year since 1999. His best results so far are the victories in the GTS class in 2004 and GT1 class in 2005, 2006, and 2009, each time in a Chevrolet Corvette with Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta as team mates in 2005 and 2006, and Johnny O’Connell and Antonio García in 2009.

Also, Magnussen has participated in the 12 Hours of Sebring every year since 1999, winning the GT1 class in 2006, 2008, and 2009.

In 2005, Magnussen drove a Toyota Corolla in the Danish Touring Car Championship.

Present day

Magnussen is still an active driver, now in the Danish Touring Car Championship (DTC) and in a Chevrolet Corvette C6.R in the American Le Mans Series with Oliver Gavin as team mate – and of course in the 24 hours of Le Mans. In the Danish Touring Car series he drives a Chevrolet Lacetti for Perfection Racing. He has won the DTC on two occasions in 2003 and 2008.

On June 11, 2010, it was announced that Magnussen would make his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut driving the #09 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet for Phoenix Racing at Infineon Raceway. After starting 32nd on the grid, he finished in 12th position.

On June 14, 2010 it became public that Jan Magnussen and Perfection Racing would not be participating in the DTC leaving Magnussen and the team to focus on the Scandinavian Touring Car Cup’s remaining two rounds.http://racemag.dk/2010/06/14/team-bauhaus-fokuserer-pa-skandinavien/ Magnussen drove the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro with Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis in the 2010 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series season opener, the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Following the Rolex 24, he moved to the team’s No. 97 car and competed in the majority of the races with Gunter Schaldach. Finished 24th in GT points and his best finish was second (Miller) with four top-10s.http://www.grand-am.com/drivers/driver.cfm?series=r&did=1493