Juan Pablo Montoya

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Juan Pablo Montoya bigraphy, stories - Colombian racing driver

Juan Pablo Montoya : biography

20 September 1975 –

Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán (born 20 September 1975) is a Colombian race car driver known internationally for participating in and winning Formula One and CART race competitions. Currently, he competes in NASCAR, driving the No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing in the Sprint Cup Series. He and wife Connie have three children; son Sebastian and daughters Paulina and Manuela.

The highlights of his career include winning the International F3000 championship in 1998, and the CART FedEx Championship Series in 1999, as well as victories in some of the most prestigious races in the world. He is the only driver to have won the premier North American open-wheel CART title, the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Daytona, all at the first attempt. Montoya is one of two drivers to have won the CART title in his rookie year, the first being Formula One World Champion Nigel Mansell in 1993. He has also equalled Graham Hill’s feat of being a Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500 race winner; Montoya is currently one of only two active drivers (along with Jacques Villeneuve) who has won two legs of the Triple Crown of Motorsport.

Montoya has also become a crossover race winner by winning races (starting in each case in his rookie year) in Formula One, CART, IndyCar, Grand-Am and NASCAR equalling in that respect Mario Andretti’s caliber of success (except for the F1 World Championship); And shares honors as well with Dan Gurney in being IndyCar/F1/NASCAR race winner. Montoya is also the only driver to have competed in all three major events at Indianapolis, finishing fourth or better in each event. He finished 1st in the Indianapolis 500, 2nd in the Brickyard 400, and 4th in the US Grand Prix.

In October 2009, Montoya was ranked 30th in a list of the top 50 Formula One drivers of all time by Times Online.

Formula One career

Over the weekend of the 2000 Indianapolis 500, Williams-BMW announced a two-year deal for Montoya to partner Ralf Schumacher starting in 2001. During the first half of his Formula One career, he consolidated his position as a fast driver and a race win challenger; Montoya became a title contender during 2003 but the hopes of fighting for the title gradually faded as his cars lacked pace and stronger, more consistent, challengers arrived on the scene.

Montoya was voted top Latin American driver at the Premios Fox Sports awards in 2003 and 2005. Formula 1 Driver Juan Pablo Montoya Named Premios Fox Sports Athlete of the Year; Esteban Loaiza, Adrian Fernandez, Carlos Valderrama among Athletes Honored at Inaugural Show Retrieved April 29, 20063rd Annual Premios Fox Sports Shines Spotlight on Latino Athletes From the United States and Latin America Retrieved April 29, 2006

Williams (2001–2004)

2001

Montoya made his Formula One debut for the BMW-powered Williams team in the 2001 Formula One season at the Australian Grand Prix. In that race, he qualified 11th and went off in the first corner and went further down the order but, with a good drive and a high rate of retirements, he went up to fifth until he retired with an engine failure.

The second round was the Malaysian Grand Prix and Montoya qualified better in sixth place but stalled on the grid and had to start from the back. He only lasted for three laps before retiring after spinning off in a rain shower.

Less than a month after his debut, in the Brazilian Grand Prix, he had his best qualifying, a fourth place finish. He got up to second on the first lap and there was a safety car due to an incident in the first corner. On the restart, which was on the third lap, Montoya shocked the F1 world by passing World Champion Michael Schumacher into the first corner. He held off Schumacher, who was on a two-stop strategy compared to Montoya’s one stop strategy until Schumacher’s first stop. Montoya now seemed to have the race in his pocket as he had a five-second advantage over eventual winner David Coulthard. However, while he was lapping Jos Verstappen, the Dutchman accidentally rammed into the back of him, taking Montoya out.