Will Power

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Will Power bigraphy, stories - Motorsport

Will Power : biography

1 March 1981 –

William Steven Power (born 1 March 1981 in Toowoomba, Queensland) is an Australian motorsport driver, who currently competes in the IndyCar Series, driving for Team Penske.

Champ Car

In late 2005 he joined Champ Car Team Australia at the Lexmark Indy 300 event at Surfers Paradise in Australia, which also resulted in his departure from the World Series by Renault championship even though that season was still in progress and Power ultimately ended seventh in the championship. SpeedSport Magazine In the Indy 300 Power ran strongly until being knocked off the track by team mate Alex Tagliani. After the Surfers Paradise event he signed a multi year contract to race for the team, which began immediately at the next Champ Car round in Mexico City after Tagliani’s teammate Marcus Marshall was released for what was described as a "serious breach of contract".

Power drove full time for Team Australia in 2006. He performed well throughout the season with nine top ten finishes and strong qualifying results. At Mexico, the final round of the season, Power took his first podium finish in Champ Car. He won the "rookie of the year" award Champ Car World Series and finished in 6th place in the championship standings.

In his home race in 2006, at Surfers Paradise in Australia, he scored his first pole position of his career in Champ Cars, in front of his home crowd. However, contact from Paul Tracy in pit lane and then an ambitious overtaking move by Sébastien Bourdais resulted in a bent left steering arm, and he fell to the back, one lap down by the time the car was repaired, eventually finishing 12th.

On 8 April 2007, Power won his first Champ Car race at the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, held in the streets of Las Vegas. He qualified on pole position and led most laps, becoming the first Australian driver to win in the series. On 8 July, at the Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto, with rain pouring down and visibility near zero when he got behind other cars, Will Power decided it was time to get aggressive. The Australian drove from fourth to first in 14 laps, finally splashing past rookie Ryan Dalziel to take the lead with 23 minutes to go, and went on to an easy victory.

To get to the lead, Power also had to pass three-time Champ Car World Series champion Sebastien Bourdais and rookie Neel Jani. Thanks to a series of late caution flags, he was able to go after each of them in turn. "I was close behind Sebastien and I knew he was quite tentative in the wet and I attacked him," Power said. "I got him on a restart. Then the next restart, I got Neel and the next restart, I got Dalziel. It’s just about being aggressive at the right time and not hitting anyone". "I just drove so hard here because we’ve just had so much bad luck in the last few races," said Power, whose first Champ Car victory came in the 2007 opener in Las Vegas. "I didn’t care; I just went hard. The car was good in the wet. It was good in the dry, and we stuck it to them." Power had podium finishes at Long Beach, Mont-Tremblant and Mexico City and pole positions at Houston, Edmonton, Surfers Paradise and Mexico City to place fourth in the final point standings in 2007.

Motorsports career results

Overall stats

Series Seasons Races Poles Wins Podiums(Non-win) Point Finishes(Non-podium) Teams Total Points Championships Best Finish(Championship)
Formula Ford 2 28 0 4 5 9 1 304 0 2nd (2001)
Formula Holden 1 11 5 7 3 0 1 197 1 1st (2002)
Australian F3 1 12 5 6 4 2 1 204 0 2nd (2002)
V8Supercar 2 4 0 0 0 3 2 82 0 46th (2002)
British F3 2 42 0 0 6 14 3 151 0 9th (2004)
World Series by Renault 1 15 3 2 2 4 1 64 0 7th (2005)
A1GP 1 2 0 0 1 1 1 16 0 13th (2005/06)
CCWS 3 30 4 2 4 24 1 492 0 4th (2007)
IndyCar 4 58 26 16 9 36 2 1698 0 2nd (2010 & 2011 & 2012)