Jimmy Vasser

Jimmy Vasser has been one of America's best pure auto racers for well over a decade. However, his rootes go back to childhood, when his father Jim, who restores and sells cars, put him into a quater-midget (a lighter, less powerful version of a midget racing car) at the age of 6. The two took their racing seriously, and soon Vasser began dominating the short oval tracks of the southwest and then the nation on the way to three national quater midgets by the age of 13. However, in high school, he took off from racing. In 1983, Jimmy Vasser returned to racing, this time in Formula Ford cars around road courses in the US and Canada. During the 80's Vasser raced in numerous open-wheel series, winning races and championships. In 1991, he finished as the runner-up in the Toyota Atlantic Series with 6 wins and 8 poles. In 1992, Vasser joined the CART series with Hayhoe Racing and made his first Indianapolis 500 start. After three years at Hayhoe, Vasser joined the Target/Chip Ganassi racing team for the 1995 season in which he finished a career-best (to that date) 8th in the final standings and was voted "Most Improved Driver" by his peers. That would not predict Vasser's 1996 season where Vasser won the CART championship on the strength of 4 wins and 4 poles. In 1997, he finished 3rd with a win and finish 2nd in 1998 with three wins and two poles. fter two more years at Target/Ganassi with mixed results, Vasser moved to Patrick Racing where he was often quick but was unlucky and went winless. For 2002, Vasser joins the strong Team Rahal for the CART championship and the Indy 500. Vasser today is still one of America's best racers, with his huge experience in both oval and road racing, as well as his background in different types of racing cars, dabbling in sports cars and the IROC all-star stock cars series in addition to his regular Indy/Champ car duties.