Vincenzo Sospiri (born 7 October 1966) is an Italian former racing driver. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in the Italian town of Forli, Vincenzo Sospiri started racing in karts, going on to have a karting career described by Michael Schumacher as ‘dominating.’ When questioned by a magazine about his racing heroes, he stated “To start with it was Vincenzo Sospiri. Then it was Ayrton Senna. Those two guys inspired me big time while I was karting.”
Starting in 1981’s Italian Junior 100cc Karting Championship, Vincenzo took two wins and over the following two years won consecutive championships.
1984 saw him win the Italian Intercontinental Karting plus the 100cc European Intercontinental Karting Championship though the following year, despite winning nine races, he was second. He returned to winning ways in 1986, becoming the 125cc Italian Champion and 100cc European champion and he also took pole in the 100cc World Karting Championship Final.
He then went on to win the 100cc World Karting Championship, taking twelve wins on his way to the title. There were seven race wins in the 125cc World Championship, though he finished the season second plus was second in the Italian 125cc Championship, with 5 wins.
Arriving in British Formula Ford, he did not disappoint, taking nine wins in the RAC British championship with John Village’s Van Diemen RF88, three in the Esso Championship, and won Brands Hatch’s Festival after a stunning drive.
In 1990 he was British Vauxhall Lotus Champion, taking four race wins with David Sears Motorsport, was runner-up to Rubens Barrichello in EFDA Formula Opel Lotus Euroseries and fourth for Team Italy (with Alberto Trezzi) in Formula Opel Lotus Nations Cup.
Then came a move up to F3000 with Middlebridge, with Damon Hill, but the Lola T91/50 Cosworth was uncompetitive and his best result was a second place at Hockenheim. A lack of sponsorship saw him step back into Italian F3 in 1992, with the Traini Corse team, and he took one win in a Dallara F392 Mugen Honda.
Returning to compete in F3000 in 1993, with a Mythos Reynard 93D-Judd, there was a second place finish at Enna-Pergusa. However, after joining Super Nova Racing for 1994 and 1995 he shone. He had a chance at the title in the first year though eventually finished fourth but then came three wins in the Reynard 95D Cosworth at Barcelona, Pau and Spa, plus second place finishes at Silverstone and Enna, and he was champion with a race in hand.
During 1994 he also tested for the Simtek F1 team at Estoril but was unable to raise enough finance for a race seat.
After a test driver role with Benetton in 1996 he joined the new Mastercard Lola F1 team to race their T97/30. However the team and car were not ready and when they arrived at Melbourne the car had never even seen a wind-tunnel, resulting in the cars being well off the pace and failing to qualify. Vincenzo hoped to return to the grid for the next in Brazil but the team had built up massive debts, and by the second race they had withdrawn. Unfortunately, Vincenzo only discovered this when he read about it in a newspaper after he arrived in Sao Paulo.
After the collapse of the Mastercard-Lola team, he turned to the Indy Racing League and, despite his lack of oval experience, he was stunning at Indianapolis. He qualified the Scandia team’s Dallara Aurora third on the outside of the front row but retired from the race after 163 laps. In his other six other IRL races, he was sixth at Pikes Peak and second at New Hampshire.
In the following season, he was a late replacement for PJ Jones with Dan Gurney’s All American Racers team and drove in the final four races of the season, finishing fifteenth at Houston and Surfers Paradise. He also drove in a Porsche Supercup race at Silverstone, finishing seventh, plus competed in two Formula Nippon races in Japan.
The Jabouille-Bouresche Racing team signed him to race their Ferrari 333SP in 1998’s International Sports Racing Series, co-driving with Emmanuel Collard. Despite retiring in the first and last of the series’ eight races they won the other six and finished as champions. Vincenzo also drove at Le Mans, with Jean-Christophe Boullion and Jerome Policand, but had to retire due to transmission problems.
Back in sports cars in 1999, he drove the JB-Giesse Ferrari 333SP in the Sports Racing World Cup, and after taking three wins and four podiums, he (and E.Collard) won the championship. He raced a Konrad Lola Lotus B98/10 in the Daytona 24hrs and then drove a works Toyota GT-1 t Le Mans (with E.Collard and M.Brundle) but despite Martin Brundle qualifying the car on pole they had to retire after 90 laps.
Vincenzo last race was in 2001 at an ALMS race at the Sebring 12hrs but the Kelly-Moss Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-RS (co-driven with Rick Polk and Cort Wagner) retired after 47 laps.
After hanging up his helmet, he collaborated with Fortec Motorsport and Italian investors to create a Fortec Italia Motorsport F3000 team and in 2002 he and David Sears set up Euronova Racing. Over the years, he would be involved in running single seaters teams in European Formula Abarth, Italian Formula Abarth and Formula 4.
In 2015, as well as competing in F4 in Italy and Japan, Vincenzo Sospiri Racing (VSR) entered two Lamborghini Super Trofeo Huracáns in the European GT Championship. They won the first race in Monza and in four Italian GT Championship races they achieved three class victories. In 2016 VSR entered the Italian GT Championship and took seven victories and won the Super GT class. There were also three class wins and seven podiums in the Lamborgini Blancpain Super Trofeo Championship and they finished second in class in the Mugello 12 hours.
In the 2016-17 Asian Le Mans Series, they raced a Lamborghini GT3 Huracán, taking a podium finish in the first race at Zhuhai then fourth in Fuji. 2017 saw the team win the Italian Super GT Championship and the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Pro-Am Championship while in Asia their Huracan took two pole positions, a Silver Cup victory and three podiums then finished second overall at Fuji.
Gallery F3/F3000
