V i n c e n z o  S o s p i r i

B i o g r a p h y

Born in 1966 at Forli, Italy, just a few miles down the road from the legendary Circuito di Imola, the young Vincenzo Sospiri began his racing career the way most young European racing drivers do: behind the wheel of a kart. Beginning in 1981, he spent the next several years winning numerous championship titles, culminating with the 100cc Kart World Championship in 1987. The next year saw him move up into Formula Fords and visiting the top level of the podium at the prestigious Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch.

The British and Italian Formula 3 series were the next logical rungs on the motorsport ladder for the aspiring racer. He ran in F3 while participating concurrently in the Formula Vauxhall Lotus Championship, where he won the title twice, in 1990 and 1992, competing with and beating the likes of David Coulthard, Gil de Ferran and Shinji Nakano.

By 1993, his racing resume now also including a very successful season with the GM-Lotus Euroseries, Vincenzo was ready for FIA F3000, the stepping stone to the top level of European racing: Formula One. International F3000 was very good for the very fast Italian, and he won the championship in 1995, attracting the attention of the powerful Benetton F1 team, where he served as the official test driver in 1996.

In 1998, Sospiri has been driving a Ferrari 333SP in the International Sports Racing Series in Europe with devastating effectiveness. Competing against many of the top drivers in the world, Vincenzo and co-driver Emanuel Collard have won 5 of the 6 events run so far this season, dominating the series and offering a glimpse of what Dan Gurney's All American Racers hopes to be a potentially brilliant racing career at the top level of the American motorsport world.

Vincenzo stepped into the cockpit of the new Eagle 987 for the final four rounds of the 1998 CART Champ Car series with the departure of long-time All American Racers driver PJ Jones. As the longest standing driver in the development of both AAR's Eagle chassis program and Toyota's Champ Car engine program, PJ will be missed. His shoes will take a large pair of feet to fill. Perhaps a pair about Vincenzo's sighs*.

* Sospiri means "sighs" in Italian.

Back to Drivers Biographies