Mario Domínguez

Mario Domínguez

Mario Domínguez at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2008
Nationality Mexican
Born (1975-12-01) December 1, 1975
Mexico City
IRL IndyCar Series career
Debut season 2008
Current team Pacific Coast Motorsports
Car no. 96
Starts 7
Wins 0
Poles 0
Mario Domínguez
CART/CCWS Championship Car
Years active 2002-2007
Teams Herdez Competition
Forsythe Championship Racing
Dale Coyne Racing
Rocketsports Racing
PKV Racing
Minardi Team USA
Pacific Coast Motorsports
Starts 86
Wins 2
Poles 1
Best finish 5th in 2004
Previous series
1999-2001
1993, 1998
1996-1997
1994-1995

1992
Indy Lights
Mexican Formula Three Championship
Mexican Formula 3000 Championship
Mexican Formula Three Nissan Championship
U.S. Formula Russell Mazda Championship
Championship titles
1998
1992
Mexican Formula Three Championship
U.S. Formula Russell Mazda Championship
Awards
2002 CART Champ Car Rookie of the Year

Mario Domínguez (born December 1, 1975, in Mexico City) is a Mexican racing driver. He has competed in the CART and CCWS Champ Car series and later the IndyCar Series.

Early career

Domínguez first began racing in 1987 driving go-karts. He won three go-karting championships and represented Mexico in the World Karting Championships on three different occasions in Spain (1989), Italy (1990) and France (1991). He then raced in numerous developmental series in Mexico, eventually winning the Mexican Formula Three Championship in 1998 and moving to the American Indy Lights series full-time in 1999, finishing 8th in the championship in 2000 and 4th in the series' final year, 2001. He was slated to make his Champ Car debut in the first race of the 2001 season in his home county's race in Monterrey for the new Millennium Motorsports team, but the car never appeared.

Champ Car

Domínguez made his Champ Car debut the following year in 2002 and became Rookie of the Year, with his first Champ Car victory in 2002 at the Honda Indy 300, although this was in a rain-shortened race largely dictated by the safety car. He was more competitive in 2003, winning the Grand Prix Americas in Miami. In 2004 Domínguez had his best season to date by finishing 5th in the final standings. This success with Herdez Competition allowed him to sign with the Forsythe team for 2005. However, Domínguez saw limited success at Forsythe. After the first four races of the 2006 season where he crashed into his teammate Paul Tracy on the first lap twice, Domínguez and Forsythe parted ways. Before the next Champ Car race in Portland, Domínguez signed on to Dale Coyne Racing to drive the Sonny's BBQ Ford Lola-Cosworth. For the final 3 races of the season, Domínguez secured sponsorship from Mexican state-owned petroleum company Pemex to race for the slightly more competitive Rocketsports team. Along with Champ Car racing, Mario tested a Jordan Grand Prix Formula One racing car at the Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire, England, in 2005.

In 2007 he signed with Forsythe for the first three races of the season after obtaining sponsorship from Telmex, but was dropped after just a few rounds in favour of Oriol Servià. He remained out of a Champ Car ride until he replaced an injured Tristan Gommendy at PKV Racing at the Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton. The following week at the San Jose Grand Prix, he signed on with Pacific Coast Motorsports to fill in for Ryan Dalziel, who was injured in a bicycling accident. Dalziel recovered enough to return to racing two weeks later at Generac Grand Prix at Road America, returning Mario to the sidelines. But at the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder, Mario was again called on as a substitute after Dan Clarke of Minardi Team USA was suspended for the weekend after causing a multi-car crash in a practice session.

Dominguez practicing for the 2008 Indy 500 - he ultimately crashed during his last qualification attempt

Hit and run incident

On November 9, 2007, Dominguez was involved in a hit and run incident when he crashed against several taxicabs and fled in Mexico City while allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol.[1] Ana Guevara, then the director of the Sports Institute of Mexico City, heavily criticized Dominguez [2] and subsequently, his title of sports ambassador for Mexico City was stripped from him along with a sponsorship of 1.5 million US dollars.

IndyCar Series

In 2008, Dominguez announced that he would enter the remainder of the 2008 IndyCar Series season with Pacific Coast Motorsports, after placing third in the final Champ Car race at Long Beach.[3] He was bumped from the field at the 2008 Indianapolis 500 and made his first true start in the series in the following race at the Milwaukee Mile. Since his 21st-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway in June, Dominguez's team skipped the next events to re-evaluate their program to be more competitive when they return. They returned on a road course only schedule and participated in the Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio, Edmonton, and Infineon races to close out the season. His best finish of the season came at Watkins Glen in 13th place. He finished 27th in points.

FIA GT

In 2009, Mario has been offered a drive for the K Plus K Motorsport without the need to bring sponsorship. This will not be his first sportscar events, since he did a couple for a Risi Competizione American Le Mans Series team in 2006, delivering good results.

Motorsports Career Results

American open–wheel racing results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Indy Lights

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Rank Points
1992 Landford Racing PHX LBH DET POR MIL NHA TOR CLE VAN MDO NAZ LS
17
NC 0
1998 Herdez Competition Team MIA LBH NAZ STL MIL DET POR CLE TOR MIS TRO VAN
14
LS
7
FON 25th 6
1999 Team Mexico Quaker Herdez MIA
1
LBH
6
NAZ
17
MIL
16
POR
15
CLE
9
TOR
20
MIS
4
DET
17
CHI
5
LS
16
FON
5
11th 66
2000 Team Mexico Quaker Herdez LBH
10
MIL
3
DET
5
POR
6
MIS
7
CHI
11
MDO
11
VAN
5
LS
10
STL
6
HOU
12
FON
16
8th 67
2001 PacWest Lights MTY
4
LBH
4
TXS
6
MIL
2
POR
11
KAN
10
TOR
2
MDO
6
STL
2
ATL
4
LS
10
FON
5
4th 120

CART/Champ Car

Year Team Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Rank Points
2002 Herdez Competition Lola B02/00 Ford XF MTY
17
LBH
14
MOT
11
MIL
17
LS
15
POR
10
CHI
11
TOR
18
CLE
17
VAN
10
MDO
16
ROA
8
MTL
17
DEN
14
ROC
13
MIA
11
SRF
1
FON
16
MXC
18
18th 37
2003 Herdez Competition Lola B02/00 Ford XFE STP
14
MTY
13
LBH
5
BRH
3
LAU
2
MIL
8
LS
10
POR
10
CLE
5
TOR
12
VAN
10
ROA
14
MDO
16
MTL
5
DEN
7
MIA
1
MXC
3
SRF
10
6th 118
2004 Herdez Competition Lola B02/00 Ford XFE LBH
5
MTY
3
MIL
8
POR
17
CLE
8
TOR
17
VAN
6
ROA
5
DEN
4
MTL
3
LS
11
LVS
7
SRF
3
MXC
8
5th 244^
2005 Forsythe Racing Lola B02/00 Ford XFE LBH
5
MTY
13
MIL
7
POR
4
CLE
17
TOR
13
EDM
5
SJO
5
DEN
2
MTL
10
LVS
4
SRF
18
MXC
12
9th 198
2006 Forsythe Racing Lola B02/00 Ford XFE LBH
4
HOU
3
MTY
6
MIL
14
9th 202
Dale Coyne Racing POR
14
CLE
6
TOR
11
EDM
8
SJO
5
DEN
13
MTL
10
Rocketsports Racing ROA
12
SRF
2
MXC
17
2007 Forsythe Racing Panoz DP01 Cosworth XFE LVS
9
LBH
17
HOU
6
POR CLE MTT TOR 18th 78
PKV Racing EDM
17
Pacific Coast Motorsports SJO
12
ROA SRF
12
MXC
8
Minardi Team USA ZOL
17
ASN

IndyCar Series

Year Team Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Rank Points
2008 Pacific Coast Motorsports Panoz DP01 Cosworth XFE HMS STP MOT1
DNP
LBH1
3
KAN 27th 112
Dallara Honda INDY
DNQ
MIL
26
TXS
21
IOW
WD
RIR WGL
13
NSH MDO
19
EDM
24
KTY SNM
16
DET CHI SRF2
1 Run on same day.
2 Non-points-paying, exhibition race.
Years Teams Races Poles Wins Podiums
(Non-win)
Top 10s
(Non-podium)
Indianapolis 500
Wins
Championships
1 1 7 0 0 1 0 0 0

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mario Domínguez.
Sporting positions
Preceded by
Scott Dixon
CART Rookie of the Year
2002
Succeeded by
Sébastien Bourdais
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