Gunnar Jeannette

Gunnar Jeannette (born May 5, 1982 in West Palm Beach, Florida) is an American racing driver who competes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for WeatherTech Racing. He won the 2011 American Le Mans Series season LMPC Drivers' Championship and is the youngest-ever driver to finish the 24 Hours of Le Mans.[1]

Gunnar Jeannette
Jeannette in 2012
NationalityAmerican
Born (1982-05-05) May 5, 1982
West Palm Beach, FL
IMSA WeatherTech Championship career
Current teamWeatherTech Racing
Previous series
American Le Mans Series
Rolex Sports Car Series
World Endurance Championship
European LeMans Series
Championship titles
2005
2011
2013
Grand Am Cup Team Champion
ALMS LMPC Driver Champion
ELMS GTE Team Champion

Early racing career

Jeannette started racing, driving in Historic Sports Car racing at the age of 16. He made the jump to the professional ranks less than one year later.

American Le Mans Series

Jeannette made his American Le Mans Series debut in 2000, scoring six top-10 finishes in seven starts in both the Prototype and GT classes. In 2002, he made his LMP900 class debut in a Panoz before moving to the factory supported JML Team Panoz squad in 2003, where he scored his best-ever overall finish of third (2nd in class) at Mosport.

For 2004, Jeannette moved back to GT2, piloting the Panoz Esperante GTLM for what turned out to be a three-year stint with two different teams. His best result was a fourth at Mosport and Petit Le Mans with co-driver Tommy Milner in 2006.

After making a handful of starts in 2008 for Corsa Motorsports, Jeannette returned to full-time ALMS competition in 2010 in the new LMPC class. Driving for his father's Green Earth Team Gunnar outfit, Jeannette became the first LMPC pole winner in series history. He went on to win four races with Elton Julian and finish 2nd in the Drivers Championship that year.

Jeannette joined CORE autosport for 2011 and continued his streak of success in LMPC, taking two wins, three pole positions and three fastest race laps en route to the LMPC Drivers Championship. He shared the honor with season-long co-driver Ricardo Gonzalez and Genoa Racing's Eric Lux, who ended up on equal points to the CORE autosport duo.

24 Hours of Le Mans

At the age of 18, Jeannette became the youngest-ever driver to finish the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in his race debut in 2000. He's since competed an additional seven times, with a best finish of fifth overall in 2003.

Grand-Am

Jeannette made his debut in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series GTU class at the 2000 Rolex 24 at Daytona. He won his first-ever Rolex Series race one year later in the GTS class and has since made sporadic starts in the series.

In 2005, Jeannette ran his first full season in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, finishing sixth in GS Points Standings with two victories to his credit driving for Multimatic Motorsports. He returned to full-time competition in 2010 with co-driver Frankie Montecalvo, finishing 10th in the GS class championship.

For 2012, Jeannette rejoined Multimatic Motorsports for its new Street Tuner-class Ford Focus ST-R development program.

FIA World Endurance Championship

Jeannette made his FIA World Endurance Championship debut in the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on May 5, 2012, co-driving the No. 58 Luxury Racing Ferrari F458 Italia with Frankie Montecalvo and Pierre Ehret to a fifth-place finish in the GTE-Am class.[2] The trio did not finish the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans after suffering an accident during the overnight hours.

24H Series

Jeannette made his 24H Series return, at the first round of 2021 in the Dubai 24 Hour at the Dubai Autodrome for Simpson Motorsport in a Audi RS3 LMS TCR. He had previously raced in 2013 in a Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 for Ram Racing.

Personal life

Jeannette is an avid extreme sporting enthusiast. Since 2004, he's racked up more than 1,500 skydives and 200 BASE jumps from all corners of the globe. Jeannette has also participated in world record skydives and has been featured on MTV, People Magazine, USA Today and several other local and national publications.[3]

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
2000 Manthey Racing
Gunnar Racing
Michael Brockman
Mike Lauer
Porsche 911 GT3-R GT 261 27th 6th
2001 Freisinger Motorsport Romain Dumas
Philippe Haezebrouck
Porsche 911 GT3-RS GT 282 7th 2nd
2002 Panoz Motor Sports Bill Auberlen
David Donohue
Panoz LMP01 Evo-Élan LMP900 230 DNF DNF
2003 JML Team Panoz Olivier Beretta
Max Papis
Panoz LMP01 Evo-Élan LMP900 360 5th 3rd
2004 Epsilon Sport Renaud Derlot
Gavin Pickering
Courage C65-JPX LMP2 124 DNF DNF
2006 Multimatic Motorsport Team Panoz Scott Maxwell
Tommy Milner
Panoz Esperante GT-LM GT2 34 DNF DNF
2008 Team Bruichladdich Radical Marc Rostan
Ben Devlin
Radical SR9-AER LMP2 297 31st 6th
2012 Luxury Racing Pierre Ehret
Frankie Montecalvo
Ferrari 458 Italia GTC GTE
Am
146 DNF DNF

References

  1. ACO. "Interview: Gunnar Jeannette & Frankie Montecalvo". Archived from the original on 21 June 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  2. ACO. "Interview: Gunnar Jeannette & Frankie Montecalvo". Archived from the original on 21 June 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  3. "CORE autosport Driver Bio". Retrieved 17 July 2012.
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