December 17, 1968
Paul Tracy
Born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
He is nicknamed "PT" and also goes by the nickname "The Thrill from West Hill". Fascinated by cars since boyhood, Paul raced go-karts at Goodwood Kartways near his hometown until he was 16. At age 16, in 1985, he became the youngest ever Canadian Formula Ford Champion. He was also the winner of the final Can-Am race in series history at the age of 17, achieving the record of the youngest winner in Can-Am history.
Tracy worked his way up through the North American open-wheel feeder series' culminating with winning the 1990 American Racing Indy Lights Series Championship, and in the process set a record for single season wins with nine.
Tracy went on to an extented career in the CART/Champ Car World Series from 1991 to 2007 winning the title in 2003. He has also raced in in the IRL sanctioned IndyCar Series, Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, NASCAR Busch Series and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Tracy also dabbled as a professional downhill mountain bike racer. He raced for Yeti Bicycles and made appearances in the pro class at famous bike races such as the legendary Kamikaze at Mammouth mountain. During this time Penske developed a special upside down suspension fork for Yeti Cycles and Paul. Kaiser Aerospace in partnership with Yeti Cycles built one of the first thermoplastic carbon fiber bicycles for Paul at a cost of 1/2 million dollars to produce.
In July of 2013, Autosport magazine named Tracy one of the 50 greatest drivers to have never raced in Formula One. Tracy impressed when testing for Benneton at Estoril in 1994, as he set a faster time than both Benneton drivers JJ Lehto and Jos Verstappen had managed for that year's Portuguese Grand Prix, and was only 0.7 sec off of Gerhard Berger's pole time for the same race. Afterwards, Tracy was offered a restrictive contract with few guarantees, ultimately deciding to stay in America.
Tracy resides in Scottsdale, Arizona. He has a business interest in Arma Energy SNX. Paul also owns Black Label Baggers, a custom motorcycle parts company.
Paul was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2014.
Since 2014, he has been a color commentator on NBC's IndyCar coverage.
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