Jimmy Vasser is known in racing circles as a championship winning driver (IndyCar 1996), and as a teammate to some of the most well-known racing drivers in the world, including Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya. After retiring from his extremely successful career as a driver, Vasser became a team owner (with Kevin Kalkhoven) and won the 2013 Indy 500 with Tony Kanaan as their driver. Now with co-owner James Sullivan, he runs the Lexus factory racing program in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in both the GTD Pro and GTD categories. We caught up with him during the weekend of the 2022 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach where he gave us some interesting tales about Alex Zanardi. He also talks about transitioning from driver to team owner, and specifically, his factory Lexus team. Enjoy!
NOTE: At Long Beach, both of Vasser’s team cars finished on the podium (#14 in 2nd, #12 in 3rd). Overall, his team won three GT races in 2022, including the first win for Lexus in the GTD Pro category at Road America. Combined with nine podiums and four pole positions throughout the year, the team won the season finale (Petit LeMans at Road Atlanta with third driver Kyle Kirkwood) to give Lexus its first endurance win in the GTD Pro class.
By Larry Mason
Copyright © 2022 Larry Mason
