Driving career

Vasser made his CART debut in 1992 and qualified for the Indianapolis 500, setting a record for the fastest qualifying run by a first-year driver. Although he did become a top driver, his rise to prominence coincided with the CART-IRL split, so Vasser's best years were spent away from the Indianapolis 500. He has raced in the event on a one-off basis a few times since, finishing as high as fourth in the 2001 race.

Vasser won four races in 1996 and did enough to maintain a lead in the standings for most of the season, clinching the championship at the season's final race. Teammate Alex Zanardi outperformed him over the next two years, winning the points championship both years. Vasser teamed with Juan Pablo Montoya in 1999, finishing ninth in the points standings. In 2000, his last year with Chip Ganassi Racing, Vasser won the Houston Grand Prix for his first victory since 1998.

For 2001, Vasser moved to the Pat Patrick team to drive the #40 Reynard Toyota. Despite having limited sponsorship for the car at first, Vasser started the season strong with four straight finishes of 4th to 6th place. Continuing the strong start to 2001, Jimmy was reunited with Target Chip Ganassi Racing driving for them in the Indianapolis 500. Jimmy ran well and finish 4th place as ChampCar drivers swept the top five spots at the 500. However, once returning to the ChampCar circuit, back to back crashes in race #5 at Milwaukee and race #6 at Detroit seemed to derail the season as Jimmy finished the final sixteen races of the season with only four more finishes of 5th to 7th.

After a disappointing year without even a podium, Vasser was able to secure the seat of the #8 Shell Lola Ford with Rahal Letterman Racing for 2002 which had finished 2nd in ChampCar points the previous season. In the Shell car, Vasser showed some muscle at Long Beach scoring the pole, leading laps late, and finishing 2nd behind Michael Andretti. Vasser and Rahal Letterman also crossed over into the IRL where they ran the IRL race in Fontana to prepare for Indianapolis and then the Indianapolis 500. Success was limited as Vasser scored only a 9th at Fontana and a gearbox failure cut short his Indy 500 race. Vasser's 2002 season in the Shell car was much improved over the previous year with Patrick Racing. Vasser really finished the year strong with scoring points in each of the final nine races including a podium at Miami and a dominating win at Fontana after a late-race pass of Michael Andretti. Vasser's Fontana win was to be the final win of his ChampCar career.

Without sponsorship at Rahal for 2003, Vasser had to look for opportunities with other teams and without many seats available for the 38-year-old he ended up with Stefan Johansson's startup American Spirit team. The team was not fully funded and they ran the Reynard chassis which were not up to the pace of the current Lola chassis cars. Additionally, Reynard had gone bankrupt so further development of the chassis had to be taken on by the teams so the performance gap to the Lolas continue to widen during the season. Except for a couple of fourth-place finishes, leading 15 laps at Cleveland, and podium at Surfer's Paradise in a wet/dry race the season was not very successful as rookie teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay was outpacing Vasser. Vasser reunited with Rahal Letterman for his final run at an Indianapolis 500 win but was again sidelined with gearbox failure during the race.

In 2004 he became co-owner of PKV Racing (later renamed to KV Racing Technology) along with Dan Pettit and Kevin Kalkhoven and was a driver for the team. In 2004, he broke the modern CART-Champ Car record for the most consecutive starts. Vasser retired from open wheel racing in 2006, but remains active in his ownership role. He temporarily came out of retirement to drive in the final Champ Car World Series event at the 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

In 2006, Vasser competed in three Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series races, including the 24 Hours of Daytona, driving for GAINSCO/Blackhawk Racing. In 2007, he again drove for the renamed GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing at the 24 Hours of Daytona, and on Sept. 4, 2007, it was announced that he would return to the team for the season-ending Sunchaser 1000 km. Vasser drove again for Stallings' team beginning at Laguna Seca in May 2008, pairing with fellow Champ Car champion Cristiano da Matta.

In 2013, Vasser joined the Stadium Super Trucks, making his debut at Honda Indy Toronto.

Early career

• Won the 1986 Formula Ford National Championship, SCCA.
• Competed in the 1988 Corvette Challenge.
• Competed in the 1989 and 1990 Pro F-2000 Canadian Championship. Vasser and his teammate Ken Murillo were sponsored by LucasFilm.
• Competed in Atlantic Championship in 1990 and 1991 for Della Penna Motorsports.
• Won the Formula Atlantic East/West Challenge in 1990.
• Finished Runner-up (by 4 points Jovy Marcelo) in the 1991 season, six wins and seven pole positions.

Motorsports Career Results

American open-wheel racing results

(key)

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

Year	Track	Car	Engine	Class	Finish	Start	Status
1985	Road Atlanta	Swift DB1	Ford	Formula Ford	25	5	Running
1986	Road Atlanta	Swift DB1	Ford	Formula Ford	1	2	Running

Indy Lights

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Rank	Points
1988	R & K Racing	PHX	MIL	POR	CLE	TOR	MWL	POC	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG	MIA	26th	3
1989	Barclay Racing	PHX	LBH	MIL	DET	POR	MWL	TOR	POC	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG	24th	5

CART/Champ Car

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	Rank	Points
1992	Hayhoe/Cole Racing	SRF	PHX	LBH	IND	DET	POR	MIL	NHA	TOR	MIC	CLE	ROA	VAN	MDO	NAZ	LS						22nd	8
1993	Hayhoe/Cole Racing	SRF	PHX	LBH	IND	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIC	NHA	ROA	VAN	MDO	NAZ	LS						16th	30
1994	Hayhoe/Cole Racing	SRF	PHX	LBH	IND	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIC	MDO	NHA	VAN	ROA	NAZ	LS						15th	42
1995	Chip Ganassi Racing	MIA	SRF	PHX	LBH	NAZ	IND	MIL	DET	POR	ROA	TOR	CLE	MIC	MDO	NHA	VAN	LS					8th	92
1996	Chip Ganassi Racing	MIA	RIO	SRF	LBH	NAZ	500	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIC	MDO	ROA	VAN	LS						1st	154
1997	Chip Ganassi Racing	MIA	SRF	LBH	NAZ	RIO	GAT	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIC	MDO	ROA	VAN	LS	FON					3rd	144
1998	Chip Ganassi Racing	MIA	MOT	LBH	NAZ	RIO	GAT	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIC	MDO	ROA	VAN	LS	HOU	SRF	FON			2nd	169
1999	Chip Ganassi Racing	MIA	MOT	LBH	NAZ	RIO	GAT	MIL	POR	CLE	ROA	TOR	MIC	DET	MDO	CHI	VAN	LS	HOU	SRF	FON		9th	104
2000	Chip Ganassi Racing	MIA	LBH	RIO	MOT	NAZ	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIC	CHI	MDO	ROA	VAN	LS	GAT	HOU	SRF	FON		6th	131
2001	Patrick Racing	MTY	LBH	FTW	NAZ	MOT	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIC	CHI	MDO	ROA	VAN	LAU	ROC	HOU	LS	SRF	FON	12th	77
2002	Team Rahal	MTY	LBH	MOT	MIL	LS	POR	CHI	TOR	CLE	VAN	MDO	ROA	MTL	DEN	'ROC	MIA	SRF	FON	MXC			7th	114
2003	American Spirit Team Johannson	STP	MTY	LBH	BRH	LAU	MIL	LS	POR	CLE	TOR	VAN	ROA	MDO	MTL	DEN	MIA	MXC	SRF	FON			11th	72
2004	PKV Racing	LBH	MTY	MIL	POR	CLE	TOR	VAN	ROA	DEN	MTL	LS	LVG	SRF	MXC								8th	201^
2005	PKV Racing	LBH	MTY	MIL	POR	CLE	TOR	EDM	SJO	DEN	MTL	LVG	SRF	MXC									6th	217
2006	PKV Racing	LBH	HOU	MTY	MIL	POR	CLE	TOR	EDM	SJO	DEN	MTL	ROA	SRF	MXC								24th	7

• ^ New points system implemented in 2004

IndyCar

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2000	Chip Ganassi Racing	WDW	PHX	LVS	INDY	TXS	PPIR	ATL	KTY	TX2											32nd	26
2001	Chip Ganassi Racing	PHX	HMS	ATL	INDY	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	KTY	STL	CHI	TX2							36th	32
2002	Team Rahal	HMS	PHX	FON	NZR	INDY	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	KTY	STL	CHI	TX2					40th	23
2003	Team Rahal	HMS	PHX	MOT	INDY	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	STL	KTY	NZR	CHI	FON	TX2				36th	4
2008	KV Racing Technology	HMS	STP	MOT1	LBH1	KAN	INDY	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	EDM	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI	SRF2	NC	-

1 Run on same day.

2 Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

Indianapolis 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Reason out	Team
1992	Lola	Chevrolet	28th	21st	Crash	Hayhoe
1993	Lola	Ford-Cosworth	19th	13th	Running	Hayhoe
1994	Reynard	Ford-Cosworth	16th	4th	Running	Hayhoe
1995	Reynard	Ford-Cosworth	9th	22nd	Crash	Ganassi
2000	G-Force	Oldsmobile	7th	7th	Running	Ganassi
2001	G-Force	Oldsmobile	12th	4th	Running	Ganassi
2002	Dallara	Chevrolet	19th	30th	Gearbox	Rahal
2003	Dallara	Honda	27th	26th	Gearbox	Rahal

Notes

Winner of fastest Champ Car race: Fontana 2002, Average Speed: 197.995 mph (318.642 km/h)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]