Career biography

Early career

In addition to his native English, Briscoe speaks Italian and French. He attended Trinity Grammar School in Summer Hill, Sydney, Australia.

Like many racing drivers, he started his career in karting, first racing in 1993. After winning Australian, North American and Italian championships, he moved to Formula Renault in 2000. He won the Italian Championship in 2001 (winning 5 races) and finished 4th running a limited schedule in the Eurocup (with 2 wins in 6 races). In 2002, he became test driver for the Toyota Formula One constructor. He started that year racing in the Formula 3000 series, but struggled and left his ride after 7 races. He finished the year in the German Formula 3 series, taking 3 podiums in the last 6 rounds. He won the Formula Three Euroseries in 2003 (winning 8 races in the process). He became the Toyota F1 team's 'third' driver (i.e., drove the team's test car on Fridays at Grands Prix) for the last third of the 2004 season, after previous third driver Ricardo Zonta was called up to replace Cristiano da Matta.

2005

There were rumors that Briscoe was set to race for the Jordan Grand Prix F1 team in 2005, due to the team's acquisition of Toyota power. Instead, Briscoe raced for Target Chip Ganassi Racing in the Indy Racing League, including a 10th-place finish in the Indianapolis 500. He also made his Rolex Grand-Am début with Ganassi at the 24 Hours of Daytona. He took pole position at Sears Point, but struggled on the ovals and was involved in several crashes.

On 11 September 2005 he was involved in a violent crash at Chicagoland Speedway, breaking both clavicles among other injuries. His car climbed on top of the Red Bull entry driven by Alex Barron and went airborne into the catch fencing above the retaining wall and snapping in two. He was released from the hospital on 19 September and following some initial treatment in the USA, moved to the specialist Formula Medicine facility in Viareggio, Italy, for the bulk of his rehabilitation. It took 8 weeks for Briscoe to recover from the injuries he sustained in the crash. His official web site announced his return to the USA on 14 November 2005.

2006

Briscoe was dropped by Ganassi for 2006, replaced by 2005 IRL champion Dan Wheldon. During the winter, he tested with fellow Australian and Champ Car owner Kevin Kalkhoven's PKV Racing team. Briscoe also tested for the Mi Jack Conquest team. Briscoe competed in the 2006 24 Hours of Daytona with 2005 Champions Wayne Taylor, Max Angelelli and Emmanuel Collard, but the team withdrew due to accident damage before Briscoe's turn to drive.

In 2006, Briscoe was announced as an endurance driver for Holden Racing Team, set to partner Jim Richards at the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000. He also drove in the A1 Grand Prix race at Laguna Seca in the USA for A1 Team Australia, scoring three points. At the Indy 500 he was a surprise late driver of the #48 car for A. J. Foyt Racing - the deal was so late he was still having his seat fitting with less than half an hour of Bump Day qualifying left, and he never got out on the track to attempt a qualifying run. He returned to the IRL the following week and drove the #5 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara to a third-place finish at Watkins Glen International, a road course. He returned to the Dreyer & Reinbold team on a three race deal for the short speedways in the second half of the season, but recorded DNF's in 2 of his 3 races with the team. He then was tabbed to replace the injured Cristiano da Matta in the final two races of the Champ Car season for the RuSPORT team, including his home country's race at Surfers Paradise.

2007

Briscoe signed a deal to drive for Penske Racing's Porsche LMP2 car in the American Le Mans Series and was named to a ride in the Indy 500 in a car owned by Stephen J. Luczo and Jay Penske with equipment leased from defending '500' champion Penske Racing.

Driving the #12 Symantec Luczo Dragon Racing machine, Briscoe qualified 7th with a four lap average speed of 224.410. In the race on 28 May 2007, he completed all 166 laps before the race was called due to a driving rain. Briscoe finished 5th amongst the 33 participants earning him $302,305 and 30 driver points.

2008-2012: Team Penske

Ryan Briscoe signed to drive for Penske's IndyCar team as a race driver for the 2008 IndyCar Series season, replacing the former driver Sam Hornish, Jr., who started racing full-time in Penske's NASCAR team in 2008.

Briscoe knocked himself out of the Indianapolis 500 along with Danica Patrick when Briscoe came out of the pits and ran into Patrick tearing up her suspension and tearing the front end of Briscoe's car. Patrick and Briscoe were fined $100,000 and placed on probation at the end of the 2008 season.

Briscoe earned his first career win at Milwaukee the week after Indy, holding off Scott Dixon and avoiding a late crash involving Marco Andretti, Ed Carpenter, and Vitor Meira. Briscoe became the sixth driver in IndyCar history to score his first win while driving for Penske, following Mark Donohue (in 1971), Tom Sneva (1975), Rick Mears (1978), Paul Tracy (1993), and teammate Hélio Castroneves (2000). He followed up his first career win with a victory, shortly after the halfway point of the season, at the Honda 200 on the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Briscoe also became the first Australian to claim victory at the Surfers Paradise Indy event on 26 October 2008, after countryman and favorite, Will Power, crashed out early in the race.

In sportscars, Briscoe continued to drive for Penske Racing in the American Le Mans Series. Briscoe scored his only class victory that year at Petit Le Mans, winning with fellow Indycar driver Helio Castroneves.

2013

At the beginning of 2013, Ryan Briscoe was unable to secure an Indycar ride; instead, he was hired by Level 5 Motorsports to drive an HPD ARX-03b in the P2 class of the 2013 12 Hours of Sebring. Briscoe won the race with Scott Tucker and Marino Franchitti, his first ALMS P2 class win since 2008. Later, just before the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Level 5 announced it had signed Briscoe on as a full-season P2 driver with Tucker.

Just before the 2013 Grand Prix of Alabama, Chip Ganassi Racing announced they had signed Ryan Briscoe to return to the team for the Indy 500 as a 3rd driver.

Following the 2013 Indianapolis 500, Panther Racing announced that it had signed Briscoe to replace J. R. Hildebrand in the #4 National Guard car from Detroit onward.

2014

Following Dario Franchitti's retirement, Tony Kanaan moved from a planned fourth Ganassi Racing car, and Briscoe took over the #8 NTT Data car from Kanaan. He finished 11th in the points and failed to finish on the podium. He parted ways with Ganassi at the end of the season, as the No. 8 car needed more funding to continue.

2015

For the 2015 IndyCar Series season Briscoe had been in negotiations to race for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, but that fell through when financial arrangements could not be made for the team to field a third car. However, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports called Briscoe in as replacement driver for James Hinchcliffe at the 2015 Indianapolis 500 after Hinchcliffe suffered a severe injury after qualifying for the race. He returned to the team at Texas and joined as permanent replacement driver at Fontana. He collected four top-ten finishes in eight races.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2000	Formula Renault 2000 Italy	Prema Powerteam	1	0	0	0	0	16	17th
2001	Formula Renault 2000 Italy	Prema Powerteam	10	5	3	1	7	226	1st
	Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup		6	2	1	2	3	102	4th
	German Formula Three		2	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
	French Formula Three		1	0	0	0	1	0	NC†
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
2002	German Formula Three	Prema Powerteam	12	0	0	0	3	16	13th
	International Formula 3000		7	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	French Formula Three		2	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
	Italian Formula Three		1	0	0	?	0	0	NC†
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
2003	Formula 3 Euro Series	Prema Powerteam	20	8	4	5	10	110	1st
	British Formula 3		2	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	7th
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	1	1	N/A	3rd
2004	Formula One	Panasonic Toyota Racing	Test driver
2005	IndyCar Series	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	14	0	1	1	0	232	19th
	Rolex Sports Car Series	CompUSA Chip Ganassi	1	0	0	0	0	24	68th
2005-06	A1 Grand Prix	A1 Team Australia	4	0	0	0	1	51	13th
2006	IndyCar Series	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	4	0	0	0	1	83	21st
	Champ Car World Series	RuSPORT	2	0	0	0	0	17	21st
	Rolex Sports Car Series	SunTrust Racing	2	0	0	0	2	62	61st
	V8 Supercar	Holden Racing Team	2	0	0	0	0	120	58th
2006-07	A1 Grand Prix	A1 Team Australia	6	0	0	0	1	25	13th
2007	American Le Mans Series - LMP2	Penske Racing	12	3	1	5	9	186	3rd
	IndyCar Series	Luczo-Dragon Racing	1	0	0	0	0	30	24th
2008	IndyCar Series	Team Penske	17	2	3	4	5	447	5th
	American Le Mans Series - LMP2		4	1	1	1	1	53	10th
	Rolex Sports Car Series		1	0	0	0	1	30	46th
2009	IndyCar Series	Penske Racing	17	3	4	5	11	604	3rd
	Rolex Sports Car Series		1	0	0	0	0	25	41st
2010	IndyCar Series	Penske Racing	17	1	3	1	3	482	5th
	V8 Supercar	Holden Racing Team	3	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
2011	IndyCar Series	Penske Racing	17	0	0	0	4	364	6th
	Rolex Sports Car Series	SunTrust Racing	1	0	0	0	0	27	26th
	V8 Supercar	Holden Racing Team	2	0	0	0	0	108	72nd
2012	IndyCar Series	Penske Racing	15	1	2	1	3	370	6th
	V8 Supercar	Holden Racing Team	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
2013	American Le Mans Series - P2 Class	Level 5 Motorsports	8	6	?	?	?	125	5th
	IndyCar Series	Chip Ganassi Racing Panther Racing	7	0	0	0	0	100	26th
	V8 Supercar Endurance Cup	Holden Racing Team	4	0	0	0	1	216	7th
2014	IndyCar Series	Chip Ganassi Racing	18	0	0	1	0	461	11th
2015	IndyCar Series	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	8	0	0	0	0	205	18th
	United Sports Car Championship - GTLM	Corvette Racing	2	2	0	0	2	72	12th

† - As Briscoe was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
2002	Coca-Cola Nordic Racing	INT	IMO	CAT	A1R	MON	NÜR	SIL	MAG	HOC	HUN	SPA	MNZ	23rd	0

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2003	Prema Powerteam	Dallara F303/008	Spiess-Opel	HOC 1	HOC 2	ADR 1	ADR 2	PAU 1	PAU 2	NOR 1	NOR 2	LMS 1	LMS 2	NÜR 1	NÜR 2	A1R 1	A1R 2	ZAN 1	ZAN 2	HOC 3	HOC 4	MAG 1	MAG 2	1st	110

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	WDC	Points
2004	Panasonic Toyota Racing	Toyota TF104	AUS	MAL	BHR	SMR	ESP	MON	EUR	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	CHN	JPN	BRA	-	-

* Was entered as Third Driver, but did not run due to bad weather.

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2005-06	A1 Team Australia	GBR SPR	GBR FEA	GER SPR	GER FEA	POR SPR	POR FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	UAE SPR	UAE FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	IDN SPR	IDN FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	USA SPR	USA FEA	CHN SPR	CHN FEA	13th	51
2006-07		NED SPR	NED FEA	CZE SPR	CZE FEA	CHN SPR	CHN FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	IDN SPR	IDN FEA	NZL SPR	NZL FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	CHN SPR	CHN FEA	GBR SPR	GBR SPR	13th	24

IndyCar results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

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
2005	Chip Ganassi Racing	Panoz	Toyota	HMS	PHX	STP	MOT	INDY	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MCH	KTY	PPIR	SNM	CHI	WGL	FON			19th	232
2006	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dallara	Honda	HMS	STP	MOT	INDY	WGL	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MCH	KTY	SNM	CHI						21st	83
2007	Luczo-Dragon Racing			HMS	STP	MOT	KAN	INDY	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	MCH	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI			24th	30
2008	Team Penske			HMS	STP	MOT1	LBH1	KAN	INDY	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	EDM	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI	SRF2	5th	447
2009				STP	LBH	KAN	INDY	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	TOR	EDM	KTY	MDO	SNM	CHI	MOT	HMS			3rd	604
2010				SAO	STP	ALA	LBH	KAN	INDY	TXS	IOW	WGL	TOR	EDM	MDO	SNM	CHI	KTY	MOT	HMS			5th	482
2011				STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY	TXS	TXS	MIL	IOW	TOR	EDM	MDO	NHM	SNM	BAL	MOT	KTY	LVS3		6th	364
2012		Dallara DW12	Chevrolet	STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY	DET	TXS	MIL	IOW	TOR	EDM	MDO	SNM	BAL	FON					6th	370
2013	Chip Ganassi Racing		Honda	STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY															26th	100
	Panther Racing		Chevrolet						DET	DET	TXS	MIL	IOW	POC	TOR	TOR	MDO	SNM	BAL	HOU	HOU	FON
2014	Chip Ganassi Racing			STP	LBH	ALA	IMS	INDY	DET	DET	TXS	HOU	HOU	POC	IOW	TOR	TOR	MDO	MIL	SNM	FON		11th	461
2015	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports		Honda	STP	NLA	LBH	ALA	IMS	INDY	DET	DET	TXS	TOR	FON	MIL	IOW	MDO	POC	SNM				18th	205

1 Run on same day.

2 Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

3 The Las Vegas Indy 300 was abandoned after Dan Wheldon died from injuries sustained in a 15-car crash on lap 11.

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win)**	Top 10s (Non-podium)***	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
11	6	136	13	8	20	38	0	0

** Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.

*** Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

Indianapolis 500

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
2005	Panoz	Toyota	24	10	Chip Ganassi Racing
2007	Dallara	Honda	7	5	Luczo-Dragon Racing
2008	Dallara	Honda	3	23	Team Penske
2009	Dallara	Honda	2	15	Team Penske
2010	Dallara	Honda	4	24	Team Penske
2011	Dallara	Honda	26	27	Team Penske
2012	Dallara	Chevrolet	1	5	Team Penske
2013	Dallara	Honda	23	12	Chip Ganassi Racing
2014	Dallara	Chevrolet	30	18	Chip Ganassi Racing
2015	Dallara	Honda	33	12	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports

Champ Car results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Rank	Points
2006	RuSPORT	LBH	HOU	MTY	MIL	POR	CLE	TOR	EDM	SJO	DEN	MTL	ROA	SRF	MXC	21st	17

Touring/Sports Car Racing

(Races in bold indicate pole position)

Rolex Sports Car Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, Results are overall/class)

Rolex Sports Car Series results
Year	Team	Make	Engine	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Points	Position
2005	Ganassi Racing	Riley	Lexus	DP	DAY	HOM	CAL	LAG	CMT	WAT1	BAR	WAT2	DAY2	MDO	PHX	WAT3	VIR	MEX		24	68th
2006	SunTrust Racing	Riley	Pontiac	DP	DAY	MEX	HOM	LBH	VIR	LAG	PHX	LRP	WAT1	DAY2	BAR	WAT2	INF	MIL		62	61st
2008	Penske-Taylor Racing	Riley	Pontiac	DP	DAY	HOM	MEX	VIR	LAG	LRP	WAT	MDO	DAY2	BAR	CGV	WAT2	INF	NJ	MIL	30	46th
2009	Penske Racing	Riley	Porsche	DP	DAY	VIR	NJ	LAG	WAT	MDO	DAY2	BAR	WAT2	CGV	MIL	HOM				25	41st
2011	SunTrust Racing	Dallara	Chevrolet	DP	DAY	HOM	BAR	VIR	LRP	LAG	WAT1	MDO	DAY2	NJ	WAT2	CGV	MIL			27	26th
2012	SunTrust Racing	Corvette DP	Chevrolet	DP	DAY	BAR	HOM	NJ	DET	MDO	ROA	WAT1	INDY	WAT2	CGV	LAG	LRP			-	NC

24 Hours of Daytona results

Year	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2005	CompUSA Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates	Scott Pruett Luis Díaz	Riley Mk. XI-Lexus	DP	688	7th	7th
2006	SunTrust Racing	Wayne Taylor Emmanuel Collard Max Angelelli	Riley Mk. XI-Pontiac	DP	123	DNF	DNF
2008	Penske-Taylor Racing	Hélio Castroneves Kurt Busch	Riley Mk. XI-Pontiac	DP	689	3rd	3rd
2009	Penske Racing	Romain Dumas Timo Bernhard	Riley Mk. XX-Porsche	DP	717	6th	6th
2011	SunTrust Racing	Max Angelelli Ricky Taylor	Dallara DP01-Chevrolet	DP	720	5th	5th
2012	SunTrust Racing	Max Angelelli Ricky Taylor	Dallara Corvette DP	DP	14	DNF	DNF
2014	Corvette Racing	Jan Magnussen Antonio García	Chevrolet Corvette C7.R	GTLM	329	DNF	DNF
2015	Corvette Racing	Jan Magnussen Antonio García	Chevrolet Corvette C7.R	GTLM	725	4th	1st

V8 Supercar results

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	Final Pos	Points
2006	Holden Racing Team	Holden VZ Commodore	ADE R1	ADE R2	PUK R3	PUK R4	PUK R5	BAR R6	BAR R7	BAR R8	WIN R9	WIN R10	WIN R11	HID R12	HID R13	HID R14	QLD R15	QLD R16	QLD R17	ORA R18	ORA R19	ORA R20	SAN R21	BAT R22	SUR R23	SUR R24	SUR R25	SYM R26	SYM R27	SYM R28	BHR R29	BHR R30	BHR R31	PHI R32	PHI R33	PHI R34			58th	120
2010	Holden Racing Team	Holden VE Commodore	YMC R1	YMC R2	BHR R3	BHR R4	ADE R5	ADE R6	HAM R7	HAM R8	QLD R9	QLD R10	WIN R11	WIN R12	HDV R13	HDV R14	TOW R15	TOW R16	PHI Q	PHI R17	BAT R18	SUR R19	SUR R20	SYM R21	SYM R22	SAN R23	SAN R24	SYD R25	SYD R26										NC	0 +
2011	Holden Racing Team	Holden VE Commodore	YMC R1	YMC R2	ADE R3	ADE R4	HAM R5	HAM R6	PER R7	PER R8	PER R9	WIN R10	WIN R11	HDV R12	HDV R13	TOW R14	TOW R15	QLD R16	QLD R17	QLD R18	PHI Q	PHI R19	BAT R20	SUR R21	SUR R22	SYM R23	SYM R24	SAN R25	SAN R26	SYD R27	SYD R28								72nd	108
2012	Holden Racing Team	Holden VE Commodore	ADE R1	ADE R2	SYM R3	SYM R4	HAM R5	HAM R6	PER R7	PER R8	PER R9	PHI R10	PHI R11	HDV R12	HDV R13	TOW R14	TOW R15	QLD R16	QLD R17	SMP R18	SMP R19	SAN Q	SAN R20	BAT R21	SUR R22	SUR R23	YMC R24	YMC R25	YMC R26	WIN R27	WIN R28	SYD R29	SYD R30						NC	0 +
2013	Walkinshaw Racing	Holden VF Commodore	ADE R1	ADE R2	SYM R3	SYM R4	SYM R5	PUK R6	PUK R7	PUK R8	PUK R9	BAR R10	BAR R11	BAR R12	COTA R13	COTA R14	COTA R15	COTA R16	HID R17	HID R18	HID R19	TOW R20	TOW R21	QLD R22	QLD R23	QLD R24	WIN R25	WIN R26	WIN R27	SAN R28	BAT R29	SUR R30	SUR R31	PHI R32	PHI R33	PHI R34	SYD R35	SYD R36	35th	516

+ Not Eligible for points
* Season still in progress

American Le Mans Series results

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final Pos	Points
2007	Penske	Porsche RS Spyder - Porsche MR6 3.4L V8	SEB	STP	LGB	HOU	MMP	LMR	MDO	ROA	MOS	DET	ATL	LAG	3rd	186
2008	Penske	Porsche RS Spyder Evo - Porsche MR6 3.4L V8	SEB	STP	LGB	MMP	LMR	MDO	ROA	MOS	DET	ATL	LAG		16th	53
2013	Level 5 Motorsports	HPD ARX-03b - Honda HR28TT 2.8 L Turbo V6	SEB	LNB	MON	LIM †	MOS	AME	BAL	COTA	VIR	PET			5th	125

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2013	Level 5 Motorsports	Scott Tucker Marino Franchitti	HPD ARX-03b-Honda	LMP2	242	NC	NC
2015	Corvette Racing	Jan Magnussen Antonio García	Chevrolet Corvette C7.R	GTE-PRO	0	DNS	DNS

[ Source: Wikipedia ]