Michel Jourdain, Jr.

Michel Jourdain, Jr. in the pits at the March 5, 2006 NASCAR Nationwide Series race in Mexico City, courtesy Flickr.

Michel Jourdain Jr. (born September 2, 1976, Mexico City, Mexico) is an IndyCar driver. Jourdain Jr. started racing cars in the Mexican Formula Junior series at the age of 12. He then moved to the Mexican Formula K and Formula 2 series.

Champ Car

In 1996, Jourdain ran several races in the Indy Racing League (IRL) and the CART (now Champ Car) series, including the Indy 500. At the age of 19, he became one of the youngest drivers to race in both Champ Car and the Indy 500. Jourdain raced full time in Champ Car from 1997-2004. In his early years, he was largely considered a back marker; however, after joining the Rahal team in 2002, he became a championship contender. Jourdain ended his Champ Car career in 2004 with 1 pole, 2 wins, and 9 podium (top three) finishes.

During the 2003 Baja 1000 Jourdain and his father raced a SCORE Baja Challenge class vehicle finishing 6th in their class with a time of 31:01.31^[1]

NASCAR

Jourdain was supported by Mexican sponsors throughout his years in Champ Car. After losing his sponsorship following the 2004 season, Jourdain looked to the NASCAR Busch Series. At the time, NASCAR was trying to expand its fan base among Mexicans and Hispanic Americans.

Jourdain made 18 starts driving the number 10 ppc Racing Ford in 2005. He was able to notch one top ten finish, however in July ppc Racing announced that the team could not continue with a full season due to insufficient sponsorship. He ran two races later in the season for Keith Barnwell. Michel drove in his home race in Mexico City at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez as well as two more races in the #15 in 2006 for Jill Burgdoff as well as 7 Craftsman Truck Series races in the Roush Racing #50 truck.

WTCC

In 2007 Jourdain competed in the FIA World Touring Car Championship for SEAT Sport. A troubled season saw him finish the year down in 18th place on points. Later in the year he was signed to drive in the A1GP series for A1 Team Mexico, returning to open-wheel racing for the first time since his Champ Car days.

In 2010, he returned to NASCAR for the Nationwide Series race at Road America when he practiced the #98 for Paul Menard since he was away racing at Infineon. Jourdain also competed in the P-WRC class of the 2010 Rally Mexico where he finished 7th in class.

In October 2010 Michel and his co-driver Miguel Ángel Diez got the second overall in La Carrera Panamericana in a Studebaker 1953, just 13 seconds behind from Harri Rovanperä.

Motorsports Career Results

American open–wheel racing results

(key)

Indy Racing League

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Rank	Points
1996	Team Scandia	WDW	PHX 20	INDY 13								20th	74
1996-1997	Team Scandia	NHM	LVS 2	WDW	PHX	INDY	TXS	PPIR	CLT	NH2	LV2	36th	33

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
1996	Dick Simon Racing	MIA	RIO	SRF	LBH Ret	NZR	500	MIL 23	DET DNQ	POR Ret	CLE	TOR	MIC	MDO	ROA	VAN Ret	LS Ret						37th	0
1997	Payton/Coyne Racing	MIA 18	SRF Ret	LBH 17	NZR Ret	RIO Ret	STL 16	MIL Ret	DET Ret	POR 12	CLE 18	TOR 13	MIC Ret	MDO 18	ROA Ret	VAN Ret	LS Ret	FON Ret					29th	1
1998	Payton/Coyne Racing	MIA Ret	MOT Ret	LBH Ret	NZR 12	RIO Ret	STL 17	MIL 15	DET 13	POR Ret	CLE Ret	TOR 18	MIC 18	MDO Ret	ROA 14	VAN 10	LS Ret	HOU Ret	SRF Ret	FON 12			24th	5
1999	Payton/Coyne Racing	MIA 18	MOT 18	LBH Ret	NZR 16	RIO 16	STL Ret	MIL 16	POR 20	CLE Ret	ROA 7	TOR Ret	MIC Ret	DET Ret	MDO Ret	CHI Ret	VAN Ret	LS Ret	HOU 18	SRF 12	FON Ret		25th	7
2000	Bettenhausen Racing	MIA 14	LBH 11	RIO Ret	MOT 12	NZR Ret	MIL 18	DET 8	POR Ret	CLE Ret	TOR Ret	MIC Ret	CHI Ret	MDO Ret	ROA Ret	VAN Ret	LS Ret	STL 16	HOU Ret	SRF 7	FON Ret		22nd	18
2001	Bettenhausen Racing	MTY 17	LBH 13	TXS NH	NZR 13	MOT 11	MIL 13	DET Ret	POR 15	CLE Ret	TOR Ret	MIC 3	CHI Ret	MDO 17	ROA 17	VAN 6	LAU 17	ROC 19	HOU Ret	LS Ret	SRF 7	FON 16	20th	30
2002	Team Rahal	MTY 4	LBH 4	MOT 5	MIL 5	LS 9	POR 6	CHI 10	TOR 12	CLE 9	VAN 4	MDO 11	ROA 9	MTL 6	DEN 9	ROC 11	MIA 6	SRF 10	FON 13	MXC 13			10th	105
2003	Team Rahal	STP 2	MTY 2	LBH 15*	BRH 6	LAU 3	MIL 1*	LS 4	POR 12	CLE 7	TOR 2	VAN 4	ROA 16	MDO 4	MTL 1	DEN 6	MIA 7	MXC 4	SRF 4	FON NH			3rd	195
2004	RuSPORT	LBH 11	MTY 11	MIL 3	POR 14	CLE 15	TOR 15	VAN 2	ROA 9	DEN 14	MTL 6	LS 4	LSV 11	SRF 17	MXC 9								12th	185^

• ^ New points system implemented in 2004

Complete WTCC results

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

Year	Team	Car	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Position	Points
2007	SEAT Sport	SEAT León	CUR		ZAN		VAL		PAU		BRN		POR		AND		OSC		BRA		MON		MAC		18th	3
			12	15	15	16	6	9	12	Ret	11	13	12	9	Ret	12	12	9	19	13	14	13

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(key)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2007–08	A1 Team Mexico	NED SPR	NED FEA	CZE SPR 13	CZE FEA 22	MYS SPR 20	MYS FEA 11	ZHU SPR	ZHU FEA	NZL SPR	NZL FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	SHA SPR	SHA FEA	GBR SPR	GBR SPR	16th	22

WRC results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	WDC	Points
2010	Michel Jourdain	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	SWE	MEX 19	JOR	TUR										NC	0
	Nextel-Televisa Deportes WRT						NZL Ret	POR	BUL	FIN 60		JPN Ret
		Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X									DEU Ret		FRA 38	ESP	GBR 26
2011	Michel Jourdain	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	SWE	MEX 14	POR	JOR	ITA	ARG	GRE	FIN	DEU	AUS	FRA	ESP	GBR	NC*	0*

* Season in progress

External links

• Drivers statistics at racing-reference.info
• Driver web

References

1. ^ SCORE Baja 1000 Official Finishers desertrides.com

Persondata
Name	Jourdain, Michel Jr.
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Date of birth	September 2, 1976
Place of birth
Date of death
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