Anthony Lazzaro

Anthony Lazzaro (Born August 26, 1963, Charleston, South Carolina) is a NASCAR and sports car driver. He is usually classified as a NASCAR road course ringer, however he has made other starts in the NEXTEL Cup. He also has open-wheel oval racing experience.

Lazzaro started in karting, winning numerous World Karting Association championships between 1987 and 1992.

Lazzaro came-up through the open-wheel ranks, first racing Formula Ford cars, then in the Toyota Atlantic Series. As a rookie in 1996, he won the race at the Milwaukee Mile. He won races in 1997 (Homestead-Miami Speedway) and 1998 (Road America, Laguna Seca, Houston). His rise culminated in a Toyota Atlantic championship in 1999. That year he won 4 races (Nazareth, Gateway International Raceway, Trois-Rivieres, Laguna Seca).

Lazzaro first began racing stock cars in the ARCA in 1999. At the ARCA event at the Talladega Superspeedway that year, Anthony was injured in a multi-car wreck late in the race after he made contact with Bil Baird and spun down to the grass, before his Thunderbird lifted off the ground and slammed the Turn 3 banking before being t-boned by Skip Smith. Lazzaro suffered a compression fracture of the thoracic T3 vertebra in the crash that eliminated half a dozen cars.

In 2000, Lazzaro raced ten Busch Series races for PPI Motorsports. He was planned to move up to Cup with the #96 McDonald's team. However, after a lack of results, he was released, and replaced by Andy Houston.

Besides the stint in the Busch Series, Lazzaro has raced mainly road course races, giving him the label of a road course ringer.

He also made 6 starts in the Indy Racing League in 2001 and 2002 for Sam Schmidt Motorsports with a best finish of 9th.

In addition, Lazzaro has had success in sports car racing. He won the GT3 class in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1999, co-driving a Porsche 911, and the SPII class in 2002 (finishing third overall). More recently, he was a regular in the American Le Mans series in 2003-2004, racing a Ferrari 360. He and Ralf Kelleners took a GT win in the 2004 race at Lime Rock Park. He made his debut in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2003, also racing a Ferrari.

External links

* [http://www.risicompetizione.com/go/lazzaro.html Driver page at official team website]