Fermín Vélez

Fermín Vélez ( born April 3, 1959 in Barcelona, † March 31, 2003 ) was a Spanish racing driver.

Career

After the first motorsport trials in karting professional racing career in 1978 by the Spaniard started late. At 29, he scored the late 1970s, one of the oldest riders in the international Formula 3 scene. Although he was active in several Formula 3 racing series, there was little tangible successes. The career faltered. Since there was no prospect of a further rise in European Monopostosport, he drove for lack of sponsors' funds at the beginning of the 1980s, mountain race, because there 's financial needs were far lower than in road racing. In 1982, he won on a Simca 1000 Rally Touring Car Appreciation of the Spanish Mountain Championship. In 1985 he was Spanish Bergmeister all classes on a Lola T292.

Only in the mid -1980s began Vélez sports car races to go in 1986 for the team of former racing driver John Fitzpatrick in the World Sportscar Championship, the same year he also made ​​his debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. There followed a year later, a contract for work at Spice Engineering.

His greatest successes came in the U.S. sports car racing. In 1995 he won on a Ferrari 333SP the drivers' standings of the IMSA World Sports Car Championship, the successor series of the IMSA GTP series. From 1990 to 1998 he was there 58 times at the start, celebrated eleven race wins and a total of 34 times was on the podium of the first three, which made him one of the top pilots of the IMSA. 1995 and 1997 he won the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1997 and second in the 24 - hour race at Daytona.

Even in single-seater he had success in the United States. Twice was with the 500 miles of Indianapolis at the start. 1995 and he fell and reached two years later on a Dallara- Oldsmobile tenth.

His last major success was the overall win in the Spanish GTB Cup 2000. End of the year he was diagnosed with cancer and had to stop his racing activities. In March 2003, he died after a long illness in his home city of Barcelona.

Le Mans results

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