Paul Dana

Paul Dana ( born April 15, 1975 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, † March 26, 2006 in Miami, Florida) was an American race car driver. He was runner-up in 2004 the Infiniti Pro Series. 2005 and 2006, he started to his death in the IndyCar Series.

  • 3.1 Career stations
  • 3.2 Individual results in the IndyCar Series

Career

Period before the racing career

Dana attended the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and worked until the termination of his studies as a mechanic, private racing coach and driving instructor, PR & marketing representatives and as an editor and journalist in the sports shop. He worked for the AutoWeek, Sports Illustrated and Maxim.

Beginnings as a racer

1998 Dana began to pace yourself as a racer at the start. He started two years in the Barber Pro Series. In 2000 he moved to the U.S. F2000 National Championship. In 2001, he remained in this series and was a podium placing 13th in the driver standings. He also took part in a race in the American Formula 3 Championship.

Infiniti Pro Series

2003 Dana went to the Infiniti Pro Series at the start. He started the season with characteristic Hardley Racing and changed over the course of the season to Brian Stewart Racing. With a sixth place as best result he finished the championship in ninth place. 2004 Dana received a cockpit for the Infiniti Pro Series at Hemelgarn Racing. He won the race in West Allis and was second four times. By season's end he was defeated Thiago Medeiros with 379 to 513 points and was runner-up.

IndyCar Series

2005 Dana moved to the IndyCar Series where he raced in a Dallara - Toyota for Hemelgarn Racing. He was tenth in his first race. In his next two starts, he failed. In training for the Indianapolis 500 Dana was involved in several accidents. First, he survived an accident unharmed. However, his car was doing so badly damaged that he had to switch to the spare car. In this Dana had another accident in which he incurred a serious back injury. Dana turned out for the remainder of the season and was replaced by Jimmy Kite.

2006 Dana was taken as a substitute for Rahal Letterman Racing Vitor Meira of contract. His team used a Panoz - Honda. In the warm-up to the season opener at Homestead Dana drove into the car of Ed Carpenter, who spun into the wall and then slid back to the inside lane at high speed. Here, Dana picked up the vehicle and crashed into the barriers. Dana was the time of contact about 176 mph (283 km / h) fast. Prior to the fatal collision Dana had driven over something ahead of the branch. Both pilots were flown after the accident to the hospital where Dana died of his injuries. Dana was 30 years old.

Carpenter was injured badly and had to miss a race. Rahal Letterman Racing decided that the other two drivers Buddy Rice and Danica Patrick from the race, which started half an hour later than planned to retire. Later in the season, Jeff Simmons Dana's cockpit received.

Personal

Dana was married to Tonya Bergeson - Dana.

Statistics

Career stations

  • 2001: U.S. F2000 National Championship ( 13th place)
  • 2001: American Formula 3 ( 6th place)
  • 2003: Infiniti Pro Series (No. 9)
  • 2004: Infiniti Pro Series (2nd place)
  • 2005: IndyCar Series ( No. 27 )
  • 2006: IndyCar Series (No. 40)

Individual results in the IndyCar Series

( Legend)

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