Paul Tracy

Tracy finished third in the Formula Ford 1600 Championship with one victory, winning one race, and was named Rookie of the Year.

Tracy also failed to start the FAQ Challenge Labatt 50 Formula 1600 round at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Tony rode a Velocette in England and Ireland before injuring himself in an accident and emigrating to Canada with his two brothers in the 1960s.

Tracy has two older half-sisters from his father's first marriage and a younger sister.

He attended Jack Miner Public High School and continued attending while karting, graduating after passing all of his subjects.

Tracy got his first miniature motorized mini-bike when he was four, and received his first small motorized children's go-kart from his father aged five.

His father's painting company provided enough funds for his son to compete in karts and, later, cars.

He drove every weekend on tracks in Central and Eastern Canada as well as the Northern United States; Tracy had to prepare and maintain his kart because his father worked long hours.

He was inspired by four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A. J. Foyt, and learnt go-karting from driver Scott Goodyear, before he progressed from the junior class to the senior category when he was 12 years old.

Tracy won the Canadian Senior Karting Championship twice and 91 of 94 races in his first full senior season.

He entered the North American Race of Champions and finished in the top ten of the Karting World Championship twice.

Tracy stopped racing karts upon turning 15, and his father had Goodyear teach him how to drive and handle race cars, as well as car setup.

Aged 16, he progressed to car racing and his father wanted him to enter several European and North American events and race series as possible.

Paul Anthony Tracy (born December 17, 1968) is a Canadian-American professional auto racing driver who participated in Champ Car World Series, the IndyCar Series, and the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART).

Tracy was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada on December 17, 1968, and grew up in the working-class bedroom suburb east of Toronto.

He is the son of Northern Ireland-born house painter Tony Tracy, who was the president of Trabur Painting, and his English wife Vivienne Tracy.

He started kart racing at age five and quickly became successful and began car racing at sixteen, finishing third in the 1985 Formula Ford 1600 championship with one win and Rookie of the Year honors.

Tracy became the youngest Canadian Formula Ford champion in the 1985 CASC Formula 1600 Challenge Series and was the youngest Can-Am race winner the following year.

He raced in the 1985 CASC Formula 1600 Challenge Series with Colin Hines Racing in a small Van Diemen RF85-Ford formula open-wheel car.

Tracy was Formula Ford's youngest Canadian champion following a season-long battle with Scott Maxwell.

In 1986, he moved to the higher-tier Formula 2000 and raced a Rothmans-entered Van Diemen RF86 single-seater open wheel car in the Canadian Formula 2000 Championship.

Tracy was fourth overall, with one win at Sanair Super Speedway and three podium finishes for 164 points.

He raced in the American Racing Series for three years between 1988 and 1990, winning the series title with nine wins from fourteen races in 1990.

Tracy's CART career began in the 1991 season with Dale Coyne Racing.

However, following one race, he drove three races for Penske Racing.

He competed with Penske in eleven races during the 1992 season, finishing on the podium three times.

In the 1993 season, Tracy finished third in the drivers' standings after winning five races.

The following year, Tracy won three more races.

He moved to Newman/Haas Racing for the 1995 season, winning two races before returning to Penske for the 1996 championship.

Tracy won another three races in the 1997 season before being fired for criticizing the car and joined Team Green the following year.

He was third in the 1999 championship with two victories but fell to fifth in 2000 season despite three more wins.

He retired from the CASC Formula Ford 2000 Canadian Run-Off in a Van Diemen RF86 and won the CASC Formula Ford 1600 Canadian Run-Off from pole position at Circuit Mont-Tremblant.

Tracy's form declined over the next two seasons but won one race in 2002.

He joined Forsythe Racing in the 2003 championship, winning his first (and only) series title with seven victories.

In the renamed Champ Car World Series (CCWS) in 2004 and 2005, he won two races for fourth overall in both seasons.

Tracy's performance declined during a 2006 season in which he took three podium finishes.

His final Champ Car victory came in the 2007 championship.

Following the unification of the CCWS and the IndyCar Series, he raced part-time for the KV Racing Technology, Vision Racing, A. J. Foyt Enterprises, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and Dragon Racing teams over the following three years.

Tracy entered NASCAR-sanctioned stock car races in its Busch Series and the Camping World Truck Series, sports car racing through the Rolex Sports Car Series as well as the Stadium Super Trucks and the Superstar Racing Experience.

Nicknamed "The Thrill from West Hill for him driving aggressively and his "Bad Boy" image, he is outspoken and speaks his mind, which saw him put on probation and fined several times by CART. He analysed IndyCar races for the Canadian broadcaster Sportsnet in the 2013 season and then for NBCSN between the 2014 and 2021 seasons. Tracy is an inductee of the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame and the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame.