Darren Manning

Darren Manning
Darren Manning at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2009.
Nationality	British
Born	30 April 1975 Knaresborough, England
IRL IndyCar Series career
Debut season	2004
Current team	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
Car no.	23
Former teams	Chip Ganassi Racing, A.J. Foyt Enterprises
Starts	60
Wins	0
Poles	0
Best finish	11th in 2004
Previous series
2000–2001 2002 2002–2003 2006–2007	Formula 3000 ASCAR CART A1 Grand Prix

Darren Manning (born 30 April 1975) is an English motor racing driver who has raced in the IRL IndyCar Series for Chip Ganassi Racing and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.

Career history

Early career

Manning was born in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, and began his racing career at the age of 10, competing in British and International karting events. In 1992, he took part in the Brands Hatch Formula First Winter Series, finishing second after recording two wins. His SpeedSport team took him in 1993 to race in the Formula Vauxhall championship again recording 2 victories en route to a second-place finish in the championship. He was also a finalist for the McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year award. He continued in Formula Vauxhall in 1994 and 1995 and moved up to Formula 3 in 1996 and 1997. Budget constraints meant that he only raced a limited F3 schedule in 1998, but he did achieve two wins including at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix support race.

International career

In 1999 Darren won the All-Japan Formula Three championship, and was the first driver to achieve the "perfect victory" at the Macau Grand Prix since Ayrton Senna by winning from pole position, leading every lap and setting a lap record. He also tested with the Williams F1 team. In 2000 he began working for the BAR Honda F1 team as a test driver while also racing in the FIA International Formula 3000 championship for Arden Team Russia.

In 2002 he competed in the ASCAR (now SCSA) championship. He had a one-off drive in the FIA Sportscar championship at Magny-Cours driving a Tampolli SR2 RTA-2001 in the SR2 class for JCI Developments. He also had a one-off drive at Rockingham in the CART series for Team St George, leading 18 laps on the way to 9th place. This led to a full-time drive for Walker Racing in 2003, taking one top-3 finish and 9th overall in the championship.

He joined Chip Ganassi's IRL team for 2004, finishing 11th in the championship having achieved 8 top-ten finishes but he was released from his contract in the middle of 2005 after 24 starts, including the 2004 and 2005 Indianapolis 500.

He raced at the last round of the 2005/6 A1 Grand Prix series at Shanghai, because main driver Robbie Kerr had other commitments and Darren helped secure A1 Team Great Britain third place in the overall standings. During 2006 he also drove a Nissan 350Z in the FIA GT Championship for RJN Motorsport.

For the 2006-07 A1 Grand Prix season he moved into a permanent role in the Great Britain A1GP team, alongside Robbie Kerr and Oliver Jarvis.

On 14 November 2006, Manning was named the driver of the A.J. Foyt Enterprises No. 14 car in the IRL IndyCar series for the 2007 season, marking his return to the league after a one-year absence.^[1] Manning also drove in the 2007 24 Hours of Daytona and led his team to a second-place finish, leading the race during a long overnight stint in the rain. He finished 13th in IndyCar points in 2007, capturing 5 top-tens in what was widely considered a significant step forward for the previously struggling Foyt team. In 2008 he finished second at Watkins Glen, with six further top ten finishes en route to 14th overall.

In 2009, he was racing for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in IndyCar, but left after two races. No reason has been given by either driver or team.

In 2010 Manning drove for Spirit of Daytona Racing in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona in the number 90 Daytona Prototype.

Motorsports career results

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
2000	Arden Team Russia	IMO 12	SIL 2	CAT 7	NUR Ret	MON Ret	MAG 8	A1R 3	HOC 13	HUN 8	SPA Ret			8th	10
2001	Arden Team Russia	INT 8	IMO 2	CAT 20	A1R Ret	MON Ret	NUR 7	MAG 5	SIL 6	HOC Ret	HUN Ret	SPA Ret	MNZ Ret	11th	9

American Open-Wheel

(key)

CART

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2002	Team St. George	Lola B02/00	Ford XF V8 t	MTY	LBH	MOT	MIL	LS	POR	CHI	TOR	CLE	VAN	MDO	ROA	MTL	DEN	ROC 9	MIA	SRF	FON	MXC	21st	4
2003	Walker Racing	Reynard 02i	Ford XFE V8 t	STP 13	MTY 7	LBH 8	BRH 10	LAU 6	MIL 4	LS 18	POR 6	CLE 10	TOR 8	VAN 5	ROA 6	MDO 8	MTL 10	DEN 8	MIA 11	MXC 9	SRF 2	FON NH	9th	103

IndyCar Series

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2004	Chip Ganassi Racing	G-Force GF09B	Toyota Indy V8	HMS 6	PHX 5	MOT 4	INDY Ret	TXS 8	RIR Ret	KAN 11	NSH 4	MIL Ret	MIS 13	KTY 10	PPIR 4	NZR 6	CHI Ret	FON DNS	TX2 INJ				11th	323
2005	Chip Ganassi Racing	Panoz GF09C	Toyota Indy V8	HMS 6	PHX 8	STP 9	MOT 8	INDY Ret	TXS 17	RIR Ret	KAN 7	NSH Ret	MIL Ret	MIS	KTY	PPIR	SNM	CHI	WGL	FON			21st	186
2007	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	Dallara IR-05	Honda HI7R V8	HMS Ret	STP 12	MOT 12	KAN 11	INDY 20	MIL 11	TXS Ret	IOW 5	RIR 14	WGL 9	NSH 9	MDO 6	MIS Ret	KTY 13	SNM 12	DET 4	CHI Ret			13th	332
2008	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	Dallara IR-05	Honda HI7R V8	HMS 13	STP 13	MOT^1 8	LBH^1 DNP	KAN Ret	INDY 9	MIL 13	TXS Ret	IOW Ret	RIR 12	WGL 2	NSH 9	MDO 8	EDM 10	KTY Ret	SNM 22	DET 12	CHI 7	SRF^2	14th	323
2009	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dallara IR-05	Honda HI7R V8	STP 8	LBH 16	KAN	INDY	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	TOR	EDM	KTY	MDO	SNM	CHI	MOT	HMS			31st	38

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win)	Top 10s (Non-podium)	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
5	3	60	0	0	1	25	0	0

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2005–06	Great Britain	GBR SPR	GBR FEA	GER SPR	GER FEA	POR SPR	POR FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	UAE SPR	UAE FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	IDN SPR	IDN FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	USA SPR	USA FEA	CHN SPR 2	CHN FEA 15	3rd	97
2006–07		NED SPR 5	NED FEA 7	CZE SPR	CZE FEA	BEI SPR	BEI FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	IDN SPR	IDN 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	3rd	92

Complete American Le Mans Series results

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Rank	Points
2007	Arena Motorsports International	LMP1	Zytek 07S	Zytek 2ZG408 4.0L V8	M	SEB	STP	LNB	TEX	UTA	LIM	MID	AME	MOS	DET	PET ovr:Ret cls:Ret	MON ovr:10 cls:4	16th	25

References

1. Manning lands with Foyt www.grandprix.com

External links

• Official web site
• Indy Racing League stats page