Pablo Donoso
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| Pablo Donoso Prado | |
| Nationality |  Chile |
| Date of Birth | December 3, 1984 |
| Place of Birth | Santiago de Chile |
| 2008 Firestone Indy Lights Series | |
| Debut season | 2008 |
| Current team | Team Moore Racing |
| Car No. | 22 |
| Former teams | SWE Racing |
| Starts | 6 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Poles | 1 |
| Previous series | |
| 2006-2007 2005 2004 2003 2002 |
USAC Silver Crown Star Mazda Series World Series by Nissan World Series Light by Nissan Argentine Formula Renault |
Pablo Donoso Prado (born December 3, 1984) is a professional racing driver from Santiago de Chile. He began racing at 9 years of age. He is currently racing in the Firestone Indy Lights Series for Team Moore Racing and passed the Rookie Test for the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series on February 29, 2008 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
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[edit] Career
In 1994 he began his racing career, in karting, moved by his father, Jorge Donoso, who was also a race driver in Chile.
Since that year and until 1999, he raced karting in the Chilean and Argentinian championships with a total of 18 wins and 32 podiums, with two sub-championships and the 1996 title.
[edit] Development in Argentina
He moved to Argentina where he raced in the prestigious Fórmula Renault until 2002. He was cataloged as a remarkable driver in a very tough category for outsiders, due to his great talent and aggressive moves in the track.
In 2002 he became the 2nd Chilean driver to win a race in Argentina after Eliseo Salazar who won in 1978 Formula 4. That year, his results took him to the fight for the championship against the Argentinean Juan Cruz Alvarez up to the final round, finally with a 2nd place overall.
[edit] Europe
Donoso then moved to Europe, racing in European Formula BMW Junior with a total of 4 wins, 2 poles, and 4 podiums. Again, he matched Salazar to be the second Chilean to win a European race since the Eliseo's 1980 win in the British Formula One Series.
In 2003 he raced in the World Series Light by Nissan with the Chilean beer brand Cristal as his main sponsor and backed by his manager, former race driver, Cristián Mackenna. That year Donoso got one win at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz circuit with the Vergani Racing Team.
In 2004 he moved to the World Series by Nissan, that was the 2nd FIA category in open-wheel racing in Europe (now replaced by the GP2 Series). In this series, he was the teammate of Enrique Bernoldi, a former F1 driver. At this level, he didn't succeed and he was forced to leave his seat in the middle of the season due to budget issues.
[edit] Early career in the United States
In 2004, he finished his contract with Mackenna and began got in touch with Eliseo Salazar to redirect his career to the US. Looking for a small racing series to compete in with specified equipment and lower budgets, he joined the Star Mazda Series in 2005. He raced in the series with Andersen Walko Racing, competing against drivers like Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal, Jonathon Klein and Raphael Matos among others.
He won at Infineon Raceway from the pole position, his only victory of the season, with several podiums.
In a very criticized decision in his native Chile, he joined the USAC Silver Crown Series for the 2006 season; one of the oldest open-wheel series in the United States. He believed that this series could be a step to finally get to a world-class category like NASCAR or the IndyCar Series. That, and additional financial problems made Silver Crown an attractive option in spite of other series like the Infiniti Pro Series or the Champ Car Atlantic Series possibly being better suited to his goals.
[edit] USAC Career
With new more formula style cars, Donoso joined the initially struggling series driving for Vance Racing owned by Johnny Vance. At the first races of 2006 he was able to show his potential but suffered from mechanical problems. The criticism in Chile was raising, meanwhile, many oval specialists congratulated him for this natural ability to handle the somewhat unusual cars.
The IndyCar team Hemelgarn Racing fielded a car for him in two rounds of the 2006 USAC Silver Crown season and Donoso delivered two 2nd places at the Iowa Speedway and Kansas Speedway.
[edit] A.J. Foyt
With the goal of getting closer to the main series, in 2007, Donoso joined the team of the legendary A. J. Foyt, A. J. Foyt Enterprises. He raced the 2007 series with Tracy Hines as his teammate.
On Friday 29th, Donoso passed the IndyCar Series rookie test at Homestead Miami Speedway using Darren Manning's car under Johnny Rutherford's supervision. After that, Foyt said that Donoso would become his second driver for the 2008 season of the IndyCar Series. However, he would start the season racing in the Firestone Indy Lights Series for SWE Racing, signing with the team for four races. However, Donoso was not entered in the Indianapolis 500 with Foyt's team and instead will continue in Indy Lights with Team Moore Racing beginning with the Freedom 100. At the race after the Freedom 100, Donoso won his first series pole at the Milwaukee Mile.
[edit] Links
- Sitio Oficial Pablo Donoso(Spanish)
