Jordi Gené
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Jordi Gené Guerrero (born 5 December 1970 in Sabadell, Spain) is a racing driver who competed in the World Touring Car Championship between 2005 and 2010. His younger brother, Marc is also a racing driver and is currently a test driver for the Scuderia Ferrari Formula One team.
Early career
After winning the Spanish Karting Championship in 1986, Gené moved up to automobiles, where he became instantly competitive, winning the Fiat Uno Championship in 1987 and the Spanish Formula Ford Championship the following year.
In 1989, Gené emigrated to England, where he drove in the British Formula Ford Championship, also taking part in the Formula Ford Festival, where he took 4th place. Moving up to British Formula Three Championship, Gené spent two years in the series, taking 4th place in 1991 with West Surrey Racing, driving a Ralt-Honda. Gené also attended the Marlboro Masters in Zandvoort, where he lost the international F3 meeting to David Coulthard, and took part in the traditional season-ender races in Asia, the Macau Grand Prix and Fuji Superprix, winning the latter.
Formula 3000 and Formula One attempts
Thanks to Marlboro sponsorship, Gené found a seat in Formula 3000 in 1992, partnering Laurent Aïello for Pacific Racing. Gené won the opening round at Silverstone and finished 5th in the Championship in his Reynard-Mugen.
The following year, Gené was involved in the Bravo F1 project, an attempt by former Spanish F1 driver Adrián Campos to create a Formula One team. However, the project was aborted upon the sudden death of team owner Jean Mosnier[1] and the failure of the car to pass the mandatory crash tests, the Team did however turn up at 1993 South African Grand Prix. Gené repeated F3000, this time with TWR Jr., but failed to score a single point. However, the Walkinshaw connection led him to a test driver contract with the Benetton team in 1994, alongside his third year in F3000, now with Nordic Racing and a Lola chassis.
Touring cars
Spanish Touring Car Championship
Failing to move up to Formula One, Gené returned to his native Spain and joined the Spanish Touring Car Championship. In 1995, he became an Opel works driver and drove an Opel Vectra to second place in the championship, but a switch to Audi the following year gave him the title after five wins. Gené remained with Audi in the Super Tourenwagen Cup (STW) in 1997.
European Touring Car Championship
This led to him joining Roberto Ravaglia's BMW Team Italy-Spain in 2002, driving a BMW 320i in the European Touring Car Championship and finishing 8th overall, but although the BMW was one of the two most competitive cars in the field, Gené left the team at the end of year to join SEAT's new attack on the ETCC, starting in 2003.
After a disappointing first season (17th place overall), the Spanish driver's (and the team's) fortunes improved in 2004, where Gené finished on the podium twice, taking the Toledo to 8th place overall in the series.
World Touring Car Championship
SEAT Sport (2005–2009)
In 2005, Gené raced for SEAT in the World Touring Car Championship, initially with the SEAT Toledo, and took a win towards the end of the season with the brand new SEAT León. He finished 11th in the championship.
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Gené stayed at SEAT Sport in 2009 as part of an unchanged lineup at the team.[2] He took two podium results from the season opening Race of Brazil in an event where SEAT filled both podiums. He briefly led race two of the Race of Mexico before being passed by multiple drivers and finishing seventh.[3] Gené finished on the podium for race one of the inaugural Race of Morocco after passing team–mate Yvan Muller on the last lap, he retired from the second race with electrical problems. The start line incident in race one of the Race of the Czech Republic saw Gené along with Andy Priaulx, Robert Huff and Nicola Larini taken out of the race by Augusto Farfus who had veered to the left approaching the first corner.[4] Gené along with team–mate Muller failed to get through to the second part of qualifying for the Race of UK,[5] he then had all his times disallowed because the engine speed sensor of his car's data logging system was disconnected and he dropped to the back of the grid as a result.[6] He was involved in an incident at the first chicane in race one of the Race of Germany and he retired on the second lap. Gené dropped out of contention in race one of the Race of Italy on the opening lap. He triggered an accident when he hit Huff's Chevrolet Cruze under braking, Huff lost control and made contact with Rickard Rydell who then hit Gené and Farfus.[7] He had to sacrifice his position in race two of the Race of Japan in order to benefit championship contender Tarquini. He finished off the season at the Race of Macau with a podium in race one and was eighth in the drivers' championship.
SR–Sport (2010)
Following the withdrawal of the works SEAT outfit at the end of 2009, in January 2010 it was confirmed that he would partner Gabriele Tarquini, Tiago Monteiro and Tom Coronel in the SEAT supported SR–Sport team, run by SUNRED Engineering.[8] He was the best SEAT driver in qualifying by lining up second, he finished seventh in the first race and second in the second race. At the Race of Belgium he passed team–mate Gabriele Tarquini at the start of the first race but he was under investigation after it appeared he had been ahead of Tarquini at the rolling start. Gené went on to take the victory[9] but was later disqualified for a technical infringement, handing Tarquini the win.[10] He didn't finish either of the races at the Race of Portugal due to punctures. He was caught out by a first lap crash in race one of the Race of the Czech Republic which also forced team–mate Tom Coronel to retire while a number of other drivers continued with minor damage.[11] He was replaced at the Race of Japan by SEAT León Eurocup racer Michaël Rossi.[12] He didn't return after that and he finished the season twelfth in the drivers' standings.
Scandinavian Touring Car Championship
Gené moved to the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship in 2012, driving a Volkswagen Scirocco for Volkswagen Team Biogas.[13] His best result was a second place at Åre Östersund Airport, he finished seventh in the drivers' championship while team–mate Johan Kristoffersson won the championship.
Truck racing
Gené's career took a completely different path in 1998, when he accepted Manuel Santos Marcos' invitation to drive the Cepsa MAN in the European Truck Racing Cup. However, in spite of spending two years in truck racing, he achieved no notable results and went back to cars full-time in 2000.
Sportscars
Gené entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans, racing in the LMP675 category in a Volkswagen-powered Reynard for Noel Del Bello's ROC team, and also took part in the Spanish GT Championship in a Porsche.[14] In 2001, Gené remained with ROC and took the Reynard-VW to a class win at Le Mans, also climbing to 5th place overall. The team's Reynard-VW also took part in the European Le Mans Series, winning the 500km Most in the LMP675 class. At the end of the year, Gené returned to touring cars by taking part in the 24 Hours of Barcelona, where he drove the winning Volkswagen Golf.
Gené also co-drove the SEAT Toledo GT car in the Spanish GT, winning the title in 2003 with Gines Vivancos, but in 2004, the new SEAT Cupra GT was not so competitive.
Racing record
Complete International Formula 3000 results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Pacific Racing | Reynard 92D | Mugen Honda | SIL 1 |
PAU Ret |
CAT 3 |
PER Ret |
HOC 5 |
NÜR 8 |
SPA 2 |
ALB Ret |
NOG 8 |
MAG 10 |
5th | 21 |
| 1993 | Tom Walkinshaw Racing | Reynard 93D | Ford Cosworth | DON |
SIL |
PAU |
PER Ret |
HOC 8† |
NÜR 10 |
SPA 12 |
MAG Ret |
NOG Ret |
NC | 0 | |
| 1994 | Nordic Racing | Lola T94/50 | Ford Cosworth | SIL 9 |
PAU 9 |
CAT 4 |
PER |
HOC |
SPA |
EST |
MAG |
12th | 3 |
24 Hours of Le Mans results
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 |  Racing Organisation Course (ROC) |
Jean-Christophe Boullion Jérôme Policand |
Reynard 2KQ-LM | LMP675 | 72 | DNF | DNF |
| 2001 | ROC Auto |
 Jean-Denis Délétraz Pascal Fabre |
Reynard 2KQ-LM | LMP675 | 284 | 5th | 1st |
| 2002 | ROC Auto |
 Mark Smithson Peter Owen |
Reynard 2KQ-LM | LMP675 | 126 | DNF | DNF |
Complete European Touring Car Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | DC | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Ravaglia Motorsport | BMW 320i | MAG 1 11 |
MAG 2 8 |
SIL 1 Ret |
SIL 2 DNS |
BRN 1 16 |
BRN 2 10 |
JAR 1 9 |
JAR 2 8 |
AND 1 5 |
AND 2 9 |
OSC 1 7 |
OSC 2 4 |
SPA 1 Ret |
SPA 2 4 |
PER 1 8 |
PER 2 10 |
DON 1 13 |
DON 2 3 |
EST 1 Ret |
EST 2 14† |
8th | 12 |
| 2003 | SEAT Sport | SEAT Toledo Cupra | VAL 1 13 |
VAL 2 16† |
MAG 1 9 |
MAG 2 6 |
PER 1 Ret |
PER 2 12† |
BRN 1 9 |
BRN 2 8 |
DON 1 10 |
DON 2 12 |
SPA 1 13 |
SPA 2 11 |
AND 1 21 |
AND 2 13 |
OSC 1 10 |
OSC 2 14 |
EST 1 14 |
EST 2 14 |
MNZ 1 NC |
MNZ 2 10 |
17th | 4 |
| 2004 | SEAT Sport | SEAT Toledo Cupra | MNZ 1 9 |
MNZ 2 7 |
VAL 1 Ret |
VAL 2 11 |
MAG 1 7 |
MAG 2 Ret |
HOC 1 3 |
HOC 2 4 |
BRN 1 22† |
BRN 2 Ret |
DON 1 7 |
DON 2 Ret |
SPA 1 3 |
SPA 2 13 |
IMO 1 4 |
IMO 2 4 |
OSC 1 6 |
OSC 2 6 |
DUB 1 Ret |
DUB 2 DNS |
8th | 39 |
Complete World Touring Car Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
† — Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
Complete Scandinavian Touring Car Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Volkswagen Team Biogas | Volkswagen Scirocco | MAN 1 4 |
MAN 2 6 |
KNU 1 6 |
KNU 2 7 |
STU 1 7 |
STU 2 6 |
MAN 1 7 |
MAN 2 7 |
ÖST 1 4 |
ÖST 2 2 |
JYL 1 6 |
JYL 2 5 |
KNU 1 6 |
KNU 2 3 |
SOL 1 6 |
SOL 2 6 |
7th | 147 |
References
- ↑ "CONSTRUCTORS: SIMTEK GRAND PRIX". grandprix.com. Inside F1, Inc. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
- ↑ Beer, Matt (28 January 2009). "SEAT confirm unchanged line-up". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- ↑ Veltman, Rob (23 March 2009). "Yvan Muller denies BMW first season win". TouringCarTimes (Mediaempire Stockholm AB). Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- ↑ "ROUNDS 11 & 12 – BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC RACE REPORT". World Touring Car Championship (Kigema Sport Organisation). 21 June 2009. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- ↑ English, Steven (18 July 2009). "Menu leads all-Chevrolet front row". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- ↑ English, Steven (19 July 2009). "Four drivers get penalties for race one". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- ↑ English, Steven (20 September 2009). "Tarquini extends lead with home win". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- ↑ English, Steven (19 February 2010). "Monteiro, Gene to return with SEAT". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- ↑ English, Steven (20 June 2010). "Gene claims first Zolder victory". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- ↑ English, Steven (20 June 2010). "Gene excluded from Zolder victory". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- ↑ English, Steven (1 August 2010). "Huff turns pole into victory at Brno". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- ↑ Gent, James (22 October 2010). "Rossi replaces Gene for Okayama". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- ↑ Meissner, Johan (15 December 2011). "Jordi Gené signs for Volkswagen". TouringCarTimes (Mediaempire Stockholm AB). Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- ↑ "Jordi Gene Guerrero - All Results - Racing Sports Cars". racingsportscars.com. 2011. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
External links
Media related to Jordi Gene at Wikimedia Commons