Memo Gidley

José Guillermo "Memo" Gidley is a Mexican-American racing driver, of German and Canadian ancestry, born in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico in 1973. He holds dual citizenship - American and Mexican.

In his early years, he sold his apartment to fund his career and spent 4 months homeless living in his car.^{[citation needed]} He worked at the Jim Russell racing school as a mechanic to fund his career for some time, eventually getting a chance in Champ Car with Derrick Walker in 1999, although this was as a short-term replacement. He did the same task for Gerry Forsythe a year later, and Chip Ganassi in 2001, twice coming close to race victories. He nearly retained his drive for 2002 - Chip later suggested that they keep Bruno Junqueira over him as the Brazilian was under contract.

He has raced assorted sports cars since, although he made two Champ Car starts for Rocketsports in 2004, and briefly ran in the rival IRL series. Since 2005 he has competed full time in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, co-driving with Michael McDowell to a victory in the Mexico City season finale. In 2006 he raced in the Team Playboy cars and in 2007 he partnered Max Angelelli in the SunTrust Racing team.^[1] In 2010 Gidley co-drove Team CytoSport's Porsche RS Spyder with Germany's Klaus Graf and Sascha Maassen to second in class (and overall) at Laguna Seca, but he reportedly hasn't given up on a return to major open wheel racing.

In the 2014 24 Hours of Daytona, Gidley suffered serious injuries when his Corvette DP slammed into the back of a Ferrari being driven by Matteo Malucelli. Maluclli's car had lost power and had rolled to a near stop on the track, when Gidley hit him at approximately 120 miles per hour (190 km/h).^[2] Gidley was taken by ambulance to Halifax Health Medical Center, where doctors diagnosed him with a broken back and leg and arm injuries.^[3]

Motorspots career results

American Open-Wheel racing results

(key)

CART/Champ Car

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	Rank	Points
1999	Walker Racing	MIA	MOT	LBH	NZR	RIO	STL	MIL	POR 19	CLE 11	ROA Ret	TOR 12	MIC										27th	4
	Payton/Coyne Racing													DET Ret	MDO Ret	CHI	VAN 12	LS 13	HOU 14	SRF Ret	FON
2000	Player's Forsythe Racing	MIA	LBH Ret	RIO 8	MOT Ret	NZR	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR												20th	20
	Della Penna Motorsports											MIC 10	CHI 10	MDO 12	ROA 6	VAN Ret	LS 19	STL Ret	HOU Ret	SRF	FON Ret
2001	Chip Ganassi Racing	MTY	LBH	TXS	NZR	MOT	MIL	DET	POR Ret	CLE 2*	TOR 17	MIC 14	CHI 5	MDO 11	ROA Ret	VAN 10	LAU 14	ROC 18	HOU 3	LS 2	SRF 10	FON 14	17th	65
2004	Rocketsports	LBH	MTY	MIL	POR	CLE	TOR 16	VAN 11	ROA	DEN	MTL	LS	LVS	SRF	MXC								21st	15^

• ^ New points system implemented in 2004

Indy Racing League

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Rank	Points
2000	Team Pelfrey	WDW	PHX	LVS	INDY DNQ	TXS	PPIR	ATL	KTY	TX2							NC	-
2001	Brayton Racing	PHX	HMS	ATL	INDY DNQ	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	KTY	STL	CHI	TX2			NC	-
2002	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	HMS	PHX	FON 21	NZR												45th	9
	Duesenberg Brothers Racing					INDY DNQ	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	KTY	STL	CHI	TX2

Indy 500 results

Complete American Le Mans Series results

* Season in progress.

References

External links

• Driver Database Profile
• http://memogidley.com/