Ryan Sharp

Ryan Sharp
Nationality	British
Born	(1979-04-29) 29 April 1979 Newtonhill, Scotland
2014 FIA GT Championship
Debut season	2007
Current team	Jetalliance Racing
Starts	12
Wins	5
Poles	0
Best finish	1st in 2007
Previous series
2006 2005 2005 2003–2004 2003 2003 2002–2003 2001–2002 2000–2001	World Touring Car Championship GP2 Series World Series by Renault Formula Renault V6 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Germany Formula Renault 2.0 Italia Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Formula Renault 2.0 UK British Formula Ford
Championship titles
2003	Formula Renault 2.0 Germany

Ryan Sharp (born 29 April 1979 in Newtonhill, Scotland) is a race car driver and team manager. He raced in the FIA GT Championship in 2007 with JetAlliance Racing in their lead #33 Aston Martin DBR9 – with Ex-F1 Driver Karl Wendlinger as his team-mate. Ryan was also the 2003 German Formula Renault champion. He is currently the director of Hitech Racing.

Career history

Ryan's career began in Karting. After winning a number of local and national Karting events his talent was spotted by Dutch businessman Klass Zwart, who funded Ryan's first season of car racing in Junior Formula Ford. Ryan progressed well despite limited funding to compete, and in 2002 moved from Formula Ford into the Formula Renault Championship, a true 'slicks and wings' series, as opposed to Formula Ford which has no aerodynamic wings.

Formula Renault

Ryan's first season in Formula Renault was in the UK, with the John Village Automotive team. He finished 6th in the championship. Ironically, his consistency in finishing every race in the points dropped him to 6th due to the Formula Renault system of dropping your lowest score through the season – meaning Ryan had to drop points while those around him dropped a '0' they had scored during the season.

For 2003, Ryan took a risky career move and moved out of the UK scene to race in Formula Renault in Germany with the Jenzer Motorsport team. The move paid off handsomely, and with a lot of work and input by Jenzer Motorsport Ryan won the championship by 40 points, and showing competitively in the Formula Renault Masters event at Donington in October 2003 – Winning the first of the 2 races, and finishing 3rd in the 2nd (he was leading the race, but a backmarker caused a red flag and on countback Ryan was classified 3rd). British racing hotshot Lewis Hamilton came over to Germany during the season to race with the German Formula Renault grid, Ryan won both of the races and Hamilton finished 9th and 8th respectively. Ryan also took part in a round of the Italian Formula Renault championship at Spa, in Belgium. Running in another competitive field (considered by some to be the most competitive FRenault championship in the world) at a circuit new to him in the pouring rain, Ryan went on to win race 1 by 12 seconds and was on course to win the 2nd until he made an error and damaged his car, failing to finish that race – but up to that point giving another example of his wet-weather skills.

Formula Renault v6

2004 saw Ryan continue his relationship with the highly rated Jenzer Motorsport team, moving up to the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup. The season started quite well, finishing 3rd and 1st at the first weekend (3rd in Race 1 after spinning at Turn 1 and dropping right to the back of the field), and then 2 2nd places at the following races in Valencia. In the course of one of the two races Ryan appeared to have an unasailable lead of 4 seconds in the race with one lap to go. However, the 4 second lead was lost in the last lap for Rayn to finish second. This was a familiar scenario during the season (losing places during the last section of the races) thought to be related to a general lack of fitness and mounting driver nerves towards the end of the race. Ryan had a lot to focus on and learn and an amount of inexperience at this level meant his tyres were being worked too hard and he lost pace at the end of both races, being passed by Damien Pasini and Robbie Kerr respectively for those race wins – nevertheless these first 4 rounds left him with a commanding lead at the head of the championship. The season moved to Magny Cours where Ryan consolidated his championship lead. The F1 support race at Monaco is where a car failure in the race meant that he gave away valuable points in the championship. A disappointing performance due to a loss in the family at Brno followed and meant that the Championship tightened up considerably. Eventually Ryan lost the championship to Swiss/French driver Giorgio Mondini by 22 points.

GP2 Series

Ryan moved up to the new GP2 Series in 2005 with David Price Racing, a team he had raced against in 2004 and who were very impressed with his performances in 2004. The season began in Imola where the cars had teething trouble with Clutches amongst other things, in the 2nd round at Barcelona, Ryan was on course for a 3rd place finish when the car failed forcing him to start at the back of the grid for race 2, in which he set the fastest lap of the race and gained 1 point. A series of disappointing performances followed, which were in no way beneficial to Ryan's sponsors, or to his career, these performances were attributed to the team being poorly engineered and set up – making it almost impossible to drive it competitively. When his dream had fallen apart around Ryan he return to the team he knew and trusted. Ryan left the GP2 series, and returned to Jenzer Motorsport to compete in the last few rounds of the Formula Renault 3.5l championship, and almost immediately the results/performances picked up – demonstrating that the David Price Racing car was not a competitive car, and that Jenzer Motorsprt was a top tema. Ryan was replaced at DPR by 2004 FRenault v6 Champion Giorgio Mondini, who also struggled to get anything out of the car.

World Touring Car Championship (WTCC)

Sharp driving the Honda Accord Euro R at the WTCC Race in Curitiba.

Ryan's career took a new direction in 2006 – signing for the Italian JAS Motorsport team to contest the World Touring Car Championship, running as an Independent in the Yokohama Independent Trophy. He impressed many people in this season, becoming the first Independent driver to score an overall podium position in the season, finishing 3rd overall in Race 1 at Puebla, Mexico. Ryan won a number of races during the season (class victories), the most memorable being one of the races at Brands Hatch, UK – where he won in the pouring rain, underlining his wet weather driving skills. He was on course to finish 2nd in the championship behind Dutchman Tom Coronel, but had to miss the last 3 rounds of the Championship due to budget issues (the last round had double points, so it was effectively 4 rounds/a maximum of 80 points missed out on). At the end of the year he won the European Touring Car Cup in a SEAT Leon for GR Asia.

FIA GT Championship

Ryan moved again in 2007, to the FIA GT Championship with Austrian team JetAlliance Racing, who are only in their 2nd season of competition themselves. The season began in Zhuhai in China, where the car finished 9th – this was followed by 2 4th place finishes at Silverstone and Bucharest, the upward spiral in form continued to the next race in Monza where the duo won a dramatic race. Oschersleben held no such luck as the car was hit at the start of the race, dropping right to the back, and eventually retired. The last race they took part in was the Total 24 Hours of Spa, in which the car qualified 2nd on the grid and ran very well – the car was leading at the 6 hour mark, and so was awarded half points for a race win (5 points). However, the car retired around 40 minutes after this and the duo lost more points in the championship race. A strong finish to the season, including 2 further wins in Adria, in the night race, and Zolder in the 10th and final round saw Ryan and team-mate Wendlinger shoot up the standings to finish 2nd in the championship, 4 points behind eventual champion, Tomas Biagi.

Sponsors

Norco Group Limited

Norco Group Limited is based in Aberdeen, Scotland and operating throughout the UK – Norco are Ryan's main sponsor. Norco Group are an asset supply, support and management company.

James Keiller Estates Limited

James Keiller Estates Limited is a property company based in Dundee, Scotland. Ryan has been supported throughout by the owner, Bruce Linton.

Racing record

Complete GP2 series results

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

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

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

See also

• 2007 FIA GT Championship season
• JetAlliance Racing
• Karl Wendlinger

External links

• Official website
• Ryan Sharp's FIA GT Profile

Sources

• Ryan Sharp official website
• Profile – from FIA GT official website