Juan Barazi

Juan Barazi
Nationality Denmark Danish
Born 22 January 1968 (1968-01-22) (age 47)
Copenhagen, Denmark
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Participating years 20052010
Teams Intersport Racing
Barazi-Epsilon
Aston Martin Racing
Best finish 1st (2006)
Class wins 1

Juan Barazi (born 22 January 1968 in Copenhagen) is a Danish racing driver and businessman. The Swiss-educated lawyer (ref. Swiss newspaper 'Le Temps' 7 Nov., 2013) is the scion of an ancient Syrian-Kurdish noble family.

Barazi's business activities have been focussed around Angola, where he has been involved in mining. He has also set up a telecommunications company, Unitel. He lives in Luanda.

Barazi entered motorsport through his extensive classic car collection which contains an Aston Martin DB3S, Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, a Ferrari 250LM, a Ferrari 246 Sport Dino and a Porsche 917. He often races his cars and has twice won the hotly contested Goodwood Revival Tourist Trophy in his 1962 Jaguar Lightweight Competition E-Type as well as several other international races.

Barazi competed in British Formula Ford 1600 in 1999, finishing second in 2000. Barazi started competing in Radical one-make series in 2001, becoming vice-champion of the British Enduro series in 2004. He was also the champion of the Classic Endurance Racing series in his Porsche 917. He also competed in the Le Mans Series in a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR as well as five seasons in the LMP2 category. He won the Le Mans Series LMP2 Championship outright in 2006 and has placed top five during three further seasons.

In 2005, he made his debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, driving an LMP2 Courage C65. He then purchased the car and set up his own team, Barazi-Epsilon, with Michel Lecomte. In 2006, the team began competing in the Le Mans Series and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The team won the LMP2 category of the Le Mans Series. In 2007, the team switched to a Zytek 07S. Barazi and his team competed at Le Mans every year up to and including 2009.

For the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans, Barazi raced for Aston Martin Racing in the LMP1 category in one of their Lola-Aston Martin B09/60s, alongside Darren Turner and Sam Hancock.[1] The trio retired with a blown engine at 40 mins before the end of the race when running fourth overall and first petrol car on the grid.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
2005 United States Intersport Racing
United Kingdom Cirtek Motorsport
Russia Sergey Zlobin
France Bastien Brière
Courage C65-AER LMP2 30 DNF DNF
2006 France Barazi-Epsilon Netherlands Michael Vergers
New Zealand Neil Cunningham
Courage C65-AER LMP2 294 21st 6th
2007 France Barazi-Epsilon Netherlands Michael Vergers
Saudi Arabia Karim Ojjeh
Zytek 07S/2 LMP2 252 DNF DNF
2008 France Barazi-Epsilon Netherlands Michael Vergers
United Kingdom Stuart Moseley
Zytek 07S/2 LMP2 304 29th 5th
2009 France Barazi-Epsilon United Kingdom Phil Bennett
United Kingdom Stuart Moseley
Zytek 07S/2 LMP2 306 28th 4th
2010 United Kingdom Aston Martin Racing United Kingdom Darren Turner
United Kingdom Sam Hancock
Lola-Aston Martin B09/60 LMP1 368 DNF DNF

References

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Gareth Evans
Le Mans Series LMP2 Champion
2006 with:
Michael Vergers
Succeeded by
Thomas Erdos
Mike Newton
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