From Sydney karting to IndyCar wins, a crash that broke both collarbones and a 2020 Daytona 24 Hours win, the career of a driver who raced on two continents.
Ryan Briscoe is an Australian-American racer from Sydney who won eight IndyCar races and finished third in the 2009 championship. He also won the 2020 Daytona 24 Hours and Petit Le Mans overall, and he holds both Australian and American citizenship.
Ryan Briscoe is an Australian-American driver from Sydney who spent his career in open-wheel racing and sportscars on both sides of the Atlantic. He won eight IndyCar races, finished third in the 2009 championship and took overall wins at the 2020 24 Hours of Daytona and Petit Le Mans. His route ran through Formula Renault, Formula 3, IndyCar and endurance racing.
Who is Ryan Briscoe?
Ryan John Briscoe was born on 24 September 1981 and grew up in Sydney. He began karting in 1993 and went on to win Australian, North American and Italian karting championships before he reached single-seaters.
He left Trinity Grammar School in Summer Hill before finishing his education, because he wanted to race in Europe. He speaks English, Italian and French, and he later became a naturalised American citizen in April 2018, so he now holds both Australian and American citizenship.
Sydney karting, a crash that split a car in two, then eight IndyCar wins and an overall Daytona 24 Hours victory.
How did Briscoe start in European single-seaters?
Briscoe moved into Formula Renault in 2000. That was followed by the Italian Formula Renault title in 2001, in which he took five victories, and finished fourth in the Eurocup with two wins from six races that year.
In 2002 he worked as a test driver for Toyota's new Formula One outfit. He began the year racing in Formula 3000 but struggled and left the ride after seven races. He closed the year in German Formula Three, with a late run of three podiums.
He then won the Formula Three Euroseries in 2003 with eight race wins. In 2004 he was Toyota's third driver for the closing stretch of the season, running the test car on Friday practice days.
How did the 2005 Chicagoland crash change his career?
In 2005 Briscoe crossed to America and joined Target Chip Ganassi Racing for IndyCar, finishing tenth at the Indianapolis 500 that year. He also made his Rolex Grand-Am debut with the team at Daytona. He claimed pole at Sears Point, yet the ovals proved difficult and several crashes followed.
The worst moment came at Chicagoland Speedway on 11 September 2005, when a violent wreck unfolded. His car rode up onto the Cheever Racing machine of Alex Barron, took flight over the retaining wall and landed in the catch fencing before splitting in half. He suffered two broken clavicles and other injuries.
He was discharged from hospital on 19 September and spent most of his rehabilitation at a specialist facility in Viareggio, Italy. Recovery took about eight weeks, and he returned to the United States on 14 November 2005.
What were the Champ Car and sportscar years like?
Ganassi dropped Briscoe for 2006, and Dan Wheldon took his seat. Over the next two years he drove a patchwork of rides, including a full-time American Le Mans Series campaign and a few Champ Car races for RuSPORT. He also raced the Australian V8 Supercars, partnering Jim Richards at the Sandown 500 and the Bathurst 1000.
In 2007 he was loaned to Stephen Luczo and Jay Penske to drive in the Indianapolis 500, with equipment leased from defending champion Penske Racing. He qualified seventh and finished fifth, earning $302,305 and thirty driver points. That result made the Penske link a serious one.
The sportscar side opened up around the same time. Penske signed him to drive its Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 car in the American Le Mans Series, and he collected three victories over a full season alongside Sascha Maassen. He won his class at Petit Le Mans in 2008 alongside fellow IndyCar driver Helio Castroneves, and he finished third overall at the 2008 Daytona 24 Hours.
What did Briscoe achieve at Penske in IndyCar?
In 2008 he became a full-time driver for Penske's IndyCar team, replacing Sam Hornish Jr. The season had an early setback at the Indianapolis 500, where he collided with Danica Patrick and the pair were later fined $100,000 and put on probation as the season closed.
He recovered quickly, winning at the Milwaukee Mile one week after Indianapolis. He added a second victory at Mid-Ohio shortly after the halfway point, and then became the first Australian to win his home event, the Nikon Indy 300 at Surfers Paradise. That race was not held for championship points, and it was the last major open-wheel event at the street circuit.
His best season came in 2009, with three wins and eight further podiums. He led the championship for much of the year, swapping the points lead with Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, and he held a 25-point advantage before the penultimate round. A retirement at Motegi after hitting the wall cost him the lead, and he finished second at Homestead behind Franchitti, who won the title.
How did Briscoe's IndyCar career end?
Briscoe won once at Texas Motor Speedway in 2010, but he did not repeat his 2009 form and did not win again until Sonoma Raceway in 2012. The same season he took pole for the Indianapolis 500, a first for an Australian, and he finished fifth in the race.
In 2013 he was not able to secure an IndyCar ride at the start of the year, but he returned to Ganassi for the Indianapolis 500 as a third entry and finished twelfth. In 2014 he drove the team's No. 8 car, finishing eleventh in the points without a podium, and then left Ganassi when the season ended, since the car needed more funding.
His final IndyCar appearances came in 2015. He stood in for James Hinchcliffe at the Indianapolis 500 after Hinchcliffe was seriously injured in qualifying, and he then became the permanent replacement driver from Fontana onwards. Across eight races he collected four top-ten finishes. In total his IndyCar career brought eight wins and 28 podiums.
| Year | Series | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | IndyCar | First win at Milwaukee; Penske full-time |
| 2009 | IndyCar | Third in the championship; three wins |
| 2010 | IndyCar | One win, at Texas |
| 2012 | IndyCar | Indianapolis 500 pole and fifth place |
| 2013 | ALMS P2 | Six class wins with Level 5 Motorsports |
| 2015 | Corvette Racing | GTLM class win at Daytona and Sebring |
| 2016 | IMSA and WEC | Second in the IMSA championship; class podium at Le Mans |
| 2018 | IMSA | Second in the championship; second Daytona class win |
| 2020 | IMSA Prototype | Daytona 24 Hours and Petit Le Mans overall wins |
How did Briscoe move into sportscar racing?
Briscoe had raced sportscars since the late 2000s, and he switched his focus more fully to endurance racing after leaving Penske's IndyCar team. He won the LMP2 class at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2013 with Scott Tucker and Marino Franchitti, and he took the 2013 Petit Le Mans LMP2 class too.
In 2013 he also drove a full LMP2 season with Level 5 Motorsports, winning six times, and he made his debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the team that year. The entry was not classified, but the experience built his reputation in endurance racing and led to further drives.
His 2015 season added Corvette Racing to the list. He won the GTLM class at Daytona and at Sebring, driving a Chevrolet Corvette C7.R with Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen. The team also entered Le Mans that year, but the car never lined up after a qualifying crash.
What was the Ford GT era?
In 2016 Ford returned to endurance sports car racing with Chip Ganassi Racing, running a Ford GT in both the WEC and IMSA series. Briscoe joined the IMSA team, which also included Scott Dixon and Richard Westbrook. The three drivers took a class podium at Le Mans in 2016.
Briscoe and Westbrook finished second in the IMSA championship in both 2016 and 2018. In 2018 he also won his second class at the Daytona 24 Hours. Ford's works effort ended after 2019, closing this stage of his career.
How did the 2020 Daytona 24 Hours win come about?
In 2020 Briscoe moved to the prototype class in IMSA, sharing the car with Renger van der Zande for a full-time campaign at Wayne Taylor Racing. The pair won the 2020 Daytona 24 Hours with Scott Dixon and Kamui Kobayashi, a result that marked a high point of his endurance career.
In October 2020 the same trio took the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. The double gave him two major overall victories in the same season, and it was among the strongest results of his sportscar career.
How did his Supercar and A1 Grand Prix outings fit in?
In 2006 Briscoe was announced as an endurance driver for Holden Racing Team in V8 Supercars, and he also drove an A1 Grand Prix round at Laguna Seca for A1 Team Australia, scoring three points. These were short-term rides rather than full seasons, but they kept him racing in his home series.
Richards was his co-driver at the Sandown 500 and the Bathurst 1000. At Bathurst, Richards crashed the car before Briscoe could drive a race lap, so that appearance ended before he got into the car in the race. The role was an endurance one, which meant sharing the car over long races rather than competing as a regular in the series.
The Laguna Seca round was another one-off international entry. It came during a period when Briscoe had no permanent seat and was taking whatever drives became available across America and Australia. These were his first Supercar outings and a useful contrast with his American career at the time.
What was the Enduro Cup and Gold Coast 600 experience?
Between 2010 and 2012 Briscoe had to compete as a mandated international driver in the Gold Coast 600, and in 2013 he took part in the newly launched Enduro Cup. His first championship podium in that series came with Russell Ingall at the Gold Coast 600.
The mandated rule required overseas drivers to take part in certain local events. Briscoe had returned to the V8 Supercars Bathurst 1000 in 2010, so he remained a regular in Australian touring car racing during those years.
The Enduro Cup was a three-event series of two-driver races. The final race of the 2013 campaign, held at the Gold Coast 600, gave him his first championship podium in the series alongside Ingall.
The format was new for Australian endurance racing, and it meant that every result depended on the pairing in the car. Briscoe's podium with Ingall came from a partnership built for that final round rather than from a long-term arrangement.
What is Briscoe's place in Australian motorsport?
Briscoe holds several notable Australian firsts in open-wheel racing.He was the first Australian to take pole at the Indianapolis 500, and he won his home race at Surfers Paradise in 2008. His record of eight IndyCar wins and 28 podiums sits alongside a long list of endurance results.
He is not related to the NASCAR driver Chase Briscoe. He has been married to ESPN anchor Nicole Briscoe since 2009, and the couple have two children.
