Dan Clarke

Daniel Clarke (born 4 October 1983) is a British auto racing driver, most recently competing in the Firestone Indy Lights series with Walker Racing, having previously competed in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport and the Champ Car World Series.

Early career

A veteran of British Formula Ford where he won the Formula Ford Festival in 2004, Clarke moved up the British Formula 3 Championship in 2005 in a team part-owned by Kimi Räikkönen of Räikkönen Robertson Racing. Clarke finished fifth overall, taking the team's first win at Castle Combe and setting the circuit outright lap record, which he still holds.

2006 and 2007

After a series of tests, Clarke was signed to drive in the Champ Car World Series for CTE Racing-HVM, in 2006 as a teammate to Nelson Philippe. The team owned jointly by Cedric the Entertainer and Keith Wiggins.

Clarke finished sixth at Portland International Raceway and seventh at Burke Lakefront Airport, where he was battling for second with Mario Domínguez when they collided on the penultimate lap. Clarke also competed at San Jose, moving up from ninth to second before a gearbox failure put him out at mid-distance. In his next race, in Denver, Clarke moved into third-place on the final lap because of a collision of two drivers ahead of him to achieve his first podium finish as a Champ Car driver. The Denver third-place was the first podium finish for a Champ Car Rookie driver in the 2006 racing season.

Following on from Denver, Clarke continued to run at the front and narrowly missed out on another podium finish at the next race in Montreal, coming home in fourth-place. Immediately after, Clarke won the Bridgestone Pole Position award at Road America, Wisconsin. He was the first rookie to do so since 2003 and the first British Rookie since Nigel Mansell in 1993. Clarke experienced misfortune towards the end of the season, which saw him forced to settle for "Rookie runner-up" to Will Power after an intense battle between the two drivers.

Clarke returned to the team for the 2007 season, now named Minardi Team USA, joined by new teammate and former Minardi and Red Bull Racing F1 driver Robert Doornbos. Clarke had a troubled season, finishing 13th in the overall standings and missing one race. He missed the race at Zolder, having been ejected from the event for causing a multi-car crash in practice. He did, however, record a second-place at Road America.

Upon the folding of the Champ Car series into the IndyCar Series, the Minardi team became known as HVM Racing and hired E. J. Viso to drive, leaving Clarke without a team.

2009 Clarke drove for Great Britain in the A1GP series, participating in three rounds of the fourth season of the championship.

First announced as the Team GBR driver halfway into the 2008/2009 series at Taupo, New Zealand, Clarke had little time to adapt to the new car, team and track. He went on to build experience through that weekend and then at the Portimão, Portugal, races. The next race for Clarke was Brands Hatch, UK, in front of his home fans. Despite qualifying technical issues, Clarke put on an impressive performance to drive back from fourteenth-place in the feature to seventh, scoring the fastest race laps in the process.

However, for the second time in his career, the series he was in folded in the off-season, leaving Clarke without a team.

2010 In 2010, Clarke signed on with Walker Racing in the Firestone Indy Lights series, the top feeder series to IndyCar. He joined the team for the second race of the season at Barber Motorsports Park. Clarke finished seventh in points with a pair of second-place finishes at Toronto and Mid-Ohio. After a slow start learning the car and working with the team, Dan scored a fourth place finish in his first outing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Freedom 100 and then went on to a successful second half of the season with two second-place finishes at Toronto and Mid-Ohio, five top-fives and seven top-tenss. He finished up seventh in the series points.

2011 In 2011, Clarke competed in a NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Watkins Glen International, finishing 39th following an engine failure.

2023 Clarke returned to professional racing in 2023, taking part in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America for the Nolasport team.

Motorsports career results

American open-wheel racing results (key)

Champ Car

Indy Lights Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Rank Points Ref 2010 Walker RacingSTPALALBHINDYIOWWGLTOREDMMOHSNMCHIKTYHMS7th304

Complete A1 Grand Prix results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 DC Points Ref 2008–09 Great Britain NEDSPR NEDFEA CHNSPR CHNFEA MYSSPR MYSFEA NZLSPR NZLFEA RSASPR RSAFEA PORSPR PORFEA GBRSPR GBRSPR10th28

NASCAR (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Nationwide Series NASCAR Nationwide Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Pts Ref 2011 Means Motorsports 52 Chevy DAY PHO LVS BRI CAL TEX TAL NSH RCH DAR DOV IOW CLT CHI MCH ROA DAY KEN NHA NSH IRP IOW GLN CGV BRI ATL RCH CHI DOV KAN CLT TEX PHO HOM 87th 5