E. J. Viso

Ernesto José Viso Lossada (born March 19, 1985) is a Venezuelan professional racing driver. He has raced in the 2005 and 2006 GP2 Series seasons, and has also driven the third car for Spyker MF1 Racing. In 2007 he competed in the GP2 Series for Racing Engineering. In 2014 he made his season debut for the Stadium Super Trucks in the Long Beach Grand Prix. He most recently drove for Andretti Autosport in the IndyCar Series.

Career

Early racing Born in Caracas, Viso spent time in his early career in both Europe and America. He attended Rolling Hills Prep high school in California. Viso's career started in karting back in 1993, where he stayed until 2001 when he moved to US Barber Formula Dodge East, becoming champion with confidence. He also raced in the Italian Formula Renault Winter Series at the end of that year, moving to British Formula Renault for 2002. In 2002, he also drove in one race of Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup, and at the end of the year in the British Formula 3 Winter Series.

2003 saw a move to British Formula 3, where he raced in the B-Class and became champion after a controversial collision with his main rival during the final race of the season. He then moved to the main class in 2004, racing part of the season for the P1 team, his performances attracting the attention of F3000 team Durango who lured him to the series for the remainder of the season.

GP2 In 2005, Viso raced in the inaugural season of the GP2 Series for the BCN Competicion team, alongside Hiroki Yoshimoto. In 2006, he again raced in the GP2 Series for the iSport team. He won the San Marino Sunday race and the Spain Sunday race. He also drove the third Spyker MF1 Team car in the Friday practice sessions of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Before the 2007 French Grand Prix, it was confirmed that Viso would replace the underperforming Sérgio Jimenez at Racing Engineering. His race ended on the first lap in a spectacular collision with Michael Ammermüller and Kazuki Nakajima in which his car somersaulted over the barriers at tremendous speed, smashing through an advertising hoarding and narrowly missing a bridge (as luck would have it, hitting the board saved him from clouting the bridge and probably more severe injuries), leaving him only a severe concussion and painful arm. This crash was very similar to the one of Marco Campos that happened on the same track in 1995, leading to Campos's death. Campos died of severe head trauma after hitting his head on the concrete barrier. Viso was only inches away from the same fate. For the British round, he was replaced by Filipe Albuquerque. Viso took part in the following race meeting, but was then replaced by Marcos Martinez.

IndyCar Series

Viso competed in the newly united IndyCar Series in 2008 for HVM Racing. He made his first series start in the first oval race of his career on March 29. His next start, at St. Petersburg, was a superb performance ending with a fourth-place finish. At Milwaukee, he ended with an eighth place. Shortly after the Watkins Glen race (in which he finished tenth but forced Vítor Meira off the track, causing Meira to run back onto the track to confront Viso on the next lap) he was diagnosed with the mumps and was forced to withdraw from the next race. Viso finished eighteenth overall in the 2008 series and has signed a contract to drive for HVM in 2009. On February 21, 2010 KV Racing confirmed that Viso would drive the No. 8 car for the team for the entire 2010 season.

For the 2011 IndyCar campaign, Viso remained with KV Racing. He showed flashes of speed, particularly in Brazil where he was in contention for a win. He remained one of the more accident-prone drivers in the series, which led to questions about his seat for 2012 . Viso finished eighteenth in the IZOD IndyCar Series championship on the strength of four top-ten finishes with a season best seventh place showing in Texas Race No. 2.

For 2013, Viso remained in the IndyCar Series with Andretti Autosport, in the No. 5 with sponsorship from oil company PDVSA, recording a best finish of fourth at Milwaukee and finishing fifteenth in the final points standings.

In 2014, Viso failed to find an IndyCar drive. In May, he was called in by Andretti Autosport to take part in practice for the Indianapolis 500 while James Hinchcliffe recovered from a concussion suffered at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Viso drove in the first four days of practice, and led the speed charts on the third day, before Hinchcliffe was cleared to drive in time for Fast Friday practice.

Stadium Super Trucks

In 2014, Viso made his Stadium Super Trucks series debut in Long Beach, California where he finished second after a last lap battle with series founder Robby Gordon. On May 30, Viso got his first ever win in an SST on only his second ever series appearance at the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, where he finished 1st ahead of Robby Gordon in an eventful last lap finish. Viso also captured his second win a day later beating 16-year-old Scotty Steele. Viso swept all three Detroit events on June 1, and won race 1 at Coronado. He finished fifth in the season standings.

Driving style During his stay in IndyCar, Viso was known for his very aggressive driving style, which resulted in a large retirement rate due to contact, and repeated criticism from his fellow competitors.

Personal life During his racing career, Viso rode unicycles as a hobby.

Racing record

Complete Formula Renault UK 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 DC Points 2002 Manor Motorsport BRH OUL THR SIL THR BRH CRO SNE SNE KNO BRH DON DON 20th 40

Complete British Formula 3 International Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete International Formula 3000 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 DC Points 2004 Durango Corse IMO CAT MON NUR MAG SIL HOC HUN SPA MNZ 12th 7

Complete GP2 Series 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 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 DC Points 2005 BCN Competición IMOFEA IMOSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA NÜRFEA NÜRSPR MAGFEA MAGSPR SILFEA SILSPR HOCFEA HOCSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR ISTFEA ISTSPR MNZFEA MNZSPR SPAFEA SPASPR BHRFEA BHRSPR 11th 21 2006 iSport International VALFEA VALSPR IMOFEA IMOSPR NÜRFEA NÜRSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA SILFEA SILSPR MAGFEA MAGSPR HOCFEA HOCSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR ISTFEA ISTSPR MNZFEA MNZSPR 6th 42 2007 Racing Engineering BHRFEA BHRSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MAGFEA MAGSPR SILFEA SILSPR NÜRFEA NÜRSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR ISTFEA ISTSPR MNZFEA MNZSPR SPAFEA SPASPR VALFEA VALSPR 29th 0

Complete Formula One participations (key) Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 WDC Points 2006 Spyker MF1 Racing Spyker M16 Toyota V8 BHR MAL AUS SMR EUR ESP MON GBR CAN USA FRA GER HUN TUR ITA CHN JPN BRA – –

American open–wheel racing results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

IndyCar Series

1 Run on same day. 2 Non-points-paying, exhibition race. 3 Pulled out of race after contracting mumps 4 The Las Vegas Indy 300 was abandoned after Dan Wheldon died from injuries sustained in a 15-car crash on lap 11. 5 Missed race after falling ill due to eating bad oysters. Replaced by Carlos Muñoz.

Indianapolis 500

Complete American Le Mans Series results Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine Tyres 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Rank Points 2012 CORE Autosport PC Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 SEBovr:12cls:1LNBMONLIMMOSMIDAMEBALVIRPET 15th 24

Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Rank Points 2014 Starworks Motorsport P Riley Mk XXVI DP Dinan (BMW) 5.0 L V8 DAY SEB LBH LGA DET WGL MOS IMS ELK COA PET 55th 15

Stadium Super Trucks (key) (Bold – Pole position. Italics – Fastest qualifier. * – Most laps led.) Stadium Super Trucks results Year 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Pts Ref 2014 STP STP LBH2* IMS IMS DET1* DET1* DET1 AUS15 TOR TOR OCF3 OCF10 CSS5 LVV10* LVV10 5th 280 2015 ADE1* ADE4 ADE10 STP4* STP5 LBH1* DET2* DET1 DET5 AUS7 TOR8 TOR9 OCFRpl† OCFRpl† OCFRpl† SRF SRF SRF SRF SYD LVV LVV 6th 344 2016 ADE ADE ADE STP STP LBH LBH DET8 DETC1 DET2 TOW10* TOW7 TOW1* TOR TOR CLT CLT OCF OCF SRF SRF SRF 14th 99 † – "Mad" Mike Whiddett drove Viso's truck, with all points earned by Whiddett going to Viso

The race was abandoned after Matt Mingay suffered serious injuries in a crash on lap three.