Paul Anthony Tracy (born December 17, 1968) is a Canadian-American professional auto racing driver who participated in Champ Car World Series, the IndyCar Series, and the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART). He started kart racing at age five and quickly became successful and began car racing at sixteen, finishing third in the 1985 Formula Ford 1600 championship with one win and Rookie of the Year honors. Tracy became the youngest Canadian Formula Ford champion in the 1985 CASC Formula 1600 Challenge Series and was the youngest Can-Am race winner the following year. He raced in the American Racing Series for three years between 1988 and 1990, winning the series title with nine wins from fourteen races in 1990.
Tracy's CART career began in the 1991 season with Dale Coyne Racing. However, following one race, he drove three races for Penske Racing. He competed with Penske in eleven races during the 1992 season, finishing on the podium three times. In the 1993 season, Tracy finished third in the drivers' standings after winning five races. The following year, Tracy won three more races. He moved to Newman/Haas Racing for the 1995 season, winning two races before returning to Penske for the 1996 championship. Tracy won another three races in the 1997 season before being fired for criticizing the car and joined Team Green the following year. He was third in the 1999 championship with two victories but fell to fifth in 2000 season despite three more wins. Tracy's form declined over the next two seasons but won one race in 2002. He joined Forsythe Racing in the 2003 championship, winning his first (and only) series title with seven victories.
In the renamed Champ Car World Series (CCWS) in 2004 and 2005, Tracy won two races for fourth overall in both seasons. Tracy's performance declined during a 2006 season in which he took three podium finishes. His final Champ Car victory came in the 2007 championship. Following the unification of the CCWS and the IndyCar Series, he raced part-time for the KV Racing Technology, Vision Racing, A. J. Foyt Enterprises, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and Dragon Racing teams over the following three years. Tracy entered NASCAR-sanctioned stock car races in its Busch Series and the Camping World Truck Series, sports car racing through the Rolex Sports Car Series as well as the Stadium Super Trucks and the Superstar Racing Experience.
Nicknamed "The Thrill from West Hill" for his aggressive driving style and his bad boy image, Tracy's outspoken nature saw him placed on probation and fined several times by CART. He analysed IndyCar races for the Canadian broadcaster Sportsnet in the 2013 season and then for NBCSN between the 2014 and 2021 seasons. Tracy is an inductee of the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame and the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame.
Early life
Tracy was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada on December 17, 1968, and grew up in the working-class bedroom suburb east of Toronto. He is the son of Northern Ireland-born house painter Tony Tracy, who was the president of Trabur Painting, and his English wife Vivienne Tracy. Tony rode a Velocette in England and Ireland before injuring himself in an accident and emigrating to Canada with his two brothers in the 1960s. graduating after passing all of his subjects.
Junior racing career
Tracy got his first miniature motorized mini-bike when he was four, and learnt go-karting from driver Scott Goodyear, before he progressed from the junior class to the senior category when he was twelve years old. Tracy was Formula Ford's youngest Canadian champion following a season-long battle with Scott Maxwell. Tracy also failed to start the FAQ Challenge Labatt 50 Formula 1600 round at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
In 1986, He finished second in the Canadian Formula 2000 Championship race at Mosport Park in a Van Diemen 90RF car.
American-open wheel racing career
1991–1997
Steve Horne, Truesports manager-owner, gave Tracy a test session in a Lola-Judd car at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in September 1990 and was signed on the option of a three-month retainer testing contract for 1991 in October 1990 after lapping faster than regular driver Raul Boesel. Truesports offered him a three-year contract to partner Scott Pruett, but sponsor Budweiser refused since he was 21 and too young for them to promote him. Tracy rejected an offer to drive four races for the team. Making his CART debut in the second round of the 1991 season, Tracy was offered a five-year testing contract with no guarantees of competitive driving and had to relocate to Pennsylvania, with Penske not accepting any negotiation or review. and began a training program to increase muscle and lose weight on Penske's orders. Tracy completed a engine endurance test at Michigan International Speedway before proceeding to Mid-Ohio, where he outpaced regular driver Fittipaldi. After being pleased by Tracy's performance and preparing him for driving on an superspeedway before the Indianapolis 500, Penske put Tracy in his third car in the Michigan 500 in August. Starting eighth in the year-old No. 17 Penske PC-19-Chevrolet,
Tracy raced eleven times for Penske in the 1992 season and tested the team's new Chevrolet V8B engine for Fittipaldi and Mears. He drove a year-old PC-19-Chevrolet vehicle before switching to the PC-20-Chevrolet car from Detroit. Tracy debuted in the Indianapolis 500 that year, starting nineteenth and finishing twentieth due to a gearbox failure. He filled in for the injured Mears at Detroit and again for the rest of the season starting from the Molson Indy Toronto. Tracy finished a season-high second in both Detroit and Mid-Ohio and took his first CART pole at Road America. He ended the season twelfth in the Drivers' Championship with 59 points.
Tracy stayed with Penske for the 1993 championship and drove full-time after Mears retired, and was trained by the latter. He expected to be sacked after Penske tested McLaren's Formula One (F1) driver Ayrton Senna at Phoenix, but continued racing for Penske. Tracy won consecutive races, the Grand Prix of Cleveland at Burke Lakefront Airport after leading 69 laps from pole position, and the Molson Indy Toronto a week later. He started the New England 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway fourth and led 130 laps before being passed by Nigel Mansell with four laps left for the win. Tracy won his final two races of the season by leading all fifty laps of the Texaco/Havoline 200 at Road America and 81 laps of the Toyota Grand Prix of Monterey at Laguna Seca. He was third in the drivers' standings with 157 points after a late-season duel with Bobby Rahal and Boesel.
Before the 1994 season, Tracy was assigned Dave Stevenson as his manager by Penske to relieve him of most personal and sponsorship functions. He raced in the new No. 3 PC-23 chassis, a rebuild of the previous year's car powered by an improved Ilmor V8 engine. Tracy was unreliable in three of the first four races, and was involved in a multi-car crash in Phoenix after qualifying on pole there and in Long Beach. He finished in the top ten for the first time in 1994 in the Milwaukee Mile before winning the Detroit Grand Prix after colliding with teammate Al Unser Jr. on the 55th lap, which sent Unser into a tire wall. Tracy had five more top fives with podiums in Portland, Cleveland, Mid-Ohio and New Hampshire and took pole position in Elkhart Lake before an engine failure left him eighteenth. He ended 1994 with wins in the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix at Nazareth, when he led 192 of 200 laps, and the Bank of America 300 at Laguna Seca, where he started from pole position three weeks later. Tracy was third overall with 152 points. In the season's second round, the Australian Indy Car Grand Prix at Surfers Paradise, he won his first race of the season, passing teammate Michael Andretti with eight laps left. Tracy took the championship lead after finishing fourth at Phoenix, before winning the Miller Genuine Draft 200 at Milwaukee by holding off Unser in the final laps. The rest of the season yielded six top tens with three second places at Road America, Mid-Ohio and Laguna Seca. During practice for the Marlboro 500 at Michigan, Tracy broke the sixth vertebra, sustained a soft tissue injury and bruised his knees in a major accident. He was replaced by Jan Magnussen for the round at Mid-Ohio. Tracy finished the season with three pole positions (Homestead, Nazareth, and Milwaukee) in fourteen races marred by accidents and a noncompetitive car that forced him to push its tyres beyond their capability, six top-ten finishes, including a third-place finish at Milwaukee, and on-track rivalries with Robby Gordon and Michael Andretti. He finished thirteenth in the drivers' championship with 60 points, He won the following Rio 400 to move into the lead of the points standings and the Motorola 300 at Gateway International Raceway for a third successive victory two weeks later. Tracy qualified on pole in Milwaukee, missed the race in Detroit due to a diagnosis of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, which made him dizzy and clouded his vision, and had four top-ten finishes that were followed by crashes in four of the final five rounds. He was fifth in the final points standings with 121.
Tracy's criticism of the car's performance grew louder, especially after what he viewed as an embarrassing finish at his home race in Toronto. He and team owner Green were involved in a pit lane alteration at Houston following Tracy's rear-end collision with teammate Dario Franchitti. Tracy was suspended from the first race of the following season because of Michael Andretti crashing into the back of his car when Tracy blocked him at Surfers Paradise and ten other incidents of car contact involving Tracy that year. His one-race suspension saw him replaced in the No. 26 Reynard 99I-Honda car by Indy Racing League (IRL) driver Boesel for the season-opening round at Homestead. He took four more podiums and won his second (and final) race of the season at the Texaco Grand Prix of Houston after leading 85 laps. Tracy finished third in the championship standings with 161 points. Tracy finished fourth in Houston and crashed twice more in Gateway and Surfers Paradise in the following four races. Going into the season-ending Marlboro 500 at California Speedway, he was one of six drivers mathematically eligible to win the championship; however, Tracy's engine failed after 23 of 200 laps, leaving him fifth in the final drivers' standings with 134 points.
Tracy stayed with Team Green for the 2001 season and drove a Reynard 01I-Honda; Tracy looked forward to sharing information with new technical partner Michael Andretti, but he was separated in pit lane owing to his slow qualifying pace, which made sharing information difficult. He finished no worse than fourth in the first three races and was tied for the championship lead with Cristiano da Matta following the Nazareth event. The rest of Tracy's season saw him finish in the top ten four more times, He finished fourteenth in the championship standings with 73 points,
left|thumb|Tracy competing in the [[2002 Sure for Men Rockingham 500]]
Tracy went on a weight loss/fitness program before the 2002 season and lost for improved performance. He drove the Reynard 02I-Honda for the first two rounds before Green switched to the more compact Lola B02/00 chassis for the remaining races when Reynard entered receivership.