Soheil Ayari - WikiHQ

Soheil Ayari (born 5 April 1970) is a French-Iranian race car driver born in Aix-les-Bains, Savoie, from an Iranian father and a French mother. He won the French Formula Ford championship of 1994, Formula Three championship of 1996 and the Macau Grand Prix of 1997. From 1997 until 2000, he competed in Formula 3000 where he won two races before moving on to the French Supertouring Championship in 2001 where he became champion in 2002, 2004 and 2005.

In 2006 and 2007, Ayari drove in GT Championship, in GT1 for Team Oreca (on a Saleen S7-R). He became French champion in 2006 & 2007 and won the European Le Mans séries championship in 2007 with Stephane Ortelli.

In 2008 & 2009, he drove a Corvette GT 1 in French GT 3 championship before joining the Audi ORECA Team in 2010.

In 2011, he raced and won two championships : ILMC LMP2 (Signatech Nissan) and International Open GT with JMB Ferrari F458 GT2.

thumb|right|Ayari driving the [[Oreca 01 during the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans.]]

Ayari is also a famous 24 Hours of Le Mans driver with eleven starts in GT 1, LMP1 & LMP2. Best results over all were fourth in 2004 ((Pescarolo)) & 2010 (ORECA 01)), fifth in 2009 ((ORECA)) and second LMP2 (Signatech Nissan) in 2011.

In 2014, Ayari was in the European Le Mans Series, and in 2015, was in the French GT Championship in which he remained in 2016. In 2017, he switched to the GT4 European Southern Cup and in 2018, moved into French GT's again. Ayari also works as a journalist specialising in track tests and races in historic events.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:90%"

! Year

! Entrant

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

! 9

! 10

! 11

! 12

! DC

! Points

| 1997

! Team Astromega

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| SIL

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| PAU

|style="background:#FFFFBF;"| HEL

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| NÜR

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| PER

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| HOC

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| A1R

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| SPA

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| MUG

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| JER

! 8th

! 12

| 1998

! Durango Formula

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| OSC

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| IMO

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| CAT

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| SIL

|style="background:#FFCFCF;"| MON

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| PAU

|style="background:#FFFFBF;"| A1R

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| HOC

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| HUN

|style="background:#FFDF9F;"| SPA

|style="background:#FFDF9F;"| PER

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| NÜR

! 5th

! 20

| 1999

! Cica Team Oreca

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| IMO

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| MON

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| CAT

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| MAG

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| SIL

|style="background:#DFDFDF;"| A1R

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| HOC

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| HUN

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| SPA

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| NÜR

! 7th

! 15

|rowspan=2| 2000

! Coloni Motorsport

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| IMO

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| SIL

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| CAT

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| NÜR

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| MON

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| MAG

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| A1R

| HOC

|rowspan=2|

!rowspan=2| 24th

!rowspan=2| 1

! WRT Racing

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| HUN

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| SPA

!colspan="16"|

American open–wheel racing results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Indy Lights

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:90%"

! Year

! Team

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

! 9

! 10

! 11

! 12

! Rank

! Points

! Ref

| 2000

! Brian Stewart Racing

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"|LBH 16

|MIL

|DET

|POR

|MIS

|CHI

|MOH

|VAN

|LS

|STL

|HOU

|FON

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"|21st

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"|0

24 Hours of Le Mans results

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:90%"

! Year

! Team

! Co-Drivers

! Car

! Class

! Laps

|align="left"| Viper Team Oreca

|align="left"| Tommy Archer Marc Duez

|align="left"| Chrysler Viper GTS-R

| GT2

| 76

| DNF

|align="left"| Viper Team Oreca

|align="left"| David Donohue Jean-Philippe Belloc

|align="left"| Chrysler Viper GTS-R

| GTS

| 271

| DNF

|align="left"| Pescarolo Sport

|align="left"| Éric Hélary Nicolas Minassian

|align="left"| Courage C60-Peugeot

| LMP900

| 352

| 9th

| 7th

|align="left"| Pescarolo Sport

|align="left"| Érik Comas Benoît Tréluyer

|align="left"| Pescarolo C60-Judd

| LMP1

| 361

| 4th

|align="left"| Pescarolo Sport

|align="left"| Éric Hélary Sébastien Loeb

|align="left"| Pescarolo C60 Hybrid-Judd

| LMP1

| 288

| DNF

|align="left"| Team Oreca

|align="left"| Stéphane Ortelli Nicolas Lapierre

|align="left"| Saleen S7-R

| GT1

| 318

| 16th

| 9th

|align="left"| Team Oreca-Matmut

|align="left"| Loïc Duval Laurent Groppi

|align="left"| Courage-Oreca LC70-Judd

| LMP1

| 357

| 8th

|align="left"| Team Oreca-Matmut AIM

|align="left"| Olivier Panis Nicolas Lapierre

|align="left"| Oreca 01-AIM

| LMP1

| 370

| 5th

|align="left"| AIM Team Oreca-Matmut

|align="left"| Didier André Andy Meyrick

|align="left"| Oreca 01-AIM

| LMP1

| 369

| 4th

|align="left"| Signatech Nissan

|align="left"| Franck Mailleux Lucas Ordoñez

|align="left"| Oreca 03-Nissan

| LMP2

| 320

| 9th

|style="background:#DFDFDF;"| 2nd

|align="left"| PeCom Racing

|align="left"| Luís Pérez Companc Pierre Kaffer

|align="left"| Oreca 03-Nissan

| LMP2

| 352

| 9th

|style="background:#FFDF9F;"| 3rd

|align="left"| Team Sofrev ASP

|align="left"| Anthony Pons Fabien Barthez

|align="left"| Ferrari 458 Italia GT2

| GTE Am

| 325

| 29th

| 9th

! colspan="8" |

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:85%"

! Year

! Team

! Car

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

! 9

! 10

! 11

! 12

! 13

! 14

! 15

! 16

! 17

! 18

! 19

! 20

! DC

! Points

| 2005

! Peugeot Sport Denmark

! Peugeot 407

| ITA 1

| ITA 2

| FRA 1

| FRA 2

| GBR 1

| GBR 2

| SMR 1

| SMR 2

| MEX 1

| MEX 2

|style="background:#cfcfff;"| BEL 1

|style="background:#efcfff;"| BEL 2

| GER 1

| GER 2

| TUR 1

| TUR 2

| ESP 1

| ESP 2

| MAC 1

| MAC 2

! NC

! 0

!colspan="25"|