Danny
Sullivan

Daniel John Sullivan III was born on 9 March 1950 in Louisville, Kentucky. For his 21st birthday he was given a course at the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School at Snetterton in England. He raced in Formula Ford, Formula Three and Formula Two before returning to the United States. In 1980 and 1981 he drove for Garvin Brown Racing in the Can-Am series, winning the 1981 season finale, the Caesars Palace Grand Prix. He made his Indycar debut in 1982.

In 1983 he drove for Tyrrell in Formula One. He started all 15 races of the season, finished fifth at the Monaco Grand Prix to score two championship points, and ended up 17th in the drivers' standings. At the non-championship Race of Champions at Brands Hatch he finished second behind reigning world champion Keke Rosberg. His more experienced team-mate Michele Alboreto won the Detroit Grand Prix, the team's last Formula One victory. Sullivan was not retained at the end of the year.

He returned to North America in 1984 to race in CART. With Shierson Racing he won three races, including the Pocono 500, and finished fourth in the points. In 1985 he moved to Penske Racing and won the Indianapolis 500, a race in which he spun during the running and still went on to take the win. In 1988 he qualified second at Indianapolis and led 91 of the first 101 laps before hitting the wall in turn one. His win in the Michigan 500 that year completed the Triple Crown of Indianapolis, Michigan and Pocono. At Laguna Seca, the penultimate round, he took pole position and the victory, which secured the 1988 CART championship.

He stayed with Penske until 1990, then drove for Patrick Racing and, in 1992 and 1993, for Galles-Kraco. At Long Beach he gave the Galmer chassis its first win. In 1994 he took a break from Indycar racing, started the Brickyard 400 in NASCAR and finished third overall at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Thierry Boutsen and Hans-Joachim Stuck. A serious crash in Michigan cut short his final CART season in 1995, and he subsequently announced his retirement from open-wheel racing. He won 17 CART races in total. Later he served as the drivers' representative on the stewards' panel at several Grands Prix, and he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2012 and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame in 2022.

Source: Wikipedia, “Danny Sullivan”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.