Roberto
Guerrero

Roberto Guerrero was born on 16 November 1958 in Medellín, Colombia. He started karting in 1972 and won two national titles in Colombia by 1977. That year he joined the Jim Russell Racing School. In 1978 he took eight wins in British Formula Ford 1600. In British Formula 3 he won five races in 1980 and finished joint second in the standings with Kenneth Acheson, both on 95 points. In 1981 he raced in the European Formula Two Championship for Maurer Motorsport, won the Jochen Rindt Memorial Trophy at Thruxton and finished seventh overall with 16 points.

In Formula One he drove for Ensign in 1982 and for Theodore in 1983, after Ensign had merged with Theodore. Across the two seasons he made 28 entries and 21 starts, failing to qualify on several occasions. His first start came at the United States Grand Prix West, where he lined up 19th. That made him the first Colombian to start a Formula One race. His best result was eighth place in the 1982 German Grand Prix. In 1983 he finished twelfth at both the Dutch Grand Prix and the European Grand Prix. He never scored a championship point.

After the 1983 season he moved to the United States. He made his CART debut in 1984 for Bignotti-Cotter, finished second in the Indianapolis 500 and was named rookie of the year both in CART and at Indianapolis, sharing the Indianapolis award with Michael Andretti. In 1987 he won two CART races, at Phoenix and Mid-Ohio, and was runner-up at Indianapolis again, this time behind Al Unser Sr. He ended that season fourth in the points. A few days after his win at Mid-Ohio he crashed during a test at Indianapolis and missed the last three races of the year.

In 1992 he qualified on pole for the Indianapolis 500 in a King Racing car and set a qualifying record that stood until 1996. He spun and crashed on the pace lap, however, and was unable to start the race. Over his career he finished second at Indianapolis twice and in the top five five times. In the newly formed Indy Racing League he finished fourth in the 1996 standings with 237 points. His last Indy car race came in Kentucky in 2000. He also took part in the 1988 International Race of Champions. From 2009 to 2013 he worked as a live television commentator on American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am broadcasts.

Source: Wikipedia, “Roberto Guerrero”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.