-
Home
- TV Shows
- TV Schedule
- NASCAR
-
Formula 1
- Auto Racing
- Moto Racing
-
Latest Headlines: Moto-Racing
-
- Cars
- Bikes
- Store
- Social
- Games
- Mobile
- Deals
- Videos
- Photos
- Home
- TV Shows
-
TV Schedule
-
SPEED Showcase
-
- NASCAR
- Formula 1
- Auto Racing
- Moto Racing
- Cars
- Bikes
- Store
- Social
- Mobile
- Deals
- Videos
- Photos
INDYCAR: Who The Heck Is Charlie Kimball?
Most people know Graham Rahal, one of Chip Ganassi's two new IndyCar drivers, but the same can't be said for his other signing, 25-year-old American Charlie Kimball.
Charlie Kimball orchestrated one of the biggest rookie IndyCar driver signings in recent history. (LAT)
It might seem like an odd system to some, but I use my wife’s knowledge of auto racing teams and drivers to gauge whether the average fan might be attuned to a particular topic.
She follows Formula One on her own (loves Vettel; hates Alonso) and due to her husband’s profession, she also knows a fair bit about IndyCar racing.
When I informed her that young American open-wheel standout Charlie Kimball was going to drive for Chip Ganassi, she had two immediate questions: Who the heck is Charlie Kimball, and why in the world is he driving for Chip Ganassi?
That told me all I needed to know. For the limited number of fans who follow the Firestone Indy Lights Series, Kimball isn’t a mystery, but for those who casually watch the IZOD IndyCar Series, the signing of a mostly unknown driver to a team that has won three consecutive IndyCar championships might raise a few questions.
So, who the heck is Charlie Kimball?
“Who the heck was Alex Zanardi?” Target Chip Ganassi managing director Mike Hull replied. “Unless you really got in close to follow your motor racing, hardly anybody—especially Indy car fans—had a clue who he was when we signed him. You could say the same for [Juan Pablo] Montoya, or even [Jimmy] Vasser. They all went on to win championships for us, but at the time of their signings, they weren’t even close to being household names here. Charlie probably has greater name recognition overseas than he does in the United States, and I find that ironic.”
Kimball’s open-wheel resume paints a portrait of a young man who has crisscrossed the Atlantic Ocean in pursuit of his dreams. As the son of renowned British F1 and Indy car designer Gordon Kimball, Charlie’s youth—spent in Europe and California—was filled with auto racing.
As he shares, following in his father’s footsteps—much like his new teammate, Graham Rahal has done—helped lead him to where he is today. Answering the question of “who is Charlie Kimball” starts at home.
“Like a lot of young drivers, my father was my main influence. He was involved in the design and engineering side with Indy cars and in Formula One, so I spent time as a child with him in England and in Italy when he worked at McLaren, Benetton and also at Ferrari. Racing was my life from an early age. When we moved home to California, that’s when I wanted to start driving. You could say that’s the next chapter of my life.”
When it came time to try his hand at driving, and with his father’s support, Kimball wanted to master the junior formulas before graduating to the top level of the sport. Rather than try to scale the open-wheel ladder in a hurry, the elder Kimball made sure his son took his time with each step. That approach turned Kimball into one of the most prepared IndyCar rookies the series has ever seen.
“Initially, I started in karting at the age of nine. I did some more local racing, then in 2001, I won some karting championships and most importantly, I turned 16 and got my driver’s license. That was important because for my birthday, my parents got me a two-day test in a Formula Ford. I did some more testing, did the [SCCA] June Sprints in 2002 and won, and then in 2003, I did the US F2000 championship. I went from F2000 in 2003, graduated high school, got accepted to Stanford University for their mechanical engineering program and got a deferred entry with an eye to making open-wheel racing my career.
“Then I moved to England and raced the British Formula Ford championship in 2004. I did well enough to move up to the British Formula 3 championship in 2005—what has been the top proving grounds for F1 over the years—and won five races, set two track records and scored 13 podiums. I think we did a lot to dispel the myth that American drivers can’t succeed in Europe. And it was on the basis of that year where we started talking with Mike Hull and Chip Ganassi.”
As has been chronicled previously, the Ganassi and Kimball families have been intertwined for almost three decades—before 25-year-old Charlie was born. When it came time to look at the progress Gordon’s son was making in Europe, the owner of Chip Ganassi Racing showed a keen interest in the young American’s potential.
“It’s only natural that a young guy like Charlie, who we’ve had our eye on for a while now, has made his way into our team,” said Ganassi. “I’ve obviously known his dad for a long time—he designed the car I raced at the Speedway in 1983, the Patrick Racing Wildcat—but it takes more than that. I know a lot of fathers of racing drivers... I remember seeing Charlie as a little kid, but I really didn’t get to know him until he started driving. We helped him a little bit in Europe and had a real interest in seeing him succeed. The kid has genuine potential.”
With help from Ganassi to round out a tight budget, Kimball continued his F3 education.
“I moved to the F3 Euroseries in 2006, and became the first American to win a race in the championship. I have a picture of my win at Zandvoort with me on the top step and Sebastien Vettel next to me in second. I like that photo a lot…” he said with a laugh. “In 2007 I did the World Series by Renault, got to do pit stops for the first time, and got to race on the streets of Monaco as part of the support race for F1. Then things changed when I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2008.”
Defining Charlie Kimball up to now has been easy. His life breaks down into two chapters: The son of a respected racer who wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps, and later, as an open-wheel driver with few cares or concerns. If you’d asked him who he was in 2007, Kimball would have answered: “A racer.”
Pose the same question to him today, and his response has changed drastically.
“I went to the doctor with a skin rash and came out with a diagnosis for diabetes,” he continued. “I committed to myself that I wouldn’t let it get in the way of my dream, and in my first race back with diabetes at Hockenheim in the F3 Euroseries in April of 2008, I finished second. That meant a lot and said a lot. Being a “racer with diabetes” has been my life since then; things changed for me, but this is who I am now. I’ve come back as strong, if not stronger than before.”
Kimball’s feel good story aside, he wasn’t impervious to the economic downturn in the latter stages of 2008. With funding to remain in Europe proving hard to find, Kimball returned home and set his sights on competing in Indy Lights.
“Money ran low for the second half of 2008, so I came back to the US and in 2009, with the help of Novo Nordisk—who make the two forms of insulin I use—I started in the Firestone Indy Lights Series. To start off, if was just a small [Novo Nordisk] logo on my driving suit and a little bit of media coverage about what it was like to be active and racing with diabetes. It grew into a larger partnership in 2010 where I raced with Andretti Autosport. I finished fourth in the championship, earning four second-place finishes. Then throughout the year this year, we started talking with Chip Ganassi and Mike Hull about my future.”
She follows Formula One on her own (loves Vettel; hates Alonso) and due to her husband’s profession, she also knows a fair bit about IndyCar racing.
When I informed her that young American open-wheel standout Charlie Kimball was going to drive for Chip Ganassi, she had two immediate questions: Who the heck is Charlie Kimball, and why in the world is he driving for Chip Ganassi?
That told me all I needed to know. For the limited number of fans who follow the Firestone Indy Lights Series, Kimball isn’t a mystery, but for those who casually watch the IZOD IndyCar Series, the signing of a mostly unknown driver to a team that has won three consecutive IndyCar championships might raise a few questions.
So, who the heck is Charlie Kimball?
“Who the heck was Alex Zanardi?” Target Chip Ganassi managing director Mike Hull replied. “Unless you really got in close to follow your motor racing, hardly anybody—especially Indy car fans—had a clue who he was when we signed him. You could say the same for [Juan Pablo] Montoya, or even [Jimmy] Vasser. They all went on to win championships for us, but at the time of their signings, they weren’t even close to being household names here. Charlie probably has greater name recognition overseas than he does in the United States, and I find that ironic.”
Kimball’s open-wheel resume paints a portrait of a young man who has crisscrossed the Atlantic Ocean in pursuit of his dreams. As the son of renowned British F1 and Indy car designer Gordon Kimball, Charlie’s youth—spent in Europe and California—was filled with auto racing.
As he shares, following in his father’s footsteps—much like his new teammate, Graham Rahal has done—helped lead him to where he is today. Answering the question of “who is Charlie Kimball” starts at home.
“Like a lot of young drivers, my father was my main influence. He was involved in the design and engineering side with Indy cars and in Formula One, so I spent time as a child with him in England and in Italy when he worked at McLaren, Benetton and also at Ferrari. Racing was my life from an early age. When we moved home to California, that’s when I wanted to start driving. You could say that’s the next chapter of my life.”
When it came time to try his hand at driving, and with his father’s support, Kimball wanted to master the junior formulas before graduating to the top level of the sport. Rather than try to scale the open-wheel ladder in a hurry, the elder Kimball made sure his son took his time with each step. That approach turned Kimball into one of the most prepared IndyCar rookies the series has ever seen.
“Initially, I started in karting at the age of nine. I did some more local racing, then in 2001, I won some karting championships and most importantly, I turned 16 and got my driver’s license. That was important because for my birthday, my parents got me a two-day test in a Formula Ford. I did some more testing, did the [SCCA] June Sprints in 2002 and won, and then in 2003, I did the US F2000 championship. I went from F2000 in 2003, graduated high school, got accepted to Stanford University for their mechanical engineering program and got a deferred entry with an eye to making open-wheel racing my career.
“Then I moved to England and raced the British Formula Ford championship in 2004. I did well enough to move up to the British Formula 3 championship in 2005—what has been the top proving grounds for F1 over the years—and won five races, set two track records and scored 13 podiums. I think we did a lot to dispel the myth that American drivers can’t succeed in Europe. And it was on the basis of that year where we started talking with Mike Hull and Chip Ganassi.”
As has been chronicled previously, the Ganassi and Kimball families have been intertwined for almost three decades—before 25-year-old Charlie was born. When it came time to look at the progress Gordon’s son was making in Europe, the owner of Chip Ganassi Racing showed a keen interest in the young American’s potential.
“It’s only natural that a young guy like Charlie, who we’ve had our eye on for a while now, has made his way into our team,” said Ganassi. “I’ve obviously known his dad for a long time—he designed the car I raced at the Speedway in 1983, the Patrick Racing Wildcat—but it takes more than that. I know a lot of fathers of racing drivers... I remember seeing Charlie as a little kid, but I really didn’t get to know him until he started driving. We helped him a little bit in Europe and had a real interest in seeing him succeed. The kid has genuine potential.”
With help from Ganassi to round out a tight budget, Kimball continued his F3 education.
“I moved to the F3 Euroseries in 2006, and became the first American to win a race in the championship. I have a picture of my win at Zandvoort with me on the top step and Sebastien Vettel next to me in second. I like that photo a lot…” he said with a laugh. “In 2007 I did the World Series by Renault, got to do pit stops for the first time, and got to race on the streets of Monaco as part of the support race for F1. Then things changed when I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2008.”
Defining Charlie Kimball up to now has been easy. His life breaks down into two chapters: The son of a respected racer who wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps, and later, as an open-wheel driver with few cares or concerns. If you’d asked him who he was in 2007, Kimball would have answered: “A racer.”
Pose the same question to him today, and his response has changed drastically.
“I went to the doctor with a skin rash and came out with a diagnosis for diabetes,” he continued. “I committed to myself that I wouldn’t let it get in the way of my dream, and in my first race back with diabetes at Hockenheim in the F3 Euroseries in April of 2008, I finished second. That meant a lot and said a lot. Being a “racer with diabetes” has been my life since then; things changed for me, but this is who I am now. I’ve come back as strong, if not stronger than before.”
Kimball’s feel good story aside, he wasn’t impervious to the economic downturn in the latter stages of 2008. With funding to remain in Europe proving hard to find, Kimball returned home and set his sights on competing in Indy Lights.
“Money ran low for the second half of 2008, so I came back to the US and in 2009, with the help of Novo Nordisk—who make the two forms of insulin I use—I started in the Firestone Indy Lights Series. To start off, if was just a small [Novo Nordisk] logo on my driving suit and a little bit of media coverage about what it was like to be active and racing with diabetes. It grew into a larger partnership in 2010 where I raced with Andretti Autosport. I finished fourth in the championship, earning four second-place finishes. Then throughout the year this year, we started talking with Chip Ganassi and Mike Hull about my future.”
Shake and Bake: Recent Posts
-
Daryl "Vodkatime" Wright Takes Charlotte Motor Speedway »
-
Brad Keselowski's All-Star Car Features Awkward Kyle Busch Photo »
-
Kyle Busch Kicks Off All-Star Weekend With Trucks Win »
-
Dale Earnhardt Sr., Father of the All-Star Paint Scheme »
-
Charlotte Television Schedule: Sprint All-Star Weekend »
-
Trickle Was A Legend »
-
Last Lap: Trickle Dead At 71; Harmon Denies Stealing Cobb's Trailer (Video) »
-
Charmin Billboard: Skid Marks Are For Racetracks (Not Your Underwear) »
LATEST HEADLINES: NASCAR
-
CUP: Saturday Charlotte Notebook (UPDATE 2)
Matt Kenseth is one of the favorites to win tonight’s Sprint… -
CUP: JGR Heavily Favored, But No Slam Dunk
Joe Gibbs Racing is five-for-five on intermediate-length tracks this… -
CUP: Earnhardt Fond Of 'Home' Track
Dale Earnhardt Jr. grew up a few miles from Charlotte Motor Speedway...… -
TRUCKS: It’s Kyle Busch – Again
Kyle Busch rallied from a pit-road problem to win Camping World Truck… -
CUP: Friday Charlotte Notebook (UPDATE 14)
Kyle Busch wins the North Carolina Education Lottery 200... -
CUP: Edwards Wins All-Star Pole
Carl Edwards has good speed and a good pit stop to win All-Star pole…… -
HAMMOND: All-Star Race Is A Classic
Wild West frame of mind takes over... - More News
