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Gabby Chaves

Colombian-American racing driver

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Gabriel Chaves (born 7 July 1993) is a Colombian-American racing driver, currently competing in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the Michelin Pilot Challenge. He raced in the IndyCar Series and is the 2014 Indy Lights Champion.

01Racing career

Early career

After winning several karting titles, Chaves began racing cars in 2007 in Skip Barber series in the United States. In 2008, he made his pro debut in Formula BMW Americas and finished fourth in Formula BMW Pacific and finished fourteenth in the Formula BMW World Finals. In 2009, he competed in a full season of Formula BMW Americas for Eurointernational and won the title, capturing five wins and three poles.

Chaves brought his career to Europe in 2010, where he raced in the Italian Formula Three Championship with Eurointernational. He finished tenth in points and captured rookie of the year honors. In 2011, he signed to race with the Addax Team in the GP3 Series. Chaves finished nineteenth in points with a best finish of fourth at the Valencia Street Circuit.

American open-wheel racing

In 2012, Chaves return to the United States and signed with JDC MotorSports to race in the Star Mazda Championship. Chaves finished second in points with wins at the final two races of the season at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta. The driver climbed to the Indy Lights in 2013, having signed for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. He was runner-up with one win and ten podiums, and was part of the closest finish in the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (when Peter Dempsey grabbed the Freedom 100 victory as part of a four-wide photo finish. Dempsey finished ahead of Chaves by a mere 0.0026 seconds).

Chaves signed on with Belardi Auto Racing for the 2014 Indy Lights season and won the championship, capturing four wins (including the Freedom 100) and eleven podiums in fourteen races.

Chaves signed with Bryan Herta Autosport to race full-time at the IndyCar Series in 2015. Chaves led 31 laps at Pocono Raceway and had assumed the lead after leader and fellow rookie Sage Karam crashed, fatally injuring Justin Wilson in the process. Chaves led when the race was restarted with six laps to go but was passed for the lead. He was still on pace for his first podium finish when his engine let go with three laps remaining, bringing out a caution flag and effectively ending the race. The race was both Chaves' first laps led and only DNF of the season. Chaves captured the Rookie of the Year title by 78 points over Stefano Coletti. However, due to a sponsor default, the team was unable to retain him for the next season. The team would confirm former Caterham and Manor Racing driver Alexander Rossi to drive the No. 98 for the season.

Chaves drove part-time for Dale Coyne Racing in the 2016 season, with a best result of twelfth at Detroit race 1. In 2017, Chaves joined Harding Racing for the Indianapolis 500, Texas and Pocono races.

Chaves was appointed as driver coach for the USF Juniors, an entry-level series for the Road to Indy, ahead of the inaugural season in 2022.

Sports car racing

Chaves joined the DeltaWing entry at the four endurance races of the United SportsCar Championship in 2014. He led fifteen laps of the 10-hour finale at Road Atlanta, the Petit Le Mans, helping the team to a season-high fourth-place finish.

In 2020, Chaves joined Bryan Herta Autosport for a full season drive in the Michelin Pilot Challenge as a co-driver with Ryan Norman.

02Personal life

Chaves' father is a Colombian JetBlue airline pilot and Chaves has raced under both the American and Colombian flags.

03Racing record

Complete GP3 Series results

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

Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 DC Points
2011 Addax Team IST
FEA

10
IST
SPR

12
CAT
FEA

13
CAT
SPR

6
VAL
FEA

4
VAL
SPR

5
SIL
FEA

Ret
SIL
SPR

14
NÜR
FEA

27†
NÜR
SPR

17
HUN
FEA

23
HUN
SPR

Ret
SPA
FEA

16
SPA
SPR

16
MNZ
FEA

17
MNZ
SPR

7
19th 8
Sources:

Star Mazda Championship

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Rank Points
2012 JDC MotorSports STP
3
STP
4
BAR
3
BAR
5
IND
9
IOW
5
TOR
3
TOR
4
EDM
3
EDM
3
TRO
5
TRO
2
BAL
3
BAL
8
LAG
2
LAG
1
ATL
1
2nd 360
Source:

Indy Lights

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Rank Points Ref
2013 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports STP
8
ALA
3
LBH
2
INDY
2
MIL
4
IOW
2
POC
3
TOR
3
MOH
1*
BAL
3
HOU
2
FON
2
2nd 449
2014 Belardi Auto Racing STP
2
LBH
1
ALA
6
ALA
1
IND
11
IND
8
INDY
1
POC
1
TOR
2
MOH
2
MOH
3
MIL
3
SNM
2
SNM
2
1st 547

IndyCar Series

(key)

Year Team No. Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Rank Points Ref
2015 Bryan Herta Autosport 98 Dallara DW12 Honda STP
17
NLA
15
LBH
16
ALA
16
IMS
15
INDY
16
DET
18
DET
9
TXS
10
TOR
15
FON
20
MIL
11
IOW
16
MOH
12
POC
11
SNM
14
15th 281
2016 Dale Coyne Racing 19 STP PHX LBH ALA IMS
17
INDY
20
DET
12
DET
13
RDA
19
IOW
17
TOR MOH POC TXS
14
WGL SNM 22nd 121
2017 Harding Racing 88 Chevrolet STP LBH ALA PHX IMS INDY
9
DET DET TXS
5
RDA IOW TOR MOH POC
15
GTW WGL SNM 23rd 98
2018 STP
14
PHX
15
LBH
19
ALA
17
IMS
17
INDY
14
DET
18
DET
19
TXS
15
ROA
19
IOW
21
TOR MOH POC GTW
18
POR
13
SNM 21st 187

* Season still in progress.

Indianapolis 500

IMSA SportsCar Championship

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Points only counted towards the Michelin Endurance Cup, and not the overall LMP3 Championship.

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Gabby Chaves, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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