Tomáš Enge

Born in Liberec, Enge started his career at the age of 16, entering a Ford Fiesta he bought with his own money in the Czechoslovakian Ford Fiesta Cup.

 

Enge participated in the final three races of the 2001 Formula One season, becoming the first, and to date only, driver from the Czech Republic to compete in Formula One. He made his debut at the Italian Grand Prix on 16 September, after being brought in by Prost as a replacement for Luciano Burti, who was recovering from his crash at the previous race in Belgium.^[1] Enge left the Prost Grand Prix team before it folded for the 2002 season.^[2]

He obtained his Formula One break using the sponsorship from the local Coca-Cola subsidiary, which had also funded the Nordic Racing F3000 team he raced for that year. He finished third in the 2001 standings despite missing the final race, and was stripped of the 2002 title due to a positive marijuana test.^[3] He returned to Formula 3000 in 2004, and then headed to America for 2005, driving for Panther Racing in the IRL, with modest success, although almost winning the race at Sonoma. Among his 17 career IRL starts was his rookie start in the 2005 Indianapolis 500. He then drove for Team Czech Republic in the 2005-2006 A1GP season. Enge has also been a frequent driver for Prodrive's sportscar teams, driving both their Ferrari 550 Maranellos and Aston Martin DBR9s in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2006 he was driver of the #007 Aston Martin Racing entry in the American Le Mans Series, but for 2007 switched to the Petersen/White Lightning Ferrari F430.

On 31 March 2007, Enge was injured whilst driving his F430 at the ALMS St. Petersburg race. The car crashed whilst leading the GT2 class, suffering heavy damage to the driver's side and a brief fire. Enge was removed under medical supervision and transported to the local medical centre.^[4] He was later revealed to have suffered a shattered elbow, cracked ribs, a partially collapsed lung and a potentially broken ankle, but not to be in any serious danger.^[5]

On 21 July 2007, Enge was released from his contract with Peterson Motorsports/White Lightning Racing due to a penalty incurred after crashing into Mika Salo during the Acura Sports Car Challenge ALMS race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.^[6]

In 2009 he drove for Aston Martin Racing in the Le Mans Series and won the championship alongside Stefan Mücke and Jan Charouz. He remained with Aston Martin, as he moved into the FIA GT1 World Championship for the 2010 season, joining Darren Turner at Young Driver AMR. The pairing finished fourth in the championship with three victories. Enge and Turner were split for the 2011 season; Turner was joined by Stefan Mücke, while Enge was partnered by Alex Müller. Enge and Müller achieved two victories as they finished fourth in the championship.

With Young Driver AMR pulling out of the championship to focus on other series, Enge moved to the Reiter Engineering Lamborghini squad for the 2012 season, where he partnered socialite Albert von Thurn und Taxis.^[7] The pairing were lying tenth in the championship after four rounds; their best result was a second-place finish at the Slovakia Ring. On 19 June 2012, it was announced that Enge had tested positive for a banned substance at the Navarra round of the championship, and was suspended from racing.^[8] At the beginning of August, it was announced that Enge was to be suspended from racing for 18 months. Enge appealed the decision on the grounds that the positive test was caused by medication he is taking for a chronic cardiovascular condition.^[9] In April 2013 the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected Enge's appeal.^[10]

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

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2002	Prodrive	Rickard Rydell   Alain Menu	Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello	GTS	167	DNF	DNF
2003	Veloqx Prodrive Racing	Peter Kox   Jamie Davies	Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello	GTS	336	10th	1st
2004	Prodrive Racing	Peter Kox   Alain Menu	Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello	GTS	325	11th	4th
2005	Aston Martin Racing	Peter Kox   Pedro Lamy	Aston Martin DBR9	GT1	327	DNF	DNF
2006	Aston Martin Racing	Darren Turner   Andrea Piccini	Aston Martin DBR9	GT1	350	6th	2nd
2007	Aston Martin Racing	Johnny Herbert   Peter Kox	Aston Martin DBR9	GT1	337	9th	4th
2008	Charouz Racing System   Aston Martin Racing	Jan Charouz   Stefan Mücke	Lola B08/60-Aston Martin	LMP1	354	9th	9th
2009	AMR Eastern Europe	Jan Charouz   Stefan Mücke	Lola-Aston Martin B09/60	LMP1	373	4th	4th
2010	Young Driver AMR	Christoffer Nygaard   Peter Kox	Aston Martin DBR9	GT1	311	22nd	3rd
Sources:[19][24]

(key)

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

• 24 Hours of Le Mans 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006
• List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tomáš Enge.

• Official website
• Tomáš Enge career summary at DriverDB.com
• Biography of Tomáš Enge