Jordi Gené Guerrero (born 5 December 1970) is a racing driver who competed in the World Touring Car Championship between 2005 and 2010. His younger brother, Marc is also an ex-racing driver and is currently a Brand Ambassador for the Scuderia Ferrari Formula One team.
Early career
After winning the Spanish Karting Championship in 1986, Sabadell-born Gené moved up to automobiles, where he became instantly competitive, winning the Fiat Uno Championship in 1987 and the Spanish Formula Ford Championship the following year.
In 1989, Gené emigrated to England, where he drove in the British Formula Ford Championship, also taking part in the Formula Ford Festival, where he took 4th place. Moving up to British Formula 3 Championship, Gené spent two years in the series, taking 4th place in 1991 with West Surrey Racing, driving a Ralt-Honda. Gené also attended the Marlboro Masters in Zandvoort, where he lost the international F3 meeting to David Coulthard, and took part in the traditional season-ender races in Asia, the Macau Grand Prix and Fuji Superprix, winning the latter.
Formula 3000 and Formula One attempts
Thanks to a Marlboro sponsorship, Gené found a seat in Formula 3000 in 1992, partnering Laurent Aïello for Pacific Racing. Gené won the opening round at Silverstone and finished 5th in the Championship in his Reynard-Mugen.
The following year, Gené was involved in the Bravo F1 project, an attempt by former Spanish F1 driver Adrián Campos to create a Formula One team. However, the project was aborted upon the sudden death of team owner Jean Mosnier[1] and the failure of the car to pass the mandatory crash tests, the Team did however turn up at 1993 South African Grand Prix. Gené repeated F3000, this time with TWR Jr., but failed to score a single point. However, the Walkinshaw connection led him to a test driver contract with the Benetton team in, alongside his third year in F3000, now with Nordic Racing and a Lola chassis.
Touring cars
Spanish Touring Car Championship
Failing to move up to Formula One, Gené returned to his native Spain and joined the Campeonato de España de Turismos. In 1995, he became an Opel works driver and drove an Opel Vectra to second place in the championship, but a switch to Audi the following year gave him the title after five wins.
European Touring Car Championship
This led to him joining Roberto Ravaglia's BMW Team Italy-Spain in 2002, driving a BMW 320i in the European Touring Car Championship and finishing 8th overall, but although the BMW was one of the two most competitive cars in the field, Gené left the team at the end of year to join SEAT's new attack on the ETCC, starting in 2003.
After a disappointing first season (17th place overall), the Spanish driver's (and the team's) fortunes improved in 2004, where Gené finished on the podium twice, taking the Toledo to 8th place overall in the series.
World Touring Car Championship
Truck racing
Gené's career took a completely different path in 1998, when he accepted Manuel Santos Marcos' invitation to drive the Cepsa MAN in the European Truck Racing Cup. However, in spite of spending two years in truck racing, he achieved no notable results and went back to cars full-time in 2000.
Sportscars
Gené entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans, racing in the LMP675 category in a Volkswagen-powered Reynard for Noel Del Bello's ROC team, and also took part in the Spanish GT Championship in a Porsche.[14] In 2001, Gené remained with ROC and took the Reynard-VW to a class win at Le Mans, also climbing to 5th place overall. The team's Reynard-VW also took part in the European Le Mans Series, winning the 500km Most in the LMP675 class. At the end of the year, Gené returned to touring cars by taking part in the 24 Hours of Barcelona, where he drove the winning Volkswagen Golf.
Gené also co-drove the SEAT Toledo GT car in the Spanish GT, winning the title in 2003 with Gines Vivancos, but in 2004, the new SEAT Cupra GT was not so competitive.
Racing record
Complete International Formula 3000 results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete Campeonato de España de Turismos
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
24 Hours of Le Mans results
Complete European Touring Car Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete World Touring Car Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
External links
References
- CONSTRUCTORS: SIMTEK GRAND PRIX grandprix.com, Inside F1, Inc., retrieved 11 March 2013^
- Matt Beer. SEAT confirm unchanged line-up Autosport, Haymarket Publications, 28 January 2009, retrieved 10 March 2013^
- Rob Veltman. Yvan Muller denies BMW first season win