Anthony Lazzaro

26/8/1963

Record updated 25-Aug-06

He is a NASCAR and sports car driver often brought in to race on the NASCAR road courses, however he has made other starts in the NEXTEL Cup on oval tracks and has single seater experience.

Anthony Lazzaro was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He is a NASCAR and sports car driver often brought in to race on the NASCAR road courses, however he has made other starts in the NEXTEL Cup on oval tracks.

Lazzaro started in karting He won the World Karting Association Championships in 1987, 1988, 1991 and was the National Champion 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992.

He moved up from karts in 1993 racing in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, finishing second in the GTU class in a Porsche 911. He also finsihed fourth in Camel Lights driving the Porsche Fabcar. He took pole and was national champion in the Formula Ford Valvoline Runoffs. In a busy year he was also rookie champion in Pro Sports 2000.

Lazzaro moved up through the open-wheel ranks switching from Formula Ford to Toyota Atlantic Series. As a rookie in 1996, he won the race at the Milwaukee Mile. He won races in 1997 (Homestead-Miami Speedway) and 1998 (Road America, Laguna Seca, Houston). His rise culminated in a Toyota Atlantic championship in 1999. That year he won 4 races (Nazareth, Gateway International Raceway, Trois-Rivieres, Laguna Seca).

Lazzaro first began racing stock cars in the ARCA in 1999. At the ARCA event at the Talladega Superspeedway that year, Anthony was injured in a multi-car wreck late in the race after he made contact with Bil Baird and spun down to the grass, before his Thunderbird lifted off the ground and slammed the Turn 3 banking before being t-boned by Skip Smith. Lazzaro suffered a compression fracture of the thoracic T3 vertebra in the crash that eliminated half a dozen cars.

In 2000, Lazzaro raced ten Busch Series races for PPI Motorsports. He was planned to move up to Cup with the #96 McDonald's team. However, after a lack of results, he was released, and replaced by Andy Houston.

Besides the stint in the Busch Series, Lazzaro has raced mainly road course races, giving him the label of a road course ringer.

He also made 6 starts in the Indy Racing League in 2001 and 2002 for Sam Schmidt Motorsports with a best finish of 9th.

In addition, Lazzaro has had success in sports car racing. He won the GT3 class in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1999, co-driving a Porsche 911, and the SPII class in 2002 (finishing third overall). More recently, he was a regular in the American Le Mans series in 2003-2004, racing a Ferrari 360. He and Ralf Kelleners took a GT win in the 2004 race at Lime Rock Park. He made his debut in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2003, also racing a Ferrari.



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