Juan Pablo Montoya(I)
- Actor
- Voice Actor - Dubbing
Juan Pablo Montoya has one brother and one sister. His father, Pablo
Montoya was the one who pushed him to race and has always been his
chief supporter. Juan's racing career began at the age of five when he
started driving go-karts. He rapidly won his first race and the
National Kart Championship in the children's division. In 1986 he was
the Kart Champion in the national and local junior division. The 90s
saw Juan's career move to an international level, by competing in the
Kart Junior World Championship twice (1990, 1991); competing in the
Barber Saab Championship, where he finished third (1994); the British
Vauxhall Championship, third again (1995); the Marlboro Masters in
Zandvoort, Netherlands, fourth and two wins in the British Formula 3
(1996). He also competed in Mexico (1994), Colombia (1992, '95,'96) and
in the ITC Race at Silverstone, U.K (1996). 1997 was the beginning of
his international fame as a racing pilot because he finished second in
the FIA International F3000, behind Ricardo Zonta, and by having a test
drive role in the Williams F1 team, joining World Champion Jacques Villeneuve and
Heinz-Harald Frentzen. In 1998, he concentrated fully on his formula 3000 assault as
he had joined a new team, Super Nova, and managed to take the title
after a good, season long tussle with Nick Heidfeld. In 1999 he was
supposed to have a full season seat at the Williams team, but they
decided to "lend" him to the Target/Chip Ganassi Racing team, where he had
an impressive season by winning the Rookie of the Year, and the CART
Championship after 7 wins, 7 poles and a hard battle against Scottish
driver Dario Franchitti. He continued in CART during 2000, but engine and
chassis changes brought a lot of technical problems. However he won 3
races and had 7 pole positions. Besides he took a highly acclaimed
motor racing prize: the Indianapolis 500, on his first attempt. Finally
he had his Formula 1 race debut in 2001 in the Williams team, having an
strong partner, Ralf Schumacher. At the beginning of the season he experienced
a lot of technical problems but finished his first F1 race in second
position at the Grand Prix of Spain. However the latter half of the
year was an improvement for the Colombian, as he took 3 pole positions
(Germany, Belgium and Italy) and a victory, after only 15 starts, at
the Grand Prix of Italy at Monza. Besides that he finished second at
Europe and Japan. He scored points in 5 races out of 6 that he
finished, what gave him sixth position in the general standings at the
end of the year. He also won the Overtaking Maneuver of the Year, for
his move on Michael Schumacher in Brazil.
