Mexican Touring Car Racing, Formula Vee, Formula K, Benelux Formula Ford, British Formula Ford, Mexican Formula Three, Indy Lights, CART World Series, IndyCar Series, Rolex Sports Car Series, American Le Mans Series, Le Mans Series, Intercontinental Le Mans Cup
Championship titles
1983, 1991, 2009
Mexican Formula Vee Champion, Mexican Formula Three Champion, American Le Mans Series LMP2 Class Champion
Adrián Fernández Mier (born April 20, 1963) is a Mexican former professional race car driver and co-owner of the Fernandez Racing team.
Racing career
Early career
Fernández was born in Mexico City and began his career in Mexico at the age of eight. He entered his first auto race in 1981 at the "24 Hours of Mexico" race in Mexico City. At the age of 15, he made the permanent transition to cars in 1982. From 1982 to 1984, Fernández competed in the Formula Vee Championship, winning the title in both 1983 and 1984. He also raced in the Formula K Series in 1984, continuing in that series until 1986, and finished in the top four in the standings all three years in Formula K.
In 1987, he participated in the Benelux Formula Ford 1600 Championship, one race in the British RAC Formula Ford 1600 Championship, and competed in the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch. From 1988 to 1989, he took part in the British RAC and Esso Formula Ford 1600 Championship series before moving to the Mexican F3 Championship in 1990 and 1991, winning the title in 1991.
In 1992, Fernández moved to the United States to compete in the Firestone Indy Lights Championship, now known as Indy NXT. He finished third in points, winning four races, a rookie record, setting a rookie record, and earned the honors of "Indy Lights Rookie of the Year," along with accumulating more than two million dollars in prize earnings.
CART, IROC, and IRL (1993–2004)
In 1993, Fernández made the jump to the CART IndyCar World Series, competing in five races for Galles Racing International. He participated in his first full season in 1994, with Galles finishing 13th and capturing the "Marco Magaña" and "Luchador Olmeca" awards along with the "JAC" trophy for "Best Driver" outside Mexico.[citation needed] Competing again with Galles in 1995, Fernández finished 12th in the standings, placing with nine top-ten finishes.
Fernández moved to Tasman Motorsports in 1996. He had six top-ten finishes, including his first career CART victory at Toronto. Unfortunately, his delight at taking his first win was dampened by the fatal accident suffered by Jeff Krosnoff late in the race. The win in Toronto made him the first Mexican to win a CART event since Héctor Rebaque in 1982. Fernández went on to finish 12th in the season's points tally. 1997 was a disappointing season for Fernández. The Tasman team ran a Lola chassis, which failed to perform to expectations. Through force of will, determination, and talent, Fernández battled to three top-ten finishes and 18th place in the PPG Cup standings.
Fernández joined Patrick Racing for the 1998 season and proved his ability to challenge for the championship. He enjoyed 14 top-ten finishes with eight top-five placements and two victories, Japan and Mid-Ohio, en route to a 4th place showing in the PPG Cup race during the 1998 FedEx Championship. He captured his first career pole at Michigan and led the championship race for the first time in his career. Unfortunately, Fernández was once again touched by tragedy — a crash at Michigan resulted in an errant wheel from his car flying into the stands and killing three spectators.[1] However, it was his victory during the Miller Lite 200 that gave Patrick Racing one of its most memorable moments, when Fernández stood atop the podium next to his teammate Scott Pruett. Fernández was also named the "Athlete of the Year" in Mexico.
In 1999, Fernandez enjoyed his most successful season so far in the series, Adrián Fernández, behind the wheel of the #40 Tecate/Quaker State Reynard Ford-Cosworth, completed the year sixth in the championship battle. He led the points' series early in the season for the first time in his CART career. However, an accident at Belle Isle Park resulted in a fracture in one of his hands, forcing him to sit out for several races. Undeterred, he later won at Motegi, Japan at the Firestone Firehawk 500 and at the Marlboro 500 in Fontana, California — a race marred by the death of good friend Greg Moore.
Later in 1999, Fernández was selected to participate in the IROC series, where he competed against many top-tier drivers, including NASCAR drivers Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte, and Dale Earnhardt. Fernández had 80 total starts in the series. Of those starts, he finished in the top-ten 41 times throughout his seven-year career.[citation needed]
Adrián Fernández
In 2000, Fernández had his best season in the CART series, coming close to winning the championship despite not starting on the front row all season. He scored points in 17 of the 20 races, including two wins at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Australia, and three further podium results. He finished second to Gil de Ferran in the championship.
In 2001, he founded Fernandez Racing, with former Ganassi manager Tom Anderson as his partner and ex-F1 driver Shinji Nakano as his teammate. He finished 3rd twice and took two poles that year, but his team's first victory came at Portland in 2003, the first win for an owner-driver since Bobby Rahal achieved the feat in 1992. That year he also ran an Indy Racing League (IRL) entry for Asian-American Roger Yasukawa, in partnership with Aguri Suzuki, and in 2004, he moved the whole team to the series. Despite taking three wins and finishing 4th overall in the 2004 IRL championship, he was unable to secure funding to race in 2005. Delphi was driver Scott Sharp's personal sponsor, while engine suppliers Honda insisted on Japanese driver Kosuke Matsuura in the second car.
Busch Series (2005–06)
In 2005, he drove the No. 5 Lowe's / HitachiChevrolet in Mexico for Hendrick Motorsports in the first NASCARBusch Series race held outside the United States. In this race (called the Telcel-Motorola 200), Fernández raced in a one-time race to help promote NASCAR racing to the local fans. He led several laps in the race before giving up the lead to eventual race winner Martin Truex Jr. It was announced that he would run four more races in the Busch Series for Hendrick Motorsports, but he did not run up front at any of those races. In 2006, he competed in two Busch races for Hendrick and competed full time in the Grand-Am series for his own team with Lowe's sponsorship.
In 2007, Fernández moved to American Le Mans Series LMP2 class as an Acura factory team. His teammate was fellow Mexican and Grand-Am veteran Luis Díaz.
On October 10, 2009, Fernández and his co-driver Luis Díaz won at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California. With this victory, the Lowe'sFernandez RacingAcura ARX-01B concludes the season with the drivers' championship and teams' championship of the American Le Mans Series in the LMP2 category.
The luck did not favor Adrian in 2011, when his team, the Aston Martin Racing in LMP1 class, could barely afford 2 laps with their Aston Martin AMR-One and leave the test due to problems with the engine running at the 56th site.
In the 80th edition of 2012, Fernández and the Aston Martin Racing Team got third place in the GTE-Pro class, along with his co-drivers Stefan Mücke and Darren Turner, Their Aston Martin Vantage 4.5 L-V8 covered a total of 332 laps (2,811.65 miles), on the Circuit de la Sarthe without failure or serious mechanical problems. Also, the team achieved the fastest lap of the category with 3 minutes and 54,928 seconds. Adrián had the honor to drive the last stage of the competition.[2][3]
On September 12, 2012, Fernández announced that his participation in the FIA World Endurance Championship would conclude at the end of the season, as well his relationship with the Aston Martin Racing team that started in 2010. The Mexican driver will focus on competitions in the United States.[4]
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(March 2019)
Fernández retired from motorsports in 2012. He has two children: Valentina and Niko Fernández, and he married longtime girlfriend, former beauty queen, author, and retired actress Priscila Perales on October 21, 2017. They got married[7][8] on May 4, 2018, in Miami Beach, Florida. The couple announced their son, Adrián Fernández Jr. was born on October 29, 2020.
.jpg)
