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Danny Watts
Danny Watts
	Watts in 2012
Nationality	British
Born	31 December 1979 (age 44); Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England
Racing licence	FIA Platinum
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	2007, 2009 – 2013, 2015 – 2016
Teams	Team LNT, Strakka Racing
Best finish	5th (2010)
Class wins	1 (2010)

Danny Watts (born 31 December 1979) is a retired British professional racing driver.

Career

Watts was born in Aylesbury, and started racing in 1993, when he began karting. After five seasons of karting, he stepped up to single seater racing in 1998 in the UK Formula First championship, in which he dominated with 12 wins. He also competed in the Formula Palmer Audi Winter Series, in preparation for running the main Formula Palmer Audi championship the following year.

2000 saw a step up to the British Formula Renault Championship, when he was teammate to Kimi Räikkönen. In his third year of Formula Renault, he won the championship with 6 wins.

Watts ascended another tier in 2003, stepping up to the British Formula 3 Championship, with HiTech Racing. He took his first win in the series the same year in the second race at Castle Combe, having crashed out of the lead in race one. In 2004 he became the first driver for eleven years to win a round of the British Formula 3 Championship whilst not driving a car from the Dallara company.

2005 saw a mixed year for Watts. Unable to remain in Formula Three, he contested a handful of races in various disciplines. The same occurred in 2006, though he did make a brief return to F3 for the penultimate race of the season, at Thruxton, for champions Räikkönen Robertson Racing (co-owned by former British FRenault teammate, and now F1 star Kimi Räikkönen). In that race, Watts led the field and dominated proceedings with a convincing win.

In 2006, he raced in the Porsche Carrera Cup for the Redline Racing team. Initially he shared this drive with Richard Westbrook, only contesting races which clash with Westbrook's Porsche Carrera Cup racing, but after a run of 8 successive victories in the races he started, Richard conceded the drive full-time.

For 2007 Watts drove for Team LNT in the Le Mans Series in a Panoz Esperante GT-LM. He was also invited to join A1 Team Great Britain for the 4th season of the 2007/8 season held in Shanghai, China and took part in the rookie sessions.

In 2008, he signed to the SAS Lechner Racing team with teammate Damien Faulkner for the F1-supporting Porsche Supercup series.

A1 Team Great Britain announced that Watts would race for A1 Team Great Britain in Chengdu; he came 3rd in both the sprint and feature race.

For 2009 he raced for Strakka Racing in the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans driving a Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S. In the opening round of the Le Mans Series at Barcelona he claimed overall pole on the teams LMP1 debut.

In 2010, he retained his seat for Strakka Racing in the Le Mans Series however the team moved down to the LMP2 category now using a HPD ARX-01c. The car took the class victory at Le Mans finishing 5th overall.

The 2011 Le Mans season was good for Watts, once again being the strongest link in the team constantly qualifying the Strakka car high up the LMP2 field.

In 2012, Strakka retained Watts, who went on to put in a hero's drive at the World Endurance Championship round at Silverstone England, by doing a double stint of three-and-a-half hours to finish within 0.6 secs of 4th place.

Personal life

After retiring, he came out publicly in 2017 as gay.^[1]^[2] He was previously married to Fiona Leggate with whom he had one son.^[3]

Helmet

Watts' helmet colour is in honour of Oxford United Football Club, whom he supports.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F.Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
1998	Formula First Great Britain	Mark Burdett Motorsport	?	12	12	?	?	?	1st
1998	Formula Palmer Audi Winter Series	?	4	0	?	?	3	80	3rd
1999	Formula Palmer Audi	?	14	0	0	1	0	42	22nd
2000	Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup	Manor Motorsport	?	0	0	0	1	20	16th
2000	Formula Renault 2.0 UK	Manor Motorsport	11	1	1	0	3	153	10th
2001	Formula Renault 2.0 UK	Manor Motorsport	13	2	0	1	4	253	3rd
2002	Formula Renault 2.0 UK	Fortec Motorsport	13	6	4	5	11	333	1st
	Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup	Fortec Motorsport	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Macau Asian Formula 2000 Challenge	EYHOB Motorsport	1	1	0	0	1	0	1st
	Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain	Porsche Cars Great Britain	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2003	British Formula Three Championship	Hitech Grand Prix	22	1	3	2	5	125	5th
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	0	23rd
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	0	0	10th
	Korea Super Prix	Alan Docking Racing	1	0	0	0	0	0	9th
2004	British Formula Three Championship	Promatecme	21	1	1	0	4	139	6th
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	0	10th
	Formula 3 European Cup		1	0	0	0	0	0	5th
	Japanese Formula 3 Championship	M-TEC	3	0	0	0	0	12	15th
	Walter Hayes Trophy	?	1	0	0	0	0	0	2nd
2005	British Formula Three Championship	Alan Docking Racing	2	0	0	0	1	23	13th
	Formula 3 Euro Series	HBR Motorsport	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Macau Grand Prix	Team Midland Euroseries	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Formula Renault 3.5 Series	EuroInternational	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2006	British Formula Three Championship	Räikkönen Robertson Racing	1	1	1	0	1	0	NC
	Porsche Supercup	IRWIN Redline Racing	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain	IRWIN Redline Racing	16	10	6	6	11	250	3rd
	Porsche Carrera Cup Asia	Gates GR Asia	1	1	1	1	1	0	NC
	British GT Championship	?	?	?	?	?	?	15	7th
2007	Le Mans Series - LMGT2	Team LNT	4	0	0	0	0	5	19th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGT2	Team LNT	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	American Le Mans Series - LMP2	Zytek Motorsports	1	0	0	0	1	19	16th
	Porsche Carrera Cup Asia	?	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2008	Porsche Supercup	SAS Lechner Racing	12	0	0	0	1	90	9th
	American Le Mans Series	Team LNT	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Aston Martin Asia Cup	Noble Group/GR Asia	2	0	0	1	1	0	NC
	Macau GT Cup Grand Prix	Team Road & Track	1	0	0	0	1	0	2nd
2008-09	A1 Grand Prix	A1 Team Great Britain	6	0	1	0	2	28	10th
2009	Le Mans Series	Strakka Racing	5	0	1	0	0	4	16th
	24 Hours of Le Mans	Strakka Racing	1	0	0	0	0	0	14th
	Porsche Carrera Cup Asia	SC Global Racing	1	0	0	0	1	0	NC
	Macau GT Cup Grand Prix	Team Road & Track	1	0	0	0	1	0	3rd
2010	Le Mans Series - LMP2	Strakka Racing	5	3	5	5	3	69	2nd
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2	Strakka Racing	1	1	1	1	1	0	1st
	Macau GT Cup Grand Prix	United Autosports	1	0	0	0	1	0	3rd
2011	Le Mans Series - LMP2	Strakka Racing	5	0	2	0	2	43	3rd
	Intercontinental Le Mans Cup - LMP2		1	0	1	0	1	0	NC
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2		1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Macau GT Cup Grand Prix	United Autosports	1	0	0	0	1	0	3rd
2012	FIA World Endurance Championship	Strakka Racing	8	0	0	0	1	64	7th
	24 Hours of Le Mans	Strakka Racing	1	0	0	0	0	0	8th
	Macau GT Cup Grand Prix	United Autosports	1	0	0	0	1	0	3rd
2013	FIA World Endurance Championship	Strakka Racing	3	0	0	0	0	22	15th
	24 Hours of Le Mans	Strakka Racing	1	0	0	0	0	0	6th
	Macau GT Cup Grand Prix	United Autosports	1	0	0	0	1	0	2nd
	FIA GT Series	Trackspeed	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2014	Macau GT Cup Grand Prix	United Autosports	1	0	0	0	0	0	19th
2014	GT Asia Series	United Autosports	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2015	FIA World Endurance Championship - LMP2	Strakka Racing	8	0	0	0	1	63	8th
2015	24 Hours of Le Mans	Strakka Racing	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2016	FIA World Endurance Championship - LMP2	Strakka Racing	3	0	0	0	0	34	15th
2016	24 Hours of Le Mans	Strakka Racing	1	0	0	0	0	0	4th
Source:^[4]

Complete Porsche Supercup results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 2 points awarded 2008 onwards in all races) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points	Ref
2006	IRWIN Redline Racing	BHR	ITA	GER	ESP	MON	GBR 22	USA	USA	FRA	GER	HUN	ITA	NC‡	0‡	^[5]
2008	SAS Lechner Racing	BHR 6	BHR 7	ESP 6	TUR 7	MON 19	FRA 5	GBR 2	GER 27	HUN 4	ESP 21†	BEL 26†	ITA 10	9th	91	^[6]

† – Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance. ‡ – Guest driver – Not eligible for points.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2007	Team LNT	Tom Kimber-Smith Tom Milner, Jr.	Panoz Esperante GT-LM	GT2	60	DNF	DNF
2009	Strakka Racing	Nick Leventis Peter Hardman	Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S	LMP1	325	21st	14th
2010	Strakka Racing	Jonny Kane Nick Leventis	HPD ARX-01C	LMP2	367	5th	1st
2011	Strakka Racing	Jonny Kane Nick Leventis	HPD ARX-01d	LMP2	144	DNF	DNF
2012	Strakka Racing	Jonny Kane Nick Leventis	HPD ARX-03a	LMP1	303	30th	8th
2013	Strakka Racing	Jonny Kane Nick Leventis	HPD ARX-03c	LMP1	332	6th	6th
2015	Strakka Racing	Jonny Kane Nick Leventis	Strakka Dome S103-Nissan	LMP2	264	DNF	DNF
2016	Strakka Racing	Jonny Kane Nick Leventis	Gibson 015S-Nissan	LMP2	351	8th	4th
Sources:^[7]^[8]

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	DC	Points	Ref
2008–09	Great Britain	NED SPR	NED FEA	CHN SPR 3	CHN FEA 3	MYS SPR Ret	MYS FEA 16	NZL SPR	NZL FEA	RSA SPR Ret	RSA FEA 7	POR SPR	POR FEA	GBR SPR	GBR FEA	10th	28	^[9]
Source:^[10]

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Year	Entrant	Class	Car	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Rank	Points
2012	Strakka Racing	LMP1	HPD ARX-03a	Honda LM-V8 3.4 L V8	SEB 8	SPA 6	LMS 22	SIL 5	SÃO 5	BHR 3	FUJ 6	SHA 6		7th	64
2013	Strakka Racing	LMP1	HPD ARX-03c	Honda LM-V8 3.4 L V8	SIL Ret	SPA 7	LMS 6	SÃO	COA	FUJ	SHA	BHR		15th	22
2015	Strakka Racing	LMP2	Strakka Dome S103	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL 3	SPA 5	LMS Ret	NÜR 7	COA 7	FUJ 6	SHA 6	BHR 5		8th	63
2016	Strakka Racing	LMP2	Gibson 015S	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL 5	SPA DNF	LMS 4	NÜR	MEX	COA	FUJ	SHA	BHR	15th	34
Source:^[8]

References

^ Watts, Daniel (20 February 2017). "I'm A Race Car Driver And I'm Coming Out To Help Change The Sport". HuffPost. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
^ Lewis Corner (20 February 2017). "Pro racing driver Danny Watts publicly comes out as gay". Gay Times. Archived from the original on 12 June 2017.
^ Igual, Roberto (20 February 2017). "Danny Watts, British racing driver comes out as gay". MambaOnline - Gay South Africa online. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
^ "Danny Watts". Driver Database. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
^ "Porsche Supercup – Season 2006: Results". Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
^ "Porsche Supercup – Season 2008: Results". Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
^ "Danny Watts". Automobile Club de l'Ouest. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
^ ^a ^b "Danny Watts Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
^ "Danny Watts – 2008 A1 Grand Prix Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
^ "Danny Watts". Motor Sport. Retrieved 2 September 2023.

External links

danny-watts.com
Danny Watts career summary at DriverDB.com

Sporting positions
Preceded by Carl Breeze	British Formula Renault UK series champion 2002	Succeeded by Lewis Hamilton
Awards
Preceded by Mike Jordan	Autosport British Club Driver of the Year 2002	Succeeded by Lewis Hamilton