Eliseo Salazar

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Eliseo Salazar
Salazar at the 1982 Dutch Grand Prix
Nationality	Chilean
Born	Eliseo Salazar Valenzuela (1954-11-14) 14 November 1954 (age 70) Santiago, Chile
Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series career
Current team	TRG Motorsports
Years active	1998, 1999, 2012
Car number	64
Starts	3
Wins	0
Poles	0
Previous series
2012 2004–2008 2003 1996–2002 1995–1996 1994–1997 1988–1990 1986–1987 1981–1983 1980	World Rally Championship Rally Mobil American Le Mans Series Indy Racing League CART IndyCar World Series IMSA Exxon WSC Championship World Sportscar Championship International Formula 3000 Formula One World Championship British F1 Championship
Awards
1999 1990	Scott Brayton Trophy Autosport Sportsman of the Year
Formula One World Championship career
Active years	1981–1983
Teams	March, Ensign, ATS, RAM
Entries	37 (24 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	3
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1981 United States Grand Prix West
Last entry	1983 Belgian Grand Prix
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career
1 race run over 1 year
Best finish	93rd (1997)
First race	1997 Parts America 150 (Watkins Glen)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0
Statistics current as of 1 February 2012.

Eliseo Salazar Valenzuela (Spanish pronunciation: [e.liˈse.o sa.laˈsaɾ ba.lẽnˈswe.la]; born 14 November 1954) is a Chilean former racing driver. As of 2024^[update], he is the only Chilean to have participated in a Formula One World Championship. He made his Formula One debut on 15 March 1981, and ultimately contested 37 races scoring a total of three championship points. After Formula One, Salazar has participated in numerous motorsport disciplines, including the Chilean national rally championship (Champion 1984 and 1985), Formula 3000, IndyCar (including the Indianapolis 500 race seven times), and the World Sportscar Championship.

After racing in the British F1 Championship in 1980 with a Williams FW07, and winning in Silverstone, he moved to Formula One in 1981, with March. He switched midseason to Ensign, and finished 6th in the Dutch Grand Prix. In 1982 he drove for ATS, and finished 5th in the San Marino Grand Prix, a race where only 7 teams entered due to the FISA–FOCA war. His most noted career moment in Formula One came when he collided with the overtaking race leader Nelson Piquet in the 1982 German Grand Prix; after both drivers got out of their stricken cars, the angry Piquet started to punch and kick Salazar. In 1983 he entered six races with RAM Racing, but the car was very slow and he only managed to qualify twice. He finished 14th in Jacarepaguá and retired in Long Beach with gearbox failure.

After the Chilean economic crisis in the early years of the 80's, Salazar had to leave F1, and competed with little success at the Formula 3000 championship and the South American Formula Three Championship in some races. He began to race rally in Chile, becoming the champion of the 1985 hill-climbing season in Chile in a Toyota Corolla XT.

In the late 1980s, Salazar drove some races in the FIA World Sports Prototype Championship. His best result was 1st place at the C-1 class in the 1988 Fuji 1000 km in Japan with a Spice SE88C-Ford of the Spice Engineering team. Thanks to his contacts with Tom Walkinshaw, he joined the Jaguar Silk Cut factory team, to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In the 1989 race, the Chilean, with Alain and Michel Ferté, achieved the 8th place with the Jaguar XJR-9; but his best result would be winning the 1990 event of the historic race in a Jaguar XJR-12, but after driving several hours in the No. 3 car, he was forced to leave his seat to the British driver Martin Brundle, who received the chequered flag, and Salazar was forced to move to the No. 4 car, which retired at 20 hours with mechanical problems (Brundle's original car, the No. 1, was pulled out at 14 hours for electrical problems). For that particular fact, he was named the 1990 Sportsman of the Year by the British magazine Autosport.

After years with no competition, working as a co-host in the TV show "Video Loco" (America's Funniest Videos' Chilean version, broadcast in Canal 13), Salazar received an opportunity to join the Ferrari-Momo factory team for the 1994 IMSA Sport Prototype championship in the WSC (World Sport Car) series, with the Italian Gianpiero Moretti. He raced at the Exxon World Sports Car Championship in 1994 and 1995 with several races won and podiums with the Ferrari 333 SP. Those results were good enough to pull him to the Indy Car World Series.

He signed a contract with the Dick Simon Racing in 1995 to race in the CART Indy Car World Series, with a strong debut at the Indy 500. With a Lola-Cosworth, he started 33rd and finished 4th in the Cristal-Copec-Mobil 1 No.7.

When the IRL and CART split in 1996, Salazar chose to compete in the new series. He became a regular top driver at Indy 500 with four Top 10 results. His best result at Indianapolis was in 2000, when he started and finished on 3rd place, at the wheel of a G-Force-Oldsmobile Aurora for A. J. Foyt Enterprises.

In 1997, Salazar earned his first and only victory in IRL racing, at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, racing for Team Scandia. That year, he also made his only start at a NASCAR sanctioned race, finishing 17th on the Watkins Glen International road course, in the Craftsman Truck Series.

2000 and 2001 were the best years in the IRL for Salazar, finishing 4th and 5th in those championships, with five top 5 results in 2000. In 2002, he suffered a serious accident testing at Indianapolis, and was forced miss several races. After much consideration Salazar decided to retire from Indy Car racing and focus on Sports Cars.

Salazar later joined the American Le Mans Series, where he raced in a Porsche 911 GT3 and a Ferrari 360.

Salazar then returned to Chile where, in 2004, he joined the official Hyundai rally team in the Rally Mobil, the national rally championship. His car was an N3-class Hyundai Coupe GK 2.0L.

In November 2005, Salazar competed in the inaugural race of the Grand Prix Masters, as a late replacement for Alan Jones. In 2006 he raced in both GPM races in Qatar and England.

In 2007, Salazar moved to the N4-class of the Rally Mobil, the Chilean Rally Championship, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, and was 5th in his first year at the N4-Class with a car of the ING Team.

His last international project is to race the Lisboa-Dakar rally, with the objective of being the first driver to have raced in the Monaco Grand Prix, the Le Mans 24 Hours, the 24 Hours of Daytona, the Indianapolis 500 and the Dakar Rally. In February he signed a pre-contract with Jean-Louis Schlesser to drive one of his buggies at the 2008 Dakar Rally, but he could not get a deal with a sponsor and that year's running of the Dakar Rally was cancelled anyway.

In 2008, Salazar raced in the Rally Mobil with his own team, formed by 3 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX in the N4-Class.

He made his debut in the Dakar Rally in 2009 with a McRae Prototype, finishing in 88th place. He will compete in the 2010 edition as part of the Team Dakar USA, in a third Hummer H3, in addition to the ones raced by owner Robby Gordon and Frenchman Eric Vigouroux.

In 2013, Salazar introduced autocross (aka "solo racing") to Chile, with the first event being held 6 April 2013 at Estadio Monumental in Santiago. In September 2013, he participated in the Sports Car Club of America Solo National Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska, driving a C Prepared Ford Mustang.^[1]

On 15 May 2001, Salazar had a son, also named Eliseo. The younger Salazar attended his first Indy 500 at the age of 8 days old.^{[citation needed]}

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

(key)

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1982	Dome Co. Ltd.	Chris Craft	Dome RC82-Ford Cosworth	C	85	DNF	DNF
1983	Dome Racing	Chris Craft Nick Mason	Dome RC82-Ford Cosworth	C	75	DNF	DNF
1988	Spice Engineering	Almo Coppelli Thorkild Thyrring	Spice SE88C-Ford Cosworth	C2	281	DNF	DNF
1989	Silk Cut Jaguar Tom Walkinshaw Racing	Alain Ferté Michel Ferté	Jaguar XJR-9LM	C1	368	8th	7th
1990	Silk Cut Jaguar Tom Walkinshaw Racing	Davy Jones Michel Ferté	Jaguar XJR-12	C1	282	DNF	DNF
1997	Pacific Racing Ltd.	Harri Toivonen Jesús Pareja	BRM P301-Nissan	LMP	6	DNF	DNF
Sources:[3][5]

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

(key)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

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

Year	Class	Vehicle	Position	Stages won	Ref
2009	Cars	McRae	88th	0	[16]
2010	did not enter
2011	Cars	Hummer	DNF	0	[17]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eliseo Salazar.

• Official website
• Eliseo Salazar driver statistics at Racing-Reference