Danny Watts

Last updated

Danny Watts
Dany Watts 2012 WEC Fuji.jpg
Watts in 2012
Nationality Flag of the United Kingdom.svg British
Born (1979-12-31) 31 December 1979 (age 44)
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England
Racing licence FIA Platinum Driver.png FIA Platinum
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years 2007, 2009  2013, 2015  2016
TeamsTeam LNT, Strakka Racing
Best finish5th (2010)
Class wins1 (2010)
Watts competing for A1 Team Great Britain at the 2008-09 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, South Africa. A1 Grand Prix, Kyalami - Great Britain 2.jpg
Watts competing for A1 Team Great Britain at the 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, South Africa.

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

Contents

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

SeasonSeriesTeamRacesWinsPolesF.LapsPodiumsPointsPosition
1998Formula First Great BritainMark Burdett Motorsport ?1212 ? ? ?1st
Formula Palmer Audi Winter Series  ?40 ? ?3803rd
1999 Formula Palmer Audi  ?1400104222nd
2000 Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup Manor Motorsport  ?00012016th
Formula Renault 2.0 UK 11110315310th
2001 Formula Renault 2.0 UK Manor Motorsport 1320142533rd
2002 Formula Renault 2.0 UK Fortec Motorsport 13645113331st
Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup 100000NC
Macau Asian Formula 2000 ChallengeEYHOB Motorsport1100101st
Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain Porsche Cars Great Britain100000NC
2003 British Formula Three Championship Hitech Grand Prix 2213251255th
Masters of Formula 3 10000023rd
Macau Grand Prix 10000010th
Korea Super Prix Alan Docking Racing 1000009th
2004 British Formula Three Championship Promatecme 2111041396th
Masters of Formula 3 10000010th
Formula 3 European Cup1000005th
Japanese Formula 3 Championship M-TEC 300001215th
Walter Hayes Trophy  ?1000002nd
2005 British Formula Three Championship Alan Docking Racing 200012313th
Formula 3 Euro Series HBR Motorsport200000NC
Macau Grand Prix Team Midland Euroseries100000NC
Formula Renault 3.5 Series EuroInternational 200000NC
2006 British Formula Three Championship Räikkönen Robertson Racing 111010NC
Porsche Supercup IRWIN Redline Racing 100000NC
Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain 161066112503rd
Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Gates GR Asia111110NC
British GT Championship  ? ? ? ? ? ?157th
2007 Le Mans Series - LMGT2Team LNT40000519th
24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGT2100000NC
American Le Mans Series - LMP2 Zytek Motorsports 100011916th
Porsche Carrera Cup Asia  ?100000NC
2008 Porsche Supercup SAS Lechner Racing 120001909th
American Le Mans Series Team LNT100000NC
Aston Martin Asia Cup Noble Group/GR Asia200110NC
Macau GT Cup Grand Prix Team Road & Track1000102nd
2008-09 A1 Grand Prix A1 Team Great Britain 601022810th
2009 Le Mans Series Strakka Racing 50100416th
24 Hours of Le Mans 10000014th
Porsche Carrera Cup Asia SC Global Racing100010NC
Macau GT Cup Grand Prix Team Road & Track1000103rd
2010 Le Mans Series - LMP2 Strakka Racing 53553692nd
24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP21111101st
Macau GT Cup Grand Prix United Autosports 1000103rd
2011 Le Mans Series - LMP2 Strakka Racing 50202433rd
Intercontinental Le Mans Cup - LMP2101010NC
24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2100000NC
Macau GT Cup Grand Prix United Autosports 1000103rd
2012 FIA World Endurance Championship Strakka Racing 80001647th
24 Hours of Le Mans 1000008th
Macau GT Cup Grand Prix United Autosports 1000103rd
2013 FIA World Endurance Championship Strakka Racing 300002215th
24 Hours of Le Mans 1000006th
Macau GT Cup Grand Prix United Autosports 1000102nd
FIA GT Series Trackspeed100000NC
2014 Macau GT Cup Grand Prix United Autosports 10000019th
GT Asia Series 100000NC
2015 FIA World Endurance Championship - LMP2 Strakka Racing 80001638th
24 Hours of Le Mans 100000NC
2016 FIA World Endurance Championship - LMP2 Strakka Racing 300003415th
24 Hours of Le Mans 1000004th
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)

YearTeam123456789101112DCPointsRef
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
9th91 [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

YearTeamCo-DriversCarClassLapsPos.Class
Pos.
2007 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Team LNT Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Tom Kimber-Smith
Flag of the United States.svg Tom Milner, Jr.
Panoz Esperante GT-LMGT260DNFDNF
2009 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Strakka Racing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nick Leventis
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Peter Hardman
Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S LMP132521st14th
2010 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Strakka Racing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonny Kane
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nick Leventis
HPD ARX-01C LMP23675th1st
2011 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Strakka Racing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonny Kane
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nick Leventis
HPD ARX-01d LMP2144DNFDNF
2012 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Strakka Racing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonny Kane
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nick Leventis
HPD ARX-03a LMP130330th8th
2013 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Strakka Racing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonny Kane
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nick Leventis
HPD ARX-03c LMP13326th6th
2015 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Strakka Racing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonny Kane
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nick Leventis
Strakka Dome S103-Nissan LMP2264DNFDNF
2016 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Strakka Racing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonny Kane
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nick Leventis
Gibson 015S-Nissan LMP23518th4th
Sources: [7] [8]

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

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

YearEntrant1234567891011121314DCPointsRef
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
10th28 [9]
Source: [10]

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

YearEntrantClassCarEngine123456789RankPoints
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
7th64
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 15th22
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
8th63
2016 Strakka Racing LMP2 Gibson 015S Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 SIL
5
SPA
DNF
LMS
4
NÜR
MEX
COA
FUJ
SHA
BHR
15th34
Source: [8]

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References

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Igual, Roberto (20 February 2017). "Danny Watts, British racing driver comes out as gay". MambaOnline - Gay South Africa online. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  4. "Danny Watts". Driver Database. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  5. "Porsche Supercup – Season 2006: Results". Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  6. "Porsche Supercup – Season 2008: Results". Speedsport Magazine. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  7. "Danny Watts". Automobile Club de l'Ouest . Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  8. 1 2 "Danny Watts Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  9. "Danny Watts – 2008 A1 Grand Prix Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  10. "Danny Watts". Motor Sport . Retrieved 2 September 2023.
Sporting positions
Preceded by British Formula Renault
UK series champion

2002
Succeeded by
Awards
Preceded by Autosport
British Club Driver of the Year

2002
Succeeded by