Rocky Moran Jr.

Last updated
Rocky Moran Jr.
NationalityFlag of the United States.svg  American
BornWilliam Moran Jr.
(1980-01-11) January 11, 1980 (age 43)
Pasadena, California
Related to Rocky Moran (father)
IndyCar Series career
Debut season 2015
Current team Dale Coyne Racing
Car number18
Engine Honda HI15TT V6 t

William James "Rocky" Moran Jr. (born January 11, 1980) is an American racing driver from Irvine, California. He is the son of retired racer Rocky Moran.

Contents

Racing career

Early career

Moran participated in karting from 1990 to 1994. In 1994 he transitioned to cars through the Skip Barber Racing School. He made his professional racing debut in 1996 in the Barber Dodge Pro Series, finishing 10th. He improved to sixth in 1997 but fell back to 11th in 1998. He made his Toyota Atlantic debut in 1998. Moran split his time between Barber Dodge and Toyota Atlantic in 1999. In 2000 he joined Toyota Atlantic full-time and finished fifth in points for P-1 Racing. In 2001 he began the season with Condor Motorsports but switched to Cobb Racing mid-way through the season. He captured his first series victory in the season finale at Laguna Seca and finished eighth in points. In 2002 he returned to the series driving for Sigma Autosport. He finished fifth in points with a win at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and two other podium finishes. Moran spent 2003 away from professional motorsports, but returned to Atlantics in 2004, making five starts with Polestar Motor Racing. He made three Busch North Series race starts in 2005 as well as two Atlantics starts and drove in the Infiniti Pro Series' Freedom 100 but suffered a gearbox failure after only four laps. [1]

Sports cars

In 2006 Moran made three starts in the Rolex Sports Car Series. He also made occasional road course appearances in the Busch North Series from 2006 to 2009.

In 2011 Moran was a Jaguar factory driver in the American Le Mans Series with RSR Racing, driving in five of the nine rounds of the championship. However the car was plagued by mechanical problems and never finished higher than 20th.

IndyCar Series

Moran completed his first IndyCar Series test with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in fall of 2014 at Homestead Miami Speedway. [2]

Shortly before the 2015 Grand Prix of Long Beach it was announced that Moran would drive in the race with Dale Coyne Racing, stepping into the seat formerly held by Carlos Huertas. His IndyCar debut came nearly 10 years after his last Atlantics start. [3] However, he broke his thumb during contact with the wall during Friday practice and was replaced for the rest of the race weekend by Conor Daly. [4]

Racing record

American open-wheel racing results

(key)

Atlantic Championship

YearTeam12345678910111213RankPoints
1998 P-1 Racing LBH NAZ GAT MIL MTL CLE TOR TRR MDO ROA VAN LS HOU
18
NC0
1999 P-1 Racing LBH NAZ GAT MIL MTL ROA TRR
Ret
MDO
6
CHI
7
VAN
9
LS
Ret
HOU
Ret
14th18
2000 P-1 Racing HMS1
4
HMS2
3
LBH
8
MIL
6
MTL
6
CLE
4
TOR
7
TRR
5
ROA
6
LS
5
GAT
4
HOU
5
5th115
2001 Condor Motorsports LBH
10
NAZ
6
MIL
9
MTL
9
CLE
5
8th64
Cobb Racing TOR
Ret
CHI
7
TRR
Ret
ROA
6
VAN
Ret
HOU LS
1
2002 Sigma Autosport MTY
6
LBH
5
MIL
13
LS
2
POR
5
CHI
8
TOR
3
CLE
5
TRR
5
ROA
Ret
MTL
1
DEN
9
5th117
2004 Polestar Motor Racing LBH
7
MTY
2
MIL
6
POR1
9
POR2
8
CLE TOR VAN ROA DEN MTL LS 11th92
2005 P-1 Racing LBH
Ret
MTY POR1 POR2 CLE1 CLE2 TOR EDM SJO DEN ROA MTL 11th1251
1 C2 Class

Indy Lights

YearTeam1234567891011121314RankPoints
2005 AFS Racing HMS PHX STP INDY
17
TXS IMS NSH MIL KTY PPIR SNM CHI WGL FON 31st13

IndyCar Series

YearTeamChassisEngine12345678910111213141516RankPointsRef
2015 Dale Coyne Racing Dallara DW12 Honda STP NLA LBH
Wth
ALA
IMS
INDY
DET
DET
TXS
TOR
FON
MIL
IOW
MDO
POC
SNM
NC- [5]
* Season still in progress

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References

  1. Rocky Moran Jr., Champ Car Stats, Retrieved 2015-04-17
  2. Miller, Robin. IndyCar: Rocky Moran Jr. to test for Schmidt Peterson Motorsport Archived 2015-07-25 at the Wayback Machine , September 22, 2014, Retrieved 2015-04-17
  3. DeZinno, Tony. BREAKING: Rocky Moran Jr. to replace Huertas in Coyne’s No. 18 for Long Beach, NBC Sports, April 17, 2015, Retrieved 2015-04-17
  4. Cavin, Curt. Conor Daly replaces Rocky Moran Jr. in IndyCar ride, Indianapolis Star, April 18, 2015, Retrieved 2015-04-19
  5. "Rocky Moran Jr. – 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 1, 2023.