JMB Racing USA and Eliseo Salazar, the Chilean motor sports star, announced today that he will be driving for the JMB Racing USA Team in the American Le Mans Series. Starting at the Atlanta Grand Prix at Road Atlanta on June 29th, he will join Stephan Gregoire at the wheel of the team’s Ferrari 360 Modena GT for the remainder of the ALMS season.  

Salazar brings to the team an accomplished, diverse and successful background, spanning over twenty-five years of racing in virtually all the disciplines: Indeed, Eliseo Salazar is the only Chilean driver to have competed in Formula One, the Indianapolis 500, the 24 hours of Le Mans and the 24 hours of Daytona. His diversity even covers championships in rally racing, where he won the Chilean Rally Hill Climb Championships twice. 

In the early eighties he competed in Formula One, with March, Ensign and ATS. In the late eighties he competed at the 24 hours of Le Mans as part of the winning Silk Cut Jaguar team. Autosport, the British magazine, honored him with the Sportsman of the Year Award in 1990. In the nineties, he moved to the USA and competed both in sports cars, winning numerous IMSA races on the Ferrari 333SP, and in Indy cars. He finished fourth in his rookie year at the Indy 500 in 1995, qualified on the front row at Indy in 1996 and finished third overall in 2000.  In the overall IRL point standings, Salazar obtained fourth position both in 2000 and 2001, showing one of the highest finishing records between 1997 and 2002. 

“ I am really looking forward to this season with JMB Racing USA. The JMB Racing Team has had many sports car successes with Ferrari and I felt that coupled with my past success with Ferrari, it would be a great match for me,“ Salazar said. Salazar drove the Ferrari 333SP Prototype for Team Momo and went on to win three of seven starts in the IMSA World Sports Car Championships in 1994, winning consecutive races from the pole position at Lime Rock, Watkins Glen and Indianapolis Raceway Park. 

Ludovico Manfredi, co-owner of JMB Racing USA added: “Eliseo brings the mix of experience and speed needed for a top team. He has demonstrated in his career that he can be quick and that he can finish races. In our first ALMS season, these are the attributes we were looking for in our drivers. I am also happy to bring two successful IRL drivers to our team. It shows that they have confidence in our organization as well as in the potential of the American Le Mans Series.”

Scott Atherton, President and CEO of the ALMS said, "It is gratifying that drivers from many diverse forms of racing are choosing to compete in the American Le Mans Series.  It has been our intention to create a platform that is attractive to drivers, race teams, manufacturers and sponsors, making our series a viable alternative to other forms of racing."