Mario Domínguez
Domínguez in 2008
Nationality	Mexican
Date of birth	December 1, 1975 (1975-12-01) (age 34)
Place of birth	Mexico City
2010 IRL IndyCar Series
Debut season	2008
Current team	Pacific Coast Motorsports
Car no.	96
Starts	7
Wins	0
Poles	0

Mario Domínguez (born December 1, 1975, in Mexico City, Mexico) is a IndyCar Series racing driver currently driving for Pacific Coast Motorsports. He was previously a long-time competitor in the CART and CCWS Champ Car series.

[edit] Early career

Domínguez first began racing in 1987 driving go-karts. He won three go-karting championships and represented Mexico in the World Karting Championships on three different occasions in Spain (1989), Italy (1990) and France (1991). He then raced in numerous developmental series in Mexico, eventually winning the Mexican Formula Three Championship in 1998 and moving to the American Indy Lights series full-time in 1999, finishing 8th in the championship in 2000 and 4th in the series' final year, 2001. He was slated to make his Champ Car debut in the first race of the 2001 season in his home county's race in Monterrey for the new Millennium Motorsports team, but the car never appeared.

[edit] Champ Car

Domínguez made his Champ Car debut the following year in 2002 and became Rookie of the Year, with his first Champ Car victory in 2002 at the Honda Indy 300, although this was in a rain-shortened race largely dictated by the safety car. He was more competitive in 2003, winning the Grand Prix Americas in Miami. In 2004 Domínguez had his best season to date by finishing 5th in the final standings. This success with Herdez Competition allowed him to sign with the Forsythe team for 2005. However, Domínguez saw limited success at Forsythe. After the first four races of the 2006 season where he crashed into his teammate Paul Tracy on the first lap twice, Domínguez and Forsythe parted ways. Before the next Champ Car race in Portland, Domínguez signed on to Dale Coyne Racing to drive the Sonny's BBQ Ford Lola-Cosworth. For the final 3 races of the season, Domínguez secured sponsorship from Mexican state-owned petroleum company Pemex to race for the slightly more competitive Rocketsports team. Along with Champ Car racing, Mario tested a Jordan Grand Prix Formula One racing car at the Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire, England, in 2005.

In 2007 he signed with Forsythe for the first three races of the season after obtaining sponsorship from Telmex, but was dropped after just a few rounds in favour of Oriol Servià. He remained out of a Champ Car ride until he replaced an injured Tristan Gommendy at PKV Racing at the Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton. The following week at the San Jose Grand Prix, he signed on with Pacific Coast Motorsports to fill in for Ryan Dalziel, who was injured in a bicycling accident. Dalziel recovered enough to return to racing two weeks later at Generac Grand Prix at Road America, returning Mario to the sidelines. But at the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder, Mario was again called on as a substitute after Dan Clarke of Minardi Team USA was suspended for the weekend after causing a multi-car crash in a practice session.

Dominguez practicing for the 2008 Indy 500 - he ultimately crashed during his last qualification attempt

[edit] Hit and Run Incident

According to the Mexican newspaper El Reforma^[1] Mario Dominguez, while driving intoxicated and the wrong way, was involved in two car accidents with two taxis in Mexico City. As he was trying to run from the first accident he hit another taxi. He was then stopped by the police after trying to escape from the second incident. He was let go after paying the taxi driver 20 dollars and taking pictures with the all the people involved. Mario Dominguez is Mexico City's Official Ambassador for Tourism and Sport.

[edit] IndyCar Series

In 2008, Dominguez announced that he would enter the remainder of the 2008 IndyCar Series season with Pacific Coast Motorsports, after placing third in the final Champ Car race at Long Beach.^[2] He was bumped from the field at the 2008 Indianapolis 500 and made his first true start in the series in the following race at the Milwaukee Mile. Since his 21st place finish at Texas Motor Speedway in June, Dominguez's team has skipped the next events to re-evaluate their program to be more competitive when they return.

[edit] FIA GT

In 2009, Mario has been offered a drive for the K Plus K Motorsport without the need to bring sponsorship. This will not be his first sportscar events, since he did a couple for a Risi Competizione American Le Mans Series team in 2006, delivering good results.

[edit] Motorsports Career Results

[edit] American Open Wheel

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

[edit] Champ Car

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Team	Rank	Points
2002	Herdez	MTY Ret	LBH Ret	MOT 11	MIL Ret	LS 15	POR 10	CHI 11	TOR Ret	CLE Ret	VAN Ret	MDO Ret	ROA 8	MTL Ret	DEN 14	ROC 13	MIA 11	SRF 1	FON Ret	MXC Ret	Herdez	18th	37
2003	Herdez	STP Ret	MTY 13	LBH 5	BRH 3	LSZ 2	MIL 8	LS 10	POR 10	CLE 5	TOR 12	VAN 10	ROA Ret	MDO Ret	MTL 5	DEN 7	MIA 1	MXC 3	SRF 10	FON Canc	Herdez	6th	118
2004	Herdez	LBH 5	MTY 3	MIL 8	POR Ret	CLE 8	TOR Ret	VAN 6	ROA 5	DEN 4	MTL 3	LS 11	LVS 7	SRF 3	MXC 8						Herdez	5th	244*
2005	Forsythe	LBH 5	MTY Ret	MIL 7	POR 4	CLE Ret	TOR Ret	EDM 5	SJO 5	DEN 2	MTL 10	LVS 4	SRF Ret	MXC 12							Forsythe	9th	198
2006	Forsythe	LBH 4	HOU 3	MTY 6	MIL Ret	POR 14	CLE 6	TOR 11	EDM 8	SJO 5	DEN Ret	MTL 10	ROA 12	SRF 2	MXC Ret						Rocketsports	9th	201
2007	Forsythe	LVS 9	LBH Ret	HOU 6	POR	CLE	MTT	TOR	EDM Ret	SJO 12	ROA	ZOL Ret	ASN	SRF 12	MXC 8						Pacific Coast	18th	78

* New points system implemented in 2004

[edit] IndyCar

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2008	Pacific Coast	HMS	STP	MOT1 DNP	LBH1 3	KAN	IND DNQ	MIL Ret	TXS 21	IOW DNP	RIR DNP	WGL 13	NSH DNP	MDO 19	EDM Ret	KTY	SNM 16	DET	CHI	SRF2	27th	112

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

[edit] References

• Forsythe Signs Dominguez (March 30, 2005)
• Champ Car Veteran Mario Dominguez Joins Pacific Coast Motorsports (July 25, 2007)

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mario Domínguez

• Mario Dominguez profile provided by CBS SportsLine