DANNY WATTS

Date of Birth: 31 December 1979
Place of Birth: Aylesbury, UK
Lives: Buckinghamshire, UK
Hobbies: Oxford United FC soccer club supporter, karting, fitness, travelling, music

Danny’s season with Strakka Racing in 2010 established him firmly among the great sports car drivers of the modern day. His record behind the wheel of the Strakka Racing LMP2 HPD ARX-01c race car speaks for itself; six races, six pole positions, at times more than two seconds faster than anyone else out on track. A faultless season of racing followed, and Danny is now hot property in endurance racing.

Danny graduated from karting in 1998, winning the Formula First title at his first attempt. He moved through the single seat categories and became the Formula Renault champion in 2002. He continued in single seaters until the opportunity to race in the Porsche Carrera Cup in Asia arose in 2005.

He competed in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB in 2006, drove for Panoz in 2007, but really rose to prominence at the Petit Le Mans in 2007. In a Ginetta, he finished fourth in the LMP1 class that helped to get him noticed.

In a busy 2008, Danny was an A1GP Team GBR driver, taking pole and scoring two 3rd places at Chengdu Circuit in China. He also contested the Porsche Supercup, supporting the Formula One Grands Prix, finished runner-up in the Macau GT race in a Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Car and was 4th overall in LMP1 class of the American Le Mans Series at Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

Danny joined Strakka Racing in 2009 and immediate took pole at the opening round of the Le Mans Series in Barcelona in an LMP1 Ginetta-Zytek. In addition to a full season with the team, he also finished 3rd in Porsche SC Global Carrera Cup Asia race supporting the Singapore GP and 3rd in Macau GT Cup race driving a Porsche 997 GT3 car.

A new association with Honda Performance Development opened a new chapter in 2010 for Strakka Racing, when it ran an LMP2 twin-turbo V6 engined HPD ARX-01c. Danny was right at the heart of the team’s success, which included pole, LMP2 victory and 5th overall at the Le Mans 24 Hours, plus an historic outright Le Mans Series win at the Hungaroring – a first for an LMP2 car.

Danny returned to the LMS in 2011, although it was to be a character-building year for the entire Strakka Racing team, as the HPD ARX-01d now had to run with an air-restricted performance disadvantage. Despite this, Danny still managed to put the car on pole at Spa and Silverstone and helped the team finish runner-up in LMP2 for a second consecutive season.