David Empringham (born December 28, 1963) is a Canadian auto racing driver. He is a two-time Toyota Atlantic, one-time Indy Lights and two-time Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge champion. Most recently, Empringham won the 2012 Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge GS class driver's title with co-driver John Farano.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Empringham began his racing career in 1987, competing in the Spenard/David Formula 2000 series. He then competed regularly in the GM Motorsport series (teammate of Canadian racing legend Richard Spenard) for several years, drove a handful of races in the IMSA Firestone Firehawk series, the Porsche Turbo Cup and Formula Toyota Atlantic.

In 1992, Empringham began competing full-time in the Toyota Atlantic Championship, where he won back-to-back championships in 1993 and 1994. In 1993, David won the Championship with "underdog" CANASKA racing and Canadian Tire sponsorship, based out of Toronto, Ontario. 1994 saw Empringham move to the BDJS racing team, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, taking the Canadian Tire sponsorship with him. 1995 saw Empringham narrowly miss winning a third championship, being beat out by Richie Hearn for the title.

1996 saw Empringham make the move to Indy Lights, replacing Greg Moore, who had moved up to the team's CART operation, in the Player's/Forsythe racing Lola. 1996 saw many wins including a thrilling victory in the fastest Indy Lights race ever run on the high banks of Michigan International Speedway during the Inaugural US 500 weekend in May, and ultimately another Championship for "Emp's" mantle, taking the 1996 Indy Lights Title. 1997 saw some successes, but no championship.

In 2001, after several years out of the spotlight, David began competing Part-time in Grand-Am Cup and Grand-Am Motorola series races. During the 2005 season, he managed 2 victories and 8 top-ten finishes on his way to the GS series title with co-driver Scott Maxwell driving for Multimatic Motorsports.

Since then, Empringham has competed in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution in Time Attack events for the Sierra Enterprises (USA) team. Empringham is a two-time runner-up at the World Time Attack Challenge in Sydney, Australia (2010, 2011), both times losing out to Tarzan Yamada, who drives for the Japanese Cyber Evo team in a similar Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

In 2012 Empringham returned to full-time racing in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge with co-driver John Farano in the #83 BGB Motorsports Porsche Carrera. After a consistent season of points finished (however no wins), Empringham and John won the 2012 driver's title. In 2013, Dave returned to Multimatic Motorsports with Farano to compete in the CTSCC series in the #15 Aston Martin Vantage V8 Grand-Am race car.

Racing record

edit

American open–wheel racing results

edit

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

Atlantic Championship

edit
Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Rank Points
1991 Canaska Racing LBH PHX LIM MTL
23
WGL DMO TOR
6
TRR
DNS
VAN
11
MDO NAZ LAG1 LAG2 29th 15
1992 Canaska Racing MIA PHX LBH LIM MTL
24
WGL TOR
1
TRR
2
VAN
18
MDO
2
MOS
1
NAZ LAG1
2
LAG2
9
5th 96
1993 Canaska Racing PHX
7
LBH
3
ATL
3
MIL
3
MTL
2
MOS
3
HAL
2
TOR
2
NHA
DNS
TRR
1
VAN
3
MDO
4
NAZ
7
LAG1
3
LAG2
4
1st 195
1994 BDJS Racing PHX
9
LBH
10
MOS
4
MIL
2
MTL
2
TOR
2
TRR
1
MDO
5
VAN
1
NAZ
2
LAG
4
1st 162
1995 BDJS Racing MIA
4
PHX
1
LBH
1
NAZ
3
MIL
1
MTL
1
TOR
2
TRR1
1
TRR2
13
MDO
4
VAN
1
LAG
3
2nd 197

Indy Lights

edit
Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Rank Points Ref
1996 Forsythe Racing HMS
1
LBH
1
NAZ
2
MIS
1
MIL
3
DET
21
POR
3
CLE
21
TOR
6
TRO
4
VAN
5
LAG
6
1st 148 [1]
1997 Forsythe Racing HMS
1
LBH
10
NAZ
9
SAV
14
STL
4
MIL
2
DET
4
POR
7
TOR
3
TRO
5
VAN
5
LAG
26
FON
13
4th 107 [2]

References

edit
  1. ^ "Dave Empringham – 1996 Firestone / Dayton Indy Lights Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
  2. ^ "Dave Empringham – 1997 Firestone / Dayton Indy Lights Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
edit
Sporting positions
Preceded by Toyota Atlantic Champion
1993–1994
Succeeded by
Preceded by Indy Lights Champion
1996
Succeeded by