Introducing.........................

[marcus]

David Besnard (pronounced Bernard)

Who is he ?
Whats happening with him ?
What is going on here ?
Well..............

You can read through THIS thread to learn whats happening or I can give you the skinny in this very thread.
David Besnard will take over the second PKV car at Surfers Paradise from Roberto Gonzalez for one race only.

So who is he and what is his history ?

Well i'm glad you asked


This is David Besnard and he is a current V8 Supercar driver here in Australia. His Bio read like this straight from the V8 Supercar website

Date of Birth: 21/01/1977
Place of Birth: Sydney
Lives: Gold Coast
Marital Status: Engaged
Height: 180cm
Weight: 80kg
Nickname: Bezzy
Hobbies & Interests: Dirt bikes, real estate

David has had an interesting and varied career in many different types of cars , He started in motor racing in 1985 at age eight in karting and moved to Italy at the age of 15 to pursue his motor racing dream.

After success in international karting winning the European Junior Championship he returned home to Australia to start Formula Ford racing.

His debut race in 1995 at Oran Park produced a victory and it seemed all was on the up for David , until he got to Eastern Creek and his world turned upside down with a horrifying shunt which left him with 2 broken legs , he was sidelined for most of the season but returned towards the end of the year and raced a 5 year old Formula Ford at the Bathurst 1000 support races still with pins in his legs , he still managed to finish an excellent 2nd in both races for the weekend.

1996 saw him purchase his own Formula Ford and form his own team to tackle the championship and with great success , David won the Australian Formula Ford Championship against the likes of jason bargwanna and Marcos Ambrose.

1997 david decided the US was where he should be and took up a chance to race in the US Formula Ford 2000 Championship , a limited budget meant he was only able to compete in 5 events but his results impressed enough to earn him a full drive in 1998.

1998 saw him make history in the states by winning the US Formula Ford 2000 championship by taking 8 Poles , 8 Race Victories and an impressive 9 qualifying and race lap records.

Money was the biggest problem and David's Career seem to struggle a bit in 1999 and he returned home to Australia with no drive's on the cards.

In late 99 he was offered a test drive with the stone brothers racing team in the Australian V8 Supercar series

In 2000 he joined the Stone Brothers driving in the Konica V8 series (The junior class of v8 supercar racing) , on debut at Lakeside Raceway in Queensland david took victory and also backed it up with another round win at Mallala later in the year and finished 5th in the Championship on debut. he joined the Stone Brothers Racing team in the main series for the end of year endurance races and finsihed an impressive 8th at the Queensland 500.

2001 David moved into the main v8 Supercar series with the Stone Brothers and finished a very good 2nd at the Oran Park Round and a front row start in the Queensland 500 , but the season proved frustrating for him.

2002 saw him stay with the Stone brothers and was arguably the most improved V8 driver after jumping from 27th in the series after round one to 8th at the conclusion. David had his first V8 Supercar win at the Queensland 500 partnering Simon Wills, and finished on the podium at Barbagallo.

2003 saw him move to a new team David joined the newly-formed Ford Performance Racing (FPR) team along with fellow Ford contracted drivers Craig Lowndes and Glenn Seton. David battled through the first half of the season with old equipment while the team went through a massive building process. It was decided that the team would be reduced to two cars in 2004 and that David would part ways with the team.

2004 saw David join another new team to the V8 series , WPS and has also had a tough year to date and currently sits way down in 28th in the Championship. he recently tested for PKV through a link up with his current team and it seems that he is certain to make his Campcar debut at Surfers paradise to become only the 3rd Aussie to race a Champcar there (Gary Brabham 1993,1994 and Jason Bright 2001)

I wish him well

[jklein6419]

i wish they would have added a third car instead.

[camcartfan]

Does this mean Josh Hunt won't get the ride? I hope so. Josh can't seem to keep his Atlantic car on the track.

[marcus]

No it seems Josh Hunt who was slated for the drive has been stood down from his Champcar duties and replaced by David Besnard.

[Kicking-back]

It seems a sensible move.

Hunt is by no means ready.

Lets hope Besnard can do well - but it will be tough.

[BootsOntheSide]

Marcus, you've been here long enough to know not to post whole articles.

Hunt was promised a drive, which they took form him. PKV promised 3 cars for the race - again, they've reneged on that promise.

[Kicking-back]

We don't know that Hunt was promised a drive.

Often things which are said publicly are not the same as what's been agreed behind the scenes.

There's certainly been no word of complaint heard publicly from Hunt at least.

[marcus]

what the heck are you talking about Boots ????

That wasnt an article , I typed it up myself and is solely a post so i dont know where your coming from ?

[BootsOntheSide]

My apologies marcus - looking at it again you're right, and it was a very impressive post.

[N I Tram]

WHat's the problem that it's a replacement for Gonzales and not a third car? CART has 18 on the grid, and Roberto is perhaps the second-worst of them. Besnard has a reasonable CV, although hopefully he can readjsut to single seaters well enough to do hismelf justice.

One thing's for sure - Jimmy's probably the best driver to learn the ropes from, as Zanardi, Montoya and Hunter-Reay can verify.

[marcus]

Thought I'd bring this back to the top.

This is go but with a slight change , besnard will now be driving for walker racing and not PKV.