# Gunnar Jeannette

Gunnar Patrick Jeannette (born May 5, 1982 in West Palm Beach, Florida) is an American racing driver who serves as the Team Principal for AO Racing. He won the 2011 American Le Mans Series season LMPC Drivers' Championship.

## Early racing career

Jeannette started racing, driving in Historic Sports Car racing at the age of 16. He made the jump to the professional ranks less than one year later.

## American Le Mans Series

Jeannette made his American Le Mans Series debut in 2000, scoring six top-10 finishes in seven starts in both the Prototype and GT classes. In 2002, he made his LMP900 class debut in a Panoz before moving to the factory supported JML Team Panoz squad in 2003, where he scored his best-ever overall finish of third (2nd in class) at Mosport.
For 2004, Jeannette moved back to GT2, piloting the Panoz Esperante GTLM for what turned out to be a three-year stint with two different teams. His best result was a fourth at Mosport and Petit Le Mans with co-driver Tommy Milner in 2006.
After making a handful of starts in 2008 for Corsa Motorsports, Jeannette returned to full-time ALMS competition in 2010 in the new LMPC class. Driving for his father's Green Earth Team Gunnar outfit, Jeannette became the first LMPC pole winner in series history. He went on to win four races with Elton Julian and finish 2nd in the Drivers Championship that year.
Jeannette joined CORE autosport for 2011 and continued his streak of success in LMPC, taking two wins, three pole positions and three fastest race laps en route to the LMPC Drivers Championship. He shared the honor with season-long co-driver Ricardo Gonzalez and Genoa Racing's Eric Lux, who ended up on equal points to the CORE autosport duo.

## 24 Hours of Le Mans

At the age of 18, Jeannette became the youngest-ever driver to finish the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in his race debut in 2000. He's since competed an additional seven times, with a best finish of fifth overall in 2003.

## Grand-Am

Jeannette made his debut in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series GTU class at the 2000 Rolex 24 at Daytona. He won his first-ever Rolex Series race one year later in the GTS class and has since made sporadic starts in the series.
In 2005, Jeannette ran his first full season in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, finishing sixth in GS Points Standings with two victories to his credit driving for Multimatic Motorsports. He returned to full-time competition in 2010 with co-driver Frankie Montecalvo, finishing 10th in the GS class championship.
For 2012, Jeannette rejoined Multimatic Motorsports for its new Street Tuner-class Ford Focus ST-R development program.

## FIA World Endurance Championship

Jeannette made his FIA World Endurance Championship debut in the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on May 5, 2012, co-driving the No. 58 Luxury Racing Ferrari F458 Italia with Frankie Montecalvo and Pierre Ehret to a fifth-place finish in the GTE-Am class. The trio did not finish the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans after suffering an accident during the overnight hours.

## 24H Series

Jeannette made his 24H Series return, at the first round of 2021 in the Dubai 24 Hour at the Dubai Autodrome for Simpson Motorsport in an Audi RS3 LMS TCR. He had previously raced in 2013 in a Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 for Ram Racing.

## Personal life

Jeannette is an avid extreme sporting enthusiast. Since 2004, he's racked up more than 1,500 skydives and 200 BASE jumps from all corners of the globe. Jeannette has also participated in world record skydives and has been featured on MTV, People Magazine, USA Today and several other local and national publications.

## 24 Hours of Le Mans results

| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
| 2000 | Manthey Racing Gunnar Racing | Michael Brockman Mike Lauer | Porsche 911 GT3-R | GT | 261 | 27th | 6th |
| 2001 | Freisinger Motorsport | Romain Dumas Philippe Haezebrouck | Porsche 911 GT3-RS | GT | 282 | 7th | 2nd |
| 2002 | Panoz Motor Sports | Bill Auberlen David Donohue | Panoz LMP01 Evo-Élan | LMP900 | 230 | DNF | DNF |
| 2003 | JML Team Panoz | Olivier Beretta Max Papis | Panoz LMP01 Evo-Élan | LMP900 | 360 | 5th | 3rd |
| 2004 | Epsilon Sport | Renaud Derlot Gavin Pickering | Courage C65-JPX | LMP2 | 124 | DNF | DNF |
| 2006 | Multimatic Motorsport Team Panoz | Scott Maxwell Tommy Milner | Panoz Esperante GT-LM | GT2 | 34 | DNF | DNF |
| 2008 | Team Bruichladdich Radical | Marc Rostan Ben Devlin | Radical SR9-AER | LMP2 | 297 | 31st | 6th |
| 2012 | Luxury Racing | Pierre Ehret Frankie Montecalvo | Ferrari 458 Italia GTC | GTE Am | 146 | DNF | DNF |
| 2023 | Project 1 – AO | Matteo Cairoli P. J. Hyett | Porsche 911 RSR-19 | GTE Am | 309 | 35th | 7th |
| Sources: ||||||||

### Complete European Le Mans Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)
| Year | Team | Class | Make | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Rank | Points |
| 2013 | Ram Racing | LMGTE | Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 | Ferrari F142 4.5L V8 | SIL 3 | IMO 3 | RBR 3 | HUN 6 | LEC 5 | 5th | 63 |
| 2020 | JMW Motorsport | LMGTE | Ferrari 488 GTE Evo | Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8 | LEC | SPA 9 | LEC 7 | MNZ 6 | ALG 7 | 11th | 26 |
| Source: ||||||||||||

### Complete IMSA SportsCar Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)
| Year | Team | Class | Make | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Rank | Points |
| 2014 | PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports | PC | Oreca FLM09 | Chevrolet 6.2L LS3 V8 | DAY 4 | SEB 9 | LGA 4 | KAN 4 | WGL 3 | IMS 5 | ELK 7 | VIR 8 | COT 4 | PET 3 | | | 4th | 255 |
| 2016 | Alex Job Racing | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | Porsche 4.0L Flat-6 | DAY 13 | SEB 5 | LGA | DET | WGL 5† | MOS | LIM | ELK 13 | VIR | AUS | PET | | 23rd | 66 |
| 2017 | Riley Motorsports - WeatherTech Racing | GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | Mercedes-AMG M159 6.2 V8 | DAY 21 | SEB 21 | LBH 1 | COA 6 | DET 12 | WGL 4 | MOS 11 | LIM 10 | | | | | 11th | 254 |
| 2017 | Riley Motorsports - WeatherTech Racing | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | Porsche 4.0L Flat-6 | | | | | | | | | ELK 9 | VIR 6 | LGA 6 | PET 17 | 11th | 254 |
| 2018 | Scuderia Corsa | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | Ferrari F154CB 3.9 Turbo V8 | DAY 10 | SEB 2 | MDO | DET | WGL 7 | MOS | LIM 3 | ELK | VIR 4 | LGA 8 | PET 1 | | 4th | 295 |
| 2023 | AO Racing Team | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | Porsche 4.2 L Flat-6 | DAY 14 | SEB 16 | LBH | MON 11 | WGL 14 | MOS | LIM | ELK | VIR | IMS | PET 8 | | 27th | 995 |
| Source: ||||||||||||||||||||
$^†$ Jeannette did not complete sufficient laps in order to score full points.