Lightning McQueen

*"Kachow!"*
―Lightning McQueen

Lightning McQueen is a current WGP racer from 2011 to 2016 and came back in 2021 to replace Cruz Ramirez after her injury at Moscow and will race for the rest of the 2020's and even the 2030's.

He has a total of 26 wins and 4 championships. He usually does well at European tracks like Porto Corsa, Paris, Berlin and Barcelona and tracks outside of Europe like Tokyo, Sao Paulo, New York and Las Vegas. His best seasons were 2012, 2013, and 2021 with 2016 being the worst. 2014 was decent and 2015 was good but not as good as compared to 2012, 2013 or 2021.

Lightning holds a couple of records, including most wins in a single WGP/IRGP season which he achieved in 2013 by winning 8 races and also becoming the first racer to win the championship before the London race, also achieved in 2013. He is also the only backup racer to ever win a race, winning the 2021 Paris Grand Prix as a backup for Cruz Ramirez.

## Career

### 2011-2016 (First years)

Lightning debuted in 2011 being one of the 11 racers that were invited to the first-ever World Grand Prix. He nearly won his first race at Tokyo but an error on the last lap made him loose the race to Francesco Bernoulli. He would finally get his first win at Porto Corsa but unfortunnately he didn't win the London race as it was completely ruined by the Lemons.

In 2012, he started very strong the year winning the first two races at Tokyo and Paris and in the next three races he didn't win but still finished 2nd. McQueen won again at Berlin and after that, he went winless for the rest of the season and even had his first DNF at the Buenos Aires race after crashing on lap 14. Still, McQueen finished 2nd in the other races and after a long loosing streak, Lightning won the London race and not only that. His very **first** WGP championship.

2013 would be Lightning's ultimate year. He won **8** out of 12 races which were at Tokyo, Paris, Porto Corsa, New York, Berlin, Shanghai, Barcelona and London. Suprisingly he had no DNFs this season and in the races he didn't win he finished 2nd. Best of all is that he won the championship way before the last race at London because of his domination.

Lightning started off 2014 strongly winning the first race at Tokyo and finished 2nd in the next 5 races. However, around Shanghai or so, he began to have some competition with Francesco Bernoulli and even had a crash that race. McQueen rebounded finishing 2nd at Las Vegas and Barcelona but in London he had tough competition with Francesco and unfortunnately lost the 2014 championship to him.

McQueen had a rough start to the 2015 season after an engine failure at the first race at Tokyo but after that he rebounded and two races later he got his first win of the season at Sao Paulo after a tough battle with Carla Veloso. Lightning then went winless for many races and even had competition with Francesco again. However, McQueen shockingly won the last 3 races at Las Vegas, Barcelona and London all IN A ROW and took his 3rd WGP Championship.

Unfortunnately, after a great racing career, 2016 would come and be his worst year. He began the season strongly with a couple of Top 3s and even won a race being at Porto Corsa. However, around the Berlin race, his performance began to decline as he would began to walk away from the top positions and even had 3 DNFs in a row at Melbourne, Shanghai and Buenos Aires. At Barcelona he had bad luck again. His sudden decline was due to the fact that the Next Gens were dominating the Piston Cup circuit, which affected McQueen's performance.

After 2016, he had a long hiatus from the WGP and worked as Cruz Ramirez's crew chief for some years.

### 2021-Present (Comeback)

In 2021, Cruz Ramirez had a rough crash in the 2021 Moscow Grand Prix which caused her to miss some races in both Piston Cup and WGP. For everyone's shock, Lightning McQueen signed to cover her for 1 Piston Cup race and 2 WGP races. Somehow, Lightning won his comeback race at the Paris Grand Prix and the next race he finished 2nd. Due to his amazing comeback, this convinced him to race for the rest of the season. For the rest of the season, McQueen had some competition with racers such as his old rival Francesco Bernoulli and Spencer Carlinton Jr. McQueen even won two more races which were at Sao Paulo and New York and after so he was the points leader for the rest of the season. Best of all is that McQueen WON the championship after 5 years and this has convinced him to continue his racing career (Now on WGP) meanwhile Cruz Ramirez retires from the WGP.

In 2022, he began the season finishing 5th at Tokyo and in the next three races he struggled a bit finishing 7th at Moscow, 8th at Paris and 6th at Porto Corsa. At New Rearendia he rebounded as he came pretty close to winning the race finishing 2nd behind Spencer Carlinton Jr. He's currently 5th in the standings.

## Pit Crew

* Crew Chief - Tow Mater
* Tire Changer - Guido
* Luigi
* Sarge
* Gascar- Fillmore
* Private Jet - John Flywing

## Career Wins

1. 2011 Porto Corsa
2. 2012 Tokyo
3. 2012 Paris
4. 2012 Berlin
5. 2012 London
6. 2013 Tokyo
7. 2013 Paris
8. 2013 Porto Corsa
9. 2013 New York
10. 2013 Berlin
11. 2013 Shanghai
12. 2013 Barcelona
13. 2013 London
14. 2014 Tokyo
15. 2015 Sao Paulo
16. 2015 Las Vegas
17. 2015 Barcelona
18. 2015 London
19. 2016 Porto Corsa
20. 2021 Paris
21. 2021 Sao Paulo
22. 2021 New York
23. 2021 London
24. 2022 Melbourne
25. 2022 Las Vegas
26. 2022 Barcelona

## Gallery

Mater and Lightning McQueen Meet the Queen - Pixar Cars