Gunnar Jeannette

Date of Birth: May 15th, 1982
Residence: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Race Team: Multimatic Motorsports Ford Racing

The son of experienced sports car team owner, restorer and team manager, Kevin Jeannette – Gunnar first drove a race car at aged 15 at a test session at Moroso Motorsports Park in Florida.

Gunnar made his racing debut in 1999 in historic sportscar racing at Road Atlanta. Jeannette competed at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, Sebring 12 Hour and 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2000 – at 18 he was the youngest ever to finish the French classic.

He finished second in GT at Le Mans in 2001 and became a factory test driver for Panoz the following year – competing at Sebring, Le Mans and Petit Le Mans with the team.

He drove for JML Team Panoz on a full-time basis in 2003, starring at Le Mans to finish fifth overall and third in LMP1 with a brilliant final stint in the car.

In 2004, Gunnar drove the new Panoz Esperante GT car in ALMS competition as well as contesting several Rolex Sports Car Series events. He joined Multimatic Motorsports full-time in 2005 contesting the Grand-Am Cup Championship aboard a Ford Mustang FR500C – winning at both at Fontana and Mosport.

Gunnar drove for Multimatic Motorsports again in 2010 in the #16 Mustang Boss 302R with Frank Montecalvo. The season was a development year for the new car, however Gunnar and Frank were able to score solid results at Mid-Ohio and Trois-Rivieres. Gunnar had an amazing year in the ALMS LMPC class in 2010, winning four times and finishing second in the championship with co-driver Frank Montecalvo.

In 2011, Gunnar acted as test driver for Multimatic Motorsports as well as racing in the ALMS LMPC class. The year proved to be very successful for Gunnar, as he co-won the LMPC driver’s title and notched the team championship for Core Autosport. During the off season, Gunnar acted as the lead development driver for the brand new Ford Racing Focus ST-R, which will be campaigned in the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Street Tuner class in 2012. As Multimatic Motorsports celebrates its 20th anniversary with its biggest ever racing program, Gunnar teams up with James Gue to pilot the #15 Focus ST-R in Grand-Am racing. Gunnar looks forward to developing the Focus ST-R into a worthy ST racer, and surely adding to the rich racing history Multimatic Motorsports and Ford Racing share.

Follow Gunnar on Twitter @gunnarjeannette