Alexandre Tagliani (born October 18 1972) is a Canadian auto racing driver from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He will drive the #77 car for FAZZT Race Team in the IndyCar Series beginning in 2010. He drove in a Nationwide Series race at Montreal in 2009, finishing 26th after a late-race spin took him out of the top-ten.
Champ car career[]
He is most known for his Champ Car career. He raced in the series since 2000, when it was still known as CART, until its demise in 2007. He was signed by Forsythe Racing for the 2000 season replacing Greg Moore.
He came close to obtaining his first victory in only his third start, after taking pole position at Brazil and leading most of the race, but spun out from the lead with nine laps to go.
In 2001, he had the misfortune of being involved in the collision with Alex Zanardi which caused Zanardi's legs to be amputated.
He remained at Forsythe until the end of 2002, when he was substituted by Paul Tracy. He found a job with the Rocketsports team in 2003, and remained there for the 2004 season, in which he earned his first and only Champ Car victory at Road America.
In 2005 he joined Team Australia, which was essentially a rebranding of Derrick Walker's long-running team with the support of Australian businessman Craig Gore, and finished 7th in the championship despite lacking a race engineer. 7th would equal the best of his 3 top-10 championship finishes.
He returned to Rocketsports for the 2007 season, and finished 10th in points with a best finish of 4th in the first race of the season. He earned four pole positions during his Champ Car career.
Post-Champ Car - Stock Car and the Indycar Series[]
In 2008, after the Rocketsports team decided not to take part in the IndyCar Series, Tagliani made the transition to stock cars and began racing in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, winning one race. He also drove for Conquest Racing in the IndyCar Series Detroit Grand Prix, replacing the injured Enrique Bernoldi. Tagliani continued in the seat for the last two races of the season.
Conquest Racing has announced that Tagliani will return as a full-time driver in 2009. Alex Tagliani has started the 2009 season with victory in "Les 4 Heures Pole-Position", an annual karting race presented by Canadian media Pole-Position Magazine, held in Montreal January 31. However, the team ultimately concentrated on road and street course races after the Indianapolis 500. 9th place in Toronto proved his best result. Tagliani left Conquest after the 2009 Rexall Edmonton Indy.
It was announced on August 28th, 2009, that Tagliani has signed a four-year deal with an option for a fifth year to drive for startup FAZZT Race Team in the Indycar Series beginning in 2010.