Memo Gidley

José Guillermo "Memo" Gidley is a Mexican-American racing driver, of German and Canadian ancestry, born in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico in September 29, 1970. He holds dual citizenship - American and Mexican.

Shortly after high school, Memo decided to pursue his dream of racing cars – a dream that was born in 1991 after his uncle, Jon, had taken him to see an IndyCar race at the legendary Laguna Seca Raceway near Monterey, California. The first time he saw the cars race through the world famous “corkscrew” section of the track, he knew he wanted to become a racing driver. Without the money to start his career, he referred to a flyer he had found blowing around the infield of Laguna Seca Raceway. Leaving his apartment and moving down to Monterey, Memo enrolled in the mechanics-training program at the Jim Russell Racing School. In exchange for working in the school’s shop, Memo was able to begin driving and raced in the USAC Russell Championship Series. In his first race, Memo surprised the competition by qualifying on pole and leading the race from start to finish. Although it was his rookie season, Memo went on to win the 1992 series championship, winning nine of eleven races. After winning his first championship and graduating from the Mechanics Training Program, Memo moved to San Francisco to race for the Trackmagic Factory Kart team and to continue to pursue his dream of racing cars, successfully moving up through increasingly faster racing series, eventually getting a chance in Champ Car with Derrick Walker in 1999, although this was as a short-term replacement. He did the same task for Gerry Forsythe a year later, and Chip Ganassi in 2001, twice coming close to race victories. He nearly retained his drive for 2002 - Chip later suggested that they keep Bruno Junqueira over him as the Brazilian was under contract.

He has raced assorted sports cars since, although he made two Champ Car starts for Rocketsports in 2004, and briefly ran in the rival IRL series. Since 2005 he has competed full-time in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, co-driving with Michael McDowell to a victory in the Mexico City season finale. In 2006 he raced in the Team Playboy cars and in 2007 he partnered Max Angelelli in the SunTrust Racing team. In 2010 Gidley co-drove Team CytoSport's Porsche RS Spyder with Germany's Klaus Graf and Sascha Maassen to second in class (and overall) at Laguna Seca, but he reportedly hasn't given up on a return to major open wheel racing.

In the 2014 24 Hours of Daytona, Gidley suffered serious injuries when his Corvette DP slammed into the back of a Ferrari being driven by Matteo Malucelli. Malucelli's car had lost power and had rolled to a near stop on the track, when Gidley hit him at approximately 120 miles per hour (190 km/h). Gidley was taken by ambulance to Halifax Health Medical Center, where doctors diagnosed him with a broken back and leg and arm injuries. Gidley had eight surgeries that took him three years to recover.

American Open-Wheel racing results

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Complete USF2000 National Championship results

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Pos	Points
1995	Cape Motorsports	PIR1 46	PIR2 1	IRP 1	RIR 4	WGI 43	MDO1 1	NHS 2	ATL1 6	ATL2 2	MDO1 7	2nd	???

CART/Champ Car

• ^ New points system implemented in 2004

Indy Racing League

Indy 500 results

Complete American Le Mans Series results