Race Car Driving
Priestley's hobbies include race car driving. He rallied a Toyota Celica All-Trac ST185 in the SCCA Pro Rally Series during the early to mid-1990s. He has provided commentary and interviews of racers for ABC's TV coverage of IndyCar racing. In 1999 he participated in the first Gumball 3000 rally, driving a Lotus Esprit V-8. On August 11, 2002, he was seriously injured during a practice run at the Kentucky Speedway when his Indy Pro Series car crashed into a wall at nearly 180 miles per hour. Luke Perry visited him in the hospital, as they are good friends in real life. After the accident he was initially transferred to University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center where he was admitted to Trauma ICU in critical condition. After being stabilized he was then transferred to an Indianapolis hospital where he made a quick and full recovery.
According to a January 2008 Associated Press article, it was announced that Priestley would become a joint owner in a new IndyCar Series team. The new team was known as Rubicon Race Team managed by co-owner Jim Freudenberg. They initially entered a car in the 2008 Indianapolis 500. The car was prepared by Indianapolis-based Sam Schmidt Motorsports and the driver was Max Papis.
In the article, Priestley said, "I'm excited to be able to spend the month of May in Indy with my good friends and be a part of the greatest open wheel race," "It's been more than five years since my accident, and it's going to be so good to get to see everyone." Despite the team's enthusiasm, it suffered a crash during the second weekend of qualifying then had subsequent gearbox problems and failed to qualify for the race.
Priestley is an owner of the new FAZZT Race Team, which is competing full-time in the IndyCar Series in 2010 with Canadian racer Alex Tagliani. The number is 77 and the sponsor is Bowers & Wilkins speakers. In 2011 Sam Schmidt Motorsports bought out the team and welcomed the 77 to the stable. The team qualified on the pole with Alex Tagliani. In October 2011, 2 - Time Indy 500 Champion Dan Wheldon took the wheel starting in Kentucky. At the Las Vegas Race, He lost his life in a 15 car mele in turn 2.
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Famous quotes containing the words race, car and/or driving:
“Home? I have no home. Hunted, despised, living like an animal. The jungle is my home. But I will show the world that I can be its master. I will perfect my own race of people, a race of atomic supermen, which will conquer the world.”
—Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1922–1978)
“The car as we know it is on the way out. To a large extent, I deplore its passing, for as a basically old- fashioned machine, it enshrines a basically old-fashioned idea: freedom. In terms of pollution, noise and human life, the price of that freedom may be high, but perhaps the car, by the very muddle and confusion it causes, may be holding back the remorseless spread of the regimented, electronic society.”
—J.G. (James Graham)
“Most of the rules and precepts of the world take this course of pushing us out of ourselves and driving us into the market place, for the benefit of public society.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)