| David Besnard | |||||||||||||||
| Nationality: | Australian | ||||||||||||||
| Birth Date: | 1977 1, df=yes | ||||||||||||||
| Birth Place: | Sydney, Australia | ||||||||||||||
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David John Besnard (born 21 January 1977 in Sydney, Australia) is a retired professional racing driver.
Starting in karts in 1991, he quickly proceeded into Formula Ford in 1995. After initial success, he had a major accident at Eastern Creek Raceway and broke his leg. In 1996 he made a comeback and won the Australian title.[1] He made a venture to the United States, with a small budget, and limited success. In 1998, he returned to win the U.S F2000 National Championship. 1999, saw David enter the US Formula Atlantic Championship. After a heavy crash at Nazareth Speedway, the team had to buy a new chassis and ran out of budget halfway through the season. 2000 saw Besnard again in the United States, running various Sports Car races, until Stone Brothers Racing picked him up for the Konica V8 Supercar Series and the Bathurst 1000. From there he drove with Stone Brothers for several seasons, with the highlight being winning the 2002 Queensland 500 with Simon Wills. He raced with Ford Performance Racing for one season in 2003, and WPS Racing for three seasons following that.
In 2004, with his links with WPS, a drive in the Champ Car World Series came about at Surfers Paradise. His finishing position of seventh is still the highest finish for an Australian at that event (but bettered by Ryan Briscoe's 2008 IRL win after the CCWS collapsed). After being dropped by WPS in 2006 Besnard has been racing in the New Zealand Touring Car Championship, picking up an endurance race co-driver role with Stone Brothers Racing in 2007, paired with James Courtney, which resulted in a second place at Bathurst.
| Year | Team | Car | Class | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Rank | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Transatlantic Racing | Riley & Scott - Ford | CA | D24 | HOM | MID | MIN | WGL | 43rd | 26 | |||||
| 2000 | Dyson Racing | Riley & Scott - Lincoln | SA | D24 | PHX | HOM | LRK | MID | DAY | RAM | CTR | WGL | 83rd | 22 |
(key)
(Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Car# | Team | Car | Co-driver | Position | Laps | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 9 | Stone Brothers Racing | Ford AU Falcon |  Tony Longhurst | DNF | 151 | |
| 2001 | 9 | Stone Brothers Racing | Ford AU Falcon | Matthew White | DNF | 84 | |
| 2002 | 5 | Glenn Seton Racing | Ford AU Falcon | Glenn Seton Owen Kelly‡ | DNF | 102 | |
| 9 | Stone Brothers Racing | Ford AU Falcon | Wayne Gardner | DNS | |||
| 2003 | 19 | Ford Performance Racing | Ford BA Falcon | Owen Kelly | DNF | 115 | |
| 2004 | 23 | WPS Racing | Ford BA Falcon |  John McIntyre | DNF | 99 | |
| 2005 | 48 | WPS Racing | Ford BA Falcon | Craig Baird | 8th | 158 | |
| 2006 | 8 | WPS Racing | Ford BA Falcon |  Max Wilson | 14th | 160 | |
| 2007 | 4 | Stone Brothers Racing | Ford BF Falcon | James Courtney | 2nd | 161 | |
| 2008 | 4 | Stone Brothers Racing | Ford BF Falcon | James Courtney | 3rd | 161 | |
| 2009 | 33 | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Holden VE Commodore | Greg Ritter | 9th | 161 | |
| 2010 | 33 | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Holden VE Commodore | Lee Holdsworth | 7th | 161 | |
| 2011 | 17 | Dick Johnson Racing | Ford FG Falcon | Steven Johnson | DNF | 112 | |
| 2012 | 14 | Brad Jones Racing | Holden VE Commodore | Fabian Coulthard | 23rd | 147 |
‡ Besnard replaced Kelly due to illness