Chris Festa (born September 5, 1985) is an American former auto racing driver who last competed in the Indy Lights Series in 2008.
He began his career in 1998 in go-karting and later became a driver for Paul Tracy Karting. He captured a total of 62 wins in his first seven years of competition. He raced in Formula Ford Zetec in 2003 and in the Toyota Atlantic Championship in 2004, where he drove for Rahal Letterman Racing and was teammates with Danica Patrick.
Festa first raced in the Infiniti Pro Series (later Indy Lights) in 2005 with Sam Schmidt Motorsports, placing sixth overall. He moved to Cheever Racing for the following season and finished eighth overall after being forced to miss the doubleheader meeting at Infineon Raceway due to undergoing treatment for mononucleosis.
He was part of the No. 7 SAMAX Motorsport Daytona Prototype team at the 2007 24 Hours of Daytona, where they finished in sixth place.
Festa continued to compete in Indy Lights that year, driving the No. 9 car full-time for Target Chip Ganassi Racing. He took pole for the season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway and finished tenth overall. He also participated in an IndyCar test at The Milwaukee Mile alongside regular team driver Scott Dixon and made a single Rolex Sports Car Series start for Ganassi at Watkins Glen, where he placed second alongside teammates Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas.
Festa returned to Indy Lights in 2008 with the Alliance Motorsports team, but left both the team and the series after 7 of 16 races and finished 22nd in points. He has not competed professionally since. His best career finish in 46 Indy Lights starts was second place, which he achieved on three occasions.
Festa is a brother of Kappa Sigma at Florida State University, where he majored in marketing.
Complete motorsports results
American Open-Wheel racing results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest race lap)
USF2000 National Championship results Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Pos Points 2003 PR1 Motorsports SEB1 SEB2 LRP1 LRP1 MOH1 MOH2 ROA1 ROA2 MOH3 MOH4 ATL1 ATL2 11th 107
Atlantic Championship Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Rank Points 2004 Team Rahal/LettermanLBHMTYMILPOR1POR2CLETORVANROADENMTLLS 8th 172
Indy Lights Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Rank Points 2005 HMSPHXSTPINDTXSIMSNSHMILKTYPPIRSNMCHIWGLFON 6th 387 2006 Cheever RacingHMSSTP1STP2INDYWGLIMSNSHMILKTYSNM1SNM2CHI 8th 205 2007 Chip Ganassi RacingHMSSTP1STP2INDYMILIMS1IMS2IOWWGL1WGL2NSHMOHKTYSNM1SNM2CHI 10th 313 2008 Alliance MotorsportsHMSSTP1STP2KANINDYMILIOWWGL1WGL2NSHMOH1MOH2KTYSNM1SNM2CHI 22nd 119
References
External links Official Homepage