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E. J. Viso
E. J. Viso at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May of 2009.
Nationality	Venezuelan
Date of birth	March 19, 1985 (1985-03-19) (age 24)
2010 IndyCar Series
Debut season	2008
Current team	HVM Racing
Car no.	13
Starts	22
Wins	0
Poles	0
Best finish	18th in 2008
Previous series
2001 2002 2002 2003-2004 2005-2007	Skip Barber Formula Dodge British Formula Renault Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup British F3 Championship GP2 Series
Championship titles
2003	National Class British F3 Champion

Ernesto José Viso Lossada (born March 19, 1985) is a Venezuelan race car driver. He is commonly referred to as Ernesto Viso or, since his move to American racing, E. J. Viso.

Viso was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He has raced in the 2005 and 2006 GP2 Series seasons, and has also driven the third car for Spyker MF1 Racing. In 2007 he competed in the GP2 Series for Racing Engineering. Since 2008 he has raced for HVM Racing in the IndyCar Series.

Career

Early racing

Viso's career started in karting back in 1993, where he stayed until 2001 when he moved to US Barber Formula Dodge East, becoming champion with confidence. He also raced in the Italian Formula Renault Winter Series at the end of that year, moving to British Formula Renault for 2002. In 2002 he also drove in one race of Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup, and at the end of the year in the British Formula Three Winter Series.

2003 saw a move to British Formula Three, where he raced in the B-Class and became champion after a controversial collision with his main rival during the final race of the season. He then moved to the main class in 2004, racing part of the season for the P1 team, his performances attracting the attention of F3000 team Durango who lured him to the series for the remainder of the season.

GP2

In 2005, he raced in the inaugural season of the GP2 Series for the BCN Competicion team, alongside Hiroki Yoshimoto. In 2006, he again raced in the GP2 Series for the iSport team. He won the San Marino Sunday race and the Spain Sunday race. He also drove the third Spyker MF1 Team car in the Friday practice sessions of the Brazilian Grand Prix.^[1]

Before the 2007 French Grand Prix, it was confirmed that Ernesto Viso would replace the underperforming Sérgio Jimenez at Racing Engineering.^[2] His race ended on the first lap in a spectacular collision with Michael Ammermüller and Kazuki Nakajima in which his car somersaulted over the barriers at tremendous speed, smashing through an advertising hoarding and narrowly missing a bridge (as luck would have it, hitting the board saved him from clouting the bridge and probably more severe injuries.), leaving the Venezuelan only a severe concussion and painful arm. This crash was very similar to the one of Marco Campos that happened on the same track in 1995, leading to Campos's death. Campos died of severe head trauma after hitting his head on the concrete barrier. Viso was only inches away from the same fate. For the British round, he was replaced by Filipe Albuquerque.^[3] Viso took part in the following race meeting, but was then replaced by Marcos Martinez.

Viso driving in the Indianapolis 500 in 2008

IndyCar Series

Viso competed in the newly united IndyCar Series in 2008 for HVM Racing. He made his first series start in the first oval race of his career on March 29. His next start, at St. Petersburg, was a superb performance ending with a 4th place finish. At Milwaukee he ended with an 8th place. Shortly after the Watkins Glen race (in which he finished 10th but forced Vitor Meira off the track, causing Meira to run back onto the track to confront Viso on the next lap) he was diagnosed with the Mumps and was forced to withdraw from the next race.^[4] Viso finished 18th overall in the 2008 series and has signed a contract to drive for HVM in 2009.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula One participations

(key)

American Open-Wheel

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

IndyCar

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2008	HVM	HMS Ret	STP 4	MOT1 DNP	LBH1 9	KAN 14	INDY Ret	MIL 8	TXS 14	IOW 13	RIR 10	WGL 10	NSH3 INJ	MDO 22	EDM 15	KTY 13	SNM 6	DET Ret	CHI Ret	SRF2 6	18th	286
2009	HVM	STP Ret	LBH Ret	KAN Ret	INDY Ret	MIL Ret	TXS Ret	IOW Ret	RIR 12	WGL 7	TOR 13	EDM 12	KTY 15	MDO 15	SNM Ret	CHI 17	MOT 15	HMS 16			18th	248

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

³ Pulled out of race after contracting mumps

Indianapolis 500 results

References

External links

• Official website