by Michael Hogg

Created on: February 20, 2009

Juan Pablo Montoya is the kind of man motorsport shouldn't be able to produce. Jack-of-all-trades drivers are a very rare occurrence, being able to jump from single seater road-course cars into oval stock-cars should be the sort of thing that scares the average driver. Not JPM - he's the kind of driver who relishes a challenge and has the level of talent for different levels of motorsport that most can only dream of.

As the Columbian worked his way through the minor single-seat formulas with the dream of making it all the way to Formula One, he plyed his trade well and eventually became Formula 3000 champion at the second time of trying in 1998 just as he started testing for the Williams Formula 1 team. With no opportunity to step up to an F1 drive yet available, he moved Stateside in his search for glory and took the CART Championship in his rookie year, becoming the youngest champion at the age of 24. The following season was less successful as Toyota reliability issues held his team back but they also entered the Indianapolis 500, Montoya taking victory in the historic event at his first attempt.

Formula One beckoned and he entered four seasons behind the wheel of a Williams BMW. The team was not the powerhouse it had been in the 1990s and he struggled to achieve the hoped-for success, occasional race wins being the best he could hope for. Then came the switch to top team McLaren Mercedes in 2006. So much was hoped for but in the end he and the team never gelled, an injury keeping him out of the car mid season and a total breakdown of relations in the team not far into the 2007 season leading him to announce his switch to NASCAR the following year with his ex CART team Ganassi, his contract with McLaren being severed early so he could test and enter some lower level races with them.

After a fiery exit from his debut race at Miami at the end of 2006, he ran for and won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Rookie Of The Year award in 2007, learning his way around the tracks and the new car type well, despite a number of incidents of driving that other drivers found objectionable. His first victory on the road course at Sonoma also followed. 2008 saw him continue to learn the ins and outs of the art with his Dodge Avenger, though he suffered from a lot of bad luck, ending the season in 25th place in the standings compared to 20th in '07. For 2009 Ganassi have joined with DEI and will field the more competitive Chevrolet Impala platform. Many will be looking to see if Montoya can make a consistent break from the midfield.

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