Romain Dumas – Modern Day Mario

Dumas piloting a Porsche at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in 2013.  [Photo by Jack Webster]

By Eddie LePine and Jack Webster

Think of the specialization in motorsports today. Professional drivers choose a type of racing and stick to it – IndyCar, Formula One, NASCAR, Sports Cars, etc. Seldom do you see a driver move from one form of racing to another, let alone excel at more than one discipline.

Back in the day, not that long ago, drivers such as Mario Andretti would be racing a stock car one week, a prototype sports car the next and Formula One the next. Of course, one of the main reasons was to make a living – even the top professionals back then had to look for various types of rides throughout the season to make a decent living.

With the advent of big money sponsorships and large manufacturer commitments, the contracts for the top professional drivers have gotten a lot better, offering financial security to the select few who are at the top of the pyramid, without the need to be racing something different every weekend.

However, Romain Dumas, a very talented French driver who is at the top of that professional pyramid, seems to be a bit of a throwback to that “I’ll drive anything” era. Not that he needs to, mind you, as he is currently under contract to the Porsche factory and is one of the key drivers nominated to drive the brand new and radical Porsche 919 Hybrid prototype. Romain’s employment is quite secure.

He seems to have a desire to drive as many different kinds of race cars in as many different venues as possible, quite unusual in the modern era. Not only has he continued to drive a wide variety of cars, he has been extremely successful at it as well.

He got his start in racing in 1992, with karting, the same career path that many of the top drivers of today have taken. From there it was on to Formula cars, even testing for Renault Formula One in 2002.  However, his career has taken a different path, mainly toward sports cars. He has competed in every 24 Hours of Le Mans since 2001, having won the GTE Pro class in 2013 for Porsche and taking the overall victory in 2010 for Audi. He has won the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring, the 12 Hours of Sebring (both class and overall for Porsche), and even won the American Le Mans P2 Championship in 2007 (also in a Porsche).

His latest passion? Pike’s Peak, where as a rookie in 2012 he put in a blistering performance, taking a Porsche GT3R to a class victory and the 6^th fastest time ever recorded on the demanding circuit and the “race to the clouds”.

Romain will be back at Pike’s Peak this year, with his own team and a Norma M20 with Honda power – going for both the overall victory and perhaps the fastest time ever recorded in the event. All of this will take place the end of June, just two weeks after Le Mans.

Romain Dumas is a busy man, and he likes it that way. We are sure he is always looking at his calendar to see how many weekends he still has free, so he can make plans to be a another racetrack, to drive another car, and to always be trying something different – just like they did in the old days.

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