Quick Facts
Cancer
Biography
Gabriel "Gabby" Chaves (born 7 July 1993) is a Colombian-American racing driver.
Racing career
Early career
After winning numerous karting titles, Chaves began racing cars in 2007 in various Skip Barber series in the United States. In 2008 he made his pro debut in Formula BMW Americas and finished 4th in Formula BMW Pacific and finished 14th in the Formula BMW World Finals. In 2009 he competed in a full season of Formula BMW Americas for Eurointernational and won the title, capturing 5 wins and 3 poles.
Chaves brought his career to Europe in 2010, where he raced in the Italian Formula Three Championship with Eurointernational. He finished 10th in points and captured rookie of the year honors. In 2011 he signed to race with the Addax Team in the GP3 Series. Chaves finished 19th in points with a best finish of fourth at the Valencia Street Circuit.
American open-wheel racing
In 2012, Chaves return to the United States and signed with JDC Motorsports to race in the Star Mazda Championship. Chaves finished second in points with wins at the final two races of the season at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta. The driver climbed to the Indy Lights in 2013, having signed for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. He was runner-up with one win and ten podiums, and was part of the closest finish in the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (when Peter Dempsey grabbed the Freedom 100 victory as part of a four-wide photo finish. Dempsey finished ahead of Chaves by a mere 0.0026 seconds).
He signed on with Belardi Auto Racing for the 2014 Indy Lights season and won the championship, capturing four wins (including the Freedom 100) and 11 podiums in 14 races.
Chaves signed with Bryan Herta Autosport to race full-time at the IndyCar Series in 2015. Chaves led 31 laps at Pocono Raceway and had assumed the lead after leader and fellow rookie Sage Karam crashed, fatally injuring Justin Wilson in the process. Chaves led when the race was restarted with six laps to go but was passed for the lead. He was still on pace for his first podium finish when his engine let go with three laps remaining, bringing out a caution flag and effectively ending the race. The race was both Chaves' first laps led and only DNF of the season. Chaves captured the Rookie of the Year title by 78 points over Stefano Coletti.
Sports car racing
Chaves joined the DeltaWing entry at the four endurance races of the United SportsCar Championship in 2014. He led 15 laps of the 10-hour finale at Road Atlanta, the Petit Le Mans, helping the team to a season-high fourth-place finish.
Personal life
Chaves' father is a Colombian JetBlue airline pilot and Chaves has raced under both the American and Colombian flags.
Racing record
Complete GP3 Series results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Addax Team | IST FEA 10 | IST SPR 12 | CAT FEA 13 | CAT SPR 6 | VAL FEA 4 | VAL SPR 5 | SIL FEA Ret | SIL SPR 14 | NÜR FEA 27† | NÜR SPR 17 | HUN FEA 23 | HUN SPR Ret | SPA FEA 16 | SPA SPR 16 | MNZ FEA 17 | MNZ SPR 7 | 19th | 8 |
Star Mazda Championship
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | Rank | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | JDC Motorsports | STP 3 | STP 4 | BAR 3 | BAR 5 | IND 9 | IOW 5 | TOR 3 | TOR 4 | EDM 3 | EDM 3 | TRO 5 | TRO 2 | BAL 3 | BAL 8 | LAG 2 | LAG 1 | ATL 1 | 2nd | 360 |
Indy Lights
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Rank | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | STP 8 | ALA 3 | LBH 2 | INDY 2 | MIL 4 | IOW 2 | POC 3 | TOR 3 | MDO 1* | BAL 3 | HOU 2 | FON 2 | 2nd | 449 | ||
| 2014 | Belardi Auto Racing | STP 2 | LBH 1 | ALA 6 | ALA 1 | IND 11 | IND 8 | INDY 1 | POC 1 | TOR 2 | MDO 2 | MDO 3 | MIL 3 | SNM 2 | SNM 2 | 1st | 547 |
IndyCar Series
(key)
| Year | Team | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | Rank | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Bryan Herta Autosport | Dallara DW12 | Honda | STP 17 | NLA 15 | LBH 16 | ALA 16 | IMS 15 | INDY 16 | DET 18 | DET 9 | TXS 10 | TOR 15 | FON 20 | MIL 11 | IOW 16 | MDO 12 | POC 11 | SNM 14 | 15th | 281 | |
| 2016 | Dale Coyne Racing | STP | PHX | LBH | ALA | IMS 17 | INDY 20 | DET 12 | DET 13 | RDA 19 | IOW 17 | TOR | MDO | POC | TXS 14 | WGL | SNM | 22nd | 121 | |||
| 2017 | Harding Racing | Chevrolet | STP | LBH | ALA | PHX | IMS | INDY . | DET | DET | TEX | ROA | IOW | TOR | MDO | POC | GMP | WGL | SNM | -* | -* |
Indianapolis 500
| Year | Chassis | Engine | Start | Finish | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Dallara | Honda | 26 | 16 | Bryan Herta Autosport |
| 2016 | Dallara | Honda | 21 | 20 | Dale Coyne Racing |
* Season still in progress.
United SportsCar Championship
(key)
24 Hours of Daytona
| 24 Hours of Daytona results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Class | No | Team | Car | Co-drivers | Laps | Position | Class Pos. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2014 | P | 0 |  DeltaWing Racing Cars | DeltaWing DWC13 |  Katherine Legge Alexander Rossi Andy Meyrick | 288 | 61 DNF | 17 DNF | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||