“Live on Forever”: Brad Keselowski Mourns Passing of Fastest Driver Ever

The 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner and 2-time CART champion Gil de Ferran, 56, passed away on Friday after suffering a heart attack when he was at a private motorsport club in Opa Locka, Florida. Saddened by the loss of the icon, NASCAR star Brad Keselowski has joined several others from the racing world in expressing his sadness.

The RFK Racing co-owner/driver wrote, “His track record lap at Fontana will live on forever, trumped only by the praise from his fellow racers who always held him in the highest regard.”

The track record that Keselowski mentioned was the one De Ferran had set at the California Speedway in 2000. Racing for Roger Penske in IndyCar he hit a speed of 241.428 mph, which remains the fastest closed-circuit qualifying speed.

De Ferran’s run in America came on top of his racing stint in Europe. The icon began his career in the British Formula Three and moved to the International Formula 3000 before finding his way to open-wheel racing in CART. Once he got there, he won the 2000 and 2001 titles.

He ended up runner to his Team Penske fellow man Helio Castroneves in the 2001 Indianapolis 500, but ultimately beat him in 2003. In a career that spanned between 1995 and 2003, De Ferran won 12 races between the IndyCar Series and CART.

Surprising many, De Ferran chose to retire when he was at the pinnacle of his career at the age of 35. Leaving the wheel behind in 2003, he gripped it again 5 years later to race in the American Le Mans. Along with Simon Pagenaud, he won five of the ten races in the series and finished runner-up.

The racing world mourns the loss of Gil De Ferran

De Ferran’s major achievements came with Team Penske. The team’s top man Roger Penske, released a statement that read: “He was a great friend to the Team Penske and IndyCar family, as well as the entire international motorsports community. Gil’s passing is a terrible loss, and he will be deeply missed.”

Honda, the company that supplied the engines that led him to his CART championships, expressed its grief through the organization’s US president, David Salters. He said, “Listening to him recount his closed-course record run at Fontana raised the hair on the back of my neck and does once again now. (He was) an extremely talented man and brilliant racer.”

De Ferran was serving in an advisory role at McLaren’s F1 team when he passed. The legend will no doubt be missed across the wide world of motorsports.