Scott Sharp
8 Dallara/Aurora
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1997 Season in Review
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1996 IRL co-champion Scott Sharp opened the 1996-97 season with a win at New Hampshire in the turbocharged Indy cars that preceded the league's new formula. The promising season with AJ Foyt Enterprises took a frightening turn during practice for the Indianapolis 500. Sharp endured two hard crashes, the second causing a serious head injury. Sharp did not return to the series until the Pikes Peak race in June. He won the pole for his first race back, but crashed in the second turn on the first lap. The resulting head injury put him out of commission for the rest of the season. A healed Sharp joins Mark Dismore and Kelley Racing in 1998.
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Career
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Scott Sharp started racing karts at age 8, raced for nine years in Northeast, winning 50 races in 75 starts.
He won the first SCCA race he entered in 1984 and went on to win the SCCA National GT-2 championship and capture Rookie of the Year. His professional career started in 1987.
Sharp expanded his horizons in 1988 by making starts in a number of racing classes, including SCCA Trans-AM; SCCA GT-1, winning national championship; and SCCA Race Truck Challenge.
The following year,1989, marked his first full season in Trans-Am, scoring five top-five finishes in the Newman-Sharp Oldsmobile. He went on to earn the Trans-Am drivers' championship with six wins, 11 top-five finishes and eight poles in 1991.
1992 was his first crack at an Indy car as he tested for Walker Motorsports. He did start a NASCAR Winston Cup race for Jimmy Means Racing.
Sharp's second Trans-Am title in three years came in 1993, with six wins, 11 top-five finishes and completion of every race lap. He broke Mark Donohue's record 23 Trans-Am poles with 26. He also was back in the testing seat, this time for Roger Penske's Miller Genuine Draft stock car. The year also marked his IndyCar debut with Tony Bettenhausen at Laguna Seca in season finale. Sharp finishing 22nd.
On the heels of his debut Indy car season he ran the entire PPG Cup season with PacWest Racing. The season high ninth-place finish came at Phoenix.
In 1995 he competed at Indianapolis for A.J. Foyt Racing, starting 30th and finishing 26th.
He tied Buzz Calkins for the championship in the three-race 1996 IRL season.
Courtesy SpeedNet, from the Indianapolis Star/News
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Driver Stats
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Team: Kelley Racing
Series: Indy Racing League
Car: #8 Dallara / Aurora / Goodyear
Sponsor: Delphi / Futaba/ AMD / Kelley
Car Owner: Tom Kelley
Chief Mechanic: Mike Horvath
Resides: East Norwalk, Conn.
D.O.B: 2/14/68
IRL victories: 1996: New Hampshire
IRL points (standing): 1996 - 246 (1st, tie); 1996-97 - 119 (22nd)
CART points (standing): 1995 - 14 (21st)
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