(1970-09-29) September 29, 1970 (age 53) La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
GT America Series career
Debut season
2023
Current team
TKO Motorsports with Flying Lizard
Racing licence
FIA Bronze
Car number
101
Starts
18
Championships
1
Wins
8
Podiums
15
Best finish
1st in 2023
Previous series
1999–2004 2000–2002 1999–2012 2014 2022
Champ Car Indy Racing League American Le Mans Series IMSA SportsCar Championship IMSA Prototype Challenge
Championship titles
2023
GT America Series (SRO3)
Awards
1995
Team USA Scholarship
José Guillermo "Memo" Gidley is a Mexican-born racing driver, of German and Canadian ancestry, born in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico on September 29, 1970. He holds dual citizenship - American and Mexican.
In his early years, he sold his apartment to fund his career and spent 4 months homeless living in his car.[citation needed] He worked at the Jim Russell racing school as a mechanic to fund his career for some time, eventually getting a chance in Champ Car with Derrick Walker in 1999, although this was as a short-term replacement. He did the same task for Gerry Forsythe a year later, and Chip Ganassi in 2001, twice coming close to race victories. He nearly retained his drive for 2002 - Chip later suggested that they keep Bruno Junqueira over him as the Brazilian was under contract.
He has raced assorted sports cars since, although he made two Champ Car starts for Rocketsports in 2004, and briefly ran in the rival IRL series. After 2005 he competed full-time in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, co-driving with Michael McDowell to a victory in the Mexico City season finale. In 2006 he raced in the Team Playboy cars and in 2007 he partnered Max Angelelli in the SunTrust Racing team.[1] In 2010 Gidley co-drove Team CytoSport's Porsche RS Spyder with Germany's Klaus Graf and Sascha Maassen to second in class (and overall) at Laguna Seca, but he reportedly hadn't given up yet on a return to major open wheel racing.
In the 2014 24 Hours of Daytona, Gidley suffered serious injuries when his Corvette DP slammed into the back of a Ferrari being driven by Matteo Malucelli. Malucelli's car had lost power and had rolled to a near stop on the track, when Gidley hit him at approximately 120 miles per hour (190 km/h).[2] Gidley was taken by ambulance to Halifax Health Medical Center, where doctors diagnosed him with a broken back and leg and arm injuries.[3] Gidley had eight surgeries that took him three years to recover.
Gidley made his come-back to racing full-time in 2022, in the IMSA Prototype Challenge, driving a Duqueine D-08 LMP3.[4] He won the second race of the season at Mid-Ohio,[5] and finished second in the championship overall. Gidley raced in GT America Series in 2023, and won the SRO3(GT3) championship,[6] with 8 wins.
^IRL at Sonoma: No place like home for Marin drivers
^SCARY ROLEX 24 WRECK SENDS TWO DRIVERS TO DAYTONA HOSPITAL by John Dagys, Fox Sports, January 25, 2014.
^Memo Gidley breaks back in crash at Rolex 24 at Daytona by Jeff Olsen, USA Today, January 26, 2014.
^"Gidley making Daytona return in Prototype Challenge". RACER. 2022-01-10. Retrieved 2023-09-28.
^"Memo-rable Journey Reaches Memo-rable Moment: Gidley's Return to Victory Lane".
^"Memo Gidley Clinches GT America SRO3 Championship In Race 1". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
José Guillermo "Memo" Gidley is a Mexican-born racing driver, of German and Canadian ancestry, born in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico on September...
Africa Matthew Gidley (born 1977), Australian professional rugby league footballer for St Helens RLFC of the Super League competition MemoGidley (born 1970)...
Racing swapped out rookie driver Nelson Philippe for Champ Car veteran MemoGidley after "contractual issues" at Toronto. Rocketsports changed drivers again...
Championship instead of WSC. In 2014, the race saw a dramatic crash involving MemoGidley who was driving the pole-sitter DP and Matteo Malucelli, an amateur driver...
François Perrodo Alessio Rovera Emmanuel Collard Toni Vilander Nick Cassidy MemoGidley Óscar Tunjo Patrick Kujala Fabrizio Crestani Antonio Fuoco Álvaro Parente...
Toyota RV8E 4 Bruno Junqueira R All Target 12 Nicolas Minassian R 1–7 MemoGidley 8–21 Walker Motorsport Reynard 01i Toyota RV8E 5 Toranosuke Takagi R ...
Gil de Ferran All Valvoline 15 Naoki Hattori 1, 13–14, 16–20 Alpine MemoGidley 8–11 Newman/Haas Racing Swift 010.c Ford-Cosworth XD F 6 Michael Andretti...
of fuel just after crossing the finish line ahead of a hard-charging MemoGidley and Bryan Herta. Franchitti had won his first race since 1999 and the...
5 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing G-Force Infiniti 24 Robbie Buhl 1–2, 5–15 MemoGidley 3 Sarah Fisher 4 23 5, 8–15 Team Green Dallara Chevrolet 26 Paul Tracy...
Povoledo Racing MemoGidleyMemoGidley Ross Chouest R2 #101 TKO Motorsports with Flying Lizard #8 Flying Lizard Motorsports MemoGidley Elias Sabo 4 R1...
Stéphan Grégoire 4 Brayton Racing Dallara Oldsmobile 37 Steve Knapp 4 61 MemoGidley 4 Team Green Dallara Oldsmobile 39 Michael Andretti 4 Sam Schmidt Motorsports...
(1996–1998) Juan Pablo Montoya (1999–2000) Nicolas Minassian (2001) MemoGidley (2001) Tony Stewart (2001: Indianapolis 500 only) Bruno Junqueira (2001–2002)...
designer Hans Friessen - footballer Gunther Gerzso - painter, director MemoGidley - racing driver Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg - alpine skier...
slipped by both cars, and drove to victory - his first in the CART series. MemoGidley survived a horrendous crash when his car hit one of the bridge abutments...
Grand Prix of Cleveland, Franchitti qualified 14th, passing race leader MemoGidley with ten laps remaining for his seventh career CART victory. His performance...
Empringham 1996 June 1 Anthony Lazzaro 1997 May 31 Alex Barron 1998 May 30 MemoGidley 1999 June 5 Lee Bentham 2000 June 3 Martín Basso 2001 June 2 Hoover Orsi...
Media. Retrieved 4 April 2022. Lloyd, Daniel (5 April 2022). "Robichon, Gidley in GTE Field for Paul Ricard Season-Opener". sportscar365.com. John Dagys...
to form RSR Racing in 2009. Juho Annala (2008) Mario Dominguez (2006) MemoGidley (2004) Timo Glock (2005) Ryan Hunter-Reay (2005) Tõnis Kasemets (2006)...
Swift with 26 and 10 points, respectively. In terms of driver changes, MemoGidley filled in for Patrick Carpentier at Forsythe Racing for the second successive...
Bourbonnais 1994 Richie Hearn 1995 Richie Hearn 1996 Patrick Carpentier 1997 MemoGidley 1998 Alex Tagliani 1999 Not held 2000 Andrew Bordin 2001 David Rutledge...
Global Information
Mexican
American
FIA Bronze