Biography

First Czech racing driver in formula 1 and Indy Racing League

Birth date: September 11, 1976
Birth place: Liberec
Nationality: Czech
Weight: 76 kg
Height: 171 cm
First race: Ford Fiesta Cup (1992)

Tomas is the most experienced and most successful driver in Antonin Charouz’s racing team.

Start of career
Tomas Enge, was born on 11 September 1976 in Liberec. He followed his father, one of the best touring car drivers in Czech history, Bretislav Enge - a BMW team driver, and in his 23 years he entered into the Czech motor racing history, when on 10 December 1999 tested for the first time a Formula1 Jordan Mugen199 car.

At the age of fifteen Tomas Enge completed the Jiri Micanek racing school in Brno. Then he waited for his sixteenth birthday with a license in his bag. Literally a few hours after reaching sixteen he took part in his first race. It was the Ford Fiesta Cup and he raced for the team of Svet Motoru.

In 1993, Jaroslav Paral together with Tomas finished eleventh in the final rankings. In the last race of that season, alongside his father, he climbed on the victory stand for the first time. In 1994, he was predicted to be one of the challengers for overall title along with Jürgen Rother from Germany.

Together they achieved eight pole positions. It is necessary to mention that the key role, not only for Tomas Enge's progress, but for other young drivers who begin especially in karts as well - is and has been played by Charouz Racing Team. For the 1995 season with help of his manager Antonin Charouz, Tomas Enge succeeded in joining the best German team - Mr. Albert Hamper's Eifelland Racing. World Champion Michael Schumacher and his fellow-countryman Heinz Harald Frentzen and Ayrton Senna or Nigel Mansell had followed the same road to Formula 1.

In 1996 Tomas Enge won the German Formula Ford Championship and in the next year he started in the BSR Bertram Schäfer Team at the German Formula3 Championship. However this team did not choose the right combination of an engine and chassis. This caused that Tomas Enge, although doing his best, scored only 3 points in the middle of the season. Nevertheless his manager Mr. Charouz found out a solution in such an unfavourable situation. Tomas Enge started his first race in the Formula 3000 International Championship at the end of July 1998. He started in the middle of the season and he gained 1 point in the last five races in the Italian Auto Sport Racing Team.

2000
Tomas became the official test driver of F1 team Jordan. At the same time he competed in his second complete season in FIA F3000 Championship coupled with mySAP.com team and amazingly he did better than his preffered team collegue Stephane Sarrazin. Throughout the season Tomas scored good points and then, 29th July 2000, he gained brilliant result – in the dramatic race at Hockenheimring he won. In overall classification he gained fifteen points and six place in the end of the season.

2001
On Sunday, 16th September, Tomas as the first Czech driver in Formula 1 started in his first F1 race. Coupled with team Prost he compete at Monza, Italy. After the race team Prost extended Tomas´s contract and then he started also in Indianapolis, USA, and Suzuka, Japan. 

At the Nürburgring Tomas Enge achieved his third win of his career, second of this season. Following at the Magny Cours Tomas Enge finished third. Due to cut out of his engine as he accelerated out of the last corner he scored fifth instead of third at the Silverstone. Tomas Enge drove a very exciting race in Germany making a challenge for third on pole-sitter Sperafico on the very last lap, yet a small collision sent him out of the track, so he had moved down to fifth. Penalty stop and go meant eleventh place at the Hungaroring. Tomas Enge stands on the 3rd place overall gaining 36 points after the tenth round of the 2001 FIA F3000 International Championship.

2002 – 2003
Tomas Enge entered the 2002 season as one of the top favourites of the FIA F3000 International Championship.
Enge enters his fourth complete season, not counting his absence in the last race of the previous year in the colours of the British Arden International Team. Enge managed to confirm his position of one of the favourites in pre-seasonal testing, where he regulary ranked among the top drivers. For this season FIA has introduced a new car – Lola B02/50. Enge has been able to capitalize on his experience with tuning up the new car.

Enge was able to confirm his favourite role during whole season. He won four races – more then any other driver – and after dramatic finish of the season finally took championship crown. He was not only fast but also very consistent. He has best qualifying average place even if he had less pole position then Sebastien Bourdais. He set five fastest laps – more than any other driver did. Unfortunately, he was disqualified after Hungaroring race that he won. He lost 10 points and consequently the title.

Just before the actual beginning of the Formula 3000 championship, the Czech driver left for Sebring in the United States, where he defended the colours of the Prodrive team Ferrari 550 Maranello and he did a great job. He created a new record in his class, and did better than the other more experienced team members in the race. The wellknown team very much praised his performance.

Enge also took part in the 24-hour race in Le Mans. The first official training took place on the first weekend of May, and Enge dominated his class again. In the same way as in Sebring, he drove the Ferrari 550 Maranello of the Prodrive Team, and recorded a lap nearly 4 seconds faster than the second best competitor. His performance did not remain unnoticed by the attending observers, and Enge belonged among the top favourites in his class. And he didn’t disappoint. Tomas won the qualifying of GTS class and set the fastest lap of the race in his class. Unfortunately, fire terminated effort of his team just after half of the race. Enge and his teammates Rickard Rydell and Alain Menu built two laps advantage over the nearest competitor up to that point.

Enge returned to Prodrive´s Ferrari cockpit for the last three races ALSM. He showed great performances once again and scored podium finish in all three races plus two pole positions and two fastest laps of the GTS class. Enge moved to sports cars in 2003 and have had busy schedule as he starts in the American Le Mans series with Prodrive Ferrari, FIA GT championship with MENX team and also at Le Mans with Veloqx Prodrive Ferrari. The main event of the season was the 24 Hours race at Le Mans where Enge took part for the second consecutive year. He showed great performance once again and set the best time of the GTS class. He dominated, together with Peter Kox and Jamie Davies, in the race itself, which the crew led for almost whole 24 hours. The Prodrive built Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello on behalf Care Racing run as clockwork and the whole Veloqx Prodrive Racing team celebrated well deserved victory.

2004
Tomas returned to the FIA F300 International Championship with Team ma-con Dark Dog Charouz. He quickly adapted back to the formulas and has been one of the frontrunners. He scored three podiums and three fastest laps of the race and only few collisions, where Enge was an innocent victim, prevented him to be in the overall top three. However, the Czech’s fourth place and the third place of the team were success given the fact that it was the first season of the tem in the championship.

The Czech driver also once again joined forces with Prodrive at Le Mans. He was able to beat mighty Corvettes in the battle for the pole with just few minutes to go and his lap was rightly described as a stunning one. He has never been beaten in Le Mans qualifying of the GTS class, it was his third consecutive victory. Enge shared the car with Peter Kox and Alain Menu in the and they were on the course to defend last year’s victory but with just four hours to go the cars suffered a problem with a wheel bearing. The crew finally ended fourth. Enge also start with Maranello at 1000 km Spa where he shared the car of Larbre team with fellow countryman Robert Pergl and Frenchman Patrice Goueslard. Enge missed all free practices and qualifying due to clash with the final F3000 race but he was at top form on Sunday where he set the fastest lap of the GTS class and helped to the second place of the class.

Enge also set another milestone in the history of the Czech motorsport when he became the first Czech driver in the IRL. Liberec born driver debuted with Patrick Racing at California and also raced at Texas.

2005
Enge continued in the IRL in 2005 but he moved to one of the best teams - Panther Racing. The Czech driver  also continued with GT cars where he was a member of Aston Martin factory Le Mans team and he also started in few LMES races with the Czech team MENX.

In September Tomas joined a Czech Republic national team in the newly establish World Cup of Motorsport Series A1 Grand Prix. With three podium finishes (1st place in Shanghai) he successfully represented his country.

2006
Tomas Enge is for many years one of longest associated drivers with BPA sport marketing a.s. agency. Tomas again proved himself during the year. For the fifth time in a row he set the fastest qualification GT1 class time in one of the most famous races in the world, 24 hour Le Mans. He put in spectacular drive in the race after his works Aston Martin DBR9 car was delayed shortly after the start with a technical problem and helped to move up to the second place of the GT1 class under the checquered flag. 

He started in American Le Mans Series during the course of the year, where he ran in to a lot of back luck, after punctures in three races deprived him of important points. Those points were missing in the final battle of the drivers, where he ended fourth. He managed to win two races – in Salt Lake City and Petit Le Mans. In team classification, Aston Martin Racing, by only three points, got second place. He also started in 24 hour Spa, a part of FIA GT Championship.

He was successful in A1GP – World Cup of Motorsport. He won in the final race of the ebut season in Chinese Shanghai. He tied into this success in the second race of the second season, on his home circuit in Brno, after a flawless performance came in second and the following race in the streets of Beijing ended sixth and scored more vital points.

2007
Tomas demonstrated his fighter´s skills. Although the season started pretty fine (he gained 6th place overall at Rolex 24 at Daytona, 3rd place in GT2 class in opening event of FIA GT Championship and started from the first row at 12H of Sebring), there were hard periods afterwards. At St. Petersburg, second race of ALMS, Tomas injured himself seriously and then he had to undergo surgery of left elbow. Despite of bad medical prognosis Tomas was back at the wheel in six weeks after the accident. In his comeback race in Salt Lake City he got pole position and after great performance he won the race in GT2 classification. 

With official team of Aston Martin Tomas Enge took part in legendary race 24H of Le Mans again. In his Aston Martin DBR9 (LMGT1 class) Tomas was fighting for the win for a long time, but after his team collegue´s incident the Aston Martin team finished the race on 4th position in LMGT1 classification (9th overall). In 2007 Tomas also tested IndyCar formula for Samax Motorsport team. With Pontiac Riley of Samax Motorsport team Tomas took part in several races of Grand-Am – his best result is 2nd place from Salt Lake City, the last event of Grand-Am 2007.

From September to December 2007 Tomas had long break when his elbow was healing. Then he came back in great form with Czech A1GP team. Tomas achieved his best result in Zhuhai, China, where he gained 5th place overall for A1Team CZE.

2008
Tomas was official driver of Aston Martin Racing Team. He started in well-known 24Hours Le Mans for the first time in LMP1 prototype, Lola B08/60 Coupe – Aston Martin V12. With team collegues Jan Charouz and Stefan Mücke they gained 9th place overall. He also participated in Le Mans Series in LMGT1 category coupled with Modena team. With his team collegue Antonio Garcia (ESP) they had good season and finished on 2nd place in LMGT1 class in Le Mans Series. Tomas also started in number of FIA GT´s events and he was tuning up Aston Martin´s Vantage V8 (GT2 class). With Aston Martins´s DBRS9 Tomas debuted in 24 Hours of Nürburgring. For the second time in his career Tomas took part in Rolex 24 at Daytona. From the second race of Czech Touring Cars Championship Tomas regularly started in this series. He gained eight wins and finished first in championship.

2009
Tomas became official work driver of Aston Martin Racing team. He takes part in complete Championship Le Mans Series and 24h Le Mans this season however team AMR presents itself with brand new built prototype Aston Martin LMP1. Tomas together with his team mates Jan Charouz and Stefan Mucke finished fourth in 24 hours of Le Mans, driving Aston Martin LMP1 #007 car. Tomas has came back in rallying as well. He represents CNG Seznam.cz Rally Team, which starts in Czech Sprintrally Championship with Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX CNG (compressed natural gas) with the aim to show how much are CNG cars competitive. Tomas also appears in Czech Touring Car Championship with Mercedes-Benz DTM car and Sauto.cz Racing Team. 

2010
In the 2010 season Tomas Enge completed the inaugural edition of the FIA GT1 World Championship. Under the guise of the Young Driver AMR team and together with his team-mate Darren Turner they did their best to claim the podium in the series. Enge and Turner won the sixth GT1’s round at Nürburgring (Germany) and finished second at Interlagos (Brazil). Until the last season’s round they had been included in the fight for the overall victory, but unfortunately they failed and finally finished fourth with only one point gap to the third. In the 2010 season Tomas Enge also participated in the 24 Hours Le Mans for the ninth time in his career. At the wheel of the Aston Martin DBR and together with his team-mates Peter Kox and Christoffer Nygaard they claimed third position in the LMGT1 class. 

2011
In the 2011 season, Tomas Enge continued in the 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship. Under the guise of Young Driver AMR team, at the wheel of Aston Martin DBR9 and with the teammate Alex Mueller he achieved four podium results in Peking, at Silverstone (second positions), in Zolder and at Paul Ricard (third positions). In the overall results they gained the fourth place. In the 2011 season, Tomas Enge completed also three 24 hours races – in Dubai, Daytona and at Spa-Francorchamps.