Markus Niemelä

Markus Niemelä (born 20 March 1984 in Rauma) is a Finnish former race car driver. He was the 2008 series champion after winning the final round at Road Atlanta. His international racing career has been volatile due to a number of injuries he has sustained during his career.

Markus Niemelä
Nationality	Finnish
Born	(1984-03-20) March 20, 1984
Atlantic Championship career
Debut season	2008
Current team	Jensen MotorSport
Car number	1
Former teams	Brooks Associates Newman Wachs Racing
Starts	24
Wins	2
Poles	1
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	1st in 2008 Atlantic Championship season
Championship titles
1998 2002 2004 2004 2004 2008	Finland Junior Champion Formula A Finland Champion Formula Ford STCC Champion Formula Ford Sweden Champion Formula Ford Finland Champion Champ Car Atlantic Champion

Career

Karting

In 1998, Niemelä won the Finnish junior karting championship with maximum points. In 2001, injury of left arm in a snowboarding accident before the start of season prevented participation in the Formula A European/World Championship. He won the one race where he participated, driving practically one-handed against top Finnish karters (ICA).

The following year, Niemelä was the Finnish champion in Formula A. He set the fastest laptime in at least one heat of every European Championship round. He also qualified in World Cup final but technical problems caused a retirement in pre-final and final. In 2003, because of an accident in a European championship race, Niemelä could not drive for three months. He returned for the World Championships to finish fifth.

Single-seaters

2004

Markus became the Finnish and Swedish Champion and the winner of STCC Formula Ford championship. Led Scandinavian Championship before the last round but finished 2nd overall because did not participate on the last round. Nominated as a ”Young Champion” by Finnish ASN. Tested for Formula BMW and was fastest at several unofficial tests.

2005

Markus finished 7th in championship points with one victory and one pole position. Many crashes resulting to damaged car during the season (12 out of 20 races). He was also 5th in UK Formula Renault Winter Championship, 3rd best qualifier of the championship (3rd, 4th, 9th and 3rd in qualifyings). Markus drove Formula Renault first time ever in free practice of first race meeting.

2006

One victory, fastest lap and pole position. Multiple Driver Of The Day Awards - awarded by Renault Sport. Markus finished 7th in the final standings with best positions 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 2x4th.

2007

In Formula Renault Eurocup, he did 6 starts with best result of second at Hungaroring, while in the Asian series, he did 4 starts with 2 wins and one second place. His 3rd win of the 4 races was later penalized from jumping the start. He joined BCN Competicion in the GP2 Series to replace Sakon Yamamoto who moved to F1 during the season. During his first race, also at the Hungaroring, he was forced to retire when his left shoulder unexpectedly dislocated after 11 laps, which also prevented him from taking part in the second race of the meeting.

2008

In the 2008 season, Niemelä won the Atlantic Championship with Brooks Associates team, after winning the last two rounds of the season.

2009

Niemelä returned to the series to defend his Atlantic Championship title, this time driving for Newman Wachs Racing. He struggled through the first five races failing to score a podium finish. He switched teams to Jensen MotorSport for the remainder of the season, but failed to find any more success and finished 6th in points.

2010

Niemelä started racing Sprint Cars on dirt ovals. The best result of his depute season was 2nd in a VRA race at Ventura Raceway.

2011

Niemelä raced in selected races in different Sprint Car Championships (USAC West Coast, USAC CRA, VRA, USAC Midget) with an average A Main finish of 4.5 over the season. He also scored his first Sprint Car win.

2014

In November 2014, Niemela suffered a severe accident at Perris Auto Speedway in a sprint car, flipping end over end into the catch fence after an axle broke on his car. While he initially was believed to have suffered only a concussion, he later revealed he had suffered severe brain injuries in the accident, resulting in the end of his career.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Points	Position
2004	Formula Ford Zetec Finland	Team Söderman	2	1	2	2	119	1st
	Formula Ford Zetec Sweden		?	?	?	?	106	1st
	Formula Ford Zetec Nordic		10	3	0	?	115	2nd
2005	Formula BMW ADAC	Team Rosberg	20	1	1	0	85	7th
	Formula Renault 2.0 UK Winter Series	Manor Motorsport	3	0	0	0	61	6th
2006	Formula Renault 2.0 UK	Mark Burdett Motorsport	20	1	1	1	274	7th
2007	Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup	BVM Minardi Team	6	0	0	0	20	16th
	Asian Formula Renault Challenge	March 3 Racing	4	2	1	1	87	11th
	GP2 Series	BCN Competición	7	0	0	0	0	31st
2008	Atlantic Championship	Brooks Associates Racing	11	2	1	0	245	1st
2009	Atlantic Championship	Newman Wachs Racing	12	0	0	1	98	6th
2010	AMSOil USAC National Sprint Car Series	Kruseman Motorsport	3	0	0	0	0	-
2012	NASCAR K&N Pro Series West		1	0	0	0	29	69th

Complete GP2 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	17	18	19	20	21	DC	Points
2007	BCN Competición	BHR FEA	BHR SPR	CAT FEA	CAT SPR	MON FEA	MAG FEA	MAG SPR	SIL FEA	SIL SPR	NÜR FEA	NÜR SPR	HUN FEA Ret	HUN SPR DNS	IST FEA	IST SPR	MNZ FEA 9	MNZ SPR 11	SPA FEA 11	SPA SPR Ret	VAL FEA 14	VAL SPR Ret	31st	0

American open–wheel racing results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Atlantic Championship

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Rank	Points
2008	Brooks Associates Racing	LBH 7	LS 4	MTT 2	EDM1 2	EDM2 6	ROA1 6	ROA2 6	TRR Ret	NJ 2	UTA 1	ATL 1		1st	245
2009	Newman Wachs Racing	SEB Ret	UTA Ret	NJ1 4	NJ2 4									6th	98
	Jensen MotorSport					LIM 9	ACC1 Ret	ACC2 6	MDO 4	TRR 5	MOS 5	ATL 5	LS 5

External links

• Markus Niemelä's official website