Paul Anthony Tracy (born December 17, 1968) is a Canadian-American professional auto racing driver who participated in Champ Car World Series, the IndyCar Series, and the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART). He started kart racing at age five and quickly became successful and began car racing at sixteen, finishing third in the 1985 Formula Ford 1600 championship with one win and Rookie of the Year honors. Tracy became the youngest Canadian Formula Ford champion in the 1985 CASC Formula 1600 Challenge Series and was the youngest Can-Am race winner the following year. He raced in the American Racing Series for three years between 1988 and 1990, winning the series title with nine wins from fourteen races in 1990.
Tracy's CART career began in the 1991 season with Dale Coyne Racing. However, following one race, he drove three races for Penske Racing. He competed with Penske in eleven races during the 1992 season, finishing on the podium three times. In the 1993 season, Tracy finished third in the drivers' standings after winning five races. The following year, Tracy won three more races. He moved to Newman/Haas Racing for the 1995 season, winning two races before returning to Penske for the 1996 championship. Tracy won another three races in the 1997 season before being fired for criticizing the car and joined Team Green the following year. He was third in the 1999 championship with two victories but fell to fifth in 2000 season despite three more wins. Tracy's form declined over the next two seasons but won one race in 2002. He joined Forsythe Racing in the 2003 championship, winning his first (and only) series title with seven victories.
In the renamed Champ Car World Series (CCWS) in 2004 and 2005, Tracy won two races for fourth overall in both seasons. Tracy's performance declined during a 2006 season in which he took three podium finishes. His final Champ Car victory came in the 2007 championship. Following the unification of the CCWS and the IndyCar Series, he raced part-time for the KV Racing Technology, Vision Racing, A. J. Foyt Enterprises, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and Dragon Racing teams over the following three years. Tracy entered NASCAR-sanctioned stock car races in its Busch Series and the Camping World Truck Series, sports car racing through the Rolex Sports Car Series as well as the Stadium Super Trucks and the Superstar Racing Experience.
Nicknamed "The Thrill from West Hill" for his aggressive driving style and his bad boy image, Tracy's outspoken nature saw him placed on probation and fined several times by CART. He analysed IndyCar races for the Canadian broadcaster Sportsnet in the 2013 season and then for NBCSN between the 2014 and 2021 seasons. Tracy is an inductee of the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame, the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame and the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Tracy was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada on December 17, 1968, and grew up in the working-class bedroom suburb east of Toronto. He is the son of Northern Ireland-born house painter Tony Tracy, who was the president of Trabur Painting, and his English wife Vivienne Tracy. Tony rode a Velocette in England and Ireland before injuring himself in an accident and emigrating to Canada with his two brothers in the 1960s. Tracy has two older half-sisters from his father's first marriage and a younger sister. He attended Jack Miner Public High School and continued attending while karting, graduating after passing all of his subjects.
Tracy got his first miniature motorized mini-bike when he was four, and received his first small motorized children's go-kart from his father aged five. His father's painting company provided enough funds for his son to compete in karts and, later, cars. He drove every weekend on tracks in Central and Eastern Canada as well as the Northern United States; Tracy had to prepare and maintain his kart because his father worked long hours. He was inspired by four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A. J. Foyt, and learnt go-karting from driver Scott Goodyear, before he progressed from the junior class to the senior category when he was twelve years old. Tracy won the Canadian Senior Karting Championship twice and 91 of 94 races in his first full senior season. He entered the North American Race of Champions and finished in the top ten of the Karting World Championship twice.
Tracy stopped racing karts upon turning fifteen, and his father had Goodyear teach him how to drive and handle race cars, as well as car setup. Aged sixteen, he progressed to car racing and his father wanted him to enter several European and North American events and race series as possible. Tracy finished third in the Formula Ford 1600 Championship with one victory, and was named Rookie of the Year. He raced in the 1985 CASC Formula 1600 Challenge Series with Colin Hines Racing in a small Van Diemen RF85-Ford formula open-wheel car. Tracy was Formula Ford's youngest Canadian champion following a season-long battle with Scott Maxwell. He retired from the CASC Formula Ford 2000 Canadian Run-Off in a Van Diemen RF86 and won the CASC Formula Ford 1600 Canadian Run-Off from pole position at Circuit Mont-Tremblant. Tracy also failed to start the FAQ Challenge Labatt 50 Formula 1600 round at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
In 1986, Tracy moved to the Formula 2000 and raced a Rothmans-entered Van Diemen RF86 single-seater open wheel car in the Canadian Formula 2000 Championship. Tracy was fourth overall, with one win at Sanair Super Speedway and three podium finishes for 164 points. He also raced four rounds of that year's Championnat Formule Ford 1600 du Quebec, winning the third Sanair round and did three races in the British Formula 2000 Championship with two podium finishes. Tracy raced a Porsche 944 for Mark Motors in the seven-round Porsche Challenge Series, finishing seventeenth overall with forty points. He finished twelfth in the Rothmans Porsche Canadian Run-Off and fifth in the Formula 2000 Canadian Run-Off in the Buick Grand National 1986 at Mont-Tremblant. Tracy accepted an offer from Canadian driver Horst Kroll to drive Kroll's third Frissbee KR4-Chevrolet car at the final round of the 1986 Can-Am Series—the Budweiser 650 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park—after impressing Kroll with his abilities at Sanair. He took his first (and only) Can-Am victory from pole position and became its youngest ever winner at the age of seventeen. Tracy finished fifth in the Ford Race of Champions at Brands Hatch in England.
Tracy returned to the United Kingdom in late 1986 to race in the BBC Winter Grandstand Series for Formula Ford 2000 cars, finishing fourth overall, and worked for Van Diemen owner Ralph Firman Sr. Tracy won the season-opening Mosport Park round of the 1987 Canadian Formula 2000 Championship in a Trabur Painting-run Reynard 87SF the following year, finishing fifteenth overall with 59 points. He drove a Ralt RT4 car in three rounds of the HFC Formula Atlantic Challenge, finishing thirtieth in points with nine scored, and had an accident in the SCCA SPI International Formula Atlantic Championship round at Memphis International Raceway. Tracy also competed in four Porsche Challenge Series rounds, finishing third in Mosport and Montreal. He completed his Canadian racing season early in August 1987 since he had nothing to gain by finishing the season.
Tracy competed in the ten-round New Zealand International Formula Pacific championship in early 1988, finishing third with David Brabham, with two wins at Timaru International Motor Raceway, four podium finishes, and one pole in a Ralt RT4-Ford for Graeme Lawrence Autosport. He switched to the Hemelgarn Racing team and progressed to the American Racing Series (ARS)—Championship Auto Racing Teams' (CART) developmental series— for the 1988 season with sponsorship funding acquired by his father. Driving the outdated, standard March 86A-Buick V6 Wildcat car raced by all ARS participants, Tracy won the season-opening round at Phoenix Raceway but unreliability and accidents affected the rest of his season with four more top-tens. He finished tenth in the final standings with 58 points and was voted ARS Rookie of the Year.