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Please note, that I'm not the real Björn Wirdheim!!!Björn's interest in motorracing began at an early age whilst following his father, Örnulf, around the European circuits where he competed in various GT-series. It was therefore natural for Bjorn to follow in his fathers footsteps at ten years old, the age limit for junior karting.1990 would see Björn's debut in the micro-kart series and he would remain in karting for the following five years. Already after his second season he became one of a few promising juniors to be choosen to race for "Itchi Ban Junior Team", Swedens most successful racing consortium founded by the acclaimed motorsport Team Owner Christer Johansson from Växjö. Christer has remained one of Bjorn's closest supporters ever since.Björn moved on to Formula cars in 1996, one year earlier than planned due to the Swedish Autosport Federation changing the age limit to compete in Formula racing to 16 years old, therefore making it possible for Björn to make his Formula Ford debut early. Björn was signed up to take part in the Scandinavian Formula School alongside the three top Drivers from the Swedish Karting Championships the year before. The 15 year old youngster was given permission by the Federation to participate even though he had not yet turned 16 and subsquently finished second. Björn obtained his license and took the next step up to Formula racing.Still under the wing of Itchi Ban Björn made his Formula racing debut half way through the Swedish Formula Ford season. Even though he only participated in the last 6 races he still managed to finish sixth over all and third in the Junior category and sensationally scored his first Formula Ford win in his second ever race.One year on Itchi Ban had been taken over by Brossons Racing on the condition that Björn was guaranteed a drive and the aim was now to win the Championship. After 5 race wins, 7 second positions and one retirement he had secured the Championship thus becoming the youngest Champion ever to clinch both the Junior and the total Championship. During the Junior Championship he won all of the races apart from the one retirement. In the Autumn Björn made his international debut racing for car manufacturer Swift in the Brands Hatch Formula Ford Festival. The race classed as an unofficial World Championship and Björn proceeded to compete during the following two years setting a new official lap record on his last attempt in 1998. The season was completed by an invitation to Test with Paul Stewart Racing, a Test organised by former Swedish Formula One Driver Stefan Johansson.At 18 years of age Björn moved abroad to gain international racing experience and Stefan Johansson helped to get a drive in the new UK based Formula Palmer Audi series. The young Swede held on to his previous stratergy to spend two years in each catergory before moving on. Björn decided to quit his studies at the Techincal College half way through his 3 year course to move to England and focus on a professional racing career. As part of the agreement with Jonathan Palmer Björn had to work one hundred days as a Racing Instructor at one of Palmers race venues to payoff part of the budget. In the Palmer Audi Chamionship series Björn gained invaluable experience and finished on the podium several times in competition with the likes of Justin Wilson. In a one off race in the Scandinavian Formula 3 Championship Björn finshed second in competition with the Swedish and Nordic elite.After his two years in England it was now time to take the next step in his career and Björn made the choice to compete in the German Formula 3 Championship with Italian team Ghinzani, run by former Formula One driver Piercarlo Ghinzani. With Honda engines in a championship dominated by Opel-Spiess the swede didn't have any high expectations that he could be comptetive and his best finish of the year came at Zolder with a fourth position. Björn was now ready to move on to one of the top-teams and make use of the experience gained. After a three day test at Valencia in Spain with Championship winning team KMS, where Björn ended up quickest among drivers such as Felipe Massa, the Swede had offers from KMS, Bertram Schäfer Motorsport and Prema Powerteam. The choice eventually fell on the latter, again in the German F3 Championship.2001 saw Björn move to Viareggio in Italy in order to be close to his new team and to train with renowned F1-physio Dr. Riccardo Checarelli. This came to be the most important year in Björn's career so far, as he got his first real international break-through. The season started well with a few top 6 positions and a podium with a third position in French Pau, the venue for the first Euroseries race where drivers from the German, English and French F3 Championships raced against each other.But shortly thereafter everything could have ended in tears when Björn as a passenger on a motorbike driven by one of his mechanics had a head on crash with a car just outside the team workshop in Vicenza. Björn was lucky to escape with only a serious road rash and thanks to Dr. Checarelli Björn was able to get back to racing within three weeks although still in a great deal of pain. And even though he wasn't in the best physical shape he achieved his highest qualifying result thus far into the season with a second grid position at Sachsenring near Berlin. Unfortunately Björn had to retire whilst leading the race with a puncture. After a difficult second half of the season the team located a technical problem and for the last three races Björn was back on the pace winning from pole both at Nurnburgring and A1-Ring in Austria.Björn's deal with Prema Powerteam would include participating in the end-of- season Formula 3 race in Macau where the top drivers from the German, French, English and Japanese F3 Championships would meet in an unofficial World Championship race. A race where most of today's Formula 1 stars have been successful. Björn arrived as a dark horse since he had never been to the fast and winding street circuit where previous experience counts for a great deal. It was the 48th edition of the famous race and with only three 30-minute sessions before final qualifying the Swede had to learn fast. And in the dying minutes of the last session Björn managed to clinch Pole Position in competition with among others Takuma Sato who had just won the English F3 Championship with an all time points record and had just signed for Jordan in Formula 1. Björn became one of only five drivers ever to score Pole Position on his first visit. But the Honda engines of Takuma Sato and Japanese F3 Champion Benoit Treluyer were too powerful for Björn who had to settle for third position. Still, he had finally got the break-through he'd hoped for.Someone who had noticed Björn's success in Macau was Formula 3000 team-owner Christian Horner and they immediately started negotiating a deal for Björn to partner experienced F3000 and former Formula 1 driver Tomas Enge in his UK-based Arden International Motorsport team. It would be the perfect setup for Björn with an experienced teammate he could learn from and although most of the circuits in the International Formula 3000 Championship where new to the Swede, they were both instantly on the pace. Björn caused another sensation when after stalling the engine during the start of the Brazilian Grand Prix, he fought his way through the field from 20th to 5th position in only 30 laps. He got his first podium in Austria with a second position behind teammate Enge and repeated the performance at Hockenheim. Björn's learning curve had pointed upwards since the start of the season and after a dissapointing weekend at Spa-Francorchamps where he was certainly fast enough to win, he finally got it all together in the season finale at Monza where he won his first Formula 3000 race from Pole Position, setting a new lap record on the way to victory. Björn got the Rookie of the Year honours with a total 4th position in the Championship and Christian Horner was quick to sign the Swede up for the following year.2003 would become a make or break year for Björn with regards to Formula 1. Formula 3000 is the penultimate step on the career ladder and in order to get into F1 you need to win. And if you're from a small country like Sweden you need to win sensationally. The season got off to a great start with a win in the San Marino GP and it seemed like the Swede just couldn't put a foot wrong. If he didn't qualify on pole, he would take second and if he didn't win the race he would finish second. Then came the Monaco Grand Prix and a race Björn had been looking forward to ever since he left the Principality the year before. After his success in Macau Björn knew that he had a very good chance to win at the very similar streetcircuit and after taking Pole Position with half a second advantage he looked set for a win. And he still looked set to win comfortably with only one corner to go in the race. In fact, half way through the race it was clear that he had completely outclassed the rest of the field by pulling out a 30 second lead which meant he was nearly a second quicker a lap than anyone else. But Björn misjudged the finishline when he stopped on the circuit to greet his crew and the win slipped out of his hands as another driver crossed the line just in front of him. Still, it was without a doubt his best career performance proven by the standing ovations he received as he walked through the press-room on the way to the press-conference after the race. Björn took his second win at Silverstone and the last Formula 3000 victory once again came at Monza. With 5 Pole Positions, 7 Fastest Laps, 6 Second Positions and 3 Race Wins Björn had secured the Championship with an all time points record already with two races remaining.The results generated a huge amount of interest from the Formula 1 teams and Björn was invited to test with Jordan , B.A.R and Jaguar. He also traveled to the USA to test CART with Patrick Racing as part of the prize for winning the F3000 Championship. Jaguar eventually came up with the best offer and in 2004 Björn made his Formula 1 debut as Jaguars 3rd driver.Initally Björn was only supposed to take part in the Friday sessions during the Grand Prix weekends but Jaguar soon started using the Swede a lot more. He was sent back to the UK in between the second and the third Grand Prix to help sort out the launch system and ended up doing at least one day of every single test the team had scheduled throughout the year. Highlights included ending up fourth quickest at Spa and fifth quickest at Indianapolis in competition with the rest of the Formula 1 field.Björn's plan was to do as well as he could possibly do and that way move into a race seat with the team the following year. But Jaguar decided to sell the team and thereby Björn's hopes of landing a Formula 1 race drive were crushed. Still, the year had brought invaluable F1 experience.
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