Romain Dumas

Romain Dumas Born on 14th December 1977 in Alès (Gard), Romain Dumas is a French racing driver and a Porsche Factory Driver. He first started out in karting and single-seater before becoming an expert driver in endurance racing, GT and sport-prototype. He has won the greatest races of the discipline, such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 24 Hours of Spa, the 24 Hours Nürburgring, and the 2008 12 Hours of Sebring. He has been one of Porsche’s factory drivers since 2004.

Single-seater debut and career
Romain Dumas discovered motorsport via the karting competitions he took part in between 1992 and 1993. He then rose through the ranks of single-seater racing and won ACO’s Volant Elf in 1994.

In 1995, he made his debut in Formula Renault Campus, clinched one win in the season and finished fourth overall. He then competed in the French Formula Renault Championship for two seasons: ninth in 1996, third in 1997, clinched five wins and climbed on nine podiums. He took part in the French Formula 3 Championship in 1998 and entered the Formula Palmer Audi. He then returned to F3. With one win and two podiums, he finished sixth overall.

His career took on another dimension in 2001 and 2002 when he competed in the Euro Formula 3000: he completed his first season in fifth place and was runner-up of the following season with three wins. He was then invited to test sessions with the Renault F1 team. This was when he made his debut in GT: in Japan, in Super GT as a factory driver of Toyota Team SARD and in Europe, with a win in class in Estoril, as part of the European Le Mans Series. This was a turning point in Dumas’s career, even though the French driver had other opportunities to be at the wheel of single-seater cars. In 2004, Conquest Racing invited him to have a go at Champ Car with Conquest Racing. In 2008, following on several successes in the American Le Mans Series, Penske Racing invited him to have a go at IndyCar.

Endurance successes
While making a name for himself as a single-seater driver, Romain Dumas took his first steps in endurance racing in 2001. He entered the 24 Hours of the Le Mans for the first time that year and finishing second in the GT class as well as best rookie with Freisinger Motorsport. He has taken part in each edition of the race since then.

In 2002, Porsche noticed his good results: successes in class at the 1 000km of Suzuka and the 24 Hours of Spa, as well as a GT podium in Le Mans. The German manufacturer offered him the opportunity to take part in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany. He finished third in 2003. His win in class at Petit Le Mans and, above all, his overall win at the 24 Hours of Spa finally convinced Porsche to hire him as factory driver in 2004.

The driver from Alès then expressed his talent in the United States. From 2004 to 2008, he competed in the American Le Mans Series championship. First in the GT2 class, he came fourth in 2004 with two wins and six podiums. He was runner-up in 2005 with four wins and six podiums. In LM P2, he got chosen by Porsche as the brand was making its return to sport-prototype with Team Penske and the Porsche RS Spyder. Third in 2006, he clinched a win overall at Mid-Ohio, this was the first time that Porsche had got back to that level since 1998. 2007 was a very successful year: eight wins in LM P2, including six overall, against the more powerful Audi R10 TDIs. He became champion with Timo Bernhard and kept his title the following year, with four new successes, two of them overall, including one win at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the first one for Porsche in twenty years! While Porsche's American Le Mans Series programme came to an end in late 2008, Dumas entered the championship again with Muscle Milk Pickett Racing, and won the 2010 Mosport Grand Prix. This was the Porsche RS Spyder’s last win. In the ALMS, Dumas took part in 65 races, clinched 26 wins, climbed on 47 podiums and secured 33 pole positions.

Meanwhile, the list of his successes in Europe kept on growing longer. In 2007, he won the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. Three more wins followed, in 2008, 2009 and 2011, meaning that Romain Dumas is the most successful French driver in this challenge to date.

He continued to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2007, with Emmanuel Collard and Jean-Christophe Boullion, he came third at the wheel of the No. 16 Pescarolo. Still a Porsche factory driver, he also raced for Audi in La Sarthe. In 2010, he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Timo Bernhard and Mike Rockenfeller. He was the second driver, after Luigi Chinetti in 1949, to have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 24 Hours of Spa the same year.

Winner of the 2012 6 Hours of Spa, as part of the World Endurance Championship, and first in the GT category at the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans, he was selected by Porsche for their return in the main class in 2014. He clinched the first win of the Porsche 919 Hybrid at the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo. In 2015, he finished third overall, with one win in the 6 Hours of Bahrain, before an incredible 2016 season. Together with Marc Lieb and Neel Jani, he won the 6 Hours of Silverstone and again the 24 Hours of Le Mans, onboard a Porsche 919 Hybrid, after Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima's No. 5 Toyota TS050 Hybrid withdrew on the final lap. The following week, Dumas won the legendary Pikes Peak International Hill Climb for the second time. At the end of the season, he became World Endurance Champion.

Even though Porsche put an end to its LM P1 programme, Dumas remains factory driver and continues to race for the German manufacturer in GT, including various championships such as the Intercontinental GT Challenge, the GT World Challenge Europe, and the VLN. He also races in sport-prototype on a regular basis: he finished third in the 2018 24 Hours of Daytona with CORE autosport’s ORECA 07.

Pikes Peak successes and records with VW Motosport
Romain Dumas has also competed in many other disciplines. He took part in his first rally in 2007 with a Porsche 911 GT3 RS (type 996). Three-time winner of the Grand Challenge, he has climbed on the podium several times in the French Rally Championship with a Porsche 911 GT3 RS (type 997). He has clinched six wins on the international scene, including four in 2017, meaning he won the FIA [[Group RGT|RGT class] Cup that year.

Dumas also made a name for himself in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Best rookie and winner in class in 2012, he finished second in the tightest edition ever (17 thousandths). He returned again in 2013 and 2014, he clinched his first win overall that year with a Norma prototype. In 2016, he won again. And again in 2017 with the Norma MXX RD Limited, posting the second fastest time in history. The following year, Dumas took on the challenge set by Volkswagen Motorsport and competed with the ID.R electric prototype. He clinched a fourth win and became the most successful French driver in The Race to the Clouds. Most of all, he set the new record, under the eight-minute mark.

His journey with VW Motorsport didn't end there. A few weeks later he won the Goodwood Hill Climb, setting a new record for electric cars. In 2019, behind the wheel of the ID.R, he returned to the Festival of Speed and clinched a new win while setting a new record overall, beating Nick Heidfeld's one posted in 1999 with the McLaren MP4-13. Again in 2019, he also set a record on Mount Tianmen in China.

Alongside that, Romain Dumas has also taken part in the Dakar Rally four times. He finished in eighth place and first private driver in 2017 with the Peugeot 3008 DKR.

RD Limited
Romain Dumas founded his racing team in late 2007, first under the name RD Rallye Team, then RD Limited. The team designs and develops Porsche rally cars, but also other racing cars. RD Limited was the first to homologate a Porsche car in the R-GT category – the 911 GT3 RS 4.0l – which made its debut on the 2014 Rallye d'Alsace as part of the World Rally Championship. The team has been entering Pikes Peak for many years and Romain Dumas clinched three of his four successes with it. The team carried out specific development on the Norma MXX. It also hired other drivers such as Vincent Beltoise, 2014 winner in Time Attack class, and Raphaël Astier, 2016 best rookie and 2019 winner and record-holder in Time Attack class.

RD Limited also enters Rally competitions on a regular basis: French Championship, French Cup, whether in so-called ‘modern’ or VHC formats.

The team has also developed the DXX buggy for the Dakar Rally. The car entered the challenge for the first time in the 2020 edition.

Complete Euro Formula 3000 results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)