75 Facts About Will Power

William "Will" Steven Power was born on 1 March 1981 and is an Australian motorsports driver who currently competes in the IndyCar Series, driving for Team Penske.

Will Power has won the IndyCar Championship twice, in 2014 and 2022, as well as winning the 2018 Indianapolis 500.

The son of open-wheel racer Bob Power, Will Power started his career in Queensland driving a Datsun 1200 at Morgan Park Raceway, Warwick as well as at Carnel Raceway, Stanthorpe.

In 1999 Will Power began driving an aging family-owned Swift SC92F in the Queensland Formula Ford Championship, winning races in a sporadic campaign.

In 2000 Will Power ran a full campaign leading to his first title in the Swift while simultaneously racing a late-model Spectrum 07 on the Australian Formula Ford Championship, finishing a promising seventh.

Still running a small family-oriented team in 2001, Will Power upgraded to a Stealth RF95, a Western Australian modification of a 1995 Van Diemen.

Will Power swept all before him in Formula Holden, winning the title by over 50 points from Stewart McColl, claiming the 2002 Australian Drivers' Championship by winning 7 times and achieving 3 pole positions.

Midway through the 2002 season, Will Power was allowed to drive for the Bevan Carrick-owned Cooltemp Racing Formula 3 team, driving a Dallara-Toyota as well in the Australian Formula 3 Championship.

Europe beckoned and in 2003 Will Power joined the British Formula 3 Championship racing initially for Diamond Racing, then later for Fortec Motorsport as tight funding prevented a full campaign.

Will Power tested a Minardi Formula One car in 2004 with his Australian Formula Ford and British Formula 3 rival Will Davison in Italy.

Will Power raced in the series opener at Brands Hatch and piloted Australia to a second-place finish behind Team Brazil.

In late 2005 Will Power joined Champ Car Team Australia at the Lexmark Indy 300 event at Surfers Paradise in Australia, which resulted in his departure from the World Series by Renault championship even though that season was still in progress and Will Power ultimately ended seventh in the championship.

Will Power performed well throughout the season with nine top-ten finishes and strong qualifying results.

In Mexico at the final round of the season, Will Power took his first podium finish in Champ Car.

Will Power won the "rookie of the year" award and finished in 6th place in the championship standings.

On 8 April 2007, Will Power won his first Champ Car race at the inaugural Vegas Grand Prix, held on the streets of Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.

Will Power drove from fourth to first in 14 laps, finally splashing past rookie Ryan Dalziel to take the lead with 23 minutes to go, and went on to an easy victory.

Will Power's Walker Racing team announced they would not be making the switch from Champ Car to IRL due to a lack of sponsorship.

Will Power won the final Champ Car race at Long Beach in 2008, giving Will Power his first IndyCar Series win.

Will Power scored two top-five finishes in IndyCar Series races, enough for 12th overall, outpointed by teammate Oriol Servia.

Team Penske announced on 13 January 2009 that for the 2009 IndyCar Series season, Will Power would replace Helio Castroneves at the helm of the No 3 Team Penske Honda-Dallara while Castroneves attended to his federal tax evasion charges.

Will Power drove the No 3 Team Penske Honda-Dallara to a sixth-place finish in the Grand Prix of St Petersburg, the first race of the year.

Will Power stormed to a dominant pole position with the last-minute effort and ultimately finished 2nd to Dario Franchitti after leading 16 laps.

Will Power's team was crewed by Penske's Rolex Sports Car Series team, as Power's races were specifically scheduled on their RSCS off-weekends.

Will Power's season was brought to an abrupt close during practice for the 2009 Motorola Indy 300 in Sonoma however, as Nelson Philippe spun exiting Turn 3 and stalled in the middle of the racing groove.

Viso could barely avoid him, making light contact, but Will Power, following just behind Viso, had nowhere to go and crashed heavily into Philippe.

Will Power had two fractured vertebrae while Philippe suffered a fractured ankle.

On 19 November 2009, Team Penske announced that Will Power would join the team full-time for the 2010 season with sponsorship from Verizon Wireless.

Will Power dominantly opened the season, winning the first two races of the 2010 season at Brazil and St Petersburg, making him the first IndyCar driver since Sam Hornish Jr.

Will Power went on to win from the pole at Watkins Glen International, giving Roger Penske his first IndyCar Series win at the historic track.

Will Power's efforts were rewarded with triumph in the Mario Andretti Road Course Championship, winning the inaugural Mario Andretti Trophy as the road course champion for the 2010 IndyCar Series season.

At Toronto he and championship leader Dario Franchitti touched in Turn 3 while battling for 5th, resulting in a spin for Will Power, which put him midpack where he was hit by former teammate Alex Tagliani.

Will Power was irate with both drivers, particularly Franchitti, who with some level of controversy was not penalised for the contact and won the race.

An irate Will Power exited his vehicle and spoke with several officials, even consulting with his race strategist Tim Cindric before displaying the finger to IndyCar director of competition Brian Barnhart.

Will Power won the pole at the Kentucky Speedway and led the first 48 laps until he had contact with rookie Ana Beatriz as he exited his pit box.

Will Power's season ended in a violent, high-speed 15-car crash at the final race of the season in Las Vegas that claimed the life of British driver Dan Wheldon.

Will Power lost any chance of having the points championship after the wreck, due in part to his role in the accident and to the fact that the race was abandoned following the wreck.

Will Power was later diagnosed with a vertebral compression fracture in his thoracic vertebrae and had surgery to correct the problem.

The road and street course heavy 2012 schedule played into Will Power's strength, making him one of the pre-season favorites to win the championship.

Will Power held onto the points lead until the tenth of fifteen races when rival driver Ryan Hunter-Reay scored his third of three consecutive wins to take over the lead.

Will Power regained the lead and built a 36-point advantage with two races remaining after strong second-place finishes at Mid-Ohio and Sonoma, coupled with two misfortunate finishes by Hunter-Reay.

Those hopes took a huge hit when Will Power's car spun and hit the wall on lap 55 of the 250-lap race.

Hunter-Reay's championship resulted in Will Power finishing second in the standings for the third consecutive season.

In St Petersburg, during a caution period, his car was run over by JR Hildebrand's, resulting in damage to both cars; Will Power was relegated to a 16th-place finish.

Will Power was competitive in Indianapolis, but he was not a factor in the race.

Will Power was involved in a crash in Detroit that took out several other cars, yet he remained in the top ten in points.

Will Power led the next 12 laps en route to his first win of 2013.

Will Power again collided with Scott Dixon in Baltimore that ended up having the bad end for Dixon.

On Sunday, Will Power avenged Dixon, as he dominated the race and won over Dixon.

Will Power won the season finale in Fontana to end 2013 on a hot streak, winning 3 out of the last 5 races.

Will Power won the 2014 season-opener in St Petersburg after passing pole-sitter Takuma Sato on lap 31.

However, controversy arose during the race when, with 28 laps remaining, Will Power seemed to slow down, bunching the field and causing Jack Hawksworth to crash into Marco Andretti.

Will Power broke down in tears as he stood on the championship podium.

Will Power had a difficult 2015 IndyCar Series season but somehow managed to finish third in the championship despite several incidents, including being taken out completely without fault on consecutive ovals.

Will Power missed the season-opening race at St Petersburg due to the medical team believing that he had a concussion stemming from an accident that he had in one of the practices leading up to the race; it turned out that he did not have a concussion.

Will Power only finished 5th in the points and claimed three victories: Indianapolis Grand Prix, Texas, and Pocono.

Will Power would emerge as a championship contender 2018.

Will Power won the 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 27,2018.

Will Power was in contention for the series title up until a late accident at Portland took him out of the championship fight.

Will Power again started the season slowly but by the end of the season found his form and continued his winning ways, winning at Pocono Raceway and at the Grand Prix of Portland, increasing his streak of winning at least one race per season in IndyCar to ten seasons.

Will Power again returned to Team Penske in the pandemic shortened 2020 season.

Will Power finished the season by getting pole position in St Petersburg but ultimately retired during the race.

Will Power was nearly bumped from the 105th Indianapolis 500 before managing to survive and qualify 32nd on the grid, his lowest start to date in the race and the lowest of all the Penske drivers in 2021.

Will Power further incurred controversy during the first race in Detroit, when he led most of the race after a red flag caused by Felix Rosenqvist only to finish twentieth with five laps to go when his car's ECU overheated and prevented a restart during another red flag incident caused by Romain Grosjean, after which he blamed IndyCar for costing him the win.

In Nashville Will Power was involved in several wheel to wheel contact incidents with teammates Simon Pagenaud and Scott McLaughlin, one of which caused a red flag.

Will Power won his first race of 2021 at the second round on the IMS Road Course, snapping a career-long 315-day winless streak and giving Roger Penske his first win at the speedway since he purchased the facility.

Will Power got his first pole of the season at Gateway to bring him within four of Mario Andretti's all-time IndyCar pole position record.

Will Power started the year by scoring top five finishes in each of the first five races.

Will Power picked up his only win of the season at the final Detroit Grand Prix held on Belle Isle, redeeming himself from the previous year's misfortune.

Will Power picked up five pole positions on the season, including clinching a rare double pole position at the Iowa double header.

Will Power was one of five drivers heading into the season finale at Laguna Seca who were mathematically still in contention for the series title, holding a 20 point lead over Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon and needing to finish no worse than third to clinch the championship.

Will Power started 2023 slowly, picking up his first podium of the season at Barber.

In 2023, Will Power was scheduled to make his sports car racing debut, signing on to take part in the 2023 24 Hours of Daytona with SunEnergy1 Racing.

Will Power plays the drums in his spare time, often playing the drums at charity events organized by IndyCar.

In 2013, Will Power supplied the voice for the Australian anchor in the animated feature film Turbo.