Josh Stephens

Josh Stephens is an American racing driver. He has raced for Scuderia Italia and Lotus in past seasons. He started off in International Formula 3000, finishing 3rd in is his debut season in 1991. He was the runner-up in the 1992 season, and then won the International Formula 3000 title in 1993, before heading off to the Scuderia Italia team in the 1993 Formula One season. He raced lastly for Sauber.

Early Career and International F3000
Josh, like many racing drivers, started off in karts, winning many championships in North America. He was then called up for a test drive for Paul Stewart Racing in 1990, and when he impressed the team, they signed him on for the 1991 International Formula 3000 season. He had a torrid start to the season, retiring in the first three races. He finished the next race in Mugello, but then retired twice more in the next two races. He finished just outside the points in 7th at Brands Hatch, but made a late season charge at Spa, Le Mans, and Nogaro, clinching 2nd at Spa, and then winning both of the French races. In 1992, he continued racing for Paul Stewart Racing, and finished 3nd, 2nd, and 3rd again in the first 3 races. He retired from the next 4, however, which blew his title hopes, before winning the final round at Magny Cours. In 1993, he won at Donington Park, Pau, Pergusa Enna, Hockenheim, and Magny Cours en route to the title. For his efforts, he managed to clinch a drive with the Scuderia Italia F1 team before the year's end.

International Formula 3000 results
(Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Scuderia Italia (1993)
After winning the International F3000 title in 1993, he replaced the poorly performing Pablo Jackson, who had lost all motivation to drive the car. However, Josh did not get much out of the car, as he retired in over half of the races he competed in, with a best finish of 11th coming at Valencia.

Lotus (1994)
Josh signed with Lotus Mugen-Honda for the 1994 season, and was much more consistent than he was in the previous season. His best finishes were a triplet of 7th places in the second half of the season, and with one of them being a feature race, he scored 2 points at season's end. He earned those finishes at the sprint race in Hungaroring, and the other two in both races at Valencia. He finished 19th in the overall standings.

Simtek (1995)
Josh signed with Simtek for the 1995 Formula One season. He impressed in practice at the first round, topping the practice session. However, it did not last for qualifying, as his car suffered a mechanical failure on circuit. He rebounded in both races, however, placing 11th in the feature race, and 9th in the sprint race. He equaled his best finish of the season (9th) again in the sprint race at Istanbul, after retiring due to steering problems in the feature race. Albeit finishing in the top ten several times throughout the season, he did not quite get to grace the points, and had settle for being of the best without points.

Forti (1996)
After Simtek ended its operations at the end of the 1995 season, Josh was sent looking for a drive. Luckily for him, Forti was available and willing to have his services, so he was signed with Forti for the 1996 season. The car struggled with reliability all season long, and Josh, as a result of that, found it hard to produce results. His best finishes of the season were 8th in the sprint race at the season-opener in Barcelona, and 9th in a race of attrition at Spa, where over half of the field were eliminated all throughout.

Arrows (1997-98)
Hoping to step up and become a regular points contender after three seasons of racing in minnows, Josh signed on for Arrows in a hope for some further successes to write home about. However, 1997 proved to be a quite a disappointment, even though he did achieve two 8th places and a fastest laps to take his first points in 4 seasons. The problem was that he could not find any consistency whatsoever, and ended up with the most retirements out of anybody. Despite this, he continued on with Arrows for another season, believing that there was still hope. Indeed there was, as he finished a career-high 14th place in the championship, with two 6th places and a career-first podium at Magny-Cours.

Sauber (1999-2000)
As much as he would have liked to continue with Arrows, he saw an opportunity to go further in his success with Sauber for the 1999 season. He took the fastest lap in the sprint race at Catalunya, and scored points at Silverstone and the Hungaroring. He was set to continue with team into 2000, until he was suddenly sacked prior to the start of the season. It was later revealed that the reason for his sudden disappearance was that he had lost some vital sponsors and funds, as well as his motivation following what he called a "rather unfavorable" six year tenure in Formula One. He has stated that he intends to be back for the 2001 season, even if it is at the back of grid. He expressed interest in either re-joining Sauber or joining Minardi. However, neither of these potential partnerships actually formulated, and so he abandoned Formula One permanently after not finding a ride for the 2000 and 2001 Formula One seasons. He has no intention of coming back. He has been racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series since 2004, with great success in recent seasons.