10 Badass Drivers You Need To Know

Series: V8 Supercar Championship Series, Australian Formula Ford
Years Active: Since 1990

To date, Jamie Whincup has won four V8 Supercar Championships. He's also won The Great Race -- aka the Bathurst 1000 -- four separate times. The current record-holder for winner of the most Bathurst 1000 races is deceased Australian racing legend Peter Brock, in whose name a trophy is awarded to the winner of the Bathurst 1000 every year. Whincup still has a ways to go before he comes close to tying that record, but he says he feels a renewed sense of energy for the 2013 season since Red Bull Racing took over his team.

Series: IndyCar, Australian V8 Supercars, CCWS, A1GP, British and Australian F3, Formula Holden, Formula Ford
Years Active: Since 1987

If you follow the IZOD IndyCar series, you're no doubt aware that Will Power has nearly won the championship for the past three years, only losing it the very last race of the season each time. He's racked up an impressive number of points and podium finishes in the series in which he has competed, and he doesn't look to be stopping anytime soon. He's insanely quick most of the time, which makes it all the more frustrating when races (and championships) don't go his way.

Series: Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototypes, 6 Hours of Bogota, Formula Atlantic Championship, Formula Renault V6 Eurocup, Barber Dodge Pro Series, Formula Ford 2000, Mexican Formula 3 and Formula 2, Mexican National Karting Championship
Years Active: Since 1993

So far in his career, Memo Rojas has won the Rolex Sports Car Series Championship four times in the Daytona Prototypes class. He has also been part of a team that has won the 24 Hours of Daytona three times. Since 2007, he's been a part of Chip Ganassi Racing. From 2010 to the present, he's been unstoppable in his class. He was even animated by Pixar for the Mexican localization of Cars 2, and a die-cast toy was made of Rojas in car form. Only a handful of other drivers have had that kind of recognition.

Series: Formula 3000, ALMS, 24 Hours of Le Mans, F1, DTM, FIA World Endurance Championship
Years Active: His entire life; like many drivers, he began karting at an early age, alongside fellow noted Scottish drivers David Coulthard and Dario Franchitti.

Except for the years when his teams have had DNFs, McNish's car is always an exciting one to watch at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Just competing in that race year after year makes him badass. Continuing to compete after managing to walk away unscathed from this horrific crash at the 2011 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans only solidifies it. To paraphrase Blake (Alec Baldwin) from Glengarry Glen Ross, you know what it takes to have a career like that? Brass balls.

Series: 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, Formula Nippon, SuperGT, A1 Grand Prix, German and British Formula 3 Series
Years Active: His entire life

When André Lotterer drives in a series, he is almost guaranteed to score points, if not take the top spot. He participated in exactly one CART race, back in 2002 and brought home a point. He is a two-time winner of the Japanese SuperGT Championship, he's won the 24 Hours of Le Mans since 2011, and he's also the reigning FIA World Endurance Championship winner. In short: Lotterer is a machine. Don't get in his way.

Series: WRC
Years Active: His entire life

The official award for "best dad ever" goes to Mads Østberg's father, who helped jumpstart his young son's rallying career by making the 13-year-old his co-driver in Norwegian national rallies for four years. Although Østberg is only 25, he is now seriously competitive in the top level of rallying, placing 4th in the 2012 WRC championship and currently lies 3rd in the 2013 WRC championship. What's more, he's the only non-French or Finnish driver to win a race since 2005. Why do we love WRC? Because nothing is more breathtaking than watching drivers of this skill level compete. Someone needs to bring it to the guys at the top, and Østberg looks to be that driver.

Series: SCCA, ALMS, Australian V8 Supercars, NASCAR, Grand-Am, Trans-Am, Baja 1000, Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill, and pretty much any semi-pro/amateur event that interests him. It actually might be shorter to list series/events in which he hasn't competed.
Years Active: Since 1987

Said started as a club-level racer in SCCA events, then moved up through the ranks to become a pro. He has won the 24 Hours of Daytona twice. Both Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Jr. asked him for advice about road racing at Infineon (or Sears Point, if you like) and Watkins Glen. He also became the first American to win at the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring. That meme about how tough Chuck Norris is from a couple years back? Apply that to Boris Said and multiple motorsport series and most of them become true.

Series: Peugeot 206 Cup, JWRC, WRC
Years Active: 2008-present

It takes a Sébastien to beat a Sébastien. We're only two races into the 2013 WRC season, but Sébastien Ogier just managed to lead the brand new Volkswagen Motorsport WRC team to its maiden victory, after competing in just WRC events ever. Granted, nine-time WRC championship winner Sébastien Loeb did inadvertently help him by making a few mistakes early on. Here's hoping that this means the 2013 WRC season isn't just the Sébastien Loeb/Citroën World Rally Team show. (For the record, it's not that we don't appreciate Loeb's amazing skills and those of his co-driver Daniel Elena. But, no racing series is fun if you always know who's going to win in advance.)

Series: Cross Country World Cup Rallying
Years Active: Since 1987

Cross-country rallying requires a very unique skillset. To be successful, you need to not only be able to drive in all conditions, but you also need to be able to handle breakdowns and mechanical issues on your own. You need to be able to adapt to the unexpected. In short, you need to be an all-around badass, not just a badass at driving.

Jutta Kleinschmidt became interested in cross-country rallying at an early age and started spectating at events. Not content to just stand or sit in one place, she also started following competitors on her own BMW motorcycle. (Go back and read that sentence again. Make sure it sinks in.) Unsurprisingly, she started competing in rallies soon afterward, at the 1987 Pharaoh's Rally in Egypt. At first she stuck to her BMW motorcycles and was finishing rallies and setting many records. She was the first woman to lead the 1997 Dakar-Agadez-Dakar Rally (placing fifth overall), was the first woman to win a stage at the Paris-Dakar Rally, and eventually was the first woman to win the 2001 Paris-Dakar Rally, which is widely regarded as the single most grueling race in the world. She also won the Baja Rally that year, and placed second at the Morocco, Por Las Pampas, Baja Portugal, and Master Rallies. Tha put her second in the Cross Country World Cup Championship for that year.

She finished third at the 2005 Telefonica-Dakar Rally driving a diesel VW Touareg, the very first podium in Dakar's history for a diesel-powered vehicle. Oh, and in 2008, her team was first in the S2 class at the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring. If you've ever raced at the Nurburgring in video games, you have some idea of what an accomplishment that is. She currently travels and gives talks about her amazing accomplishments when she's not racing. We're pretty sure that's a lecture you wouldn't sleep through.

Series: F1, CART, World Touring Car Championship, the 2012 London Olympics
Years Active: His entire life; Zanardi is now 46.

Alex Zanardi absoultely refuses to give up. He worked his way up through the ranks with karting, Formula 3, and Formula 3000. He had two runs in Formula One, winning the 1997 and 1998 CART championships. In 2001, he survived one of the most horrifying racing accidents that didn't result in a driver's death while competing in the CART series at the Lausitzring in Germany. His injuries were so bad, he received last rites using his own spent engine's oil on the racetrack. In the end, he lost both his legs. But he didn't just survive this accident. He thrived.

He finished those last 13 laps at the Lausitzring in a car that was specially fitted with hand controls. He not only competed in World Touring Car Championship races, he won. With hand controls. Even non-racing fans had to smile and possibly shed tears when he won two paralympic handcycling gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics using a Dallara-built carbon fiber paracycle that he designed. And now? Now he has his eye on a race seat in the 2013 Indianapolis 500, probably with Jimmy Vasser's KV Racing team or his old employer, Chip Ganassi Racing. In short, there is no driver currently racing who is more badass than Alex Zanardi. Case closed.