Dominic Dobson

14/9/1957

Record updated 14-Sep-06

Dobson competed in motor sports for over 20 years, racing at Indianapolis, LeMans, Sebring, Daytona and other circuits. In recent years he been involved with historic racing cars while serving as President of Cavallino Holdings.

Dominic Dobson was born in Stuttgart, Germany, and raised in Seattle. He now resides on nearby Mercer Island. Married to Kristen, a Montessori school teacher, he has a daughter, Kayleigh, and a son, Aidan. Dominic holds a private pilot's license.

He started racing karts at age nine. Built his own kart and won two championships with it in 1975. Graduated to SCCA Formula Fords in 1977, winning races and finishing 2nd in the ICSCC Ford championship. He owned and operated a Formula Atlantic team, racing in 11 races in 1982 and ran in SCCA Formula Super Vee in 1983-1985, finishing top three several times.

In 1988 he drove in IMSA setting several track records and pole positions. He drove both Ford GTP and Camel Lights Pontiac Firebird in Camel GT, including a victory at Mid-Ohio. Competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona for four consecutive years, starting on the pole and finishing third in 1990, and 6th in 1991 and 1992. Drove a Porsche 962 in the 24 Hours of LeMans in 1989 with Jean Alesi and the late Will Hoy.

In single seaters he competed in seven consecutive Indy 500’s between 1988 and 1994, earning the "Fastest Rookie in History" honors in 1988. He created and managed own team in 1988 then drove for Bayside in 1989 and 1990. From 1991 to 1993 he drove for Burns Racing. In 1994 he drove for the newly-formed PacWest team but was taken out while running in the top-ten.

Now retired from open-wheel racing, Dobson appeared in 66 CART/PPG Indy Car World Series races over a 10-year period and was the 1986 CART "Rookie of the Year". He also fielded a Chrysler factory team and drove to second place in the short lived North American Touring Car Championship in 1996, and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 1998.

Between 1999 and 2002 he drove in historic races, including the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Monterey Historics, Rennsport and the Cavallino Classic.

From 2000 to 2003, he presided over a multi-million dollar collection of historic automobiles, primarily European post-war racecars and rare road cars called the Cavallino Collection.

In 1990, Dobson founded Motion Research Corporation, developing helmet-mounted display systems used in motion applications including automotive, motorcycling, bicycling, emergency first response teams and military. With Dobson as CEO, driving the market for Heads Up Display (HUD) technology has positioned Motion Research as the leader in information display and monitoring solutions.

He is also Director of IRIK Indoor Karting, a company developing indoor karting centers across the U.S.