Jan Heylen

Jan Heylen (born 1 May 1980 in Geel) is a championship-winning Belgian racing driver, based out of Tampa, Florida.

He began karting in 1992, and worked his way up through various feeder series through the years including the British Formula Ford Winter Series (2000), British Formula Ford Championship (2001), Formula Ford Festival, UK Formula Ford Zetec Championship (2002), Formula 3 Spain and Euro (2003), and German Formula 3 (2004).

He also won the 2002 Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch and has competed in the Formula Three Euroseries.

In 2004 Heylen drove in the first four Formula 3000 races of the season with Team Astromega before being replaced by Olivier Tielemans.

Following the changeup, Heylen returned to the German Formula 3 series and finished third in the championship with six wins and eight podium finishes.

In 2005, he was crowned the Eurocup Mégane Trophy champion.

Through still racing in open-wheel machinery, Heylen started adding sports cars to his racing resume in 2005.

That year, he also competed in the Eurocup Megane Trophy, earning seven wins.

He also participated in the 24 Hours of Zolder, finishing first with Selleslagh Racing Team.

The following season, he raced in a one-off at Spa-Francorchamps in Belcar GT, a national sports car racing championship in Belgium, again securing victory.

He beat out Nicky Pastorelli for the 2006 Champ Car World Series season at Dale Coyne Racing by bringing sponsorship from the Muermans Group and BergHOFF Worldwide.

With Cristiano da Matta as his teammate, Heylen scored a fifth-place finish at the Cleveland Grand Prix, the team's best result to date.

He was unable to find a ride for the first three races of the 2007 season, but was brought on to Conquest Racing to replace Matt Halliday from the fourth race onwards.

Despite finishing second—the team's top finish at the time—at TT Circuit Assen, the race would be his final one for the team as he was replaced for the final two races by funded driver Nelson Philippe.

In 2008, he returned to the 24 Hours of Zolder and Belcar GT with AD sport, racing alongside future Porsche Factory driver Laurens Vanthoor.

In 2008 Heylen began his North American sports car racing career, driving in the first two Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series races, including the 24 Hours of Daytona in Synergy Racing's Porsche 911 in the GT-class.

With co-drivers Mark Greenberg, Damien Faulkner, and Lance Arnold, the team finished sixth in class.

Heylen returned to the team for the Homestead-Miami round with Steve Johnson, but the pair was unable to finish the race.

The 2009 season saw his final attempts at the 24 Hours of Zolder and Spa, resulting in a DNF with AD Sport, and a fourth-place finish with Prospeed Competition, respectively.

In 2009 he signed on to compete in the Firestone Indy Lights series, driving for Team E. However, the team nor Heylen never appeared on track all season.

He attended the 2010 IndyCar Series preseason meetings with Conquest Racing but did not announce a deal with the team.

However, the 2010 season saw him drive for Team E, which never happened in 2009, in the 2010 Indy Lights season opener in St. Petersburg.

Ironically, he finished second, as he did in his final Champ Car race, to Lights rookie Jean-Karl Vernay.

In 2011, Heylen returned to Prospeed Competition, with co-driver Petri Lappalainen, and the pair earned four top-ten finishes in twelve events, with a season-best of seventh place at Zandvoort, concluding Heylen's full-season efforts in Europe.

He went back to Europe in 2011 for a full season in FIA GT, but came back to the United States the following year to compete in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series and American Le Mans Series, the top two sports car racing series in North America.

In 2011 Heylen drove in the 24 Hours of Daytona for Starworks Motorsport and made six starts in the FIA GT3 European Championship for Prospeed Competition and finished 27th in points.

(Formally the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and Pirelli World Challenge)

In 2012, Heylen competed in a Trans-Am Series race in the GGT class and two Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge races driving a Dodge Challenger, three Rolex Sports Car Series GT-class races in a Dodge Viper, one American Le Mans Series LMP2-class race for Conquest Endurance, and one Pirelli World Challenge race.

After running select races in 2012, Heylen raced the majority of the 2013 season in the American Le Mans Series alongside Mike Hedlund in the JDX Porsche.

The pair earned three podium finishes that season at Lime Rock Park, downtown Baltimore, and Road Atlanta's Petit Le Mans.

Heylen ended the season 14th in the standings with a best finish of fifth at the Cleveland Grand Prix.

The 2014 season marked the unification of the GRAND-AM Series and American Le Mans Series, creating the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

With the exception of the Twelve Hours of Sebring, where he ran with RumBum Racing, Heylen ran the entire season with Snow Racing, in a Porsche fielded by Wright Motorsports.

Heylen and co-drivers Madison Snow and Marco Seefried finished in third place in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, as one of only two GTD entries to use only three drivers.

Despite only receiving the car weeks before the race, the No. 58 Porsche 911 stayed in the top five for the entirety of the race.

The full-season pair of Heylen and Snow returned to the podium again at Road America, then a final time at the season finale, Petit Le Mans, with Patrick Dempsey as the third driver.

In 2015, Heylen returned to Wright, running in four races alongside Snow.

The highlight of the year came at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, when the pair podiumed for the second consecutive year at the endurance event, this time with co-drivers Patrick Dempsey and Phillip Eng.

While he only competed in one event in 2016, Heylen came back in 2017 with Wright Motorsports for a full season in the Pirelli World Challenge Sprint X GT Pro/Am championship, racing alongside Michael Schein.

With three wins and seven podiums, the pair finished second in the team and driver championships.