A star product of the Toyota Driver Academy, the young Australian won the Italian Formula Renault Championship (2001) with five victories and six poles in 10 races, competed in the Formula Renault Eurocup (4th) and the final round of the French F3 Championship in which he finished second. In 2002, in addition to his duties as test driver for the Toyota F1 team, Ryan competed in the German F3 Championship and the F3000 Championship with Nordic. Briscoe thoroughly dominated the Formula 3 Euroseries in 2003 with eight victories, winning the title at Hockenheim with two races remaining then went on to devote the 2004 season entirely to his F1 test role.
Briscoe moved to North America and IndyCar Series competition in 2005 after serving as a Toyota Formula One test driver the previous season. He participated in six F1 Grand Prix race weekends at the tail end of the 2004 season as the third driver (Friday test driver) for the Toyota Panasonic team in Hungary, Italy, Belgium, Japan, China and Brazil.
2005 was a testing year for Briscoe, who was making his rookie debut in the IndyCar series. After obtaining three top-10 results and one pole in fifteen races, Briscoe suffered a horrific accident that sidelined him for the rest of the season during the Chicago IndyCar race in September that year.
In 2006, Briscoe ran a variety of races including Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series, IndyCar Series and Champ Car World Series races. His best performance came during the IndyCar's Watkins Glen Indy GP, where he finished third.
In 2007, Briscoe shared driving responsibilities with teammate Sascha Maassen for the No. 6 DHL Porsche RS Spyder in the American LeMans Series for Penske Racing. Together they earned three victories (St. Petersburg, Salt Lake City and Lime Rock); two poles (Belle Isle and Laguna Seca) and finished second in the Championship. Their teammates, Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard, earned the Championship for Penske Racing behind the wheel of the No. 7 DHL Porsche RS Spyder.
Briscoe joined Penske Racing full-time for 2008 IndyCar Series season, replacing Sam Hornish Jr., who moved to NASCAR full-time. Briscoe scored three career victories in 2008 (Milwaukee, Mid-Ohio and Watkins Glen). He also added three more poles to his record (Watkins Glen, Edmonton and Chicagoland) and ended the 2008 season fifth in overall points, his best championship finish to date.
Briscoe will again run full-time in the IndyCar Series in 2009 with Penske Racing in the No. 6 Honda.
