[2] His father owns a solvents company, a petrol station,[3] and raced Formula Ford cars from the 1960s until a major accident at Oulton Park in 1975 ended his career.

[13] Wilson won on his series debut at Pembrey Circuit in South Wales' first heat aged 16 years and 2 months,[15][16] and became the first 16-year-old to win an official motor race in the United Kingdom.

[19][20] For the 1997 EFDA Nations Cup at Donington Park in October, he joined fellow driver Warren Carway at the Diamond Racing-run European Union Team, finishing fourth.

[2] Wilson's title victory earned him a fully funded seat in the International Formula 3000 Championship (IF3000)—F1's feeder series—with Team Astromega for the 1999 season,[20][25] and Palmer became his manager.

[28] Wilson won three times—at Autódromo José Carlos Pace, the A1-Ring and the Hungaroring—[19] and achieving 10 podium finishes and scoring 71 points,[23] to become the first British driver to claim the championship.

[27] He won races at Autódromo José Carlos Pace and the Circuit Ricardo Tormo and achieved six more podium finishes for fourth in the points standings.

[29] With the provision of him bringing the agreed financial settlement,[41] Minardi designed the PS03 car to accommodate Wilson's large frame; the seat was lowered to keep his knees away from his chin and moved its pedals forward.

[42] Palmer spent most of January and February 2003 holding meetings with lawyers to develop a programme allowing investors to support Wilson's career by buying shares in him.

[a][47][48] He equalled the pace of his more experienced teammate Jos Verstappen;[13][27] Wilson generally qualified in a low grid slot and made brisk starts to gain track position before a pit stop.

Palmer told Wilson to visit Jaguar's headquarters in Milton Keynes for a seat fitting at midnight with a contract written up the day after the British Grand Prix.

[52] His teammate outperformed him by half a second on average in his first four races with the team due to his unfamiliarity with the car,[53] but was consistently within three to four-tenths of a second per lap of Webber's pace by the end of the season.

[64] He fractured the scaphoid bone in his right wrist in an accident in practice for the Lexmark Indy 300, requiring him to withdraw from the race; he was deemed fit by the CCWS medical delegate Chris Pinderski to enter the season-ending Gran Premio Telmex.

[80] Wilson was persuaded to remain there after his race engineer Todd Malloy left and limitations in the team's budget saw his assistant Mike Talbott promoted.

[82] He was put on Newman/Haas' shortlist to replace the outgoing Bourdais for the 2008 season, and was rumoured to be in contention to drive for Andretti Green Racing and did not want to move to the American Le Mans Series.

[27][25] Wilson said his objective for the season was to perform to the best of his ability and acknowledged Newman/Haas would be disadvantaged against the established IndyCar teams on oval tracks noting: "We can only judge the competition when we get there, but we have to be realistic.

[99] Wilson sustained a minor fracture in his left wrist in an accident with Alex Tagliani at the season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and wore a carbon fibre brace.

[102] For the rest of the season, his substitutes were Simon Pagenaud at Mid-Ohio, Tomas Scheckter at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Giorgio Pantano on the road and street courses and Townsend Bell in Kentucky and Las Vegas.

[64] At the season-ending IndyCar World Championships at the Auto Club Speedway, Wilson was involved in a high speed lateral impact with driver Tristan Vautier, sustaining a minor pulmonary contusion and three non-operable breakages to his pelvis.

[112] One race later, Wilson achieved a season-best fourth at the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix and four top-ten finishes in the final 12 rounds for 15th overall with 395 points.

[64][115] Afterwards, Wilson obtained sponsorship to drive the season's final five races for Andretti,[27] finishing a year-high second in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio,[64] in an aerodynamically inefficient car.

[116][117] He joined fellow British drivers Ben Collins and Christian Vann in a Team Ascari-entered Ascari KZR-1 car in the LMP900 class at the 2002 12 Hours of Sebring (part of the American Le Mans Series), finishing sixth.

[117] At the 2006 24 Hours of Daytona (part of the Rolex Sports Car Series), Wilson drove for Michael Shank Racing (MSR) alongside A. J. Allmendinger, Oswaldo Negri Jr. and Mark Patterson in the No.

He returned to MSR for the 2008 24 Hours of Daytona with Negri, Patterson and Graham Rahal, driving the Riley Mk.XX-Ford DP vehicle and finishing sixth after starting from pole position.

[117] At the 2014 24 Hours of Daytona (now part of the IMSA SportsCar Championship), Wilson, Allmendinger, Negri and Pew were 12th in the prototype class and 47th overall due to a gearbox fault in the No.

[130] On the 179th lap of the 2015 ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway on 23 August,[131] race leader Sage Karam lost control of his car in the first turn after passing a bump in the tarmac surface.

[137] On 10 September, he was given a funeral service at St. James The Great Church in Paulerspury, Northamptonshire, England attended by about 500 mourners, which included members of the motor racing community.

The driver was unhurt but debris from his car flew high into the air and a large, heavy piece hit Justin on the head as he approached the scene of the accident.

[18] He aspired to have retention walls altered to better deal with airborne crashes,[18] and wrote an online article arguing for the shifting of trackside grandstands to inside racing circuits as a means of shielding spectators from debris.

[30] Nicknamed "Bad Ass" by his driving instructor colleagues at PalmerSport in 1999,[18][144] for being "as fearsome a competitor you could ever find",[145] Wilson was friendly,[78] shy,[18][145] endearing,[27] soft-spoken and highly analytical.

[30] For DailySportsCar editor Graham Goodwin it created an image of Wilson as "a very rare breed indeed, a man in the modern age who had competed at the highest level in multiple motorsport disciplines", and a driver who "had the cutting edge".