Italian driver Francesco Dracone will replace Brazilian Mario Romancini in the No. 34 Dallara-Honda at Conquest Racing for the final two road course events of the IZOD IndyCar Series season. Dracone will drive the car at Mid-Ohio and Infineon with sponsorship from La Pasta and Halkin Jet.
Dracone has spent time racing in Euroseries 3000 (now AutoGP) for the past four years, improving his spot in the standings each of the past three years. Dracone's best finish in points was seventh place last season, with his best race finish coming at Monza, where he placed fifth.
Dracone has been inactive for most of this season, testing a Nissan LMP1 and an F3000 car in the past few months, but was not expected to drive an IndyCar this season until passing his rookie test at Mid-Ohio last week. Dracone is team owner Eric Bachelart's second strictly European driver signing of the season, with Dracone's teammate Bertrand Baguette a former Formula Renault champion.
Romancini currently ranks third in rookie points, behind only Alex Lloyd and Simona de Silvestro, while Baguette (having missed the season's first two races) ranks fifth. But Romancini has finished no better than 13th all season, has failed to finish in five of seven road course starts (crashing four times), and brings less sponsorship money than Baguette, who has his own Belgian backing. This is no small advantage, as team owner Bachelart is Belgian as well.
Romancini will most likely return to Conquest for the final four oval races of the season, as he was the highest-finishing rookie at Indianapolis and seemed to have his best luck in Firestone Indy Lights last year on the oval tracks.
Showing posts with label Bertrand Baguette. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bertrand Baguette. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
More Sponsors Sign On For Indy
The Indianapolis 500 frequently brings new sponsors into the IZOD IndyCar Series. While some of them may not stick around for long, the occasional relationship may extend through the rest of the season and/or beyond.
Many cars had settled their sponsorship deals before qualifying, but upon making the race (or upon some cars missing the event), a handful of new deals have been signed, if only for this race. Running down the field, in order:
13th-place Mario Moraes of KV Racing Technology will carry Geico logos on the side of his No. 32 Dallara-Honda. Moraes has run the unsponsored KVRT car in every race since St. Petersburg. Moraes carried Banco Panamerica sponsorship in Sao Paulo. Geico, looking to remain in the race, made the natural switch from one KV car to the other when Paul Tracy failed to qualify for the event.
17th-place Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport will receive associate support from Virgin on his No. 37 Dallara-Honda. Richard Branson's mega-conglomerate jumped into Formula 1 racing last year with Brawn GP, the eventual constructors' champion, and 1-2 points finishers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. This year, Virgin took over the fledgling Manor GP outfit with drivers Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi, renaming it Virgin GP, and creating the first F1 car constructed completely without wind-tunnel testing.
22nd-place Simona de Silvestro will carry the majority of last year's major Atlantic Championship supporters on her No. 78 HVM Racing Dallara-Honda for the race. TDS Telecommunications has signed on to back the car, alongside full-season backer Stargate Worlds and Nuclear Clean Air Energy/Entergy. Nuclear Clean Air Energy and Entergy were sponsors of Newman Wachs Racing in Atlantic last year, as their drivers John Edwards and Jonathan Summerton finished 1-2 in the championship. De Silvestro, their closest competitor, finished third. Each driver took four of the 12 wins on the series schedule.
23rd-place Danica Patrick of Andretti Autosport will welcome Boost Mobile back to her No. 7 Dallara-Honda. Boost sponsored Patrick from last year's 500 to the end of last season, when she signed a lucrative deal with GoDaddy.com. This year, however, Boost will return as a secondary sponsor for the remainder of the schedule. Patrick filmed a commercial for Boost last year that should be familiar to most IndyCar fans, in which her pit crew serviced her car in drag. According to a Sprint news release, Boost will sponsor Adam Carroll in his IndyCar debut for Andretti later this year.
24th-place Bertrand Baguette of Conquest Racing will be funded by Angie's List. His No. 36 Dallara-Honda was the final car to qualify on Pole Day. Angie's List, a site where users can post reviews of doctors and contractors, has dipped into open-wheel sponsorship before, sponsoring Oriol Servia and KVRT in the 2008 IndyCar season finale at Chicagoland.
25th-place Bruno Junqueira will, like his FAZZT Race Team compatriot Alex Tagliani, carry the logos of Bowers & Wilkins on the side of his No. 33 Dallara-Honda. B&W originally planned to sponsor Tagliani only in the season opener at Sao Paulo, but has since expanded their program on the base of very strong results for the team all year.
29th-place Sarah Fisher will add the logos of Service Central to her self-owned No. 67 Dallara-Honda after teammate Jay Howard failed to qualify for the race in a dramatic last-second run.
Other new sponsors to the sport that signed on before qualifying for the race was completed include Quick Trim (Graham Rahal) and Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka (Ed Carpenter). Sponsors returning to the sport for this year's 500 that had their deals in place long ago include Herbalife (Townsend Bell), Mona Vie (Tomas Scheckter), Ipiranga (Ana Beatriz), Window World (John Andretti), and William Rast (Sebastien Saavedra).
Many cars had settled their sponsorship deals before qualifying, but upon making the race (or upon some cars missing the event), a handful of new deals have been signed, if only for this race. Running down the field, in order:
13th-place Mario Moraes of KV Racing Technology will carry Geico logos on the side of his No. 32 Dallara-Honda. Moraes has run the unsponsored KVRT car in every race since St. Petersburg. Moraes carried Banco Panamerica sponsorship in Sao Paulo. Geico, looking to remain in the race, made the natural switch from one KV car to the other when Paul Tracy failed to qualify for the event.
17th-place Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport will receive associate support from Virgin on his No. 37 Dallara-Honda. Richard Branson's mega-conglomerate jumped into Formula 1 racing last year with Brawn GP, the eventual constructors' champion, and 1-2 points finishers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. This year, Virgin took over the fledgling Manor GP outfit with drivers Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi, renaming it Virgin GP, and creating the first F1 car constructed completely without wind-tunnel testing.
22nd-place Simona de Silvestro will carry the majority of last year's major Atlantic Championship supporters on her No. 78 HVM Racing Dallara-Honda for the race. TDS Telecommunications has signed on to back the car, alongside full-season backer Stargate Worlds and Nuclear Clean Air Energy/Entergy. Nuclear Clean Air Energy and Entergy were sponsors of Newman Wachs Racing in Atlantic last year, as their drivers John Edwards and Jonathan Summerton finished 1-2 in the championship. De Silvestro, their closest competitor, finished third. Each driver took four of the 12 wins on the series schedule.
23rd-place Danica Patrick of Andretti Autosport will welcome Boost Mobile back to her No. 7 Dallara-Honda. Boost sponsored Patrick from last year's 500 to the end of last season, when she signed a lucrative deal with GoDaddy.com. This year, however, Boost will return as a secondary sponsor for the remainder of the schedule. Patrick filmed a commercial for Boost last year that should be familiar to most IndyCar fans, in which her pit crew serviced her car in drag. According to a Sprint news release, Boost will sponsor Adam Carroll in his IndyCar debut for Andretti later this year.
24th-place Bertrand Baguette of Conquest Racing will be funded by Angie's List. His No. 36 Dallara-Honda was the final car to qualify on Pole Day. Angie's List, a site where users can post reviews of doctors and contractors, has dipped into open-wheel sponsorship before, sponsoring Oriol Servia and KVRT in the 2008 IndyCar season finale at Chicagoland.
25th-place Bruno Junqueira will, like his FAZZT Race Team compatriot Alex Tagliani, carry the logos of Bowers & Wilkins on the side of his No. 33 Dallara-Honda. B&W originally planned to sponsor Tagliani only in the season opener at Sao Paulo, but has since expanded their program on the base of very strong results for the team all year.
29th-place Sarah Fisher will add the logos of Service Central to her self-owned No. 67 Dallara-Honda after teammate Jay Howard failed to qualify for the race in a dramatic last-second run.
Other new sponsors to the sport that signed on before qualifying for the race was completed include Quick Trim (Graham Rahal) and Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka (Ed Carpenter). Sponsors returning to the sport for this year's 500 that had their deals in place long ago include Herbalife (Townsend Bell), Mona Vie (Tomas Scheckter), Ipiranga (Ana Beatriz), Window World (John Andretti), and William Rast (Sebastien Saavedra).
Sunday, April 11, 2010
IndyCar Race Preview: Indy Grand Prix of Alabama
Round three of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season takes us to the beautiful Barber Motorsports Park, site of IndyCar preseason testing and the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. The series hasn't actually raced here before, so all we have to go off of in picking the race is those preseason testing results, momentum from the season's first two races, and this weekend's practice and qualifying charts.
They all scream one name: Will Power.
The Aussie has paced the field all year, with no sign of stopping now. Power has a chance to become the first driver to win the first three races of an open-wheel season under Indy Racing League sanctioning if he can win from the pole at Barber. The last time anybody achieved such a feat in another series came in 2006, when Sebastien Bourdais did it in Champ Car.
But despite our throwing our hands up in the air and conceding the win to Power before the race even starts, plenty of other drivers and teams in the field will have a say in the finish. In Firestone Fast Six qualifying, five teams were represented (Team Penske being the only one with two cars in the top six). Among the biggest surprises was Mike Conway, one of last year's backmarkers, who earned his first career front row start. He was among the top five in every qualifying session in which he took part, and had the fifth fastest time in warm up.
Another driver looking to surprise will be Takuma Sato, starting sixth. Sato was generally fast during preseason testing, and kept his car towards the front of the pack in qualifying. Sato was second in his group in the first session and fifth in the second session.
There are five rookies in the field, with Sato the highest-qualifying of them all. The lowest will be Bertrand Baguette, starting last due to his time being the slowest in his initial qualifying group. Baguette, however, contributes to one of the tightest IndyCar fields in years, as his lap is only about 1.3 seconds off of Conway's lap in P2. (Power, of course, is half a second faster than everybody.)
In Firestone Indy Lights, don't be surprised if J.K. Vernay wins his second consecutive race in two career starts. Vernay, who won in his debut two weeks ago at St. Petersburg, scored the pole position at Barber as well.
They all scream one name: Will Power.
The Aussie has paced the field all year, with no sign of stopping now. Power has a chance to become the first driver to win the first three races of an open-wheel season under Indy Racing League sanctioning if he can win from the pole at Barber. The last time anybody achieved such a feat in another series came in 2006, when Sebastien Bourdais did it in Champ Car.
But despite our throwing our hands up in the air and conceding the win to Power before the race even starts, plenty of other drivers and teams in the field will have a say in the finish. In Firestone Fast Six qualifying, five teams were represented (Team Penske being the only one with two cars in the top six). Among the biggest surprises was Mike Conway, one of last year's backmarkers, who earned his first career front row start. He was among the top five in every qualifying session in which he took part, and had the fifth fastest time in warm up.
Another driver looking to surprise will be Takuma Sato, starting sixth. Sato was generally fast during preseason testing, and kept his car towards the front of the pack in qualifying. Sato was second in his group in the first session and fifth in the second session.
There are five rookies in the field, with Sato the highest-qualifying of them all. The lowest will be Bertrand Baguette, starting last due to his time being the slowest in his initial qualifying group. Baguette, however, contributes to one of the tightest IndyCar fields in years, as his lap is only about 1.3 seconds off of Conway's lap in P2. (Power, of course, is half a second faster than everybody.)
In Firestone Indy Lights, don't be surprised if J.K. Vernay wins his second consecutive race in two career starts. Vernay, who won in his debut two weeks ago at St. Petersburg, scored the pole position at Barber as well.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Baguette Makes Conquest Belgium's National Team
Conquest Racing, in its fourth year of IZOD IndyCar Series competition, officially announced today that they will add a second car for 15 races in this year's season, starting with the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama on April 11. The driver will be Belgian Bertrand Baguette, the 2009 Formula Renault 3.5 champion, who tested for two Formula 1 teams this offseason, and the car will likely carry No. 36.
More significantly, the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium, that country's motorsports governing body, will back the team, creating a true Belgian national team in the IndyCar Series. Team owner Eric Bachelart, a former open-wheel racer himself, calls Belgium home.
Bachelart has pushed for a Belgian driver in his cars before - he sent countryman Jan Heylen to the series' winter meetings with the intent of fielding him in a car this season, but that deal did not come to fruition. The team was briefly rumored to be a two car, all-Brazilian pay-driver team this season, and to have signed Tomas Scheckter, but neither of those deals worked out, either. Brazilian Mario Romancini drove for the team in Sao Paulo and will campaign the team's No. 34 car for the full season.
Originally, the rumors suggested that Baguette would drive a second car for the team in Indianapolis only, similar to how the team fielded a one-off car for Bruno Junqueira last year.
Baguette comes to IndyCar off of a majestic Formula Renault season in which he won the championship by an incredible 57 points. He didn't win a race until the sixth round of the series, sweeping the doubleheader, but won three more races over the next three rounds to secure victory. Baguette only failed to finish one race all season, and that was the only event in which he did not score points. His worst finish otherwise was eighth place, enough to score points in the series, which follows a similar points system to the former Formula 1 structure.
Baguette will attend this weekend's Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in order to familiarize himself with the team and the cars, but will likely not take part in any events behind the wheel.
More significantly, the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium, that country's motorsports governing body, will back the team, creating a true Belgian national team in the IndyCar Series. Team owner Eric Bachelart, a former open-wheel racer himself, calls Belgium home.
Bachelart has pushed for a Belgian driver in his cars before - he sent countryman Jan Heylen to the series' winter meetings with the intent of fielding him in a car this season, but that deal did not come to fruition. The team was briefly rumored to be a two car, all-Brazilian pay-driver team this season, and to have signed Tomas Scheckter, but neither of those deals worked out, either. Brazilian Mario Romancini drove for the team in Sao Paulo and will campaign the team's No. 34 car for the full season.
Originally, the rumors suggested that Baguette would drive a second car for the team in Indianapolis only, similar to how the team fielded a one-off car for Bruno Junqueira last year.
Baguette comes to IndyCar off of a majestic Formula Renault season in which he won the championship by an incredible 57 points. He didn't win a race until the sixth round of the series, sweeping the doubleheader, but won three more races over the next three rounds to secure victory. Baguette only failed to finish one race all season, and that was the only event in which he did not score points. His worst finish otherwise was eighth place, enough to score points in the series, which follows a similar points system to the former Formula 1 structure.
Baguette will attend this weekend's Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in order to familiarize himself with the team and the cars, but will likely not take part in any events behind the wheel.
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