Hearn Motorsports Announces Two Race Deal with Maryeve Dufault

Hearn Motorsports Announces Two Race Deal with Maryeve Dufault

 

 

 

MONTREAL, June 21, 2006 - Hearn Motorsports announced today the addition of
a third car to its Formula BMW USA Series stable for the next two rounds of
the open wheel racing series. Maryeve Dufault (Sorel, Quebec, Canada) will
make her Formula BMW USA debut at her native country's biggest motorsports
event; the Canadian Grand Prix, June 23-25, in Montreal. She will follow
that with a second appearance during the United States Grand Prix weekend at
Indianapolis on July 1-2. Dufault, a former Miss Hawaiian Tropic
International, will join the team owned by open wheel racing standout Richie
Hearn (Henderson, Nev.) driving the No. 90 Hearn Motorsports/BMW. Due to the
two-race weekend format of the Formula BMW Series, Dufault (pronounced
MaryEv Due-fO) will participate in a total of four races over the course of
the two weekends. She teams with full-season Hearn drivers Jules Duc (Los
Gatos, Calif.) and Ryan Phinny (Carmel Valley, Calif.).

 

"I am really happy to be doing my first Formula BMW race in Canada and with
Hearn Motorsports," said Dufault. "I am sure I will have great support from
all the local fans. It is going to be a lot of pressure. I hope people
understand that this is my first time in the car. It's going to be a tough
race for me. I wish I had a chance to have a test day but sometimes it
happens so fast you do what you can. This is an opportunity for me to do
this race so I am doing it. At Indianapolis I will know more about what to
expect."

 

"We're obviously pleased to have Maryeve on our team for two of the biggest
weekends we'll run all year," said Hearn, himself a two-time starter at
Montreal where he won once ('93) and finished second once ('94) in the Champ
Car Atlantics Series. "Entering a third car has been our goal since we began
this program last fall. This weekend's Canadian Grand Prix will be tough for
all the drivers, not just Maryeve but Jules and Ryan too. There isn't much
time on the track for the Formula BMW cars. We get a 30 minute practice, 30
minutes of qualifying and then two races. So, the drivers will need to learn
the track fast. Maryeve also needs to learn the car. We aren't going to put
any pressure on her as a team. There will be enough of that. We just want
her to go out and get comfortable. These cars are different than anything
that she has done but I'm confident in her ability. This is going to be one
of the hardest weekends on the drivers all year as far as the schedule is
concerned. I've raced here before, we'll have our engineer here. So, we'll
be in better shape than some of the new teams and drivers. But, it is still
a tough weekend."

 

Dufault, who is also professional model and actress, is far from the long
list of celebrities that try their hand at motorsports before moving back in
front of the camera. Her racing career began at the age of four when she
started moto-crossing following in the footsteps of her father and brother,
each of who road raced motorcycles. As is the case with many racers, Dufault
moved to karts following her time on two wheels before making the transition
to racing cars. In 2004, she took part in the ESPN Jim Russell School and
began competing in select races in the school series. She raced there when
possible through last season. She also started a handful of events in the
Formula Star Mazda Series in 2005 before switching her attention to the Skip
Barber Racing School Series in 2006. She continues to kart in the Rotax
Series having led much of her most recent event before finishing second. 

 

While her ultra-successful modeling and acting career has taken her away
from the sport at times, her first love, motorsports, has always been at the
center of her focus and her future.

 

"My main focus is racing," said Dufault. "I don't see myself anywhere else;
racing is in my blood. I have always been involved in racing. I have always
wanted to race but didn't have the financing. The modeling helped me do the
racing and I now have the experience in front of a camera to help my
sponsors. I am really happy to get where I am today and I am really
determined to reach the top of my racing career."

 

"This is a great series and to drive for Richie Hearn will bring the best
out of me," continued Dufault. "I am really happy to work with Richie. He
has a really good racing background. He knows racing really well. It is
going to be great for me. He knows the track and it is a great team. His
experience is going to help me a lot."

 

Dufault was part of a recent news-making moment on her trip from Los Angeles
back to Montreal for the race. She was one of 131 people on the American
Airlines flight that had to make an emergency landing at Chicago's O'Hare
Airport when its nose, landing gear failed to deploy. The pilot was able to
land the plane safely but the jarring hit and smoke from the subsequent
flames of the hull sliding on the ground was a physically and emotionally
draining experience for the passengers. 

 

"It was crazy," said Dufault. "I had my helmet with me and I thought about
putting it on. As a racer you occasionally have a hard hit but the
difference is you have more control of that. You are just a passenger in
something like this."

 

Duc, pronounced Duke, and Phinny will return in their now familiar No. 12
Duc Housing Partners/Hearn Motorsports and No. 16 Baja Cantina/Eagle Air
Conditioning/Hearn Motorsports BMWs, respectively. While the two young
drivers have had frustrations early in the season, they have also each shown
great promise.

 

"We're all just finding our rhythm together, I think," said Hearn about his
two fulltime drivers. "They're both learning and, as a team, we're learning.
But, we're getting there and I am pretty confident that we'll be running
consistently up front before long with all three of our cars."

 

For more on Hearn Motorsports please visit www.HearnMotorsports.com
<http://www.hearnmotorsports.com/> . 

To learn more about the Formula BMW USA Series, click on
www.FormulaBMWUSA.com <http://www.formulabmwusa.com/> . 

 

More on Maryeve Dufault is available at www.Maryeve.com
<http://www.maryeve.com/> . 

Jules Duc can be found on the web at www.DucMotorsports.com
<http://www.ducmotorsports.com/>  

Additional information on Ryan Phinny can be found at
www.RyanPhinnyMotorsports.com <http://www.ryanphinnymotorsports.com/> . 

 

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Digital images and complete bio information available upon request. 

A .PDF version of this release has been attached for your convenience.

Editors, please do not publish any contact information other than web sites.
Thank you. 

 

Contact: Tom Moore, Hearn Motorsports, Inc.: 

615-778-1614 (office), 615-509-5000 (cell), tom@darkhorsecom.com