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Indy Lights: Dayton Indy Lights Championship News and Notes

29 December 1999

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
DETROIT - At least one new team and nearly a dozen confirmed drivers are part of a rapidly growing 2000 Dayton Indy Lights Championship field that is gearing up as the year winds down.

Veterans Casey Mears, Jonny Kane, Tony Renna and Geoff Boss top the strong lineup as early favorites for the 2000.

Mears, 21, will run his fourth full-time Indy Lights season and second consecutive with Dorricott-Mears Racing. The second-generation driver - son of Roger Mears and nephew of Rick Mears - battled teammate and eventual series champion Oriol Servia all the way to the season-ending race at California Speedway this year enroute to second-place in the standings. He will be the only returning driver on the Dorricott squad where he is expected to be joined by fellow Californian Townsend Bell, 24, and Formula Ford 2000 veteran Jason Bright, of Australia. Indy Lights rookies, Bell is a veteran Barber Dodge Pro Series competitor while Bright, 25, tested with PacWest Lights before landing a spot at Dorricott. Exiting Dorricott drivers Servia and Philipp Peter are exploring various FedEx Championship Series options, and each met with Champ Car team owner Cal Wells earlier this month.

Kane, the 1999 Rookie of the Year, returns for a second season with Team KOOL Green after ending the year on a high note with his first series win at California. The 26-year-old from Northern Ireland swept the pole positions at both superspeedway events, and his win in the season finale enabled him to edge 19-year-old Scott Dixon by a single point for the rookie title and fourth place in the championship.

Dixon has been linked to the second seat at PacWest but only Renna has been confirmed for the Bruce McCaw-owned team. Renna, 22, ran five races with PacWest last season and the team signed the Floridian to a long-term contract that will see him race in Indy Lights and test the group's Champ Cars. Renna, who won at Michigan in 1998 with the now disbanded Mattco Raceworks team, finished third at Milwaukee last June in his first race with PacWest.

Boss, 30, is back with owner Chris Lucas and the renamed Lucas Motorsports Ltd. team where he will once again team with his younger brother Andy Boss, 27. Geoff Boss, who won at Toronto in 1999, will contest his fourth Indy Lights season while his brother is set for his third full-time effort. They will be teammates for the second consecutive season on the Lucas team.

Cory Witherill, 28, has also confirmed his participation in the 1999 Datyon Indy Lights Championship and is reportedly reviewing team options. He recently completed a productive test with Genoa Racing, his team of the last two years, but no official announcements have been made.

Bell and Bright will be part of a strong rookie entry that includes a second Team KOOL Green driver and no less than two young competitors from Mexico.

Jeff Simmons, winner of the last two Barber Dodge Pro Series championships, steps up to Indy Lights as a teammate to Kane on the KOOL team. It's the fist time since 1997 that the Barry Green-led group will field a full-time, multi-car team after running Kane exclusively this past season and fielding a solo effort for Naoki Hattori in 1998. Former team driver Chris Simmons, Jeff's older brother, returns to the KOOL camp as the engineer on his sibling's team. Jeff Simmons, 23, and Kane will drive identical KOOL Lolas.

Rolando Quintanilla, 19, made a solid debut at Fontana with team owner Eric Bachelart and Conquest Racing and retains his rookie status for the 2000 season. He and his father Roberto Quintanilla, a former series driver, have sponsorship in place and are presently reviewing team options. Possibilities include the full season with Conquest or moving up to Lights with the same Mexican-based team with which he raced in Formula Ford 2000 competition.

The Quintanilla's Mexican countryman Gustavo del Campo, former manager of Team Mexico Quaker Herdez, is now handling the new MexPro Racing Team that debuts in 2000. Team owner Rodolfo Junco, Sr. has purchased a pair of Indy Lights Lola T97/20s and the related team equipment from Forsythe Racing (see below) and will field one entry for his 20-year-old son Rodolfo Junco, Jr. A second Mexican driver will be added to the lineup in the near future. Junco Jr. is a veteran of the Mexican-based Pan-American Indy Lights series that uses older Indy Lights Lola T93/20s.

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