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CART: Bettenhausen Motorsports continues in the face of adversity

24 February 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
Continuing valiantly in the face of staggering adversity, Bettenhausen Motorsports is conducting its first road-course test of the off-season this week on the 1.65-mile road course at Sebring International Raceway.

Driver Michel Jourdain Jr. (Herdez Mercedes Lola) completed fewer than 50 miles of testing on Monday because of an oil problem, but came back to complete nearly 150 miles Tuesday. The test continues today and possibly Thursday, before the team heads to Firebird International Raceway outside of Phoenix for further road-course testing next month.

Herdez announced last week that it would remain as primary sponsor of the Bettenhausen Motorsports team for the 2000 FedEx Championship Series season, following the tragic deaths of team owner Tony Bettenhausen, wife Shirley, team partner Russ Roberts and friend Larry Rangel in an aviation accident. Bettenhausen Motorsports has been a regular competitor in the FedEx Championship Series since being founded by Bettenhausen and a group of friends in 1986.

"I think to work again after what happened with Tony was good for everybody," said Jourdain, who recorded a best lap of 52.0 seconds Tuesday. "We are making progress and I feel very pleased with all the work we have done today. We worked on many things such as springs, shock absorbers, all the chassis ... I think tomorrow we will lower our times."

Bettenhausen Motorsports' Managing Director/Chief Engineer, Tom Brown, was happy with Tuesday's effort. "Today was a good day," he said. "Michel completed between 140 and 150 miles and we are making a lot of progress, but we need more miles testing. We may continue on Thursday because we did not run too many laps on Monday. It was very hard to run without Tony, but we will try hard to make him proud."

Bettenhausen was laid to rest with his wife, Shirley on Monday at 11 a.m. in Indianapolis.

In tribute to him and the other accident victims, the Bettenhausen team and the other participants in the test, including Newman/Haas Racing, the PacWest Racing Group, Target/Chip Ganassi Racing, Forsythe Championship Racing and PPI Motorsports, ceased all track activity and observed 16 minutes of silence at the top of that hour.

The 16-minute period was observed because Bettenhausen Motorsports campaigns car number '16' in the FedEx Championship Series.

Text provided by CART

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