INDY LIGHTS: Conquest Racing Evaluates Drivers for 2001 Season
9 November 2000
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
BUSY TEAM BEGINS TESTING IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING FINALE
INDIANAPOLIS, IND - Though Conquest Racing finished up the 2000 Dayton Indy Lights Championship at California Speedway in Fontana on Sunday, Oct. 29, where they placed two cars in the top 10 in season points, the team got little rest. On Monday they headed immediately to Buttonwillow Raceway near Bakersfield, Ca., to begin preparing for the 2001 season.
The team evaluated six drivers and gave a brief tryout to three others during three days of hard running around the Buttonwillow road course. Under consideration for seats in 2001 were defending Barber Dodge Pro Series champion Nilton Rossoni of Brazil, along with fellow Barber Dodge competitors Sepp Koster of The Netherlands, American Jamie Menninga and Alex Sperifico of Brazil. The team also tested French Formula 3 graduate Romain Dumas and former Atlantic series driver Paet Hidalgo.
Also given an opportunity to try out the car were sports car veteran Eric van de Poele, currently with the Cadillac LMP program, U.S. F2000 competitor Memo Rojas of Mexico and U.S. F2000 rookie Paul Dana.
"The test went very well and all of the drivers did a good job. I was very impressed." Bachelart said. "The Frenchman Dumas was extremely hooked up, and the Barber Dodge guys all went quickly."
"It's very hard to choose between the drivers because at the end of the day all four Barber Dodge drivers were within .05 seconds of each other, which is incredible. Obviously the Barber Dodge Pro Series is a good training ground."
Bachelart believed that 2000 Barber Dodge champion Rossoni had the potential to go quickest. However, at the end of the day his engine was down on power and he was unable to take advantage of new tires.
"It was a good opportunity to have a look at the upcoming talent. We are currently evaluating our plans for 2001 and will announce our intentions in the coming weeks."
Conquest Racing ran three cars in this year's Dayton Indy Lights Championship, the Official Development Series of the CART FedEx Championship Series. Brazilian Felipe Giaffone finished the year fourth in points and earned the team its first win at Michigan. American Chris Menninga ranked ninth and Mexican rookie Rolando Quintanilla finished 16th.
Text provided by Eric Bachelart
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