Minardi Team USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Minardi Team USA is an auto racing team that competes in the Champ Car World Series. It was bought by Paul Stoddart in December 2006[1] and prior to that has had a long history of changes of ownership. Its previous incarnation was as CTE-HVM Racing co-owned by actor/comedian Cedric the Entertainer and Keith Wiggins.
Contents |
[edit] History
The team has had a long history of names, first as Bettenhausen Motorsports under the leadership of Tony Bettenhausen Jr. The cars were primarily dark blue, white and red with Alumax Aluminum sponsorship and ran several drivers of note, Stefan Johansson, Helio Castroneves and Patrick Carpentier among them. It was a difficult 1999 season as the team ran three drivers and Shigeaki Hattori had his competitor's license revoked by chief steward Wally Dallenbach, Sr. before the race at Laguna Seca.
Tragically, before the 2000 season started, Bettenhausen, his wife and two business associates were killed in a plane crash en route to spring training in Homestead, Florida. The team was renamed Herdez Competition as Michel Jourdain Jr. came aboard with Wiggins taking over as team manager. Two uncompetitive seasons followed and Mario Dominguez came into the team in 2002. A rather fortunate victory came at Surfer's Paradise in a water-logged event, as Dominguez started last and failed to pass a single car on track but benefitted from pit strategy.
The win boosted his confidence and a 1-2 result at Miami, Dominguez leading Roberto Moreno, was the highlight of a much-improved 2003 season. Ryan Hunter-Reay came into the team in 2004 and led all 250 laps at The Milwaukee Mile. Herdez sponsorship faded at the end of the year and for 2005, with the team now called HVM Inc., Wiggins was forced to take on pay-drivers Björn Wirdheim and Ronnie Bremer. Both of their funds dried up before the end of the season and several other drivers had chances in the team's two cars.
Cedric the Entertainer became a co-owner late in the season and added a celebrity presence to the field. The cars this year run a distinctive gunmetal gray livery that is hard to miss, with Cedric's A Bird and A Bear entertainment company on the sidepods.
In 2006, Paul Stoddart, former owner of the Minardi Formula 1 team, bought an interest in the team and re-christened it Minardi Team USA. They have yet to announce their 2007 line up but the cars were recently tested by 2006 driver Nelson Philippe and ex-Minardi F1 driver Robert Doornbos. The team announced the signing of Zsolt Baumgartner as the team's test and reserve driver. The hungarian is best known for having scored the hard-trying Minardi F1 Team’s sole World Championship point of the 2004 season, at that year’s United States Grand Prix.
[edit] List of Drivers for Bettenhausen/Herdez/HVM/CTE-HVM/Minardi Team USA
Gary Bettenhausen (1982-1983, 1996)
Ronnie Bremer (2005)
Patrick Carpentier (1997)
Helio Castroneves (1998)
Dan Clarke (2006-Present)
Fabrizio del Monte (2005)
Mario Dominguez (2002-2004)
Robert Doornbos (2007-Present)- Roberto Gonzalez (2003)
Shigeaki Hattori (1999)- Ryan Hunter-Reay (2004)
Stefan Johansson (1992-1996)- Michel Jourdain Jr. (2000-2001)
- Rodolfo Lavin (2005)
- Roberto Moreno (2003)
Nelson Philippe (2006)- Homero Richards (2005)
- Gualter Salles (1999)
- Alex Sperafico (2005)
- Björn Wirdheim (2005)
| 2007 Champ Car World Series | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newman/Haas | Forsythe | Minardi | Australia | PKV | RSPORTS | Coyne | Conquest | PCM | |
| 1 Bourdais 2 Rahal |
3 Tracy 7 Dominguez |
4 Clarke 14 Doornbos |
5 Power 15 Pagenaud |
6 Gommendy 21 Jani |
8 Tagliani 9 Wilson |
11 TBA 19 TBA |
27 TBA | 28 Dalziel 29 Figge |
|
| Las Vegas - Long Beach - Houston - Portland - Cleveland - Mont-Tremblant - Toronto - Edmonton - San Jose - Road America - Assen - Zolder - Surfers Paradise - Zhuhai - Mexico City - Phoenix | |||||||||
