What about Besnard?

[JoeBob]

Bringing it home in 7th his first time out - in a Reynard. Pretty good show!

[CART License]

An agreement has been reached between Champ Car World Series officials and a Gold Coast businessman to have the Australian driver compete full-time next year

[pchall]

An agreement has been reached between Champ Car World Series officials and a Gold Coast businessman to have the Australian driver compete full-time next year


That would be nice. Besnard was a darned good single-seater driver earlier in his career -- FF2000 and in Atlantics here in North America if memory serves.

[pfc_m_drake]

Bringing it home in 7th his first time out - in a Reynard. Pretty good show!
Yeah, but you know darn well that his career is over now. I mean, after all, he did this driving for Derrick Walker...and it's a well known fact that Walker ruins the career of anybody who drives for him ;)

[Easy]

He only did a couple of Atlantics races before the $$$ ran out in '99. Not even mentioned on the Atlantics site under alumni. His last season of single seaters was his 1998 USF2000 championship.

[KLang]

Link (http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/news/200410/s1227369.htm)


Gold Coast businessman Craig Gore said he had met with the owner of the Champ Car World Series, Kevin Kalkhoven, and they had agreed Australia should be represented by a full-time driver in the championship.

"There will be one driver in the Champ Car World Series that's an Australian," he said.

"I can confirm that today. I did a deal with Kevin Kalkhoven and we will have an Australian in the series."

Mr Gore said Besnard would not be the Australian representative.

"It won't be Bezzy [Besnard] , Bezzy's a V8 Supercar driver," he said.


I wonder if this will mean an additional car for next year?

[nrc]

Besnard's late inclusion in the Indy field was made possible after teenager Josh Hunt, who this year has competed in the Toyota Atlantics Championships in the US with the support of Gore's Wright Patton Shakespeare Financial Group and Kalkhoven, elected to have another season in the US rather than a one-off Champ Car drive at Indy.

So I'm guessing that if it's a full season Hunt moves up. He's shown some flashes this season in FA. He could definitely use another season, but if opportunity knocks...

[LUCKYROLLSTEAM]

Well i surely hope so we need more drivers in the field

[pchall]

He only did a couple of Atlantics races before the $$$ ran out in '99. Not even mentioned on the Atlantics site under alumni. His last season of single seaters was his 1998 USF2000 championship.

Hey, thanks for the confirmation that my memory is not completely corroded in old age. ;)

[Jervis Tetch 1]

The sad thing is you would have heard of David Besnard a long time ago had money not been the mitigating factor as it always is in racing.

Had the proposed sponsorship come through (damned marketing liars) like they said it was, Besnard would have raced the 1999 season and perhaps beyond with Davis Racing.

Too bad it took this long for him to finally make it in OWRS, but he did a marvelous job in Oz as he would have back then.

[nrc]

The sad thing is that while Besnard had a good, steady performance, the wags from down under who would like to promote V8 Supercar as the permiere event that weekend are claiming it shows how second rate the champ car field is. It's really the result of savy pit strategy from Walker that made the most of Besnards multi-spin performance and 16th fastest lap.

[racer2c]

The sad thing is that while Besnard had a good, steady performance, the wags from down under who would like to promote V8 Supercar as the permiere event that weekend are claiming it shows how second rate the champ car field is. It's really the result of savy pit strategy from Walker that made the most of Besnards multi-spin performance and 16th fastest lap.

True, and I have been concerned about those same wags myself for the past three years. Although, after reading Phillips piece on Speed today, Champ Cars are still held in very high esteem, so it seems. Attendance was up over the race weekend also.

[Kiwifan]

David did ok. :thumbup:

There was a lot of talk about having an Aussie in Champ Cars next year which, if it happens will mean the Aussies will promote the hell out of the event. :thumbup:

As much as I LOVE Champ Cars the truth was that the stands were full for the V8s and I would guess that between 5 to 10% of folk left during the Champ Car race. Did it hurt? Yep, but there were still a lot of people left taking an interest and enjoying themselves. :)

Rusty.