Reynard's top US man joins Player's

Ashmore had been with Reynard since 1994 and helped build the marque into the category leader, winning the CART title for the last five years.

"The CART series is expanding, the competition is getting stronger and the battle between the manufacturers is a real war - and I wanted to get back into that battle," said Ashmore. "Race cars were what got me involved in this business and being directly involved with a racing team is like going back to my roots."

He will run the recently re-signed Patrick Cartpentier alongside Alex Tagliani, which continues last year's Player's line-up.

"I've always like Patrick, he's a good technical driver," added Ashmore. "And Alex has raw talent, as he showed as a rookie this year, he can be right up there."

His position at Reynard will be filled by Jeff Swartwout. Marque boss Adrian Reynard said: "I am sure Bruce will continue to push Reynard for technical improvement - but from a new perspective."

The team has already confirmed it is sticking with its Reynard-Ford package, and will begin testing on December 19 and 20 at Sebring in Florida.