Castroneves' trial date won't change
| By Matt Beer |
Monday, November 17th 2008, 10:18 GMT |
Helio Castroneves' participation in next year's IndyCar Series has been thrown into doubt after he was unable to change the date of his trial for tax evasion.
The Brazilian's trial is set to begin on 2 March 2009 in Miami, but his lawyers had sought to delay the court case until after the end of the IndyCar season. The first round of next year's championship is in St Petersburg on 5 April.
However on Friday a judge in Miami federal court rejected the bid to delay the trial and decreed that it will commence on 2 March as scheduled.
Although the Penske team have stood by Castroneves, they had previously indicated that they would replace him with another driver if the trial prevented him from completing the full 2009 season.
The double Indianapolis 500 winner and 2008 championship runner-up is accused of avoiding taxes on $5.5 million of income between 1999 and 2004.
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