Gidley in at Rocketsports

Gidley, who drives a Ford Focus in the US-based Speed World Challenge touring car series, nearly won a Champ Car race for Ganassi at Cleveland in 2001 when he took over the drive from Nicolas Minassian. His last major competitive single-seater outing came when he stood in for Johnny Herbert during qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 in 2002 but he failed to make the bump.

OWRS co-owner and Rocketsports Racing boss Paul Gentilozzi said: "We had a contractual dispute with Nelson. Memo will take over the [No. 17] car effective immediately.

"Memo's the right person to put in the No. 17 Rocketsports car for the Toronto Molson Indy," said Gentilozzi. "I've worked with Memo in the past and he has experience here in Toronto. He'll be ready for the Saturday qualifying session and we look forward to working with him."

Rocketsports is reported to be in discussions with Toyota Atlantic star Michael Valiante to take over the role longterm, but is giving a wide berth to him and Walker Racing while they work on a possible deal.