Halliday confirmed at Conquest

The 27-year-old, who only drove the series' new DP01 for the first time in Spring Training last month, impressed everyone with his pace, and will make his Champ Car race debut at Las Vegas this weekend.

Team owner Eric Bachelart said: "After what he did in Laguna, signing Matt became my number one priority. We didn't have it easy there - a lot of car trouble - but he just got in and drove and got down to a time very quickly. That's what you need in this series: confidence as well as talent."

This is not the first time Halliday has worked with Bachelart. Back in 2001, the Aucklander drove for Conquest in the now defunct Indy Lights series, finishing sixth in the championship with a handful of podium finishes, despite competing in only nine of the 12 rounds.

Since then, he has competed in Formula Renault V6 Euroseries, Porsche GT3 and Carrera Cups, V8 Supercars, but he also tested for Conquest at Sebring two years ago. Most recently he has competed for Team New Zealand in A1GP.

Halliday's signing - and the expected announcement of Katherine Legge and Bruno Junqueira at Dale Coyne Racing - brings the Champ Car grid to 17 cars.

Series co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven has stated that there are three more drivers - Jan Heylen, Andreas Wirth and Nicky Pastorelli - who have funding and who he would like to see in cars by the fourth round of the year in Portland.