Herta to drive for Team USA

The 35 year-old had been rumoured to be part of the team's plans since former IRL team boss Rick Weidlinger purchased the US franchise in August.

Herta will race for the squad in Sydnet this weekend, and at the next event in Malaysia, in a fortnight's time.

Formula One-bound Scott Speed had been racing in the opening three races, but the team has cited "scheduling conflicts with his previous commitments" as the reason for his absence.

Speed finished fourth for the team in the feature race at Estoril, moving Team USA up to 15th in the series standings.

Weidlinger reckons that, with Herta driving, they will be at the front from the outset this weekend. He told autosport.com: "Bryan is a good qualifier and it has been shown in the first few races how important qualifying is in this series. It sets you up for a good weekend. He has had as many poles in the IRL this year as anyone else."

Herta was on pole for the IRL's inaugural road course event at St. Petersburg last April, and also started first at the races in Pheonix and Michigan.

"I've been speaking with him since August about the idea and we've invited him to drive for the next two races," Weidlinger added.

"We will sit down after Malaysia and decide where we go after that. Although I've yet to see it, he's had it written into his IRL contract with Andretti Green Racing that he can drive for A1 Team USA!"

Herta is one of several new faces in the A1 GP paddock this weekend, including former Formula One and Champ Car driver Andrea Montermini being added to the Italian line-up, joining fellow new-boy and former F3000 racer Giammaria Raffaele.

Stephen Simpson replaces Tomas Scheckter at Team South Africa, and Michael Davaney races for Ireland in place of Ralph Firman, who has Japanese GT commitments.

A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Eastern Creek - drivers nomination:

A1 Team         Driver 1          Driver 2        Driver 3
Australia       Christian Jones   Will Davison
Austria         Mathias Lauda     
Brazil          Nelson Piquet Jr  Tuka Rocha
Canada          Sean McIntosh     
China           Tengi Jiang       
Czech Republic  Tomas Enge        Jan Charouz
France          Alexandre Premat  N. Lapierre
Germany         Adrian Sutil      
Great Britain   Robbie Kerr       
India           Armaan Ebrahim    
Ireland         Michael Devaney   
Italy           Enrico Toccacelo  A. Montermini   G. Raffaele
Japan           Hayanari Shimoda  
Lebanon         Basil Shaaban     Khalil Beschir
Malaysia        Alex Yoong        
Mexico          Salvador Duran    
Netherlands     Jos Verstappen    J. Bleekemolen
New Zealand     Jonny Reid        Matt Halliday
Pakistan        Adam Khan         
Portugal        Alvaro Parente    Joao Urbano
Russia          Roman Rusinov     
South Africa    Stephen Simpson   Gavin Cronje
Switzerland     Neel Jani         
USA             Bryan Herta