Jourdain, Gonzalez and other deals
A major wave of driver and team announcements for the 2003 Champ Car season occurred at Mexico City over the weekend
Mexican retail specialist Gigante confirmed a multi-year agreement with Team Rahal to continue running rising star Michel Jourdain Jr. Team boss Bobby Rahal said negotiations are continuing in an effort to retain Shell sponsorship for Jimmy Vasser.
"A couple months back there were rumours that Gigante would not continue with Team Rahal," said Gigante president Angel Losada. "Rumours are rumours, but this is reality - we are happy and proud to be back with Team Rahal and Michel."
"This was the best year of my life on the track and personally and I think next year we have a shot at winning lots of races," said Jourdain, who finished 10th in this year's CART driver standings. "For sure the championship is the goal - if not, I wouldn't be racing. We have all the tools and will be trying very hard to do it."
Three-time Trans-Am champion Paul Gentillozzi announced Saturday that his Rocketsports organisation will field a single car in CART in 2003. Max Papis is the leading candidate for the seat.
Veteran team owner Derrick Walker announced Sunday that he hopes to field two cars in 2003, and confirmed that Mexican Roberto Gonzalez will pilot one of them. Gonzalez turned a number of exhibition laps at the Rodriguez Autodromo Sunday in a Walker Racing Reynard.
Finally, Player's Forsythe Racing is set to confirm its 2003 lineup of Patrick Carpentier and Paul Tracy on Tuesday. The major surprise is expected to be the team's switch from Reynard to Lola chassis.
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