Jan Heylen forced to end his race early due to an accident on Lap 35
Jan Heylen (#34 Champ Car Grand Prix of Belgium / Cosworth / DP01 / Bridgestone) began his second race of the 2007 season with a clean standing start and wise pit strategy. He was moving up through the competition when contact with car #22 in turn 10 on lap 34 occurred. Heylen and Gommendy had been battling for tenth position when Tristan’s #22 car spun off track taking Jan’s #34 Grand Prix of Belgium car with him. The crash caused a fair amount of damage to the car and Heylen was unable to finish the race. The entire Conquest Team will now be working on repairing the car in time for Circuit Mont Tremblant next weekend.
“I’m disappointed to not be able to finish the entire race,” said Heylen. “Everything was clicking with the team and the No. 34 car and I think we were on pace to have an excellent finish. However, racing is all about the unexpected and this was something that we couldn’t do anything about. We’ll just have to look forward to Mont Tremblant and getting the car ready to race again.”
“It’s unfortunate what happened between Jan and Gommendy,” said Eric Bachelart, Conquest Racing Team Owner. “We suffered a lot of damage to the car and I think that the entire crash could have possibly been avoided. I know we had a good pit strategy and we were on plan to produce a top ten result when everything happened. All we can do is look ahead to fixing the car and running in Mont Tremblant.”
Conquest Racing now looks forward to the sixth round of the 2007 season of the Champ Car World Series at the Circuit Mont Tremblant in St. Jovite, Quebec, Canada on Sunday, July 1st at 2:00 p.m. EST. The race will be broadcast live on ESPN beginning at 2:00 p.m. EST.
About Conquest Racing:1991 Indy Lights Champion Eric Bachelart started Conquest Racing in 1997 to compete in the Indy Lights series, scoring a podium finish with driver Christophe Tinseau in the team's first season. Conquest Racing competed in the next four seasons in Indy Lights, winning races with Felipe Giaffone and Kristian Kolby.Conquest Racing contested the 2002 Indy Racing League season with rookie Laurent Redon, netting a podium finish in just the third race of the season and clinching the Rookie of the Year award.Conquest Racing rejoined the Champ Car family in 2003, stepping up to the Champ Car World Series with Brazilian Mario Haberfeld and scoring eleven top-ten finishes despite competing with a Reynard. Conquest Racing continued its tradition of working well with young drivers in 2004 as Justin Wilson took second in the Roshfrans Rookie of the Year battle, with Nelson Philippe scoring two top-ten finishes after joining the team in the closing stages of the season. Conquest continued a long history of developing young drivers in 2006, as Andrew Ranger returned for his sophomore season to take tenth in the drivers championship, the third consecutive season for the team to have a driver in the top-ten. 2005 Champ Car Atlantic Champion Charles Zwolsman finished thirteenth in his rookie season, taking seven consecutive top-ten finishes with the team as he improved progressively throughout the season.
