Rising Canadian open-wheel racing star Michael Valiante will be making hisChamp Car debut in a second car from the Walker Racing team at the series’season finale, the Gran Premio Telemex Tecate at theAutódromo Hermanos Rodríguez on November 7.
Walker Racing will expand to a 2-car team, a situation it is working tocontinue in 2005, fielding a Ford-powered Reynard for the 24 year-old fromBurnaby, B.C. Valiante, who won six Toyota Atlantic races with the Lynx Racingteam during the 2002 & 2003 seasons, has tested impressively in a Walker RacingChamp Car on several occasions, and was scheduled to make his debut in lastyear’s final race at Fontana until the event was cancelled due to wildfires in thearea.
“Over the past year I’ve been so close so many times to racing a ChampCar that to have it all finally come together is a real thrill,” says Valiante. “It’s takena lot of hard work and help from a lot of people to get to this point, and I’d like tothank Derrick Walker and my sponsors for this opportunity. With Champ Carlooking at adding one and possibly two more Canadian races, and with one of theseries’ top Canadian drivers leaving at the end of the season, racing in Mexico Cityis a great opportunity to get my Champ Car career started, and I plan to make themost of it.”
Valiante will compete in the Mexico City event with sponsorship from JVInvestments, Lynx Racing, Italkart, Wasteco, Serengeti Design Group, CMSICanadian Mortgage Strategies & Investments and Premier Pacific Developments.Fans and companies interested in sponsorship opportunities – both for the MexicoCity event and the 2005 Champ Car season
“We’ve been following Michael’s career for several years now, and he’s amost impressive young driver,” says Walker Racing team owner Derrick Walker.“It’s been a difficult time for a young driver to break into the ranks of Champ Car,and we’re extremely pleased to have Michael in one of our cars for Mexico City.Hopefully it will be a good weekend for him and help us finalize the plans we haveto run him as part of a full-season, 2-car effort in 2005.”
Valiante rose through the ranks of open-wheel racing, demonstrating achampion’s talent at every level from karting, through the Skip Barber regional andPro series, and with the Lynx Racing team in the intensely competitive ToyotaAtlantic Championship.
