AUGUST 13, 2001

Herbert tests IRL at Kentucky Speedway

FORMER Formula 1 driver and occasional Arrows test driver Johnny Herbert spent the weekend in Sparta, Kentucky, watching Buddy Lazier take his Hemelgarn Dallara-Aurora to victory in the Indy Racing League event at the Kentucky Speedway and today Herbert is due to test a Heritage Motorsports G-Force-Infiniti on the 1.5-mile banked oval. The test is designed to allow Heritage to see the potential of the Infiniti engine - and to see if Herbert has got what it takes to make it in IRL.

Herbert admits that his career goal now after winning Grands Prix and the Le Mans 24 Hours is to win the Indianapolis 500 and Heritage is looking to expand to two cars next year. Herbert has only very limited oval experience having tested a Dale Coyne Racing CART chassis last week at Rockingham Speedway in England.

Heritage is currently running Jeff Ward in a G-Force-Aurora but the latest Infiniti engines, developed for Nissan by TWR, are being considered by many in IRL for next year, despite the fact that Aurora engines have completely dominated the series, winning all but three races since the middle of 1997.