JANUARY 30, 2003

Pollock signs Lemarie

As we have speculated for some time, Craig Pollock has signed up France's Patrick Lemarie to be his driver in the new PK Racing Champ Car team. Lemarie has spent the last four years as test driver of British American Racing but after Pollock was ousted from the team management Lemarie was quietly dropped.

The 34-year-old appearance at BAR was a big surprise as his career prior to that gave few signs that he would ever reach the big time. He was quick in the junior formulae but his job at BAR seemed to be more about his friendship with Jacques Villeneuve and Pollock than because of any major results in his racing career. As BAR test driver he did a solid job and his opportunity in CART will now give him the chance to silence his critics and prove that he is a top-line racer.

"Patrick is an extremely solid driver who is racing fit," says Pollock. "He is definitely well prepared for this opportunity to get back into competitive racing. He has invested a lot of time over the last four years setting up an F1 car, and in that capacity he was invaluable in providing input and giving his feedback to the engineers and mechanics. When you're a new team in a series, as PK Racing is in CART, you need to have a driver who is well-versed in the driving and the testing aspects because this team is being put together in an extremely short time frame. I have been in a position to observe Patrick's work for a number of years, and I know that PK Racing is getting a driver whose knowledge and experience are major assets for our team."

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