OCTOBER 13, 2004

Kanaan to test for BAR

The Indy Racing League champion Tony Kanaan was like many other young Brazilians and left his home country to build up his racing career in Europe. In 1995 he finished fifth in the Italian Formula 3 series, a period in during which he would often visit Grands Prix with his friend Rubens Barrichello. Then he decided to move to America where he started racing in the Indy Lights Championship in 1996. He won the title in 1997 and became a CART driver in 1998, switching to Forsythe Racing in 1999 when to win his first race. He did not win again until 2003 when he became a frontrunner in the Indy Racing League. Now coming up to his 30th birthday, Kanaan will shortly be given a Formula 1 test by Honda, to say thank you for his efforts in America. Kanaan will test the BAR-Honda but like many drivers in America is somewhat wary of Formula 1 because of what happened to Cristiano da Matta and Scott Dixon.

Kanaan says that driving an F1 car is a dream that he has had since he was a child but he has no intention to of trying to get into F1 and has recently signed a new deal to stay with Andretti Green Racing until at least 2008.