APRIL 5, 2005

HVM confirms Wirdheim and Bremer

The HVM Champ Car team has announced that it will be running former Formula 3000 champion Bjorn Wirdheim and Denmark's Ronnie Bremer. The funding from the team is somewhat obscure at the moment but we hear on the grapevine that much of the money will becoming from Champ Car partner Kevin Kalkhoven. The series needs to keep up the numbers in order to meet contractual commitments with race promoters.

The news means that several drivers will not now be seen in the series. Jos Verstappen looks like he is staying in partial retirement, having decided against joining the team because of the question marks over funding. Mexican Rodolfo Lavin has also disappeared while Scotsman Ryan Dalziel has been given a consultancy role at PKV Racing, presumably to keep him in the Champ Car fold. For the moment it does not look as though Dalziel will race or test this year but that may change.