Despite having swapped Andretti Green Racing overalls for Vision Racing pit gear following his release by the former's
American Le Mans Series team, Bryan Herta insists that he is not done with competing.
The
IndyCar veteran joined Vision Racing as a road-course consultant having seen his previous racing opportunity closed by AGR after a lacklustre start to the season, and will be working with AJ Foyt IV and Ed Carpenter - as well as the team's engineering staff - from Mid-Ohio as Tony George's team prepares for the four road and street races that remain this season.
However, despite enduring a tough time in the 2008 ALMS, Herta insists that he is not done behind the wheel.
“This is a different kind of challenge for me, and I'm not setting off on this looking to become a driving coach, instructor or something like that," he pointed out, "It was an opportunity to start building a relationship with Vision Racing [and] I'm pretty open-minded about where that could go.
"[I'll work] with Anthony and Ed, who don't have a lot of road course experience, because that's my background – particularly at this track. The mental approach to a road course versus an oval, how do you approach when you put new tyres on the car, or qualifying versus race set-up, nuances or whatever sticks out. I thought it might be a place where I could help them a little and contribute to the programme."
Herta was making no suggestions as to where he will wind up racing, having contested the last couple of years in the ALMS with Andretti Green's Acura project after being a stalwart of its IRL squad for several seasons before that.
"I love racing, so it gave me a good reason to come out here and re-establish some relationships," he confirmed, "I still want to race cars, so this isn't 'ah, Bryan is going to start doing this instead'. It was a chance for me to build a relationship with an
IndyCar team that I think is going places right now and be at the track.”