Ryan Dalziel may have been racing in the American Le Mans series in 2005 for the Pacific Coast Motorsports team, but last weekend he finally got the chance to make his Champ Car World Series debut when he was drafted in to the Dale Coyne line-up for the Molson Indy Toronto.

Crash.net took the chance to chat to the Scottish driver about his debut, his time in the ALMS so far, and his possible future back in open wheel racing...

Crash.net:
Ryan, you qualified 16th and then finished inside the top ten. Were you pleased with how your Champ Car debut went?

Ryan Dalziel:
I was disappointed with where we qualified, but looking at the weekend as a whole we didn't get any seat time in the car and I've been out of single-seaters for so long. I was jumping back in at the deep end on one of my least favourite circuits so the end result was what we aimed for. Obviously it was a little bit by default, but Toronto is all about staying out of trouble and I think we did that and came away with what we deserved.

Crash.net:
You had contact early on with Marcus Marshall which put you in trouble early on, but just talk us through your race.

Ryan Dalziel:
Race day in general was pretty disappointing for us. We missed all of the warm-up because a driveshaft broke and we'd concentrated a lot on race set-up so I never go the chance to drive the car on full tanks meaning the race was a bit of an unknown for me.

Going a lap down in the opening three laps really killed my race but it's interesting that in my first two stints I was quicker than the likes of [Andrew] Ranger, [Nelson] Philippe and [Bjorn] Wirdheim - all guys who finished ahead of me at the end. It's disappointing that I went a lap down so early and then knew that for the next hour and 45 minutes I was going to have to wait for the misfortune of others. I stayed out of trouble and managed to stay on the same lap as a bunch of guys but I was running as quick as Hunter-Reay and he finished sixth - I think we could have been around there without the problems.

Crash.net:
How did the deal come about with Dale Coyne?

Ryan Dalziel:
Obviously [Oriol] Servia going over to Newman Haas following the Junqueira incident opened up one of the few funded doors left in Champ Car. I've been involved in Champ Cars for the past years and I think a number of people pushed my name towards it. I know Dale fairly well from trying to put various things together at different times and I think it was just the natural choice as to who to put in the car next and a lot of people were pressuring him to give me a shot.

It all came about the Saturday before the race. I was racing at Lime Rock in the Corvette and I got the call to go test on the Tuesday and that's very much it. I was under the impression it was going to be for the whole season otherwise I probably wouldn't have done a one-off outing - it's not something that I think has helped me too much as far as my career goes. I'm disappointed that I won't be finishing the season but it's a bonus that I got one start.

Crash.net:
You've got your deal with the PKV team. What was their view on you getting the drive - they were obviously happy for you to take it...

Ryan Dalziel:
I think PKV were one of those who were pushing for it. I have a very good relationship with the manager Jim McGee and I spoke with him the whole time once Dale approached me. Between Jim, Jimmy Vasser and myself, we decided that it was something I couldn't say no to, and that any experience is good experience. As far as expectations and goals are concerned, we think a top 14 would have been what we set out to achieve so to get a top ten was above expectations.

Crash.net: