Today's announcement also speaks volumes for what the new Minardi Team USA was able to accomplish as CTE Racing - HVM in 2006. Rebounding after a trying season in 2005, the team grew into a consistent threat in 2006 winning with Nelson Philippe in Australia, taking the Rookie of the Year fight to the last race of the season with Dan Clarke, and setting a new team standard by finishing fourth in the final standings with Nelson. This will be a great partnership for Champ Car, for the fans and for the team and I'm very pleased to welcome Paul Stoddart to our Champ Car family.
Paul Stoddart:
Thank you Steve and good morning and good evening to everybody. First of all, may I say the very professional way that Champ Car goes about running this series, we looked long and hard before making this series. That's one of the key reasons for us joining Champ Car ranks. We look forward to an exciting time and some really close racing, particularly with the new Panoz DP01 car. And I think it's already been said by Steve that a fantastic job was done by Keith and his really quality team of engineers and mechanics and to finish fourth in the championship, particularly given their budget, was a really, really serious effort.
As Minardi Team USA, we are looking to actually extend and build on the good work that Keith and his people have done, and we'll bring a few interesting aspects to the team and I'm looking forward to a really, really solid 2007.
MC:
Keith Wiggins, calling from the team's headquarters over in Indianapolis, tell us about what today's announcement does for the team, how it's been received by the team and kind of how it validates the great season you had in 2006.
Keith Wiggins:/B>
Well, the team's history - and, since the beginning, we've been through a few changes - from 2001 has had some very resourceful people, with all credit to Enrique [(Pons-Torres]. We've had a few hiccups happens along the way, as always happens with motor racing, but you continue to strive and build on that. That's always the challenge of motor racing.
