Heylen is set for a Champ Car return after a full season with Dale Coyne last year. (LAT Photo) ยป More Photos
Jan Heylen is set to return to Champ Car racing next month, giving the series a much-needed Belgian driver ahead of the CCWS's European loop at Zolder (Belgium) and Assen in the Netherlands, autosport.com reports.
Heylen would replaced New Zealander Matt Halliday at the cash-strapped Conquest Racing team. Halliday's original deal with sponsor 42 Below vodka covered only the opening three rounds of the 2007 season.
"We're very, very close [to a deal]," Heylen said during Champ Car's European media tour. "I was hoping that we'd be able to confirm it here but there are still a couple of things that need to be done.
"If the sponsorship deal that we're waiting on can be done soon, it will be with Conquest. That will be a good fit, very appropriate, because [team owner] Eric Bachelart gave me my first ever test in Champ Car two years ago.
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"Also, I come from the Flemish part of Belgium, he comes from the French part so it makes perfect sense in terms of promoting the event. I would be very happy to compete for him. He's a good racer with good people working for him.
"So for now, we're able to announce today that I will be here for the Belgian race, and I'm really happy to be part of it and to be racing in front of my home crowd."
Last year, Heylen drove full time for the Dale Coyne team, posting a fifth place at Cleveland as his best result.
