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IndyCar
INDYCAR: Conquest Aiming For Full-Time Return In 2013
If Conquest Racing owner Eric Bachelart has his way, his team will return to its roots next season with a full-time IndyCar campaign.
Conquest Racing ran Ana Beatriz at the Indy 500 in a partnership with Andretti Autosport, and hopes to make a full-time return to the series next year. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)
If Conquest Racing owner Eric Bachelart has his way, his open-wheel-turned-sports car team will return to its roots next season with a full-time campaign in the IZOD IndyCar Series.
After missing his first season of Indy car racing in a decade, barring a one-off at the Indy 500 in May to run a car for Andretti Autosport, Bachelart told SPEED.com he’s been reinvigorated to find a way back to IndyCar in 2013.
“We just want to understand the engine situation for 2013, but I’m very motivated to get back into IndyCar," he said. "I have good contacts to do so and have been working on it.”
Like the Michael Shank Racing team, Conquest purchased a new Dallara DW12 and had intentions to race in the IndyCar Series, but struggled to acquire an engine lease with a competitive manufacturer and turned its focus to sports cars.
Signing on as the distributor for the Morgan-badged OAK chassis, Bachelart focused his team on a campaign in the American Le Mans Series with former IndyCar driver Martin Plowman and co-driver David Heinemeier Hansson leading the charge in the LMP2 category.
Racing under the ‘Conquest Endurance’ banner, Bachelart’s team won a pair of races in the ALMS and finished second in the P2 standings, and with that effort up and running, the 51-year-old Belgian has his sights set on adding an IndyCar program back to the fold.
“I’ve been very quiet about it; I don’t want to make any waves, but I’m very motivated to do it again and want to go back to full-time," he said. "It was very strange not racing all the time in IndyCar this year. It was very frustrating, to be quite honest. It’s a good thing I could do the Indy 500 with Michael Andretti’s team with Ana Beatriz, but the plan was to stay in open-wheel racing after Indy—to do more races.
“We had a deal to run the last race at Fontana, for example, but also couldn’t get an engine, so as soon as we can get a confirmation we can get one for next year, I’m going to push hard to make it happen. IndyCar is what I love.”
Bachelart, whose team tested its P2 car at Daytona last week, confirmed his intentions to remain in sports car racing during the merger between GRAND-AM and the ALMS.
“The ALMS was a good season and it was good for us. I want to keep it and do a mixed program. We’re looking forward to staying with sports car racing, and quite excited to be part of the future for 2014 with GRAND-AM and the ALMS together. Here, we just want to add IndyCar to what we do as well.”
It will likely take the official exit of Lotus from the IndyCar Series before Chevy or Honda would agree to add Conquest to either roster, but Bachelart says his DW12 is prepped and ready to install whichever engine he’s offered.
“We haven’t touched the car since Indy, so we had to give up on Fontana and had the budget to do it. The plan was to do Fontana to prepare for 2013, but we couldn’t do it so now we move on to making new plans. We’ve talked with a lot of people and some good drivers, so I’m confident we could be very strong in IndyCar if everything comes together.”
Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, and covers the IndyCar Series. Before joining SPEED, Pruett worked in open-wheel racing for 20 years as a mechanic and engineer. He also contributes to RACER, Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett.
After missing his first season of Indy car racing in a decade, barring a one-off at the Indy 500 in May to run a car for Andretti Autosport, Bachelart told SPEED.com he’s been reinvigorated to find a way back to IndyCar in 2013.
“We just want to understand the engine situation for 2013, but I’m very motivated to get back into IndyCar," he said. "I have good contacts to do so and have been working on it.”
Like the Michael Shank Racing team, Conquest purchased a new Dallara DW12 and had intentions to race in the IndyCar Series, but struggled to acquire an engine lease with a competitive manufacturer and turned its focus to sports cars.
Signing on as the distributor for the Morgan-badged OAK chassis, Bachelart focused his team on a campaign in the American Le Mans Series with former IndyCar driver Martin Plowman and co-driver David Heinemeier Hansson leading the charge in the LMP2 category.
Racing under the ‘Conquest Endurance’ banner, Bachelart’s team won a pair of races in the ALMS and finished second in the P2 standings, and with that effort up and running, the 51-year-old Belgian has his sights set on adding an IndyCar program back to the fold.
“I’ve been very quiet about it; I don’t want to make any waves, but I’m very motivated to do it again and want to go back to full-time," he said. "It was very strange not racing all the time in IndyCar this year. It was very frustrating, to be quite honest. It’s a good thing I could do the Indy 500 with Michael Andretti’s team with Ana Beatriz, but the plan was to stay in open-wheel racing after Indy—to do more races.
“We had a deal to run the last race at Fontana, for example, but also couldn’t get an engine, so as soon as we can get a confirmation we can get one for next year, I’m going to push hard to make it happen. IndyCar is what I love.”
Bachelart, whose team tested its P2 car at Daytona last week, confirmed his intentions to remain in sports car racing during the merger between GRAND-AM and the ALMS.
“The ALMS was a good season and it was good for us. I want to keep it and do a mixed program. We’re looking forward to staying with sports car racing, and quite excited to be part of the future for 2014 with GRAND-AM and the ALMS together. Here, we just want to add IndyCar to what we do as well.”
It will likely take the official exit of Lotus from the IndyCar Series before Chevy or Honda would agree to add Conquest to either roster, but Bachelart says his DW12 is prepped and ready to install whichever engine he’s offered.
“We haven’t touched the car since Indy, so we had to give up on Fontana and had the budget to do it. The plan was to do Fontana to prepare for 2013, but we couldn’t do it so now we move on to making new plans. We’ve talked with a lot of people and some good drivers, so I’m confident we could be very strong in IndyCar if everything comes together.”
Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, and covers the IndyCar Series. Before joining SPEED, Pruett worked in open-wheel racing for 20 years as a mechanic and engineer. He also contributes to RACER, Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett.
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