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IndyCar
INDYCAR: Conquest Diversifying, Adding Sports Car Team
Veteran open-wheel team owner Eric Bachelart tells SPEED.com his 2012 plans will include concurrent IndyCar and sports car programs.
Conquest Racing will join the small fraternity of IndyCar teams that also campaign a sports car program. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)
If everything goes according to plan for Conquest Racing owner Eric Bachelart, the former Indy Lights champion will bring the worlds of sports car and Indy car racing together under one roof next year.
After more than a decade as an entrant in Atlantics, Lights, Champ Car and the IZOD IndyCar Series, the Belgian is close to announcing an American Le Mans Series program that would complement the team’s continued participation in IndyCar.
“It’s a second project we are working on,” Bachelart told SPEED.com from his office on Tuesday. “IndyCar is still our main priority but we have an opportunity to get involved in the ALMS series, and I like it quite a lot. Right now, I think it’s good to diversify. I’ve always been interested first in open-wheel racing, but I think what the ALMS is doing is good too and I have an opportunity to be involved with a French manufacturer team. They’re interested in getting involved with a team in America, so with my connections in Europe, I think this could be a good thing. We tested some drivers recently and I hope to announce more of our plans very, very soon.”
As recently reported by DailySportsCar.com, Conquest attended a test held by French LMP constructor OAK Racing and British tire manufacturer Dunlop at Sebring. Although Bachelart wouldn’t be drawn on the team’s ALMS plans, he did confirm the move was made it came out of a need to solidify Conquest’s financial standing.
“I look at it as I’m a racing team, not just an IndyCar team,” he said. “I am a business. I need to grow the business part of the company, and that has nothing to do with if IndyCar is healthy or not healthy right now. With the economy being what it is, it makes sense to spread out our activities. It’s just a will to get more involved and develop all range of activities and our networks of people we work with. After that, whatever we do, we still have to raise money. One series is not easier than the other for [finding] money.”
With Conquest looking like a surefire addition to the ALMS grid, Bachelart says securing the team’s IndyCar plans will dominate the coming weeks.
“At the same time, we are pushing really hard to make something happen in IndyCar, so we are trying to get that done as soon as possible,” he said. “I think that could happen really fast. We are a bit behind, but I still hope that something will happen quickly. I’d like to have more things signed at the moment, but I think things are going OK. What I’ve been doing now is trying to find the money. Once I have that, then it will be to open up and talk to drivers. I think it’s there—I just have to wait for certain parties agree.”
Bachelart’s team has served as one of the most viable options for funded rookies and journeymen to use as an entry point to Indy car racing, but that could change if his sponsor hunt is successful.
“I have not talked that much with many drivers,” he said. “I’ve mainly been talking to sponsors to see what I can raise myself. Once I have those answers, then I’ll see [which drivers are] still there and still available. The focus has been to develop the sponsorships. We want to be independent from drivers on the funding. That’s the direction we want to go. We need to find it ourselves; if we’re a little bit short, OK, maybe we can get a little bit of help from a driver, but I’m not looking to get the budget fully from the drivers. I’m trying as hard as I can before Christmas to find this solution.”
Provided Bachelart puts himself in a position to hire the driver of his choice, he’ll have plenty of options to choose from, but he’s not quite ready to start the interview process.
“We talk with some sponsors who want a driver with personality the most—they want the personality more than anything, and the rest maybe isn’t as important,” he said. “We have others who are only interested in performance; a driver that can win is all they want and they don’t care so much about the public side of the driver. So it is about trying to see who we sign for our sponsors and then seeing what is the best fit for them altogether. It’s not so simple to just choose one type of driver because every sponsor has different requirements.”
Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. He also contributes to Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
After more than a decade as an entrant in Atlantics, Lights, Champ Car and the IZOD IndyCar Series, the Belgian is close to announcing an American Le Mans Series program that would complement the team’s continued participation in IndyCar.
“It’s a second project we are working on,” Bachelart told SPEED.com from his office on Tuesday. “IndyCar is still our main priority but we have an opportunity to get involved in the ALMS series, and I like it quite a lot. Right now, I think it’s good to diversify. I’ve always been interested first in open-wheel racing, but I think what the ALMS is doing is good too and I have an opportunity to be involved with a French manufacturer team. They’re interested in getting involved with a team in America, so with my connections in Europe, I think this could be a good thing. We tested some drivers recently and I hope to announce more of our plans very, very soon.”
As recently reported by DailySportsCar.com, Conquest attended a test held by French LMP constructor OAK Racing and British tire manufacturer Dunlop at Sebring. Although Bachelart wouldn’t be drawn on the team’s ALMS plans, he did confirm the move was made it came out of a need to solidify Conquest’s financial standing.
“I look at it as I’m a racing team, not just an IndyCar team,” he said. “I am a business. I need to grow the business part of the company, and that has nothing to do with if IndyCar is healthy or not healthy right now. With the economy being what it is, it makes sense to spread out our activities. It’s just a will to get more involved and develop all range of activities and our networks of people we work with. After that, whatever we do, we still have to raise money. One series is not easier than the other for [finding] money.”
With Conquest looking like a surefire addition to the ALMS grid, Bachelart says securing the team’s IndyCar plans will dominate the coming weeks.
“At the same time, we are pushing really hard to make something happen in IndyCar, so we are trying to get that done as soon as possible,” he said. “I think that could happen really fast. We are a bit behind, but I still hope that something will happen quickly. I’d like to have more things signed at the moment, but I think things are going OK. What I’ve been doing now is trying to find the money. Once I have that, then it will be to open up and talk to drivers. I think it’s there—I just have to wait for certain parties agree.”
Bachelart’s team has served as one of the most viable options for funded rookies and journeymen to use as an entry point to Indy car racing, but that could change if his sponsor hunt is successful.
“I have not talked that much with many drivers,” he said. “I’ve mainly been talking to sponsors to see what I can raise myself. Once I have those answers, then I’ll see [which drivers are] still there and still available. The focus has been to develop the sponsorships. We want to be independent from drivers on the funding. That’s the direction we want to go. We need to find it ourselves; if we’re a little bit short, OK, maybe we can get a little bit of help from a driver, but I’m not looking to get the budget fully from the drivers. I’m trying as hard as I can before Christmas to find this solution.”
Provided Bachelart puts himself in a position to hire the driver of his choice, he’ll have plenty of options to choose from, but he’s not quite ready to start the interview process.
“We talk with some sponsors who want a driver with personality the most—they want the personality more than anything, and the rest maybe isn’t as important,” he said. “We have others who are only interested in performance; a driver that can win is all they want and they don’t care so much about the public side of the driver. So it is about trying to see who we sign for our sponsors and then seeing what is the best fit for them altogether. It’s not so simple to just choose one type of driver because every sponsor has different requirements.”
Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. He also contributes to Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
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