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INDYCAR: Milka Duno and Doornbos to Newman/Haas/Lanigan!
Written by: Robin Miller   
02/03/2009
Indianapolis, IN
 
The addition of ChampCar race winner Robert Doornbos to N/H/L makes complete sense. The addition of Milka Duno and her deep pockets is a shocker. (LAT) ยป More Photos


It's been a select fraternity over the past 26 years and it's featured Mario Andretti, Michael Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Paul Tracy, Bruno Junqueira, Sebastien Bourdais, Christian Fittipaldi, Cristiano da Matta, Justin Wilson, Oriol Servia and Graham Rahal.

For as long as the late Paul Newman, Carl Haas and Mike Lanigan fielded cars in CART and the IRL, they were able to hire the best drivers, as evidenced by that impressive list.

The winningest team of the past 20 years in open wheel racing has never gone with a rider buyer but, in these challenging economic times, that's about to change.

Boy, is that about to change.

SPEEDtv.com has learned that Milka Duno is signing on to one of the signature teams in motorsports and, as reported previously, Robert Doornbos is also joining the Chicago-based team for 2009. According to sources, Brian Lisles, the team manager at NHL, called the Indy Racing League office on Tuesday afternoon to reveal that young Rahal will have two teammates for the upcoming season. "I can't tell you anything right now because we have no signatures or contracts signed but we're working on doing the best we can," said Lisles. "We do hope to have some good news for ourselves and the series by the end of the week."

Duno, who decided at age 35 to become
an Indy car driver following several years of sports car racing, began with SAMAX Racing in 2007 and ran seven races before joining Dreyer & Reinbold in 2008 where she ran 11 times with a best finish of 14th at Chicago and 19th at Indianapolis. The native of Caracas, Venezuela has been sponsored by CITGO for a rumored $5 million but is thought to have another big sponsor on board for '09.

The news came as a surprise to Dennis Reinbold. "I don't know anything about that and, if it's true, I didn't see it coming," said Reinbold, who along with partner Robbie Buhl has fielded an IRL team since 2000. "We've been talking with her a lot about this season and I'm kind of surprised she didn't let us know.

"But I guess that's her prerogative."

Reinbold, who signed rookie Mike Conway last week, said he's still talking with Townsend Bell and some other drivers about '09. "I don't know what we'll end up as, one or two cars, and we're also working on some single-race deals like Indy and a couple other tracks."

Doornbos, a 27-year-old native of Holland, won two races for Keith Wiggins as a Champ Car rookie in 2007 but sat out last year except for a couple of A1GP appearances. He's thought to be bringing $4 million from ING sponsorship.
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