Stephen Simpson back in action in Indianapolis

International award winning racing driver Stephen Simpson, who took A1 Team South Africa to its first A1GP podium in Dubai in 2006, was back in action recently in Indianapolis in the United States.

After missing out this season when his plans for the American Le Mans Series disappeared along with Creation Autosportif’s budget, Simpson was invited to test Team Moore Racing’s IndyLights car. Simpson, who finished ninth in a hard fought rookie season for Kyalami/Soviet Eyewear-backed sister team Kenn Hardley Racing in 2007, was delighted to be back behind the wheel of a single seater and was quickly back on the pace.

Having enjoyed the power and technical sophistication of the 750 bhp-plus V10-powered Creation LM P1, Stephen adjusted easily to the lighter more nimble V8 Indy racer and he clocked up over 100 laps testing various new settings for the team. Backed by former racer Tom Wood’s Extreme Coil Drilling oil exploration business, TMR has been a front runner in past seasons.

“I have been friends with Mark Moore and Tom since my 2007 season and we have been very keen to put something together for the past two years, but lack of budget has been the limiting factor,” said Stephen.  “The combining of the Champcar series with IndyCar over the past two years has brought a big focus on to the whole series and the top IndyLights sponsors have enjoyed over $2-million worth of media coverage from this high profile American championship. At the Indianapolis 500 alone we get around 500 000 spectators over race weekend.”

Team owner Mark Moore said, “Stephen is an outstanding talent and we have been trying to get him into a TMR car for two years, so it is great to finally see it happen. We asked Stephen if he would test the car and try a few new ideas and he did not disappoint. Despite not having been in a racing car for 12 months his sheer speed was astonishing.

Sharing the road course circuit with the championship-winning AFS team which was being piloted by a GP2 driver, Stephen was faster throughout the day until the competition ran new tyres. “It was a very good test.  We tried lots of things and made big improvements on the car. I certainly left it a whole load faster than when I

Co-owner Tom Wood believes that with Stephen in the team they would be able to challenge for the championship in 2010.  “Stephen is a great race car driver with experience of both road courses and the ovals. We are all working on securing the balance of the funding so that we can get him signed up.”

“I will be returning to London for meetings with Creation team boss Mike Jankowski to discuss the American Le Mans Series for next year, but I would be delighted to be running with TMR if the deal could come together. I am talking to a couple of South African companies who are in the international marketplace and could really take great advantage of this exposure, so I am optimistic we could be working together next season.” Stephen added.

The highly marketable 2000 South African Formula Ford Champion was recognised and awarded by no less than five former World Champions after his first season of A1GP and has wins in British Formula Renault and British Formula Ford under his belt.

 

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