• Peg It on GarageMonkey
INDYCAR: Bachelart Looking To Sports Cars For 2013
Eric Bachelart tells Marshall Pruett he’s abandoned his open-wheel aspirations for a second consecutive season.
Marshall Pruett  |  Posted February 13, 2013  
After stepping in to field Ana Beatriz at the Indy 500 with its own car for Andretti Autosport, Conquest Racing came close to running a car on behalf of the team this season. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)
Conquest Racing team owner Eric Bachelart found himself in a very uncomfortable position last year.

As a driver, and more recently, an entrant, the Belgian was a fixture on the IRL, Champ Car and IndyCar Series grids, but without the sponsorship to answer the bell, the Indianapolis-based team turned its attention to sports cars.

Although the new Conquest Endurance offshoot had solid results in the American Le Mans Series P2 class, Bachelart’s desire to continue in IndyCar was a constant presence in 2012.

His team assisted the Andretti Autosport team at the Indy 500, running an entry for Ana Beatriz, and through that association, it appeared Conquest might be in a position to make a fulltime return in 2013 running Sebastian Saavedra on behalf of Andretti and AFS Racing owner Gary Peterson.
Conquest team owner Eric Bachelart. (Photo IMS Photo)

But with Saavedra’s move to Dragon Racing, and Peterson’s disinterest in having his program farmed out to a satellite team, Bachelart told SPEED.com he’s abandoned his open-wheel aspirations for a second consecutive season.

“Things fell apart with the IndyCar program. At the end of the day, I didn’t succeed, so I decided to get out of it,” he said. “It’s funny the way it has been going. I’ve been in open-wheel racing for 15 or 16 years, and for me it started to turn sour when Randy [Bernard] came onboard and he decided he wanted the best of the best, and I wasn’t part of that ‘best of the best.’”

Bachelart’s reference to former IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard lowering the number of Leader Circle contracts to the top 20-22 cars had a significant financial impact on the modest team, subtracting just over $1M from Conquest’s annual budget.

Minus the financial support he’d counted on, and lacking a funded driver to keep Conquest in IndyCar, Bachelart has followed a more strict approach to present and future IndyCar involvement. Simply put, if the full budget isn’t in place, he’ll no longer try to get by with a portion of what’s required.
Page 1 of 2
Prev
12
Next
MPruett's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marshall Pruett

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2013

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.