[IndyCar] #20 Indy 500 - "Start your engines!"

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Dale Coyne Racing has announced Gabby Chaves will contest both the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the 100th running of the Indy 500 in its #19 entry.

The 22-year-old Colombian, who took Rookie of the Year honours in 2015, was left without an IndyCar ride this year as his Bryan Herta Autosport team entered into a merger with Andretti Autosport.

However, Chaves told Motorsport.com in March that he remained focused on finding a seat for the centenary running of the Indy 500, and those efforts have now paid off as he has struck a deal to join Coyne to run both Indianapolis races alongside Conor Daly and Pippa Mann.

He replaces Filippi in the Boy Scouts of America-backed #19 Dallara-Honda, the Italian having been initially slated for a full season with the Illinois-based outfit.

A statement from Coyne confirming Chaves, who finished 16th last year in his maiden 500 start, made no mention of Filippi.

"It’s been the longest off-season of my life,” said Chaves. “Throughout my whole career I’ve always been on the grid in the first race of the season and this has been the first time that I haven’t.

"I thought I had many deals in place before and for some reason or another it never came through. I’ve been speaking with Dale for years now and I’m excited to get something going with him and the team.

"I’m just really looking forward to it. With my time out of the car, I’ve really been able to value what it means to me to be in a race car. I can now get back on track and enjoy it even more."

Coyne himself added: “We’re very excited to have Gabby join us for the next two races, we’ve been in communication for a long time and it’s all finally come together.

"He showed a lot of maturity last season, he was quick, mistake-free and made great decisions behind the wheel that you don’t normally see coming from a rookie. We look forward to seeing what he can do in our #19 car.”

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Op vrijdag 13 mei 2016 22:12 schreef sasquatsch het volgende:
IndyCar keert terug naar Watkins Glen . De race is op 4 september en vervangt de gecancelde race in Boston.

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Grace Autosport announced today that it will not compete in this year’s 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29, 2016.

Over the past year the Grace Autosport team was able to assemble a manufacturer partner, sponsor partners, educational partners, funding, driver and crew members, but the missing component was a viable race car to compete in the May race, despite great interest in the program. The reality of the shortage of feasible cars is reflected in only 33 cars entered for the 100th Running of the Indy 500 this year.

“We met with many teams in the IndyCar Paddock late last season to determine partnership feasibility and discovered numerous teams had chosen to scale back their plans for 2016,” said Team Principal, Beth Paretta. “We were ready to announce a team partnership for the Indy 500 at the Grand Prix of Long Beach in mid-April but a change in terms proved unsound for Grace’s sponsor partners and unfortunately we had to step away from the deal.”

“The consolidation of teams and the decrease of entries in 2016 reduced the available options for us. Our partner spoke with Dallara about buying a new car after Long Beach but there wasn’t a current 2016 car available in time for the 500. We evaluated an available chassis as late as last week but there wasn’t enough time to acquire all the parts needed to rebuild the car safely. Because of this sequence of events we will not campaign a car in this year’s Indy 500.”

“As I said last summer, Grace Autosport was not interested in just making the grid and running at the back. We wanted to put forth a respectable effort and we wanted to be competitive, while keeping safety at the very forefront of our program. We apologize to the many fans that have reached out to offer their support, which has been incredible. The good news is that we will not give up and are now working closely with our partners to map out Grace’s future.”

“The Grace Autosport initiative is far more than a race program,” added Paretta. “Concurrent to building the race team, we have been assembling commercial partners and the essential pieces for our STEM educational initiatives to reach the community and the classroom that we set forth a year ago. Thank you again to the many fans for the continued notes of support and appreciation since our announcement last May. We look forward to seeing all of you at the races in the near future.”