December 22, 2004
Valiante's Career Shifts Into a Higher Gear
After a Successful Champ Car Debut in Mexico City, Rising Canadian Open-Wheel Star Michael Valiante Tests Dale Coyne's Champ Car and Will Co-Drive the Ten Motorsports Prototype at the 24 Hours of Daytona
Michael shifted his career into a higher gear by out-qualifying and then out-racing a number of vastly more experienced drivers in his Champ Car debut with Walker Racing in Mexico City.
As a result of that performance - and a year of behind-the-scenes work – Michael was invited to participate in a test at Sebring with Dale Coyne's Champ Car team, where he was the fastest of six drivers being tested by two different teams.
In a second development, Michael has signed a deal with Rob Finaly's Ten Motorsports to co-drive the team's #19 Riley/BMW Daytona Prototype in the 2005 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona February 3 - 6. He tests with the Ten Motorsports team January 5, 6 7 at Daytona.
"Things were stuck in neutral for a while; there was a lot of interest from various teams, and I flew to some races expecting to drive, but somehow I never seemed to get in the car," says Valiante, who finished 2nd in the super-competitive Atlantic championship in 2002, and 3rd in 2003. "The Mexico City race seems to have broken the log jam, and two different Champ Car teams are working to find the funding to run me in 2005. I'm also pleased to add a page to my resume with a drive at Daytona with a team that is not only capable of winning, but is made up of people I know and have worked with before. It's too early for congratulations, and I have to keep up my own sponsor-hunting efforts, but I'm feeling cautiously optimistic."
The Dale Coyne Champ Car test took place on the 1.67-mile road circuit in Sebring, Florida. Also testing during the same 2-day period were Michael's former Lynx Racing Atlantic teammate, American Bryan Sellers and Australian F3 and F3000 veteran Marcus Marshall.
Michael was able to complete 110 laps in Coyne's #11 yokeTV.com Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone, and posted the fastest time of the two-day test with a lap of 51.88 seconds. (Note: In earlier testing with the Walker Racing team, Michael was also faster than 2004 Atlantic champion Ryan Dalziel and Jordan F1 driver Timo Glock.
"The day went very well and with just a bit more time to make adjustments we could have been a good bit quicker," said Valiante. "We had a few minor mechanical issues at the start that we had to work through, but the Coyne team is very professional and we just kept getting faster and faster. Dale Coyne is well known for his ability to spot and develop talent, and I want to thank him for giving me another chance to prove that I deserve a spot on the Champ Car grid for 2005."
Michael went directly from his Champ Car test at Sebring to the Ten Motorsports Daytona Prototype test at Homestead Raceway south of Miami. There, after familiarizing himself with the first fendered, hard-top race car he has ever driven, he turned comparable times to Ten Motorsports' 2005 driver team, Champ Car veteran (and fellow Lynx Racing graduate) Memo Gidley, as well as Michael McDowell, who won the 2004 Star Formula Mazda championship with a dominant performance of six pole positions and seven victories.