Friday, March 23, 2007 -Milka Duno announced
today at Homestead-Miami Speedway that she will be moving
from the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series to the Indy Racing
League (IRL) starting the weekend of April 29 at Kansas Speedway,
Round 4 of the 2007 season. The Venezuela-born Duno, who
also makes her home in Miami, was thrilled with her move
to the IRL to pursue her racing career. During the last three
years she spent in the Grand-Am Series, Milka Duno finished
first overall three times. In February 2004, she co-drove
her Pontiac Daytona Prototype to victory with Andy Wallace
to become the first woman to win a major North American sports
car race. SAMAX Motorsport will field the IRL team for Duno.
"This is a dream come true," said Milka during a press conference
held Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where she is competing
for SAMAX Motorsport in Round 3 of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports
Car Series. "This a great moment for me and for my sponsor,
CITGO Racing, but from now on, there will be a lot of
work to do until the first race. This is going to be
a steep learning curve for me. I will have to learn quickly
and work very hard. I know it is going to be difficult,
but I want to succeed at this. That is why we are only
running a 10-race schedule this year. We want this to
be a learning season before running a full schedule in
2008."
SAMAX Motorsport team owner Peter Baron will pursue his
Grand-Am program for the 2007 season. "Naturally we are
excited about the new opportunity but we remain very
loyal to the Grand-Am Series and our Daytona Prototype
race team. Our program will continue unchanged in DP
other than a new driver coming in to replace Milka (Duno).
We are happy to have signed a sponsor to continue to
run the #11 SAMAX Motorsport Pontiac Riley in Daytona
Prototypes.
"Patrick Carpentier will carry on in the DP car for the season
and Milka will probably do two or three races when there
are no conflicting dates. We are evaluating a few drivers
to match with Patrick, but we will not be making an announcement
on the sponsor and the second driver prior to the April
29 Grand-Am race at Virginia International Raceway. We
would like to thank CITGO and Milka for all their support in
Grand-Am over the past year and look forward to growing
our relationship."
According to the team owner, who is naturally thrilled
to be going to the IRL, there will not be any overall
changes in the team personnel. "We know at this point
that engineer Steve Challis will be heading the IRL crew,
and Travis Low will take his place in DP. Steve will
assist Travis during the transitional phase of this operation."
SAMAX Motorsport, based in Pompano Beach, Florida, is in
its third year of competition in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports
Car Series. SAMAX Motorsport will also field the #23 CITGO/SAMAX
Motorsport IRL single-seater for Milka Duno starting the
weekend of April 29, 2007 at Kansas Speedway. More information
on SAMAX Motorsport is available at www.samaxmotorsport.com.
announcement photos >>>
