Red Bull-backed Nelson to tackle Euro series.

Red Bull F1 Driver Search winner Joel Nelson will race in the 2003 Euro 3000 championship with John Village Automotive [JVA], programme officials announced last night.

Nelson, who starred in the 2002 Formula Palmer Audi series en route to being selected for the Red Bull programme, is the third of the four American Driver Search winners to secure his 2003 European racing plans, following Scott Speed's move to British F3 with Alan Docking Racing and Grant Maiman's to Jenzer Motorsport's Formula Renault operation. Red Bull Energy Drink is negotiating a deal with teams in other European championships for Paul Edwards, likely to be the Formula Nissan series based in Spain.

The Village team has earned victories in Formula Ford, Formula Vauxhall Junior and European F3000. Frenchman Romain Dumas drove for the team last season, winning three races and finishing just seven points behind champion Jaime Melo Jr. Dumas has since been granted a Renault F1 test on the basis of his success.

Village also has a successful history of fielding entries for American drivers. In five races with the team in 2002, Peter Boss had a best finish of seventh, at the Jerez circuit in Spain.

The Euro 3000 championship is a single-marque championship created in 1999 as a complement to the 'official' FIA F3000 which supports Formula One around Europe. All teams use Lola B99/50 carbon-fibre chassis and 480-horsepower Zytek V8 engines.