New 'Super Sub' Gidley in for Michigan.

Memo Gidley will make his return to the Fed-Ex Championship Series this weekend at Michigan for Team Della Penna whose regular driver Norberto Fontana is still not comfortable with driving on Superspeedways.

Fontana is a CART rookie this year and was bitten hard on just his third visit to an oval at Motegi this year. Fontana suffered a bizarre spell of vertigo in the practice crash which kept him out of two races. Unbeknownst to the Argentine driver he had dislodged several small particles in his right ear which caused him to lose balance and develop vertigo.

Whilst the ex-Sauber Formula One man was recuperating, Gidley, who drove in place of Patrick Carpentier in the Player's Forsythe line-up for three races earlier this year, did a days testing for Della Penna at Mid Ohio and impressed the team with his pace and level of feedback.

The deal is for one race only but it may continue at the season ending Marlboro 500 at the aptly named Fontana oval in California if Norberto is still uncomfortable on the two mile circuits.

"John [Della Penna] and I decided it was better to put Memo in the car for this race," said Fontana. "I have no experience on this type of track and it's unrealistic to think that I can learn the track and set up a competitive car in my first weekend outing."

The Michigan 500 will be Gidley's 14th start in Champ Cars in the past two seasons in which time he has driven for Forsythe, Penske, Walker and Payton Coyne. He attempted to qualify for this year's Indy 500 but he was thwarted by poor machinery and was under consideration for the drive in Mo Nunn's team after Tony Kanaan's accident in Detroit.