Infiniti Series media manager appointed.

The Indy Racing Infiniti Pro Series has appointed veteran publicist Ashleigh Higgins as its first manager of media relations for its debut year of competition in 2002 as support for the still-to-race series slowly begins to gather momentum ahead of its debut race next July at Kansas.

Experienced Motorsports publicist and long-time Indy Racing League PR fixture Ashleigh Higgins has been named manager of media relations for the Indy Racing Infiniti Pro Series with immediate effect as the intended replacement for the Dayton Indy Lights Championship continues to take shape around Executive Director Roger Bailey.

Crucially for the Infiniti Series, Higgins comes on board after highly successful stints with teams both in CART and the IRL, most recently serving as director of public relations for Cheever Indy Racing during the 2001 campaign. Higgins also worked for PacWest Racing and Brian Stewart's eponymous Indy Lights outfit.

Prior to working in the Motorsports industry, Higgins was an English teacher in her hometown of Toronto and a communications instructor at Carleton University in Ottawa.

"Ashleigh will be an asset to the Indy Racing League and Infiniti Pro Series," said Bailey of her appointment. "She has developed a solid reputation with the media who cover the Indy Racing League, and she has Motorsports PR experience at multiple levels."

Scheduled to begin on July 7th next year at the Kansas Speedway, the Infiniti Series looks set for a character building first season of competition with teams slow put down their plans in concrete. 2000 IRL Champions Hemelgarn Racing have committed to running at least one car in 2002 which comes as a major boost and it is more than likely that other IRL teams will begin to operate IRIPS (!!) teams as a feeder to their main squad in the near future.

With more than six months until the first race however, Higgins and the IRIPS management team still have time on their hands to attract more drivers and teams to the series which, at present looks as though it will struggle to top the numbers seen in the final year of Dayton Indy Lights competition in 2001.