Coyne strengthens Engineering team.

Dale Coyne Racing is stepping up its commitment to being a competitive force in the 2003 Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford with the hiring of vastly experienced and highly respected engineer John Bright.

"John has been around the business a long time and he will be a valuable asset as we move forward," said team owner Dale Coyne, who has fielded a car in CART competition every year since 1984. "After two seasons in which we ran only a few races, we are ramping up our efforts for a full-time program in 2003. We have an exciting new driving talent in Joel Camathias, and we want to build on the resources that we have established and move up to the next level."

Bright, 53, a native of Leicester, England, has been involved in auto racing since 1972. He competed successfully himself in Formula Ford (winning 21 races in 1976) and Formula 3 before concentrating on racecar engineering and management. He guided international star Brian Redman to the 1981 IMSA Camel GT Championship, in the history-making Cooke Woods Racing Lola T-600 sports car, and has since gained success on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Bright's first experience in Champ Car racing came in the early 1990s when he worked as a race engineer with Dick Simon Racing and drivers Scott Brayton and Scott Goodyear. In 1994, Bright joined Chip Ganassi Racing as Mauricio Gugelmin's race engineer.

He returned to Europe in 1997 to form the Redman & Bright Formula 3000 team in partnership with Brian Redman. The duo launched the career of the late Gonzalo Rodriguez and also proved successful in international sports car competition.

"I am excited about this new opportunity with Dale Coyne Racing," says Bright. "We have a lot in common. We both raced ourselves and we have both worked hard to achieve our goals. I admire his commitment to CART, which has always been one of my favourite forms of the sport, and I honestly feel that he has all the ingredients to build a winning team."

Bright, who will oversee all technical aspects of the team's Champ Car effort, has moved to the Chicago area to commence preparations for the new season, which begins at St. Petersburg, Fla., on February 23.

Dale Coyne Racing will undertake its first 2003 test later this week at the Sebring road course in Florida, where Champ Car rookie Camathias will gain his first taste of the newly updated #19 Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone combination.