Valiante 'virtually assured' of Walker deal in '04

Lynx Racing's Michael Valiante is trying hard to maintain focus on his current Toyota Atlantic program even though his recent development deal with Walker Racing should see him in a fully blown Champ Car next season.

The foremost thing on the young Canadian born driver's mind at the moment is the upcoming Toyota Atlantic race at Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport, which supports the Champ Car US Bank Presents the Grand Prix of Cleveland on Saturday July 5th.

Vancouver born Valiante is such a hot young prospect that he has already signed a deal with the Walker Racing CART team virtually assuring he will move up to Champ Cars in 2004. He won three races last year, and this year's season opener, but a bout of stomach flu kept him out of the Laguna Seca event, so he needs - and expects - to fly in Cleveland.

The 23 year-old driver started out the 2003 season in fine form with a win in Mexico, followed by a 4th at Long Beach but since then things have gone badly, creating extra pressure on the pre-season title favourite as he and the team head to the 2.1-mile temporary course in Cleveland.

The Milwaukee Mile oval proved problematic as Valiante, fighting massive oversteer, spun on the first lap and struggled to finish 11th. At Laguna Seca, Lynx Racing's 'home' event, Valiante contracted such a virulent case of stomach flu that he was unable to drive. The combination of Milwaukee and Laguna dropped him from leading the championship to 6th; a podium finish at Portland on two-weeks ago moved him back up to 5th, but Valiante and the Lynx team are on a mission to score a victory at Cleveland and put him back in the running.

"Those two races were a real blow to our plans, but the Lynx team never faltered for a moment and our results at Portland proved that," says Valiante. "We qualified 5th and finished 4th in this event last year, and left Cleveland leading the championship. While that isn't possible this year, we're confident of our ability to run for the win here and get some positive momentum going for the remainder of the season."

Valiante is 5th in the championship with 52 points; A.J. Allmendinger leads with 79, followed by Portland winner Ryan Dalziel (73), Jonathan Macri (64) and Aaron Justus (62). A victory in the Atlantic series is worth 20 points, and last year Valiante won the next two races on the 2003 schedule - the Molson Indy Toronto and the Grand Prix de Trois Rivieres.