Diaz to pilot third Walker car in Mexico.

The 2003 Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford grid will swell to 20 for the first time in Mexico City next month as Derrick Walker confirmed that native Mexican Luis Diaz will campaign a third Walker Racing Reynard-Ford in the Gran Premio Telmex/Gigante.

Mindful that his stable could increase to three cars next year with the addition of Canadian Michel Valiante alongside current drivers Darren Manning and Rodolfo Lavin, Walker will run a third machine or the Toyota Atlantic Series pilot as the number of Mexican's racing in front of their home crowd on the weekend of October 10th-12th grows to six.

Diaz, who made his Champ Car debut in the 2002 Gran Premio Telmex/Gigante with Fernandez Racing, will drive a car sponsored by Motorola, Sun Microsystems and Telcel, the leading wireless carrier in Mexico and is thrilled to be given the opportunity to race in front of his home crowd once again.

"I appreciate very much the trust and support of Sun, Telcel and Motorola to participate as their driver for this new racing team, this will certainly allow me to be in touch with the Mexican public that has always encouraged me," said Diaz. "The race will be very tough and the track surely demanding, as it would be very competitive among all the drivers that want to win, but with intelligence and speed we will raise the results that are expected."

Despite racing the inferior Reynard chassis, Diaz will take comfort from the fact that Walker's leading driver, Darren Manning, has been able to amass a string of top ten finishes and better all season. Last year Diaz' run in place of the injured Adrian Fernandez came to an end after just one lap of the challenging, bumpy 2.75-mile Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez when his Lola-Ford caught fire.