Valiante: Two teams chasing me.

Champ Car aspirant Michael Valiante has revealed that, since his long-awaited debut in the category this season, two teams have stepped up their efforts in order to sign him for 2005.

The Canadian suffered several false starts in his attempt to move up from a successful Toyota Atlantic career, before finally making the breakthrough with Walker Racing at the 2004 season finale in Mexico City. A solid performance 'south of the border' - when he out-qualified and out-raced a number of vastly more experienced drivers - saw Valiante's name inked into several notebooks, and the former karting champion is now a definite candidate for more than one seat in 2005.

As a result of his Mexican performance - and a year of behind-the-scenes work - Valiante was invited to participate in a test at Sebring with Dale Coyne's Champ Car team, where he was the fastest of six drivers being tested by two different teams.

"Things were stuck in neutral for a while - there was a lot of interest from various teams, and I flew to some races expecting to drive, but somehow I never seemed to get in the car," the Canadian said, aware that finishing second overall in the super-competitive Toyota Atlantic championship in 2002, and third in 2003, was not enough to bridge the gap to the top flight, "Now, however, the Mexico City race seems to have broken the log jam, and two different Champ Car teams are working to find the funding to run me in 2005."

The Dale Coyne test saw Valiante pitted against former Lynx Racing Atlantic team-mate Bryan Sellers and Australian F3 veteran Marcus Marshall, while the Forsythe
team was also on hand, running another Canadian Atlantic hotshoe, Andrew Ranger, and series race Alex Figge. Valiante was able to complete 110 laps in Coyne's #11 yokeTV.com Lola-Ford, and posted the fastest time of the two-day session, with a lap of 51.88secs.

"The day went very well and, with just a bit more time to make adjustments, we could have been a good bit quicker," he insisted, "We had a few minor mechanical issues at the start that we had to work through, but the Coyne team is very professional and we just kept getting faster and faster.

"Dale Coyne is well known for his ability to spot and develop talent, and I want to thank him for giving me another chance to prove that I deserve a spot on the Champ Car grid for 2005."

Valiante went directly from his Champ Car test at Sebring to a Daytona Prototype debut with the new Ten Motorsports team at Homestead - and, after familiarising himself with the first hard-top race car he had ever driven, turned comparable times to the team's already confirmed 2005 line-up, Champ Car veteran Memo Gidley and Star Mazda champion Michael McDowell.

As a result, the Canadian has been asked to join the two regulars for February's Rolex 24 at Daytona.

"I'm excited about getting to drive at Daytona, and perhaps at some of the other long races that don't conflict with the Champ Car schedule," he said, "However, Champ Car is what I've been working towards all along in my career - it's where I wanted to be and it's where I continue to put my focus.

"I'm just starting to get a little traction there, and I think that the series has some strength now where the costs are under control and it has something to offer sponsors with network television in the US and Canada and major cable channels in Europe, South America, Asia and around the world. In the next few years, Champ Cars - along
with Formula One - will be 'it' for the top drivers in the world, and that's where I want to be!"