Rice, Fisher for Dreyer and Reinbold.

Having run a single car for the past few years, Dreyer and Reinbold Racing is to expand to a two car effort for the 2007 Indy Racing League with the announcement that Buddy Rice and Sarah Fisher will join forces for the new season.

Rice, who left the Rahal Letterman Racing team at the end of last season, will celebrate his sixth season in the IRL when the championship campaign kicks off at Homestead-Miami while Fisher will return to the team who she raced for back in 2002.

"We are very excited to add Buddy Rice to our team with all the changes we have made during the off season," team co-owner, Dennis Reinbold said. "We have made a commitment to focus on the future and with Buddy joining our team, we can continue to strive to meet our goals for 2007 and beyond. Buddy has a track record of success and will be a nice addition to our growing team.

"Sarah really showed us she had matured as a racer and we were eager to sign her to the team for 2007. Sarah is very professional and will represent our sponsors well both on and off the track."

Rice entered the IndyCar Series in 2002 where he competed in the final five races of the IndyCar Series season with Red Bull Cheever Racing. In 2004, he won the Indy 500 driving for Rahal Letterman Racing while substituting for injured driver Kenny Brack and went on to earn five poles and three wins en route to a third place in the point standings in the IndyCar Series in his first season with Rahal Letterman Racing.

"Dreyer and Reinbold is really trying to step up their program especially with the engineers they have brought on board to make the team a front runner full-time," he said Rice. "With Chris Finch and John Dick coming from Fernandez and me coming from Rahal, we had worked together a little bit in the past and I think there is a bit of a relationship there already. I'm really excited to join the team and it will be great to see what we can do in 2007. DRR has lots of potential and I look forward to helping them tap into that."

Fisher, who was awarded the 2001, 2002 and 2003 IndyCar Series 'Most Popular Driver' award returns to the IndyCar Series with 50 IndyCar Series races under her belt. During her IndyCar Series career, Fisher has had best finishes of second at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2000, and a third place finish at Kentucky Speedway in 2001, giving her the best two finishes by a woman ever in IndyCar racing.

"Coming back the last two races last year really made me realise how much I've missed it," she said. "Things have changed a little bit since I've been gone, but I'm up for the challenge. It seems like the opportunity will allow us to run up front and that is more exciting than ever.

"Mentally, I've grown ten years as a person in only two years. I've matured tremendously in my thought processes. Physically, I'm in the best condition I've ever been in and that is going to help with mental decisions this year."