About Conquest Racing

Conquest Racing has made a commitment to bring in young, new talent to the world of Champ Car racing. This team is structured to develop these rookies into strong, knowledgeable drivers. Over time, the goal is to develop a passion in these drivers for success and build confidence in their abilities. In recent years, Conquest Racing has been instrumental in helping such promising drivers as Justin Wilson, Nelson Philippe and Andrew Ranger make their debuts in Champ cars and be in the thick of the battle for rookie-of-the-year honors.

The 2007 season is bringing in more of the same for Conquest Racing, as the Indianapolis-based team has signed New Zealand native Matt Halliday to its Champ Car World Series team. Also, consistent with its developmental philosophy, the team continues with a two-car Atlantic effort for the 2007 campaign.

Competing for Conquest Racing in the Champ Car Atlantic Championship are a pair of diverse drivers from two separate nationalities - 22-year old Italian Giacomo Ricci, who won both the European F3000 championship in 2006, along with 17-year old American Matt Lee, who finished second in the 2006 Formula BMW USA Championship.

Last year Conquest Racing was fortunate to have rookie driver Graham Rahal join the team for the 2006 season. Rahal, who is now signed with Champ Car team Newman/Haas/Lanigan, had 5 wins, 4 poles and led for 129 laps for Conquest. Also during the 2006 season, the Conquest Racing Team scored 9 consecutive podium finishes.

The average age of this year's driver line up for Conquest Racing is 22. This might look like a challenging line-up for some, but for Conquest Racing, it is an opportunity to mold these young drivers into experienced professionals.

'Naturally, our focus is on building the most competitive racing team that we possible can,' says team owner Eric Bachelart. 'But our driver development does go hand in hand with that concept. There is nothing more rewarding than assembling a team of drivers with a lot of raw talent and refining these skills so that they can advance their careers.'

by Conquest Racing

by Dallara

The number 34 Conquest Racing IndyCar is driven by Jaime Camara. He was born in Goiania, Brazil on November 5th of 1980 and currently resides in Miami, Florida.

In 2007 he raced in the Firestone Indy Lights Series

- Finished sixth in Firestone Indy Lights driving for Andretti Green/AFS Racing.

- Earned Most Improved Driver award for improving the most positions throughout the season.

- Recorded seven top five finishes, including thirds at Indianapolis (oval and road course) and Nashville.

- Established series record with 42 consecutive starts.

by Dallara

onquest Racing Nashville Race Recap

- Conquest drivers take 20th and 21st positions in rain-shortened race -

Conquest Racing disputed one of its shortest races this season at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday evening and unfortunately it wasn't on account of a rain shortened race. Conquest's rookie drivers only completed a combined total of 116 laps in the Firestone Indy 200 when handling issues arose early on in the race. Enrique Bernoldi and Jaime Camara were respectively credited with the 20th and 21st positions.

Rookie Camara had a strong couple of first laps jumping up to 17th from his 23rd place on the grid. But when a yellow came out, Camara had no choice but to run over some debris left by the contact between Ryan Briscoe and Marco Andretti in order for him to avoid hitting Briscoe who was stopped in the middle of the track. Camara then came in for a pit stop under yellow after which the handling of his car was not the same. Camara did fight on for another 44 laps but damaged caused by the debris made the car not handle properly and Camara preferred to retire after 50 laps.

Teammate Bernoldi, didn't have quite as good of a start as Camara losing a couple of positions, but the Brazilian quickly regained them after pitting for fuel only during the first caution period. His early pit stop then allowed him to make his way to third by lap 62 when the front-runners made their stops. Unfortunately for the Conquest rookie he ran out of fuel just before his scheduled pit stop. He did manage to make it back into the pits and was sent back out after falling a few laps down. After his stop, Bernoldi encountered some sudden handling issues and chose to retire from the race with 66 laps completed.

Conquest Racing returns to road racing next weekend where the team will be competing for a second time in its history at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the Honda Indy 200. The race will air live on ABC starting at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, July 20.

Conquest Racing Quoteboard

20th - Enrique Bernoldi #36 Sangari Dallara/Honda/Firestone

'I ran out of fuel which is a pity because I was doing a good race. After that I had some handling problems when I came out of the pits, I don't know why so I decided to stop. I'm sure I can have a better result on a road course than on an oval so I'm looking forward to this next race.'

21st - Jaime Camara #34 Sangari Dallara/Honda/Firestone

'We started well. At the start of the race we made up quite a few positions and the car was behaving well. Then the yellow came out and I ran over a lot of debris to avoid Briscoe who was stopped in the middle of the track. I don't know if something under the car broke at that time because after that the car was not behaving well. It was the best decision to make because we still have two races in a row and I didn't want to crash the car. Now we just have to focus on the next couple of races and prepare for that.'

Eric Bachelart, Team Owner

'We had a tough evening in Nashville. We still need to understand what happened with the fuel on Enrique's car and the handling on Jaime's. We will look at that early this week as well as regroup and start fresh again with the Mid-Ohio race. I am confident we will turn things around and get a good result there.'

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by Dallara

Amazing Drive by Conquest's Camara has Bittersweet Ending in Richmond

- Camara leads 44 laps but crashes out; Bernoldi retires early -

here were highs and lows today for Conquest Racing at the SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond International Raceway. The team continued to show their progress and competitiveness with Jaime Camara who led his first laps in the IndyCar Series and ran at the front for the majority of the race. The Brazilian was off to a top-three finish but crashed out on lap 217. He was classified 14th, his best finishing position this season. Camara's teammate, Enrique Bernoldi, failed to finish the race.

Starting from the 24th place on the grid, Camara had an outstanding race up until lap 217, making passes on his way to the front of the field and taking advantage of the restarts after numerous yellow flags in a race that was filled with caution periods and many accidents. Thanks to an early pit stop on lap 34, Camara took the lead on lap 72 when the leaders came in for their first stop. Camara, who became a father for the first time on Wednesday, went on to lead 44 laps, fighting off eventual race winner Tony Kanaan. Camara lost the lead to Marco Andretti on lap 116 and remained in second position until his last stop which was done under yellow on lap 136.

With some drivers choosing to stay out when most of the front-runners pitted on lap 136, Camara found himself eighth when he returned to the track. Once the race restarted on lap 142, he started to make his way back up and found himself in third by lap 206. The rookie driver was gaining on Helio Castroneves in second but lost control of his car exiting Turn 4 on lap 217 sliding into the wall and ending what had been an amazing run by the Conquest rookie.

Conquest's other rookie driver, Bernoldi, encountered some unexplained problems that the team will look into, and had to retire after six laps.

There won't be any rest for the Conquest team as its team members head back to Indianapolis Sunday morning and head straight to the shop to start repairing Camara's car and preparing for next weekend's race at Watkins Glen for the Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen.

Conquest Racing Quoteboard

14th - Jaime Camara #34 Sangari Dallara/Honda/Firestone

'The tire wear is pretty abrupt here and the fuel load was getting lighter and lighter as was the car. So I was neutral every lap and it was getting more and more neutral. I was trying with my tools inside the car to make the car better but I lost it on the exit of Turn 4. It was especially hard in traffic today. It's a shame for the Conquest Racing Sangari car. I feel sorry for the guys. It was going to be a great result, we needed that and now it's all gone. (About leading his first laps) It felt great. It helps us build momentum and it's good for the team. I just wish I could have finished this race.'

26th - Enrique Bernoldi #36 Sangari Dallara/Honda/Firestone

'I didn't really get a chance to feel out the car yesterday after my crash. I only did an installation lap. So when I started on the first lap I could feel something was different. We made some changes to the set-up and tried to go out twice but the problem was a little deeper than what we could change for the race.'

Eric Bachelart, Team Owner

'As we have said before, we felt the team was up to score some good results and we proved tonight with Jaime that we have the performance in race trim. He truly drove an amazing race and he impressed many people tonight. Jaime was able to pass many competitors on the outside, something you see only once in a while. Unfortunately, we did not have a happy ending but we will keep the momentum and we will try to finalize a good oval result in Nashville in two weeks. As for Enrique, we will go back to the shop and look into the problem he had. We look forward to going to Watkins Glen with Enrique next week in an environment that he is very comfortable in.'

by Conquest Racing

by Dallara