Panther Racing and Panther/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing

The cast: Drivers – JR Hildebrand and Oriol Servia. Chief engineers – . Race strategists – .

Twitter: @JRHildebrand, @oriolservia, @PantherDRR, @PantherRacing

The cars: No. 4 Chevrolet-powered National Guard (Hildebrand) and No. 22 xxxxxx (Servia).

Snapshot: Servia last week was named an ambassador for Fitness For Kids, which since 2006 has been inspiring youngsters with a simple but effective health curriculum. … Hildebrand last week got in some time on the slopes in Colorado: snow biking and then using the more conventional board.

The stats: Hildebrand, competing in his second full-time season with Panther Racing, posted a pair of top-five finishes (Long Beach, Texas), making up 33 positions total in 2012. … He added four top-10 finishes and had a best qualifying effort of eighth in the season finale at Auto Club Speedway. … He led a career-high 56 laps on the 2-mile oval. … Servia joined Dreyer & Reinbold Racing for 2012 and recorded a best finish of fourth (Indianapolis, Milwaukee) among four top fives. … He advanced an aggregate 53 positions in the 15 races (23 in Indianapolis 500). … Best qualifying effort was 11th at Mid-Ohio.

The gist: Panther Racing and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing formed a strategic alliance in May 2012, which also saw DRR switch from the Lotus to Chevrolet engine. The long-time IZOD IndyCar Series teams shared a technical partnership at the end of the 2011 season. The “best of both worlds” scenario has meant that Hildebrand and Servia, along with team personnel, have shared information and data among other things. Servia graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from Polytechnic University of Catalonia and Hildebrand was accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the same field before having his acceptance deferred to pursue his racing career.

They said it: “I’m excited because I’m continuing with the same team as last year, which hasn’t happened for me two years in a row since Indy Lights,” Servia said. “We recently hired Tino Belli as technical director, which is going to help us a lot, more than anything in the relationship between Panther and us. We were sharing everything last year, but we needed somebody above both organizations directing. We were sharing everything, but weren’t going in one direction. Now we’ll have one direction, and it’s a good one because he’s come from the team that won the championship (Andretti Autosport) last year.

“Last year we had great results, Indy as an example, but we were not consistent. We would show up at the next race and not qualify as good as we should. You can learn from your weaknesses. After a year, you can look back, see where you were weak and improve. That’s what is most exciting about continuity. I’ve been working with JR since day one and we work really well together. Both of us are really looking forward to this new season.”

Added Hildebrand: “One of the differences this year is we have a lot more pieces that are going to help us put the puzzle together. Having  Tino from Andretti definitely is a big help, and having a more efficient relationship with the D&R guys gives us a lot of information at our disposal."