Oriol Servia will join Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for select races of the 2014 IndyCar Series season, team officials announced.
Servia will compete at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, with the goal of adding more races to the schedule.
“We have had the pleasure of working with Oriol before and are looking forward to his return,” team co-owner Bobby Rahal said. “I have always respected his ability to develop the race car and be a productive member of the team so when it came time to consider the possibility of a second entry he was right at the top of the list. We are happy to have him back and look forward to having him help the team progress toward the front.”
Servia, a native of Pals, Spain, has made 191 starts in Indy car racing since 2000. His Indy car highlights include one win (Montreal 2005) and one pole (Surfers Paradise, Australia, 2005) as well as a total of 19 top-three, 51 top-five and 100 top-10 finishes. He competed for the team in the 2009 Indianapolis 500 and ran in the top 10 before a mechanical failure forced him to retire.
"Continuity is a very important part of success in any racing team,” said Servia, who competed in 12 of the 19 races in 2013 with Panther-DRR and Panther Racing. “By my moving to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, this happens at many different levels. On the team side, in 2009 we did the 500 together as a one-off race. We were running very strong until we had a fuel pump fail on us but that one race left us with a sensation that we could do great things together. That same year I did a short stint at Newman Haas, where my teammate was Graham (Rahal), and that also started a great chemistry between us that translated to results on track where we finished third and fourth in the last race we ran.
“There are a lot of people in the team that I have worked in the past. Actually John Dick, one of the latest arrivals to the team, was my race engineer in my rookie year at PPI, and on and on. There are enough synergies within the team that make me feel positive that even if we may be starting a little late, we will hit the road running."
Servia will participate in the IndyCar Series Open Test at Barber Motorsports Park March 17-18 in an RLL entry.
Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing and Quaker Chemical extend partnership
Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing and Quaker Chemical Corporation have renewed their partnership for a third season.
Quaker Chemical supports the technical and engineering side of the race team and No. 67 car driven by Josef Newgarden.
"The technical development we have been able to do with the SFHR team has been a rare opportunity," said Joe Berquist, Quaker Chemical vice president and managing director North America. "The learning from the research has helped us with the development of our high-performance greases. This understanding has been transferable into applications where bearings are used, such as for steel rolling and heavy equipment. We will continue to apply this knowledge to create greases that will help our industrial customers further extend the life of their tools and equipment."
Grenier to study at KV Racing Technology
Former Indy Lights and Star Mazda driver Mikael Grenier will be associated with KV Racing Technology for the 2014 IndyCar Series season.
Grenier, 21, of Quebec, who tested with the team in January, will attend team meetings at selected races and, if circumstances permit, test with the possibility of a more extensive relationship developing in the future.
"We are very happy to have Mikael be associated with KV Racing Technology," general manager Steve Moore said. "Mikael did a good job during the test earlier this year and we felt a more formal association was warranted. We look forward to having him attend several races this year in an effort to accelerate his learning curve with an eye toward developing a more substantial relationship in the future."
Grenier had four top-10 finishes in five Firestone Indy Lights races in 2011 and placed seventh at Long Beach in his lone Indy Lights race in 2013.
"I am very grateful to Kevin Kalkhoven, Jimmy Vasser and Steve Moore for the opportunity to be associated and work with KV Racing Technology," Grenier said. "This is a great opportunity and I plan on taking full advantage, learning as much as I can. My goal is to race in the IndyCar Series and hopefully, this opportunity will help me achieve that goal."