©2000 SpeedCenter Publishing
The Arciero Project Racing Group (P.R.G.) completed a successful first test of the Hollywood / Embratel / Tang / Reynard-Mercedes at the Putnam Park road course, near Indianapolis, on Saturday.
Although the cold, damp weather prevented driver Luiz Garcia, Jr. from pushing the car to the limit, both driver and team were delighted with the results.
"This was great," said Garcia. "I was very happy to be back in the car again. I was having a lot of fun, even though we didn't complete a lot of laps."
The team competed the shakedown with no major problems at all.
"I was impressed with how hard the crew worked to get the car put together and running on such short notice," Garcia said. "It was an impressive display of teamwork and efficiency."
Arciero P.R.G. was formed in February, 2000. The team is operated by Andreas Leberle, founder of Project Indy, which ran in CART for several seasons. Although there was little time to spare, the crew has been assembled, and the team is ready for the first CART race at Miami. Veteran race engineer David Cripps, has signed on, and the team is managed by Barry Brooke.
Garcia, who contested 10 CART races in 1999, is looking forward to his first full season in CART.
"I am happy to be racing, " continued Garcia. "I feel we have all the ingredients to be a success, and I think we can surprise some people."
Everybody involved with Arciero P.R.G shares the same goal.
"We are excited to be affiliated with a driver as capable as Luiz," said Andreas Leberle. "We have to thank our sponsors Hollywood, Embratel, Tang, Banco Sofisa, Mercedes-Benz, Firestone, and Reynard for getting us to Homestead.
"We have a lot of catching up to do, and we need to get Luiz the proper seat time. We have great people in place, and we all have high expectations of ourselves to be competitive on and off the track," continued Leberle.
