Hall Racing lives on in IndyCar, but under a new name and ownership. The team left behind when legendary Jim Hall announced his retirement this summer and driver Gil de Ferran departed has reorganized as Davis-Craig Racing.

The team temporarily remains in Midland, Texas, with plans to move to Indianapolis, and has signed a driver for the 1997 campaign, it was reported by Gerald Davis, former Hall Racing team manager, and Canadian businessman Murray S. Craig, who have formed a partnership to operate the reconstituted team.

Already signed as driver and ready to begin testing prior to his rookie season is Gualter Salles, 26, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as aggressive in action and likable off the track as his Brazilian predecessor, de Ferran.

The first 1997 model Reynard chassis is expected to be delivered in time for testing to begin the first of the year, Ford Cosworth will be the power plant and the wheels will be shod with Goodyear tires, Davis explained. The team hopes that a heavy testing schedule will give rookie Salles plenty of seat time before the season opens with the Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami on March 2. Testing of the modified 1996 model Reynard begins next week.

Meanwhile, the team is promoting sponsorship aggressively and innovatively, selling the merits of a top IndyCar team to be led into battle by a veritable clone of its 1995-96 driver, de Ferran. Except for its former driver and an engineer, the personnel remains largely unchanged to date.

Salles, whose early career resembled that of de Ferran, came to the Davis-Craig team from IndyCars development series, Indy Lights, where he dazzled fans with a hot streak in mid-season, winning three in a row at Portland, Cleveland and Toronto before mechanical difficulties ended his bid for the championship with non-finishes at Trois Rivieres, Vancouver and Laguna Seca to end his 12-race season. With a pole position at Long Beach and seven finishes in the top six, he wound up 1996 third in points.

Graduating from karting championships in Brazil in 1988 and 1989, Salles moved to England to hone his racing skills in bigger cars. In 1992 he won four pole positions and two races to finish second in the Opel Lotus series. He moved up to Formula 3 and won at Silverstone in 1995.

New team owner Davis started Indy car racing with the Pennzoil Chaparral team of Jim Hall in 1982 as chief engine man. When Hall left the sport at the end of the season, Davis hired on as engine builder for Teo Fabi, who won the pole position at Indianapolis and was the series "rookie of the year" in 1983, winning the final race but losing the championship by 5 points to Al Unser.

Earlier, Davis served as engine man for Hall in the 1970s on the Can-Am and Formula 5000 circuits, and in 1981 he built the Chevrolet engine that powered Brian Redman to a historic IMSA GT championship.

Davis had built a thriving engine development business in Midland, Texas, and had drag racing credentials that brought him lots of customers after his Indy racing experience, but when Hall asked him to take over management of the team in 1994, Davis closed his doors and devoted all his efforts to the IndyCar team.

The result was a "rookie of the year" season for de Ferran climaxed by a win at Laguna Seca in 1995 and a very successful 1996 season, which also featured a win (Cleveland) and a pole position (Long Beach).

His new partner, Craig, is a marketing whiz and computer software developer who created a high technology business in the aircraft industry by using leading edge software tools that originated a novel way to monitor flight maintenance programs. He is president of a Surrey, BC firm, Techno Data, and operates other software providing firms.

Craig also competes in Canadian and U.S. amateur road racing and has provided cars and team support for several show business personalities who hankered to race. They have included Richard Dean Anderson, star of the McGyver TV series, and Peter Cetera, rock and roll vocal artist formerly of the band "Chicago."