Dale Coyne building strong team staff.
Phil LaPan has joined DCR as Team Manager. Phil was previously the Team Manager of Forsythe Racing during the past 15 years. Phil brings a wealth of experience from his multiple race wins and Championship season with such drivers as Jacques Villeneuve, Teo Fabi, Greg Moore, Patrick Carpentier, AJ Allmendinger and Paul Tracy.
“I really like what I see here at Dale Coyne Racing," commented the IndyCar veteran LaPan. “We have a strong professional group of team members, and the long term planning is something I want to be a part of."
Toronto born LaPan has been in the racing industry his entire career. Phil started his career as a mechanic for Lotus F1 with Mario Andretti and Nigel Mansell as well as Kraco Indy Car with Michael Andretti. His next move was to become the Team Manager for one of the winningest teams in IndyCar, Forsythe Racing.
Engineer of the #18 car for 2011 is Don Halliday. Halliday, like LaPan brings a similarly impressive background of knowledge. Don has had great success throughout his career starting with World Championship Brabham Formula 1. The New Zealand native would bring his talents to America where he would design the Truesports IndyCar and engineer such drivers as Bobby Rahal, Andre Ribeiro, Kenny Brack and would tie for the points lead in 1999 with Dario Franchitti. The past few years Don has shared his talents with up and coming drivers, winning the Formula Atlantic championship in 2009 with Johnny Edwards.
“I enjoy racing and having fun racing," remarked the talented Halliday. “What Dale is accomplishing at DCR intrigues my competitive side and I am very pleased to be a part of it."
Engineering the #19 Boy Scouts of America car will be former de Ferran/Dragon engineer Scott Raymond. Prior to his three years at de Ferran, Scott was the assistant engineer for three years at Newman Haas racing, working with driver Sebastien Bourdais. Scott brings to the team both a wealth of knowledge and an impressive educational background including a Masters in Mechanical Engineering.
“It is our goal to build a strong and consistent program. The addition of Phil, Don and Scotty are certainly noteworthy steps to that end," reported team owner Dale Coyne. “This is an eclectic mix of skills, each of them bringing their own individual knowledge and more importantly, they complement one another collectively raising the entire level of our engineering and management structure."
The team has prepared its two car entry for the St. Petersburg, Florida race this coming weekend and will announce their drivers on Wednesday prior to the race weekend.
03/22/11 Phil LaPan has joined Dale Coyne Racing as Team Manager. Phil was previously the Team Manager of Forsythe Racing for 15 years.
Engineer of the #18 car for 2011 is long-time F1 and IndyCar engineer Don Halliday.
Engineering the #19 Boy Scouts of America IndyCar will be former de Ferran/Dragon engineer Scott Raymond. Prior to his three years at de Ferran, Scott was the assistant engineer for three years at Newman Haas racing, working with driver Sebastien Bourdais.
“It is our goal to build a strong and consistent program. The addition of Phil, Don and Scotty are certainly noteworthy steps to that end," team owner Dale Coyne told SPEEDTV.com. “This is an eclectic mix of skills, each of them bringing their own individual knowledge and more importantly, they complement one another collectively raising the entire level of our engineering and management structure."
Coyne will announce his two drivers later this week. 4-time Champ Car title winner Sebastien Bourdais is expected to drive one of Coyne's two cars. A number of drivers have tested the 2nd car including Plowman and most recently Jakes. We'll soon know the final lineup. We could see Milka Duno run some of the oval races.