Genoa Racing Impressed with Karjalainen

The staff of Genoa Racing was very impressed with the performance of 22-year-old Finnish driver Henri Karjalainen during a two-day test in one of the team's Atlantic cars last week at Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Fla.

Karjalainen placed 17th in his rookie season in the Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda this year while running as a member of another team. His best finish was a tenth on the street course at Trois-RiviÃ¨res, Quebec.

Genoa Racing's management feels confident they can help Karjalainen improve on those results in 2009, and offered him specific suggestions he can work on during the off-season.

"We were impressed with Henri, both in and out of the car," said Thomas Knapp, team manager and chief engineer. "He never put a wheel wrong, and was responsive to our direction. He hadn't driven at Sebring previously, and met our performance targets over the two days. We would like to complete a deal for the season, and develop him into a consistent threat for the 2009 Atlantic championship."

The Atlantic test was in addition to the team's recent Firestone Indy Lights test at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla. The team plans to field
cars in both series in 2009.