INDIANAPOLIS – The FAZZT Race Team is continuing to take shape with the addition of key personnel. Chief Operating Officer Jim Freudenberg and Team General Manager Rob Edwards have completed the hiring in several key positions in preparation for the 2010 IZOD IndyCar series season.
The team was formed in July of this year as a partnership between Andre Azzi (Azzi Race Division), ATG and Jim Freudenberg and Jason Priestley (Rubicon Sports Agency) with Alex Tagliani slated to drive the No. 77 entry for the 2010 season. Immediately after forming the team, COO Jim Freudenberg hired Rob Edwards as the General Manager and Rob set about the task of building the team.
“Andre has been tremendous in pulling together the assets for FAZZT Race Team,” said Freudenberg. “As of this week, our equipment is paid for and scheduled for delivery, the shop build-out is progressing nicely, so it was really time to get our key people in place and start getting the cars built and ready for our test in early January.”
The first order of business for Edwards was to hire a Crew Chief and he tapped longtime Patrick Racing and KV Racing veteran Don Oldenburg for the position. Oldenburg will bring many years of experience to the organization and will continue to build his crew over the coming weeks. Joining Oldenburg will be Chief Race Engineer Allen MacDonald. MacDonald joins the team after a successful eight year stint with Andretti Green Racing where he served as Chief Engineer for Dario Franchitti among other notable drivers.
“We have been very fortunate to be able to finalize a number of our key personnel over the last few weeks,” said Edwards. “We have tried to be patient enough to get the right people, but to also be ready to roll by our first test in early January.”
In addition to the crew in Indianapolis key positions for the technical research and design division that is based in Montreal have to be filled. Edwards has hired respected development engineer Alex Timmermans to manage and oversee the testing program that will be based at the team’s facility in Montreal.
On the commercial side, Freudenberg has hired Jana Watt to oversee all public relations and media components. The sales team consists of John Stewart in Indianapolis, OOMPH Events in Alberta Canada and Genevieve Biron in Quebec Canada. Valerie Smay will be the teams’ Office Manager and Terry Thompson will handle the teams’ hospitality program.
The team is expecting delivery of all four of its Dallara chassis in the next week. Their first on-track shakedown is scheduled for Homestead-Miami Speedway and Sebring Raceway in January. The team also has plans to announce its sponsors and car livery in January at the famed Montreal Auto Show.
