Lotus and Cosworth have entered into a new technical and commercial partnership with established IndyCar competitors KV Racing Technology to run in the 2010 IndyCar Series.
The Lotus-Cosworth IndyCar will use the classic Racing Green and Yellow livery used on Lotus Racing cars in the 1950s and 1960s beginning at next weekend's Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on the Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla.
Driving the Lotus-Cosworth IndyCar will be the former F1 driver Takuma Sato.
"This is fantastic news for everyone," Sato said. "It is exiting for me to be a Lotus driver and I’m really looking forward to great success with this new project."
Lotus competed for a number of years in the IndyCar Series in the 1960s, winning the Indianapolis 500 race outright in 1965 with the pioneering Lotus Type 38, driven by Jim Clark, and narrowly missing victory to come second in 1963.
"Racing has always defined Lotus and on many occasions in motorsports history Lotus’ numerous innovations have re-defined racing. It’s only fitting that as the Lotus Racing name re-enters Formula 1, we will also race and innovate again in IndyCar," Dany Bahar, CEO of Group Lotus plc said. "The Lotus name will, once again compete in the top two open-wheel racing series for the passion and enthusiasm of car fans around the globe."
Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser, owners of KV Racing Technology said, “We are delighted to be part of Lotus and Cosworth’s return to the IndyCar Series, and with Takuma at the wheel of the classic racing green and yellow Lotus Cosworth race cars, we expect to be formidable competitors this year.”
The return to the IndyCar Series follows on from the recent announcement by Lotus and Cosworth are to become closely associated through a strategic partnership looking at the opportunity to develop high performance engines for Lotus cars.
