Junior Open Wheel Talent

Anyone who followed the Indy Lights series this year was surprised when Andrew Prendeville announced a premature end to his open wheel efforts for 2008. In a statement to the press, Prendeville announced that his reason for departure revolved around "other opportunities". Many (including myself) thought the announcement was just another unfortunate example of an ill-funded driver being sent home, regardless of his or her talent.... Which it very well could have been, however Prendeville was back in an Indy Lights car just over a week ago; working with HVM Racing to develop their Indy Lights program.

Earlier today, ECO Racing made an announcement defining Andrew's previous statement about "other opportunities". The 27 year old driver will be traveling to Laguna Seca in October to drive a environmentally sound LMP1 race car for ECO Racing. Prendeville will be driving in the American LeMans Series with Japanese driver Hideki Noda, who has experience in both single seater and sports cars.

ECO Racing is developing a car for the duo that has a production based-turbocharged V10 engine which is run on bio-diesel (created from a Jatropha curcas tree). According to a release from the team, Jatropha has many advantages over other bio-fuel crops, as it requires less water than most plants, is hardy, and does not need to be grown on good-quality agricultural land. ECO's efforts align perfectly with the ALMS efforts to "go green".

This seems to be a great opportunity for Andrew, hopefully we will seem back in a car for 2009, even if it's a sports car.