Brooks Associates Racing to entry series

Brooks Associates Racing, a long-standing competitor in developmental series racing, announced plans to compete in Firestone Indy Lights in 2010.

The Tucson, Ariz.-based team, which won the 2008 Champ Car Atlantic title with Finnish driver Markus Niemela, recently acquired a Firestone Indy Lights Dallara chassis from Guthrie Meyer Racing and plans to begin testing potential drivers shortly.

"After winning the 2008 Atlantic Championship, we have taken the last year to review all of our opportunities in North American racing series," said team owner John C. Brooks. "We wanted to examine the various series to see where we could best continue our history of preparing young drivers for successful futures in professional motorsports. The Firestone Indy Lights series is such a clear steppingstone to America's premier open wheel series (The IZOD IndyCar Series), that it meets our objectives and our drivers' objectives as well".

Brooks, a former driver who was named the series' Team Owner of the Year in 2005, founded his team in 1995 and has fielded cars for drivers such as Neimela, Al Unser III, Andreas Wirth, Ronnie Bremer and Kevin Lacroix. The team scored victories in 2005 (Denver with Wirth), 2007 (Portland with Lacroix) and 2008 (Utah and Atlanta with Niemela).

"We are delighted to welcome another quality team to our grid for the 2010 championship, " said Roger Bailey, Executive Director of Firestone Indy Lights. "Brooks Associates Racing has shown the ability to be a championship contending operation in other forms of motorsport and we fully expect them to continue that success in the Firestone Indy Lights."

-credit: bar