VISO FINISHES 14th AFTER A BITTERSWEET DAY AT KANSAS

Kansas City, Kansas (April 28, 2008) – The race started well for HVM’s EJ Viso, who started 17th for the RoadRunner Turbo Indy 300 today at Kansas Speedway. He ran as high as 7th in the first half of the race, keeping with the leaders and turning very competitive lap times. Unfortunately, the race didn’t end as well as it began, but he still improved on his qualifying position to finish the race in 14th.

EJ drove his way through the field in the first stint, passing ten cars by lap 63. The car was handling very well, and EJ was able to keep up with the lead pack and run with them consistently. He was on the same pit strategy and driving a remarkable race, when he had an incident with Tomas Scheckter on lap 98, which sent him spinning into the grass on the front stretch. EJ kept the car running, and made his way back on to the track and determined that his car had not suffered any damage. He pitted for fuel and tires on lap 100, but was already a lap down from the leaders. He also incurred a drive-through penalty for driving over another competitor’s hose during a pit-stop. After that, it was a case of staying out of traffic and maintaining his 14th place finish.

EJ is currently 13th in IndyCar Series standings and 5th in the Bombardier LearJet Rookie of the Year standings.

EJ Viso:

“Our result doesn’t reflect how quick we were today.  Our first stint was very good, and we were keeping up with the lead pack and everything was going smooth until we ran into a few problems. My weight-jacker wasn’t working properly and I got a lot of understeer. Then there was the incident with (Tomas) Scheckter and we couldn’t recover after that. I am happy we could run speeds consistent with the leaders and I was very comfortable in the car. We need to continue to work a little harder to find the speed to be up there more often. I’m very happy with the team and looking forward to Indy.”

Keith Wiggins, Team Owner:

“It was clear that we had a fast car and our driver was doing a good job in the first stint. It’s unfortunate that we had the incident with Tomas Scheckter and that basically changed the fate of our race. After that, we just tried to make-up where we could and we just ran around looking for opportunities that never came. I’m happy to know we can be competitive but disappointed with the result.”

HVM is based in Indianapolis, Indiana. In its 7 years of competition in the Champ Car World Series, the team has earned 6 wins, 2 pole positions, and an additional 16 podiums since 2001 when Keith Wiggins took over Bettenhausen Motorsports. They finished 4th and 3rd, respectively, in Championship standings in 2006 and 2007 and drivers Mario Dominguez and Robert Doornbos were named Rookie of the Year in 2002 and 2007, respectively.

PR Contact: Aislinn Miller amiller@hvminc.net