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Dayton Indy Lights Paddock

In the news:
Danish driver Kristian Kolby, a veteran of the 2000 FIA Formula 3000 championship, will drive for Eric Bachelart and Conquest Racing in the 2001 Dayton Indy Lights Championship. Kolby, who first tested last week at Buttonwillow and is practicing this week at Laguna Seca, will drive alongside Brazilian standout Nilton Rossoni, defending champion of the Barber Dodge Pro Series, who was signed to the team in December.

Can it be that good?
Last year Indy Lights had 3 drivers going for the championsship and Cart had 5 by the time the last race rolled around. Can Casey Mears claim a title for the Americans or not??
Duo Score Biggest Career Victory
In their Indy Lights careers, Freon and O’Connell combined for five victories and six poles, but neither had scored a victory as big as this past weekend’s 24-hour classic at Daytona International Speedway, Feb. 3 and 4.
Their winning Corvette completed 656 laps, averaging 97.306 mph, and beat an 80-car field that included several more powerful SportsRacer machines that fell out with mechanical problems. Freon, O’Connell and company not only won the GTS class but scored a strong overall victory.

“We hadn’t talked about winning the race,” said Freon, who has been with the GM GoodWrench Corvette Team for two seasons. “It was pretty clear that we wanted to get 1-2 in our class. That was the most important for GM. We never organized our strategy around that situation (winning overall). We focused on not making any mistakes and that was very easy today. We didn’t really think about the overall win.”

After winning the Rookie title in 1991, Freon won Indy Lights races at Long Beach, Portland and Cleveland in 1992 and finished second in the championship. He came back to repeat at Portland in 1993 and again took runner-up honors in the championship.

After eight Champ Car starts in 1994 and 1995 that produced a best finish of 12th at Long Beach in his second season, Freon shifted to sports car competition. He won the LMP2 class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1996 and is a veteran of a dozen 24 hour endurance races at Daytona and Le Mans combined. He has also competed in the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Fuji 1000K and the Petit Le Mans.

O’Connell, who won the Indy Lights race at Laguna Seca in 1989, also has extensive sports car racing and IRL experience. He has spent the last few seasons with the Panoz sports car racing team, and joined the Corvette team just prior to this past weekend’s race.

Freon drove the next to last stint Sunday morning before handing the winning car over to Fellows who brought the Corvette home to victory.

“We decided at the start we’d all do double shifts, so I didn’t get in the car until 10 a.m. (Sunday), and I wasn’t getting out,” Fellows said. “This is a very sweet win for all the guys, and the overall win is a huge bonus. The team did a tremendous job. Chris Kneifel has been here since day one, Johnny O’Connell, the new guy, did a tremendous job. Franck Freon… unbelievable.”

2001 Standings:
Will the kick off of the 2001 season in Mexico be exciting?