Éric Bachelart (born 28 February 1961) is a former

race car driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

and

Conquest Racing Conquest Racing is an auto racing team that competed in the IndyCar Series and the Atlantic Championship. Formerly it competed in the Champ Car World Series. History It is owned by former series competitor Éric Bachelart. The team ran in Indy Li ...

team owner.IRL: A much closer field for 2009
1-20-2009 by Luc Fradette "Conquest Racing team boss Éric Bachelart is one of those who are optimistic and he truly believes the field will be much closer in 2009, now that teams such as his are fully up to speed."

Racing career

Bachelart started his racing career in Belgium and ended in the United States. He was a star in Belgian Procar, a national touring car championship, driving for Audi and Peugeot. In 1991, he became the inaugural

Indy Lights Indy NXT, previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as Firestone Indy NXT Series for sponsorship reasons. Indy Lights is the highest step on the Road to Indy, a program ...

champion. He then entered a near-full

CART A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from the flatbed tr ...

season with the tail-enders team of Dale Coyne, simultaneously racing in the Belgian Procar series. His highest CART finish was seventh. He failed to qualify for the 1993

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

. After the 1995

season, again only racing when his Belgian Procar schedule allowed it, he ended his single-seater career. In 1996, he entered the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance r ...

endurance race for Belgium in a

Ferrari 333SP The Ferrari 333 SP is a sports prototype race car that was built by Italian race car manufacturer Dallara and later Michelotto to compete in the World Sports Car championship for Ferrari. Unveiled at the end of 1993, at the behest of amateur ra ...

. He also raced in the 24 Hours of

Spa-Francorchamps The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (), frequently referred to as ''Spa'', is a motor-racing circuit located in Stavelot, Belgium. It is the current venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, hosting its first Grand Prix in 1925, and has he ...

with the

Peugeot 806 __NOTOC__ Year 806 ( DCCCVI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Asia * February 5 – Emperor Kanmu dies after a 25-year reign, that has seen Korea ...

multi-purpose vehicle Minivan (sometimes called simply as van) is a North American car classification for vehicles designed to transport passengers in the rear seating row(s), with reconfigurable seats in two or three rows. The equivalent classification in Europe i ...

). After this season, he concluded his racing career, with the exception of the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in 1998 and 2000.

Team ownership

Bachelart founded the

team in 1997, initially running in the

championship. The team raced

Laurent Rédon Laurent Redon (born 5 August 1973) is a former race car driver from Loire, France. Redon began his professional racing career in the French Formula Three Championship, winning it in 1995. He then moved to International Formula 3000 where he finis ...

in the 2002

Indy Racing League The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of ...

(IRL). The team switched to

Champ Car Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., or Champ Car, a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams ( ...

, after

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

and

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

switched to the IRL.

Mario Haberfeld is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his cre ...

raced for the team in 2003. Future F1 driver

Tiago Monteiro Tiago Vagaroso da Costa Monteiro (; born 24 July 1976) is a Portuguese professional racing driver currently competing in the World Touring Car Cup, driving a Honda Civic TCR for Engstler Motorsport. He competed in Formula One between 2005 an ...

raced in a satellite team ran by Conquest Racing for

Emerson Fittipaldi Emerson Fittipaldi (; born 12 December 1946) is a Brazilian former automobile racing driver who won both the Formula One World Championship and the Indianapolis 500 twice each and the CART championship once. Moving up from Formula Two, Fittip ...

. England's Justin Wilson joined for 2004, ran from mid-season by

Nelson Philippe Nelson Philippe (born July 23, 1986 in Valence, Drôme) is a French race car driver. Career Early career Philippe raced go-karts from 1998-2002. In 2003, he raced in the Barber Dodge Pro Series, finishing the season with one podium, and four t ...

. For 2005, they ran Philippe and

Andrew Ranger Andrew Ranger (born November 20, 1986) is a Canadian professional racing driver who competes full-time in the NASCAR Pinty's Series, driving the No. 27 for Paillé Course//Racing. Ranger is a veteran of the Pinty's Series, having claimed 28 wins ...

, one of the youngest teams in the championship's history. Ranger was partnered by Dutchman

Charles Zwolsman Charles Zwolsman (6 August 1955 – 21 January 2011) was a Dutch drug dealer and professional racecar driver and team owner. Drug dealing Zwolsman was born in Oostzaan, and started dealing in marijuana in the 1980s. He built an organization ...

for 2006. In 2007, Bachelart signed young New Zealander Matt Halliday to his Champ Car entry for four races. Halliday was then replaced by

Jan Heylen Jan Heylen (born 1 May 1980 in Geel) is a championship-winning Belgian racing driver, based out of Tampa, Florida. Racing career Early career (1992-2004) He began karting in 1992, and worked his way up through various feeder series through the ...

. The team moved to the IRL as a result of open-wheel unification. In 2012, Conquest left IndyCar and joined the

American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The American Le Mans' hea ...

with a Morgan-Nissan LMP2 prototype. In 2017, Bachelart started entering cars in Ferrari Challenge winning multiple championship with gentleman drivers. In 2018, Bachelart co-founded Quest Racing to compete at the IMSA

Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge The Michelin Pilot Challenge is a grand touring and touring car racing series run by the International Motor Sports Association. Originating from the Canadian Motorola Cup, the series was taken over by Grand-Am in 2001 to become the Grand-Am Cup ...

. In 2019, Conquest also joins the Imsa Prototype Challenge ( IPC ) and in 2021 ran a Mercedes GT4 winning the last 4 races of the season.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

American Open Wheel

(

)

CART

24 Hours of Le Mans results

References

External links

*
''Eric Bachelart Biography''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bachelart, Eric 1961 births Belgian racing drivers Champ Car drivers Indianapolis 500 drivers Indy Lights champions Indy Lights drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers IndyCar Series team owners Living people International Formula 3000 drivers Belgian expatriates in the United States Blancpain Endurance Series drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers Racing drivers from Brussels Belgian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Dale Coyne Racing drivers TOM'S drivers