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. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including n ...

and

Conquest Racing Conquest Racing is an auto racing team based in Indianapolis, United States that currently competes in the Ferrari Challenge North America as well as the GTD Pro and GTD classes of the IMSA SportsCar Championship. They previously competed in ...

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 (pronounced "Indy Next"), previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as INDY NXT by Firestone for sponsorship reasons. Indy NXT is the highest step on the Roa ...

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 draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs. A handcart ...

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 shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...

. 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 () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

endurance race for Belgium in a

Ferrari 333SP The Ferrari 333 SP is a sports prototype race car designed by Ferrari 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 ...

. He also raced in the 24 Hours of

Spa-Francorchamps The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (), informally referred to as Spa, is a motor-racing circuit located in Francorchamps, Stavelot, Wallonia, Belgium, about southeast of Spa. It is the current venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, ho ...

with the Peugeot 806

multi-purpose vehicle Minivan (sometimes called simply a van) is a 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 is MPV (multi-pu ...

. 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 entered Laurent Rédon in the 2002

Indy Racing League IndyCar, LLC (stylized as INDYCAR), is an auto racing Governing body, sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The organization sanctions two Auto racing, racing series: the premier IndyCar Serie ...

(IRL). The team switched to

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

, after

Honda commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...

and

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

switched to the IRL. Mario Haberfeld 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. He competed in Formula One between 2005 and 2006 for the Jordan Grand Prix, Midland and Spyker MF1 teams – all different iterations of the s ...

raced in a satellite team ran by Conquest Racing for

Emerson Fittipaldi Emerson Fittipaldi (; born 12 December 1946) is a Brazilian former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Fittipaldi won two Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in and with Team ...

. 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 ...

. For 2005, they ran Philippe and Andrew Ranger, one of the youngest teams in the championship's history. Ranger was partnered by Dutchman Charles Zwolsman 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) is a Belgium, 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 years including 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 racing (motorsport), endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le M ...

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

American Open Wheel

( key)

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 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers Racing drivers from Brussels Belgian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Dale Coyne Racing drivers TOM'S drivers