HVM Racing was an auto racing team owned by Keith Wiggins that competed in the IndyCar Series. It competed in the Champ Car World Series in 2007 as Minardi Team USA when it was co-owned by Paul Stoddart. It has a long history of changes of ownership, beginning as Bettenhausen Motorsports and including a previous incarnation as CTE-HVM Racing, co-owned by actor/comedian Cedric the Entertainer.
Its 2007 driver lineup was Dan Clarke and former Formula One driver Robert Doornbos, who previously raced for Minardi F1.
In the first race of the season, the 2007 Las Vegas Grand Prix, Robert Doornbos made the most successful debut since Nigel Mansell in 1993, finishing second on the podium.
They also made the distinction of being the only team willing to run a car numbered 13 full-time, with driver E. J. Viso, when they did so for the 2009 IndyCar Series season, despite negative superstitions from the past about running it in any form of motorsport.
History
Bettenhausen Motorsports The team began in 1986 as Bettenhausen Motorsports, with Tony Bettenhausen Jr. serving as both the team owner and primary driver through 1991. Bettenhausen began to reduce his role as a driver beginning in 1992 before making his final CART appearance in the 1993 Indianapolis 500. After Bettenhausen's retirement from driving, the team hired on several notable drivers over their tenure. Formula One veteran Stefan Johansson was the team's primary driver from 1993–1996, while future stars Patrick Carpentier and Hélio Castroneves drove for the team in 1997 and 1998, respectively. During most of the 1990s, Bettenhausen Motorsports' cars were primarily dark blue, white and red with Alumax Aluminum sponsorship. The 1992 car appeared in the cover of the 1993 video game IndyCar Racing.
For 1999, the team signed Shigeaki Hattori as their primary driver, but ran only a partial schedule. Hattori, however, struggled, and ultimately had his competitor's license revoked by chief steward Wally Dallenbach Sr. before the race at Laguna Seca due to a high number of crashes and spins throughout the season.
Beginning of the Keith Wiggins era
Before the 2000 season started, Bettenhausen, his wife and two business associates were killed in a plane crash on their way home from vacation in Florida. The team was renamed Herdez Competition as Michel Jourdain Jr. came aboard with Wiggins taking over as co-owner and managing director. Two uncompetitive seasons followed and Mario Domínguez was brought into the team in 2002. A fortunate victory came at Surfers Paradise in a water-logged event, as Dominguez started last and failed to pass a single car on track but benefited from pit strategy.
The win boosted his confidence and the team recorded a 1-2 result at Miami, Dominguez leading Roberto Moreno, was the highlight of a much-improved 2003 season, finishing fifth in the championship. Ryan Hunter-Reay came into the team in 2004 and led all 250 laps at The Milwaukee Mile from the pole position. Herdez sponsorship faded at the end of the year and for 2005, with the team now called HVM, Wiggins was forced to take on pay-drivers Björn Wirdheim and Ronnie Bremer. Despite Wirdheim's impressive performances in the 2003 International Formula 3000 season, his subsequent championship title, and Jaguar F1 testing experience, he failed to regularly beat Bremer during the season. Both of their funds dried up, however, before the end of the season and several other drivers had chances in the team's two cars.
Cedric the Entertainer became a co-owner late in the season and added a celebrity presence to the field. The cars that year ran a distinctive gunmetal gray livery with Cedric's A Bird and A Bear entertainment company on the sidepods. Nelson Philippe won in Australia and the team recorded their best season with a fourth place in the championship by Philippe.
Minardi Team USA In 2006, Paul Stoddart, former owner of the Minardi Formula One team, bought an interest in the team and renamed it Minardi Team USA. For the 2007 season, Stoddart and Wiggins lined up the services of Dan Clarke and Red Bull F1 Racing test driver Robert Doornbos. With Doornbos the team began competing for podium positions regularly. The team scored its first win under the Minardi Team USA banner at the 2007 Champ Car Grand Prix de Mont Tremblant. Doornbos went on to capture another win at San Jose, and his tally for 2007 was 2 wins and 6 podiums. Doornbos went on to finish 3rd in Championship standings, earn Rookie of the Year, and was the highest finishing Rookie in the Champ Car World Series since Juan Pablo Montoya in 1999. Doornbos also won the award for Hard Charger, improving the most positions during the race.
Dan Clarke had a season plagued with bad luck, but had a bright spot when he finished 2nd at Road America, though he was involved in a high-speed incident with Doornbos, which hurt the Dutchman's championship hopes. Clarke later triggered a multi-car pile-up during free practice at Zolder, and was suspended from competition for the race weekend.
HVM in IndyCar
In 2008, following American open wheel unification, the team moved to the IRL IndyCar Series with E. J. Viso as its driver. The team also participated in the Long Beach Grand Prix with two more cars under the Minardi Team USA name for Nelson Philippe and Roberto Moreno.Wiggins' HVM Racing to enter series , IndyCar.com, March 12, 2008 Viso finished the 2008 season with seven top-10 finishes and a season-best fourth-place finish at St. Petersburg.
Viso stayed in the team in 2009 and the team aligned itself with the Indy Lights team Michael Crawford Motorsports, renaming it HVM Indy Lights. The Indy Lights team ran its first race at Infineon Raceway in August 2009 with driver Juan Pablo Garcia. Ryan Hunter-Reay tested the team's IndyCar at Sebring two weeks before the 2009 season opener at St. Petersburg and appeared to become the second driver for the team, but signed with Vision Racing instead. Nelson Philippe joined the team as its second driver for the Indianapolis 500. Robert Doornbos returned to HVM in August 2009, piloting the #33 for the remainder of the 2009 season.
For the 2010 season, HVM Racing signed Switzerland's Simona de Silvestro full-time to drive the #78 Team Stargate Worlds entry. de Silvestro was one of five women to compete in the IndyCar Series in 2010, along with Ana Beatriz, Milka Duno, Sarah Fisher, and Danica Patrick, and finished 19th in the overall points standings. She was the second highest-placed female in the points standings, behind Danica Patrick, who finished tenth. de Silvestro's best finish in 2010 came at Mid–Ohio Sports Car Course, where she finished in eighth place.
On October 6, 2010, just four days after the 2010 season concluded, HVM Racing announced that they would be bringing de Silvestro back to the team in 2011 in the #78 entry.
On October 30, 2012, de Silvestro signed on to KV Racing Technology for 2013, leaving HVM without a driver or a sponsor. However, former KV driver E. J. Viso had intended to run his own team for 2013, but had little luck. HVM and Viso joined forces with Andretti Autosport to run Viso as a satellite team for Andretti. On 11 November 2015 the team was listed as up for auction officially listing the team as defunct.
List of Drivers for Bettenhausen/Herdez/HVM/CTE-HVM/Minardi Team USA Gary Bettenhausen (1982–1983, 1996) Tony Bettenhausen Jr. (1986–1993) Ronnie Bremer (2005) Patrick Carpentier (1997) Hélio Castroneves (1998) Dan Clarke (2006–2007) Simona de Silvestro (2010–2012) Fabrizio del Monte (2005) Mario Domínguez (2002–2004, 2007) Robert Doornbos (2007, 2009) Roberto González (2003) Shigeaki Hattori (1999) Ryan Hunter-Reay (2004) Stefan Johansson (1992–1996) Michel Jourdain Jr. (2000–2001) Rodolfo Lavin (2005) Roberto Moreno (2003, 2008) Nelson Philippe (2006, 2008, 2009) Homero Richards (2005) Gualter Salles (1999) Alex Sperafico (2005) E. J. Viso (2008–2009) Björn Wirdheim (2005)
Results
CART/CCWS Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles Fast laps Points D.C.Bettenhausen Motorsports 1986 March-Cosworth Tony Bettenhausen Jr. 1 0 0 0 0 NC 1987 March-Cosworth Tony Bettenhausen Jr. 9 0 0 0 7 29th 1988 March-CosworthLola-Cosworth Tony Bettenhausen Jr. 17 0 0 0 25 17th Lola-Cosworth Dennis Vitolo 1 0 0 0 2 33rd 1989 Lola-Cosworth Jean-Pierre Frey 1 0 0 0 0 41st John Paul Jr. 1 0 0 0 0 44th Steve Chassey 2 0 0 0 0 53rd Jon Beekhuis 3 0 0 0 0 36th 1990 Lola-Cosworth Guido Daccò 1 0 0 0 0 29th Lola-CosworthLola-Buick Tony Bettenhausen Jr. 11 0 0 0 4 24th 1991 Penske-Chevrolet Tony Bettenhausen Jr. 17 0 0 0 27 14th Cornelius Euser 1 0 0 0 3 27th 1992 Penske-Chevrolet Tony Bettenhausen Jr. 6 0 0 0 6 24th Stefan Johansson 9 0 0 0 47 14th 1993 Penske-Chevrolet Stefan Johansson 16 0 0 0 43 13th Tony Bettenhausen Jr. 1 0 0 0 0 47th Scott Sharp 1 0 0 0 0 48th 1994 Penske-Ilmor Stefan Johansson 16 0 0 0 57 11th Gary Brabham 1 0 0 0 0 52nd Robbie Groff 2 0 0 0 0 34th 1995 Penske-MercedesReynard-Cosworth Stefan Johansson 17 0 0 0 60 13th 1996 Reynard-Mercedes Stefan Johansson 16 0 0 0 43 15th Penske-Mercedes Gary Bettenhausen 1 0 0 0 0 33rd 1997 Reynard-Mercedes Patrick Carpentier 15 0 0 0 27 17th Roberto Moreno 2 0 0 0 16 19th 1998 Reynard-Mercedes Hélio Castroneves 19 0 0 0 36 17th 1999 Reynard-Mercedes Shigeaki Hattori 8 0 0 0 0 34th Gualter Salles 7 0 0 0 5 26th 2000 Lola-Mercedes Michel Jourdain Jr. 20 0 0 0 18 22nd 2001 Lola-Cosworth Michel Jourdain Jr. 21 0 0 0 30 20thHerdez Competition 2002 Lola-Cosworth Mario Domínguez 19 1 0 1 37 18th 2003 Lola-Cosworth Roberto Moreno 17 0 0 0 67 13th Mario Domínguez 18 1 0 0 118 6th Roberto González 1 0 0 0 3 24th 2004 Lola-Cosworth Ryan Hunter-Reay 14 1 1 1 199 9th Mario Domínguez 14 0 0 1 244 5thHVM Racing 2005 Lola-Cosworth Björn Wirdheim 11 0 0 0 115 14th Ronnie Bremer 5 0 0 0 139 12th Alex Sperafico 2 0 0 0 24 20th Rodolfo Lavin 6 0 0 0 72 18th Fabrizio del Monte 1 0 0 0 10 26th Homero Richards 1 0 0 0 5 28thCTE-HVM Racing 2006 Lola-Cosworth Nelson Philippe 14 1 0 1 231 4th Dan Clarke 14 0 0 0 175 12thMinardi Team USA 2007 Panoz DP01-Cosworth Robert Doornbos 14 2 0 1 268 3rd Dan Clarke 13 0 0 1 129 13th Mario Domínguez 1 0 0 0 78 18th
IndyCar Series Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles Fast laps Points D.C. 2008 Dallara-HondaPanoz-Cosworth Ernesto Viso 17 0 0 0 286 18th 2009 Dallara-Honda Ernesto Viso 17 0 0 0 248 18th Nelson Philippe 1 0 0 0 16 35th Robert Doornbos 5 0 0 0 283 16th 2010 Dallara-Honda Simona de Silvestro 17 0 0 0 242 19th 2011 Dallara-Honda Simona de Silvestro 15 0 0 1 225 20th 2012 Dallara-Lotus Simona de Silvestro 14 0 0 0 182 24th
Complete CART / Champ Car World Series results (key) (results in bold indicate pole position) (results in italics indicate fastest lap)