From Crash.Net
The 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay has been announced as joining the line-up for December’s Race of Champions event in Bangkok.
Ryan Hunter-Reay will be leading Team USA’s entry in this year’s Race of Champions, to be held on the weekend of December 15-16 at Bangkok’s Rajamangala Stadium in Thailand.
“It has always been a goal of mine and I’m honoured to be one of the few invitees to compete in the Race Of Champion,” said Hunter-Reay, who won the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series title last month in a thrilling finale at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana which saw him pip Will Power by just 3pts.
Hunter-Reay added, “After a career best season culminating in an IndyCar Series Championship, I could see no better way to cap off 2012 than representing the USA and IndyCar, competing against the best drivers from other top level championships around the world at RoC.”
As well as his 12 IndyCar victories – the most of any currently active American driver in the series – Hunter-Reay has competed and won in CART, Champ Car, ALMS and Grand-AM over the years.
Race organiser Fredrik Johnsson made the announcement of Hunter-Reay’s addition to the 2012 Race of Champions line-up on Wednesday morning.
“We are delighted that Ryan will be joining us for ROC in Bangkok,” said Johnsson. “He has had a fantastic season in the IndyCar Series and he proved his worth by coming out on top in such a thrilling finale.
“Now we’ll all be very interested to see how he gets on against the best drivers from around the world,” he continued. “He will also race for Team USA, which has a great history of its own in the ROC Nations Cup, and is overdue another victory.”
Last year’s Team USA consisted of X-Games duo Travis Pastrana and Brian Deegan, but they were not able to progress past the first round in either the individual or Nations Cup events.
So far only Team Germany has confirmed drivers for this year’s Race of Champions event, with Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher both announcing that they would resume their successful pairing once again in this year’s competition.
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