Condor signs Junior Strous for ’07 Atlantic season

UPDATE AutoRacing1.com has learned that Junior Strous has broken the Champ Car Atlantic lap record at Buttonwillow in recent testing and appears to be a possible future star in the making. We hear the team was very impressed with him.

12/05/06 Condor Motorsports is proud to announce that it's signed talented driver Junior Strous, from The Netherlands, to compete for the team in the 2007 Cooper Tires Presents The Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda.

During three successful test days at Buttonwillow, California recently, Strous proved his ability and the decision was made to secure the young Dutchman for the upcoming season.

“Junior did a great job while testing and made huge progress over the two test days," said Carlos Bobeda, Condor Motorsports team owner. “I am certain that he will be a main championship contender in 2007."

Strous, the new Atlantic rookie, commented “In the recent tests I have driven more than 300 laps at Buttonwillow Raceway. I would like to thank Carlos Bobeda for his advice and my engineer Martin Tremblay and also the Condor technical crew for all their help."

The 20-year-old racer has excelled in challenging open-wheel series over the past several seasons. After racing in Formula Ford and Formula BMW competition in 2002, Strous drove in Fran-Am and Formula Renault in his native Netherlands in 2003. He also captured the Formula Renault 2000 Winter Invitational in 2004 and raced in the Formula Renault Eurocup in both 2005 and ‘06.

Strous was introduced to Bobeda in August 2005 by the team owner’s good friend Pieter Slinger. Unfortunately, Strous was not able to race in the USA last season due to a lack of sponsorship. Slinger clearly has an eye for talent since he also introduced current Champ Car driver Charles Zwolsman to Bobeda and Zwolsman went on to win the 2005 Atlantic Championship while driving for Condor Motorsports.

Jacques Kremer, president of WWA management, which now represents Strous, contacted Condor and renewed the talks about bringing Junior into the team in 2007. After long negotiations with sponsors and the full support of the team, a program is now in place for Strous to compete for the full 2007 Atlantic season.

The backing for the program comes from renowned international companies and a formal sponsorship announcement will follow in the coming weeks.