2011 has been an interesting year for BAR.  Our focus has always been on helping young, up-and-coming drivers meet the challenges of learning a new formula, as part of the stepping stone series.  The driver lineup for the team has included Ronnie Bremer (recent winner at Montreal GT Series), Andreas Wirth, Marcus Niemela (2008 Atlantic Champ) and many more.  When approached by Starting Grid to run rookie Chase Austin as part of a Honda Diversity program, this presented a fit to the team's mission statement. 

While those two races were run allowing WIlly Ribbs to show as an entrant along with Starting Grid and BAR, our team is not running Mr. Ribbs at Baltimore in his attempt to compete in the Lights series.  "It is important to us that drivers considering competition in the Indy Lights series understand where our focus lies.  We by no means want to take away from Mr. Ribbs' endeavors, but we have spent our entire racing career focused on drivers building their careers."  said John Brooks, team owner.  "We've certainly had our share of bad luck, like any team, in securing a season long ride for our team, especially in this challenging economy.   But in some ways, that fits exactly into our model - young drivers do not necessarily translate into full budgets.  We ran Ryan Phinny at Long Beach, Chase at Iowa and Indy.  We continue to strive to find a driver who knows that this is a business, a career for him/her and requires dedication, ethics and a strong desire to succeed.  We create an environment, where driver errors aren't the fall guy, where we stand behind our word, and where together, we can truly bring a driver to the podium.  We are working now on an off-season testing schedule for potential drivers and looking to 2012 to continue our very long history of motorsports success."

The team is available to run Vegas, with a rookie test day at Kentucky in mid-September.  Email John for details at jbrooksbar@gmail.com.