Two of the 2005 Champ Car World Series' most impressive performances came from a driver who was nowhere near a Ford-Lola the first half of the season source: champcarworldseries.com - by David Phillips That driver is Rodolfo Lavin. Left standing when the sound-track to the off-season game of musical seats stopped, he returned to the series in San Jose and Denver with HVM Racing. All Lavin did was qualify twelfth in San Jose, and follow that up with a fifth place at Denver. Not bad for a guy who last sat in a Champ Car at Sebring during the "Spring Fling" in March. Then it appeared likely the 28-year-old Lavin would return for a second season with Forsythe Championship Racing. Instead, Mario Dominguez took his place and Lavin was left with no option but to look for another ride and prepare for a chance he knew might never happen. "I spent the last four months trying to find a good team where they can give me a good car to compete," he says. "And I kept preparing myself physically and mentally, pretty hard. I never quit. "I was very frustrated. It was a very bad experience watching the Long Beach race on TV! But I kept going, I rode my bike every day for 50 or 60 miles. I tried to do my best. I went to the gym, I worked on my concentration skills to improve them. I was just doing all that I could do." It wasn't until HVM was forced to furlough Ronnie Bremer for financial reasons in July that the chain of events leading to Lavin's return to the Champ Car World Series was set in motion. Alex Sperafico replaced Bremer at Toronto and Edmonton but crashed a couple of times, opening the door for Lavin with an assist from sponsors Corona and Vitro. The complete FEATURE article at champcarworldseries
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