Sometimes you take your victories when and where you can. Such was the case for Eric Bachelart and Mi-Jack-Conquest Racing in the 2006 Champ Car World Series. source: champcarworldseries.com With long time partner and friend (and Mi-Jack co-owner) Mike Lanigan spreading his wings into the promotional side of sport at the Grands Prix of Houston and Cleveland, with just a three race budget for talented sophomore Andrew Ranger at the outset of the season and rookie driver Charles Zwolsman initially less than 100% physically, '06 figured to be a challenging season. That they came through with a solid campaign that placed Ranger and Zwolsman tenth and 13th in points respectively counts as a something of a victory. "We've been together as a team in the Champ Car World Series since 2003," says Bachelart. "Pretty much every year we've worked with rookies or young drivers. For sure that takes patience. You have to have the right expectations and you have to be able to adjust your goals to the circumstances. But it's fine to do that. You can get good satisfaction with the progress you achieve together." On the face of it, Mi-Jack-Conquest made zero progress from '05 to '06. A quick check of the records shows Ranger and Nelson Philippe finished 10th and 13th in the '05 points standings, exactly where Ranger and Zwolsman finished this year. Look a little deeper though and you'll see Ranger collected 30% more championship points (200 to 140) while Zwolsman scored 28% more points (161 to 117) than Philippe despite there being just one more (14 to 13) event in '06. What's more, Ranger was second only to Will Power in laps completed (1191 to 1174) this year while Zwolsman was seventh best (1114). And where the team (thanks to Philippe) led but two laps in '05, Zwolsman led three different races for 16 laps this season. That's progress. "We started in a difficult way with Charles," says Bachelart of Zwolsman who suffered from tendonitis in his wrists in the early races, thought to be the legacy of having attacked the curbs at California Speedway in pre-season testing too aggressively. "He went through some pretty difficult times in the first part of the season and, as a result, he was unable to contend for Rookie of the Year honors. But he made steady progress once he was in good physical condition. He did a very nice job I think." Certainly the highlight of the season for Zwolsman -- and for the team-- came at Road America. There the team gambled on a switch to slick tires in the waning moments of a drying qualifying session and were rewarded when the Dutchman put the #34 Ford/Cosworth-Lola on the front row starting of the grid. What's more the '05 Atlantic champion drove a storming race on Sunday, grabbing the lead on an early restart from Dan Clarke and no less than Sebastien Bourdais on the way to a seventh place finish. And when pit stop strategy got him in the lead at San Jose and Australia, Zwolsman made the most of things again. "For sure we took a gamble in qualifying that paid off with a front row start," says Bachelart. "But once he was in front, Charles did a decent job. It was good for the team to see him lead there and at San Jose and Australia."
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