Before the start of the season we called them the enfants terrible of the Champ Car World Series and sure enough, they were source: champcarworldseries.com - Gordon Kirby Teen-aged Mi-Jack/Conquest Racing teammates Nelson Philippe and Andrew Ranger started the year with a bang, colliding in the Long Beach season-opener before showing flashes of brilliance in round two in Monterrey, Mexico. Philippe led more than twenty laps in the middle of the race in Monterrey and Ranger drove a great race to make the podium, finishing second ahead of Alex Tagliani, Justin Wilson, Sebastien Bourdais and Cristiano da Matta. But that hot flash was followed by a series of cold blasts through the middle of the season. Philippe's problem was a broken foot incurred by falling over the pitwall immediately before the race in Portland in June. Ranger's difficulties appear to have been more about immaturity and a struggle with self-confidence. In the end, helped by good races by both young drivers in the Mexico City season-closer, Ranger took a very respectable tenth in the championship with Philippe finishing thirteenth in points. Mi-Jack/Conquest is owned by former driver Eric Bachelart and Mike Lanigan, whose Mi-Jack company is North America's leading manufacturer and supplier of mobile gantry cranes. Lanigan is also the promoter of Champ Car's new Houston race. Bachelart retired from driving nine years ago to start running his own team, first racing in the Indy Lights series, then the IRL before moving into Champ Car in 2003. From the start, Bachelart and Lanigan have tackled the admirable job of running rookie drivers, starting with Mario Haberfield in '03, then Justin Wilson, Alex Sperafico and Nelson Philippe in '04. This year, the team continued with Frenchman Philippe and added French-Canadian Andrew Ranger.
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