Éric Bachelart


Éric Bachelart is a former race car driver and Conquest Racing team owner.

Racing career

Bachelart started his racing career in Belgium and ended in the United States. He was a star in Belgian Procar, a national touring car championship, driving for Audi and Peugeot. He did not qualify in European single-seater attempts in the 1988 F3000 season.
In 1991, he became the inaugural Indy Lights champion. He then entered a near-full CART season with the tail-enders team of Dale Coyne, simultaneously racing in the Belgian Procar series. His highest CART finish was seventh. He failed to qualify for the 1993 Indianapolis 500. After the 1995 CART season, again only racing when his Belgian Procar schedule allowed it, he ended his single-seater career.
In 1996, he entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race for Belgium in a Ferrari 333SP. He also raced in the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps with the Peugeot 806 multi-purpose vehicle). After this season, he concluded his racing career, with the exception of the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in 1998 and 2000.

Team ownership

Bachelart founded the Conquest Racing team in 1997, initially running in the Indy Lights championship. The team raced Laurent Rédon in the 2002 Indy Racing League. The team switched to Champ Car, a cheaper series after Honda and Toyota switched to the IRL. Mario Haberfeld raced for the team in 2003. Future F1 driver Tiago Monteiro raced in a satellite team ran by Emerson Fittipaldi.
England's Justin Wilson joined for 2004, ran from mid-season by Nelson Philippe. For 2005, they ran Philippe and Andrew Ranger, one of the youngest teams in the championship's history. Ranger was partnered by Dutchman Charles Zwolsman for 2006. In 2007, Bachelart signed young New Zealander Matt Halliday to his Champ Car entry for four races. Halliday was then replaced by Jan Heylen. The team moved to the IRL as a result of open-wheel unification.
In 2012, Conquest left IndyCar and joined the American Le Mans Series with a Morgan-Nissan LMP2 prototype.
In 2016, Bachelart became managing director of Scuderia Corsa.
In 2018, Bachelart and Alexandre Prémat co-founded Quest Racing to compete at the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

YearEntrant1234567891011DCPoints
1988Spirit/TOM's RacingJER
VAL
PAU
SIL
MNZ
PER
BRH
BIR
BUG
DNQ		ZOL
DNQ		DIJ
NC0

American Open Wheel

CART