Hunter-Reay completed two evaluation tests with Herdez Competition before he officially became a Herdez driver, the first in January at Sebring and the second last week on the road course at California Speedway. He impressed his Herdez crew in both tests and together they are continuing the development of their 2004 Champ Car program as they test at Sebring International Raceway, where Hunter-Reay completed 225 miles on Wednesday.

Team manager Vince Kremer is pleased with Hunter-Reay's progress, “We are maximizing our test time while at the same time running at the front of the pack.  Ryan is settling in very well, he is very focused and his feedback is excellent. He has the ability to describe and relate extremely small changes that he feels in the car and you can see the confidence built between him and his crew in a short amount of time. The cohesion is coming together quickly and that makes for a better team.”

Hunter-Reay competed in a Reynard last year during his rookie season and is excited about his new Lola, “I've had a great week, I've been really busy since the announcement and it's great.  It felt good to be back in the car today and we had a big day.  We ran over 200 miles which is a lot here and we worked through several set-up changes that will definitely help us over the course of the season.  We tried some things with the new rules for 2004 including the push-to-pass, which I am looking forward to using.  This will be my first season driving the Lola and the car is great, at this point I find it easier to drive than the Reynard, which allows me to focus on other areas of driving.  The Herdez team has made me feel right at home and I couldn't be any happier.”

The Herdez Competition test at Sebring will continue through Friday with Mario Dominguez running the #55 Herdez/Ford-Cosworth/Lola Thursday and both drivers testing Friday. Don't forget to tune into SPEED Channel's “The Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain” tonight as he talks with Ryan Hunter-Reay at 10:00 pm ET on SPEED.  For more information, please visit www.TeamHerdez.com.