Milka Duno and CITGO Racing Join IndyCar Series With SAMAX Motorsport for 2007 Season

Duno to enter the 91st running of the Indianapolis 500

    MIAMI, March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Milka Duno, the first woman in history
 to win a major international sportscar race in North America, and CITGO
 Racing, announced today at Homestead-Miami Speedway that they will compete
 in the 2007 IndyCar Series with SAMAX Motorsport. Duno will drive the No.
 23 CITGO Racing/SAMAX Motorsport Dallara/Honda/Firestone in ten IndyCar
 Series events this season, including the 91st Indianapolis 500. She also
 plans to compete at Kansas, Texas, Iowa, Watkins Glen, Nashville, Mid Ohio,
 Michigan, Kentucky and Chicago.
     (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070323/AQF005)
     Duno joined Felix Rodriguez, president and CEO of CITGO Petroleum
 Corp., Peter Baron, team principal of SAMAX Motorsport, and Tony George,
 founder and CEO of the Indy Racing League, in announcing the sponsor and
 team plans to field an entry in the 2007 IndyCar Series season.
     Although the team is new to the series, SAMAX Motorsport's IndyCar crew
 members are an experienced group with most having been part of an
 Indianapolis 500 win. Veteran campaigners Steve Challis and John Cummiskey
 have been named as lead engineer and team manager, respectively. Cummiskey
 has three Indy 500 wins next to his name and shared a 2nd place with
 Challis in 2002. The team will be based out of Gasoline Alley and members
 will be comprised of a mix of Indy specialists and a few familiar faces
 from Duno's Grand-Am team.
     Milka Duno
     "This is a dream come true for me. I've always wanted to race in the
 Indianapolis 500 and in the IndyCar Series, and I can't begin to thank
 CITGO for continuing to support my racing, as well as everybody at SAMAX
 Motorsport. The SAMAX team brings a lot of open-wheel experience to the
 IndyCar Series and I'm hopeful that will make my transition into the series
 a bit smoother. To make this announcement in my hometown of Miami with my
 family and friends and fans around me is terrific."
     Felix Rodriguez
     "I am very proud of Milka's accomplishments as a member of the great
 CITGO family and as a fellow Venezuelan. We certainly look forward to her
 continued success in this new phase of her career," said CITGO President
 and CEO Felix Rodriguez.
     Peter Baron
     "I would like to personally thank CITGO and Milka for their continued
 support and faith in our program. We know this effort, with a new sponsor,
 driver and team will not be easy, but we are thrilled to have this
 opportunity and will work our hardest to give Milka the necessary tools to
 succeed on track. I feel we have done a tremendous job creating a team with
 the perfect mix of 'Indy talent' and team members that have worked with
 Milka from the beginning. Milka is already at home with the team which is
 the foundation from where all the growth and success begins."
     Duno begins her IndyCar Series campaign after three successful years
 competing in the Grand American Rolex Series. During her rookie season in
 2004, Duno became the first woman in history to win a major international
 sportscar race in North America by capturing the overall win with Andy
 Wallace at the Grand Prix of Miami at Homestead-Miami Speedway. She
 followed that victory with her second overall Rolex Series win at Homestead
 just seven months later. In her Rolex Series career, Duno has posted three
 wins, seven podium appearances, 10 top-five finishes and 26 top-10
 finishes.
     In her first race of the 2007 Rolex season, Milka recorded a second
 place finish in the legendary Rolex 24 of Daytona, posting the highest
 finish ever by a female driver in the 45-year history of the race. It was
 also the highest finish by a female driver in a major race at Daytona
 International Speedway. Currently, Duno is third in the driver standings
 and will be competing in her last scheduled Rolex Series race at Homestead
 on Saturday, March 24 at 2 p.m. EDT. She will be driving the No. 11 CITGO
 Racing Pontiac Riley Daytona Prototype in the Grand Prix of Miami along
 with teammate Patrick Carpentier.
     CITGO, based in Houston, is a refiner, transporter and marketer of
 transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals, refined waxes, asphalt
 and other industrial products. The company is owned by PDV America, Inc.,
 an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., the
 national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. For more
 information on CITGO visit http://www.citgo.com.
     For additional information on Milka please visit
 http://www.milkaduno.com. For more information on the IndyCar Series please
 log on to http://www.indycar.com.
 
 

SOURCE CITGO Petroleum Corporation