Hotchkis Subs for Simmons

Hotchkis To Fill-In For Injured Simmons At Nazareth Mark Hotchkis and Chris Simmons were teammates on Team KOOL Green last year, but both Americans were left without at ride when the Green operation scaled back to one race car for Naoki ...

Hotchkis To Fill-In For Injured Simmons At Nazareth Mark Hotchkis and Chris Simmons were teammates on Team KOOL Green last year, but both Americans were left without at ride when the Green operation scaled back to one race car for Naoki Hattori this season. Simmons landed with the first-year Mattco Raceworks team while Hotchkis was unable to put together a regular ride for 1998. "I haven't raced since the season-ending race at California last year," Hotchkis said, "and I haven't even sat in a race car since November. I can't wait to get back at it." This weekend at Nazareth, Hotchkis will drive the same race car that Simmons has raced at the year's first two events, including a fifth place finish in the season-opening race at Miami. While Simmons is recovering, Hotchkis will fill-in this weekend and perhaps a little longer. Simmons' recovery period has yet to be determined. Including Simmons' top qualifying effort at Nazareth, the two drivers combined for three Sea-Doo/Ski-Doo poles in 1997 and five podium appearances. Each also led races and the championship standings but neither scored a victory last season. At Nazareth,Simmons finished second from the pole while Hotchkis was eliminated in a first-lap accident. Hotchkis, however, did finish third at Nazareth in 1996 when he drove for Genoa Racing. He also scored his only win with Genoa that season at the Milwaukee Mile, one week after finishing second in the Indy Lights race at the Inaugural U.S. 500.