Reigning Indy Racing League champion, Tony Kanaan, will join the BAR Honda team at the Circuito de Jerez in southern Spain next week for the opportunity to drive this year's BAR Honda 007 car.

BAR Honda invited Tony to gain his first experience of a Formula One car in recognition of his IRL Indy Car achievements in 2004. He will join the team in Jerez on Thursday 29 September. Tony has a long-standing association with Honda, having driven for Honda-powered teams in the North American CART series and the IRL series since 1998.

Tony will join the BAR Honda team at the final test of the 2005 F1 season where the team will be concentrating on preparations for their second home race of the year at Suzuka in Japan and the final race of the season in Shanghai, China.

30 year old Kanaan, who drives for the Honda-powered Andretti Green Racing team, was the winner of the 2004 IRL championship. Kanaan drove his #11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara / Honda / Firestone car to the championship in superb style with three race wins. He also set a number of Indy Car series records along the way, including the most points in a single season (618), highest number of top five finishes (15) and number of laps led (889).

Tony is making a flying visit to Europe to drive the BAR Honda 007 car before heading back to North America for the final round of this year's IRL series in which he is currently lying in 2nd position with two race wins.

Commenting on this exciting opportunity, Tony Kanaan said, "I feel honoured to have this opportunity. My relationship with Honda is quite long-standing and having this chance means a lot to me. Honda is and will always be part of my life. We did a great job together last year and this is recognition of the really hard work that went into that."

Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director at BAR Honda comments, "I was aware of Tony's close relationship with Honda whilst we were competing against each other in the United States and using the same Honda engines. I am very pleased that we are able to give Tony his first taste of an F1 car and it will certainly be an honour for us to run a reigning champion from the extended Honda Racing family."

Yasuhiro Wada, President, Honda Racing Development said, "Tony has done a great job over the years winning so many races in both the CART and IRL series with Honda-powered cars. We are very pleased to give him this chance to sample our F1 machinery."