Kanaan to test for BAR at Jerez.

Reigning Indy Racing League champion, Tony Kanaan, will join the BAR-Honda team at Jerez in southern Spain next week when he will get to drive this year's car - the BAR Honda 007.

Kanaan, who drives for the Honda-powered Andretti Green Racing team, was the winner of the 2004 IRL championship. He 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].

Kanaan will make a flying visit to Europe to drive the 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 second position with two race wins.

"I feel honoured to have this opportunity," said Kanaan. "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."

Kanaan will join the team at Jerez on Thursday September 29, where they will be conducting final preparations for their second home race of the year at Suzuki in Japan and for the final race of the season in Shanghai, China.

"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," added BAR sporting director, Gil de Ferran. "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."

Kanaan 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 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," concluded Honda Racing Development president, Yasuhiro Wada.