Carroll after race seat

The 24-year-old British driver will drive for the 2003 champions at the MSR Raceway in Houston, Texas, in the hope of persuading team boss Jerry Forsythe to pair him with veteran Paul Tracy next season.

Carroll said: "I feel great about having the opportunity to test with a team like Forsythe. I've been working really hard on my physical training lately so I can be in top shape and give it everything I've got.

“Champ Cars are a lot of fun to drive, it's a good driver's car and you really have to hustle it around. This year I've gotten to know the Champ Car World Series up close and it is definitely the championship where I want to be next year."

Carroll switched his attention stateside after he was dropped as an occasional test driver by the Honda Formula One team and a poor year in the GP2 Series – where he finished ninth after failing to build on his three race wins in 2005.

Forsythe will be the second team he has tested for, having turned out for RuSPORT earlier this year.

Carroll will not be alone in Texas though, as the team also announced that fellow Briton Jay Howard and Frenchman Simon Pagenaud would test too.

Howard, 25, is in demand after winning the oval-based Indy Pro Series this season, while Pagenaud, 22, is likely to have a good shot at the drive with $2 million (1.5 million euros) in his pocket for triumphing in the ChampCar Atlantic Series.

Forsythe have already run fellow rookies Andreas Wirth, Lawson Aschenbach and Richard Philippe, who tested last week.