Pat Patrick to IRL. Fittipaldi to buy Patrick Racing

[camcartfan]

From ESPN.com
Robin Miller

Fittipaldi Wants To Buy Patrick Racing

One of CART's co-founders is trying to sell his team to a former driver and then wants to start up another one in the Indy Racing League with a longtime competitor.

That's the scenario of Pat Patrick, Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr.

Fittipaldi, who won the 1989 Indy 500 for Patrick after banging wheels with Unser as they battled for the lead in Turn 3, is in the process of trying to buy Patrick's crew and equipment to campaign his own car in Championship Auto Racing Teams next year.

And Patrick is seriously looking at running Unser in the 2004 IRL season and returning to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time in nine years.

"Yes, I'm having discussions with Emerson," admitted Patrick, who started CART with Roger Penske in 1979 -- 10 years after he first competed at Indianapolis. "He wants my equipment and part of the stipulation would be to keep my team together.

"It's not a done deal yet, but I think we've arrived at a fair price."

Patrick has been talking with representatives from Chevrolet because he longs to return to the May classic he won twice with Gordon Johncock (1973 and 1982) and once with Fittipaldi.

"I miss Indianapolis, and I'd like to win it one more time," said the 70-year-old oil and petroleum entrepreneur from Jackson, Mich., whose initial IMS effort came in '69 with Johnny Rutherford. "It still means a lot to me, and that's where some of my greatest memories are.

"I'm negotiating to put a deal together to go to the IRL, and I'll have to run the full season because you can't just show up in May and be competitive anymore."

Patrick, who would likely run Unser in some partnership (possibly Kelley Racing), denied that IRL founder Tony George had offered to pay the two-time Indy winner's salary in 2004.

"Nobody has offered me any money and sponsorship is a concern in both series right now. I've got three people looking for money," said Patrick, who ran Oriol Servia in CART this year but lost Visteon as his primary sponsor after three years. "If Jim (McGee) goes with Emerson I'll have to find somebody to run my team because I don't have the time or knowledge."


Could Al Unser Jr. be running Indy next year with Pat Patrick?


With 45 Indy-car wins (United States Auto Club and CART), Patrick was asked how hard it was leaving the series he funded and ran in the early '80s.

"It was a very exciting time in my life to start CART and watch it become the best racing series in the world," he replied. "But it's not as much fun as it used to be and it seems like I go to less and less races every year."

Fittipaldi, who was traveling out of the country and couldn't be reached for comment, campaigned a Champ Car with Jamie Dingman for rookie Tiago Monteiro in 2003 and used the shop and crew of Eric Bachelart's MiJack/Conquest Racing.

The two-time Formula One and Indy 500 champion recently returned from Brazil and met with Patrick general manager Jim McGee.

"Emerson is charged up, and he's been traveling all over the world to put this deal together," said McGee, who worked with Fittipaldi in the 1980s. "He wants to buy the whole package, and that's good because the biggest thing I'm trying to do is keep this team together because we've got a good group.

"I worked with him for five years and we had a great relationship and he's got a lot of passion to own a race team. I told him if he gets the sponsor, we'll run the race team. He's sold on CART and really we're just waiting for CART to give us its plan."

CART is facing Chapter 11 and some kind of re-organization with a new group of owners called Open Wheel Racing Series.

McGee and Patrick have been together since 1995 but obviously have different agendas.

"I want to go back to Indy, but I want to go back and be able to win the thing and, if you don't have factory support, I don't think you can compete with Penske and (Chip) Ganassi," said McGee, who's won Indy with Mario Andretti, Rick Mears and Bobby Unser.

"I still enjoy CART's challenges and Pat told me to sell the team if I could so that's what I'm trying to do."

[gttouring]

the death knell is sounding?
this is ugly

[Dov]

That's slightly old news, isn't it camcartfan?

[macdaddy]

Sad to hear Ueal's views. But he's stuck it out, he's 70, and IMO he's allowed to do as he pleases. He owes me nothing, and I wish him the best of luck.

Great to hear of Emmo's dedication, as well as McGee's. They would form a great partnership.

And it's good for Little Al, who'll always be a favourite of mine.

[macdaddy]

I don't really see it the same way as gttouring,
But unless Emmo runs two cars we're still losing one.
Two, if you count Conquest.

[Mags]

If you go to

www.rfmsports.com

I did an interview with Tiago, and there he tells you about Emmo wanting to run a second car in CART, He's been talking about it since Vancouver. So this is a great way to do it, and if Patrick IS tuning Trator, well, at least his team is staying.

[macdaddy]

Thanks for that interview, Mags. Most of us have read it.
Welcome to the forum!

[Tailwind]

So what happens to FDR? Do they merge and then what happens to Mi-Jack? Does that mean that the rumor that either Paul Tracy or Jimmy Vasser were buying into the Patrick team has turned out to be false?

Silly Season. It's a bit frustrating sometimes. This is going to be a long Silly Season for us this year too.

[camcartfan]

Originally posted by Dov
That's slightly old news, isn't it camcartfan?

Dov, I checked the list before posting it and didn't see any mention. I was just cruising over the RPM website and saw it. Robin posted it on Dec 5, so I was surprised to not see it here.

I don't see this move by Patrick as being bad for CART. Yes he is a great owner, but he has aspirations as well. Not sure he will re-achieve the Indy 499 with Unser Jr though. Fittipaldi is dedicated to CART, and him building a stronger team is more important than Patrick going to the IRL.

[DNQ]

This silly season is starting to be very similar to the last one. Full of uncertainty and so-forth. But I try to put a positive spin on it and say we'll have 19 cars on the grid at Long Beach

[sgw2]

FDR has dissolved. Conquest, their partner is pretty close to shutdown as well.

Pat Patrick is putting together a team for IRL around Al Unser jr. with Chevrolet (or Toyota should he teams with Tom Kelley). He's looking for a partner and funding to complete the deal. Selling off his CART team seems to be part of the effort to raise the funds. Emerson Fittipaldi seems to be heading the group interested in purchasing the team.

This is not a hedge by Patrick, as he clearly needs CART to continue in order to sell his team to Emmo's group - if Emmo gets it together (I wonder if Dingman is involved). Patrick is checking out.

[Tailwind]

sgw2, where have you seen that FDR had dissolved? I haven't heard that anywhere. I just checked their web site and it's still up. (Granted, that doesn't mean much in itself.)

[camcartfan]

I hadn't heard that either. The way I read the article, sounds like FDR is using Patrick to acquire his Lola's.

[Hazza]

So will Conquest have a 2nd car or fold or what?

[BootsOntheSide]

Conquest appear to be finished, they've been struggling for moeny for much of the year.

Where do you see 19 cars coming from? There's no money for anyone new to enter, only RuSport and Mo Nunn are even remote rumours, we've lost ASTJ, Walekr will probably only have 1 car, and we'd be lucky to get 3 cars from between the remnants of FDR, COnquest and Patrick.

The IRL is having problems filling its field as well - Kelley are unlikely to be able to run 2 cars withiout outside investment, Mo Nunn will seemingly run 1 car tops, Menard merged his team with Pantehr, Hemelgarn look doomed, PDM are unnervingly silent, and Foyt is questionable, with only a second Panther (merged with Menard) and perhaps a second Cheever coming in. Fact is, tehre's only money around for one series

[Dov]

Originally posted by Boots
Fact is, tehre's only money around for one series

So maybe now TG and CART/OWRS will come to their senses and unite the two series!? I needed a good laugh this morning!

[f1manoz]

Originally posted by BootsOntheSide
The IRL is having problems filling its field as well -

Yet you don't read half the garbage that you do on THAT forum compared to this one about 'The IRL is dead'.

Sad that Patrick is leaving, but I guess that's just the lure of the IRL 499 to a 70 year old man wanting to have a swansong. Good luck to him.

[DNQ]

It is sad, I HATE SO MUCH to be the voice of gloom, but if this isn't evidence of IRL/CART falling apart at the seams thanks to this pathetic war, then I don't know what is. Sad.

[corkholio]

Originally posted by BootsOntheSide
Fact is, tehre's only money around for one series

And that series is call NASCAR.

[corkholio]

Attack the post, not the poster. You're a veteran, not of the forum, but of being silly, so you should start to know by now.
-Jordi

[Jordi]

DNQ, I agree with you. The only problem is, the fans are not the ones who decide...

[Ac.]

The good news in this story is that a high profile team owner(Emmerson) is actively campaigning to build his CART team during a time when the future of CART is unknown(at least to us on the outside). Emmo must be very confident the OWRS is going forward one way or another.

All of the news seems to point to the following:

Before
Patrick Racing - one car effort
FDR - one car effort

After
Fittipaldi - two car team

This can only be good for CART as it takes Patrick Racing and makes it a top tier two car team.

[camcartfan]

The way I read the story also is that Patrick will require Fittipaldi to keep the PR name? Anyone else read it that way?

[GP Racer]

Originally posted by Dov
So maybe now TG and CART/OWRS will come to their senses and unite the two series!? I needed a good laugh this morning!

They had better, or nobody here will be laughing much longer...

[Kicking-back]

Out of interest what is UE Pat Patrick's real full name?