Paul Tracy’s hopes of being a part of the newly unified IndyCar Series hit a roadblock Thursday when his Forsythe Championship Racing team announced it would not be making the transition from the Champ Car World Series.
“It simply comes down to finances,” said Neil Micklewright, VP of Operations for FCR. “We’ve been unable to find sponsorship, and so Forsythe Championship Racing is done.
“We will be taking part in the Long Beach Grand Prix to fulfill our legal obligation to the track. We’ll have at least three cars, maybe more.”
The Long Beach entries will be run by Forysythe Racing, the team’s Atlantic Series arm, which will continue operations. Canadian James Hinchcliffe and Mexican David Garza, who logged the fastest and second-fastest times, respectively, in a recent open test at Sebring International Raceway, will drive for the team in the 2008 Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda.
Tracy, who has driven for Forsythe in Champ Car since 2003 (when he won the series title with the team), was uncertain about his next move, but emphasized that the unified IndyCar Series remains his top priority.
“I’m in shock and I’m very, very disappointed,” related the Canadian star. “I haven’t spoken to Jerry since our meeting last December, but I think I can say we both left that meeting feeling renewed, invigorated and ready to go racing.
“Since that meeting, a lot has changed of course, but I thought that with that same kind of spirit in the team, we could have challenged for victory at the Indy 500. I believe I’m one of the best oval drivers in the country, and with the strong crew that we had in place, we could have been contenders.
“Right now, I need to quickly regroup, regain my composure and then start looking for another ride – and I mean in IndyCar. The team may be done, but I’m ready to go racing.”
Although Forsythe’s participation in a unified series had been the subject of much speculation since merger rumors first began, FCR’s Micklewright maintained that the rationale for the move was purely financial, and that the team still has hopes of regrouping for 2009.
“The way the team was coming together with new personnel and great investment by Jerry allowing our technical department to really do its stuff, I reckon we’d have been a real force in Champ Car in 2008,” he said. “With the IndyCar rules being so much more open, for things like damper investment, flanged wheels and wind tunnel time, we’d have been running around at the back unless we’d have spent a hell of a lot more money. Without sponsorship, that wasn’t going to happen.
“I’m going to try and keep a core group going so that we might try and run IndyCars in 2009 – I believe that is still a possibility. But again it’s dependent on sponsorship.”
IRL spokesman John Griffen revealed the League was “disappointed” about the move.
“We’re disappointed in Gerry’s decision, but there were no guarantees if he was going to come race with us or if anybody was going to race with us,” he said. “On Monday, all nine [former Champ Car] teams were at our meetings in Indianapolis. We batted 1.000 at our orientation, and our car count is going to be a dramatic increase over last year, with or without Gerry.”
While Forsythe himself did not attend the orientation meeting, his team was represented.