Pettit seeks new Champ Car challenge

Although the RuSPORT team members were given notice that November 15 is their final day, Pettit has declared his intent to stay within the Champ Car World Series.

He said: "I am planning to stay involved with a team, but put simply, it makes no business sense for me to independently run a race shop out of Loveland, Colorado. I want to find a solution that makes sense."

It's understood that the series co-owner's two most likely options are to either join forces with Tom Figge, owner of Pacific Coast Motorsports, or to partner Eric Bachelart in Conquest Racing, boosting the Indy-based squad to two cars.

Pettit stated: "I'm talking to all the obvious candidates and I have several options. Now I have to decide which one to take."

However, despite temporarily joining forces with Paul Gentilozzi's Rocketsports Racing for the first two-thirds of this season to form RSPORTS, Pettit ruled out a repeat deal, saying: "Paul has his own business issues to deal with, and again, there's the problem of location, because they're based up in Michigan."

Pettit reiterated his desire to stay involved in Champ Car, stating: "I will continue to own a percentage of the series because I believe in it and it is a great product.

"I'm well aware that there are a lot of things wrong with it but the racing is great and you look at an event like this [Surfers Paradise] and you realise there are also lot of things right.

"There are a lot of great people involved in this series, and it has become like a second family. Leaving would be very, very hard."

One possible purchaser of RuSPORT's assets is understood to be Jeremy Dale who is considering running an ALMS team. Dale was the squad's team president until being sacked by the Pettit/Gentilozzi-run RSPORTS in May.