Fernandez team faces uncertain future

The team set up by Anderson and driver Adrian Fernandez had considered a return to the IndyCar Series, but has struggled to find funding for either that option or to remain in sportscars.

"I told our guys that we didn't have anything that's even close so they all needed to go look for jobs," Anderson told speedtv.com. "Go look now and go look hard."

He explained that the squad had worked to find new backers from Mexico - its main source of funding in its early years - but to no avail.

"Adrian has always found his own sponsors but we've both turned over every stone looking for something and we even hired a guy with some connections down south to try and find us sponsorship," said Anderson.

"Ideally, the cheapest deal would have been to stay in sportscars because we've got our car, we could lease an engine from Acura and probably do the season for $3-3.5 million. After that, we thought IndyCar made the most sense but it's really tough right now to find anything."

Fernandez Racing was formed for the 2001 Champ Car season, and later added an IndyCar arm in association with Aguri Suzuki before making a wholesale switch to the latter series in 2004 and winning several races.

A lack of sponsorship forced Fernandez to end its full-time participation in the IndyCar Series after 2006, but the team continued in sportscars. It had already been running a parallel Grand Am programme and then became part of Acura's ALMS project.

Although it was unable to match fellow Acura squads De Ferran, Highcroft and Andretti Green's outright ALMS victories, it did deliver the LMP2 crown this year after dominant performance by Fernandez and team-mate Luis Diaz.