IRL bid 'would unify' US racing

Fred Nation, the IRL's executive vice president for communications, said league officials are in the process of determining what, if anything, they plan to bid on. CART has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors; Open Wheel Racing Series, a group led by CART team owners Paul Gentilozzi and Kevin Kalkhoven, has proposed to purchase the assets. Parties interested in submitting bids must do so by January 23, and a final decision will be made on January 28.

"We have a greater chance of going forward with a unified approach to open-wheel racing on both ovals and road and street courses - a better chance than anyone else does, in our opinion," said Nation. "The gentlemen who are bidding on the bankrupt CART assets are not responsible for CART's bankruptcy. They're trying to resuscitate a failed operation and take it forward with the same failed business model used in the past. We would argue that everyone's energies would be better spent on a unified approach to open-wheel racing in North America."

Bobby Rahal, who fields teams in both series and is a past CEO of CART, echoed Nation's sentiments: "Having one clear leader in the sport, certainly to me, is of great value. If I look back on CART, clearly that's what it didn't have. That probably pre-empted or probably produced much of the unfortunate things we've seen over the last 10 years. We're all in this together, and I think if we want open-wheel racing to be what it once was or at least get on the path to what it once was, then we've got to all work together."

Nation acknowledged that the IRL is interested in CART's capital assets but is assessing the value of race contracts and the possibility of penalties from promoters if CART races are cancelled. IRL officials have toured CART headquarters in Indianapolis, looking at equipment that includes a portable care centre, timing and scoring devices and black boxes. Series officials then indicated they were considering a bid.

"There's little doubt that a lot of that [equipment] would be of use to us," Nation said, adding that the IRL is more concerned about signed contracts and other obligations CART currently has and may still have after bankruptcy proceedings are final.

"What OWRS is saying is they'll take it all. We're saying we may not be willing to take that risk," Nation said. "There are a lot of things we're looking at. We could decide to do nothing. That's always an option. We could decide to bid on everything or just bid on certain portions."

Kalkhoven said earlier this week that any bid by the IRL would be merely an attempt to destroy the rival series.