Management shake-up at PacWest

Fusek had been under increasing pressure from team boss Bruce McCaw to generate revenue for the Indianapolis-based organisation.

Seattle native McCaw, who is annually listed in Forbes magazine's Richest Americans list, founded the PacWest team in 1993, but he has been increasingly reluctant to dip into his own chequebook to fund the operation over the last couple of years in the wake of losing two key sponsors.

Fusek joined PacWest in 1995 and by late 1996 had been promoted to vice-president with the mandate to make McCaw's racing team a profitable business. He scored a coup when he and former PacWest marketing director John Creak lured Motorola to the team just prior to the 1997 season. But PacWest was unable to maintain relationships with Motorola and the team's other primary sponsor, Hollywood cigarettes from Brazil. Motorola now sponsors Michael Andretti at Team Green, while Hollywood is affiliated with Mo Nunn Racing.

In addition, PacWest's marketing operations lost a large number of quality personnel while under Fusek's management. Mike Lowry, a cost-cutting and efficiency expert who has worked with McCaw in some of his other business ventures, joined PacWest in early 2000 and has assumed control of the day-to-day business operations for the team.

"The fact is we have a great bunch of guys on the team," McCaw remarked on Saturday before the news of Fusek's dismissal broke. "Mike Lowry and Russ Cameron [team manager] don't need me standing here watching over them. We're trying to build a stronger management team and at some point you've got to give them some latitude."

Cameron took over the management of the race team from John Anderson prior to the start of this season and has been instrumental in the team's resurgence on the racetrack.

McCaw also attempted to dismiss rumours that PacWest is on the brink of folding at the end of the year. The team was forced to sit out a day of practice at Mid-Ohio in August after Toyota refused to supply them with engines due to a contractual dispute.

"I've always said I want the organisation to be successful, and I will do whatever I can to make that happen," McCaw said. "If someone has better ideas on how to run this thing, I'm willing to listen. But I'm not looking to get out."