Racer: The Cat with Nine Lives

One night last winter, after a long day at the office, Mike Kitchel was surfing the Web on his laptop computer when he saw something familiar. There, on a Web site listing items intended for a planned auction of Panther Racing equipment, was a photo of the laptop he was using at that very moment. "I'm looking at my laptop through my laptop," said Kitchel, the team's public relations director. "Not only that, but there was my desk, my chair, my filing cabinet - everything in my office was tagged for sale.

"Even the coffeemaker."

The items up for bid weren't just Kitchel's. Almost every piece of equipment at Panther headquarters in Indianapolis was about to be auctioned off in a last-ditch effort to keep the team afloat. Or, worse yet, to pay off the remaining debts and close the doors. Already, the team had auctioned off the Dallara that Sam Hornish Jr. had driven to IRL championships in 2001 and 2002. Just 10 staffers remained, down from a crew of 62 a few months earlier. If this were a movie, the credits would be about to roll, the crowd about to file out.

"They had 10 people at the shop, and nobody working on cars - there weren't any cars," said Vitor Meira, who agreed to drive the No. 4 Panther Dallara-Honda days after the team was rescued from its financial crisis by a quick fix of sponsorship and investor cash. "There weren't any cars. There were 10 people and an office, but I had no doubt. I said, 'I'll do it.' That was right as they were about to auction things off. When they gave me the opportunity, I had no doubt. Even with 10 people and the prospect of having to rebuild everything, I knew this was the team."

The team's new associate sponsor, a new sports nutrition company called Revive U.S.A., has been granted the custom of using its name in the team title, a tradition normally reserved for a primary sponsor. Makes sense, because Revive Panther Racing is an entirely accurate description of what has happened in 2006. Somewhere along the line, somebody or something revived Panther Racing. The team that was the pride of the old-school IRL, the team that won two championships with Hornish and has been surprisingly sturdy on-track in the Penske/Ganassi/Andretti Green era, is living the 10th of its nine lives.

"To come from where we were to where we are now in six months has been the greatest accomplishment of my life," says John Barnes, one of Panther's eight co-owners and the team's primary leader. "It's true. The fight we have had to fight with what we have overshadows two championships and 22 wins. My grandfather has a great saying: 'Life is a people sport.' We had $20 million in sponsorship last year; this year we've got $2.5m. Our results are so much better because the team wants to prepare more. We have the desire to win every race, and we know we've got a chance at each one."

To understand the gravity of the off-season situation at Panther, one needs the background. Near the end of the 2005 season, Barnes fell seriously ill with a tumor on his adrenal gland. At the same time, the team's engine supplier, GM Racing, left the IRL, and Pennzoil ended its run as the team's primary sponsor. With things looking bleak, driver Tomas Scheckter began looking elsewhere, eventually landing with Tony George's Vision Racing. Likewise, chief engineer Andy Brown left for Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Seeing the writing on the wall, Panther employees began shopping - and finding - work with other teams.

Meanwhile, Barnes lay in a hospital bed, concerned for his health and wondering if he had the resilience to start over and build a team from scratch - if there was any scratch at all.

"At some point along the way, as Pennzoil stepped back and GM stepped back, I think he really questioned whether he was up to doing it again - starting all over again and building a whole new team," co-owner Mike Griffin says. "As he got out of the hospital and began feeling better, we all started looking at it and decided, 'You know what? We can do this.' It's not that it couldn't be done. We just had to find the will to do it and decide this is what we wanted to do. When we turned that corner, that was the beginning of moving in a positive direction."

The most significant corner was turned during a short break between the season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway and the ensuing street race in St. Petersburg. In that time, with the crew members on the road in Florida, they bonded and made a remarkable turnaround. At Homestead, Meira crashed in practice. Then, with equipment at a premium, he qualified in full downforce and started at the back of the grid, only to encounter an electrical problem during the race and finish 16th. Seven days later, however, Meira rolled home fifth at St. Pete and was the toast of his teammates.

"After qualifying last at Homestead and blowing the engine on the 10th lap, (wife) Jane and I looked at each other like, 'What are we doing here?'" Barnes says. "But we all got our arms around each other and went to St. Pete and had a great car, and Vitor drove a great race. We ended up fifth. I think it was the first time in Vitor's life that he ever got a standing ovation in pit lane for finishing in fifth place."

Since then, Panther has put itself in prime position to be best in class, the top team outside the Penske/Ganassi grip on the IRL standings. With three races remaining, Meira was firmly ensconced in fifth place, due in large part to an impressive mid-season run of five podiums in six races, including a runner-up finish at Michigan. Now, team members can't help but look back occasionally and wonder where they'd be if the team hadn't been in need of CPR back in December.

"Imagine if we wouldn't have started in February and we would have started in October," Meira says. "Can you imagine where we'd be now? The first two months that we tested and raced, it wasn't very good. We were learning as we went into the season. If we would have had time and maybe started three months before we did, just think where we would be right now. While Ganassi was perfecting parts for the Dallara and Penske was running in the wind tunnel, we were selling stuff."

That's the rub. The results are grand - way better than one could have expected under the circumstances - but the people behind those results can't help but speculate about the possibilities. What if the money had been there in November? What if they had been able to run the preseason practice sessions at Homestead and Phoenix? What if they had full funding two months ago?

Barnes refuses to look back. The group he has now is the group he wants - and the group that wants to be there. The people who don't get the fluorescent orange attention that Meira does - guys like chief engineer Bill Pappas, chief mechanic Steve Ragan and crew manager Ron Catt - are the ones who have made this the great underdog story of the year.

"All the guys we have now are true professionals," Barnes says. "When they see one guy down, they all get together and lift him back up. That has a lot to do with the people we have. The guys all support each other. They get down and get pissy and get tired of the B.S. sometimes, but they support each other. That's what has made this work so well."

It's also allowed people to witness Meira's talent. Through the end of July, he had yet to break through with his first IndyCar Series victory, but he'd made it clear just how close he is - and how good he is. His style is precise, clean and fast. And, given the situation, the fact that he doesn't trash equipment is critical. "We have five cars, and he has five races left," Barnes joked at Nashville. "So now we're going to turn him loose."

Seriously, though, Meira's options have opened as he gets closer to the end of the season and the financial consequences of crashing diminish. Through July, he'd finished second seven times in his IRL career without winning, and the bridesmaid jokes were beginning to wear thin. Now, with little to lose and a barrier to break, he's been pedaling harder than ever.

"Honestly, this gives me the room to risk more, but risk has been the story of the year for us," Meira said. "We're doing everything we can with what we have. We're not looking at this situation from one or two perspectives. We're looking at it from all angles and taking the best from what we see." Right now, they can see nothing but promise.

SIDEBAR

Panther is a school as well as a racing team

It's called experiential education, the trend of providing a connection between students and their subject matter. Don't just teach them English; let them co-write a script with a Hollywood screenwriter. Don't just teach them to play a violin; let them play with a professional symphony.

That's what Panther Racing has undertaken with its Panther Education Center, which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2007 in partnership with the school district in which Panther headquarters is located on the southwest side of Indianapolis. Middle-school students will attend class at Panther, learning all aspects of a race operation, then participate in a video race in which they fulfill various team roles.

"It's going to be a rigorous curriculum that's based upon experiencing a race weekend," said Jane Barnes, Panther's special projects director. "Kids will be divided into groups when they come in - engineering, marketing, public relations, communications, mechanics, logistics and financial planning - and all of these groups have to work together for the best outcome. It will culminate with a simulated race."

With Decatur Township Schools superintendent Don Stinson overseeing the curriculum, the Panther Education Center - along with Panther's plan to field an Indy Pro Series car with a crew of local university students - aims at building a foundation of formal education for the racing industry, something that's sorely missing in Indianapolis.

"This shows kids that this is an occupational opportunity," said Panther co-owner John Barnes, who noted that his wife is working with area colleges to start motorsports curricula. "They're absolutely blown away with this opportunity. They feel like this is the perfect age group to start giving some idea of the occupational opportunities in racing."