RuSPORT rescued by Pettit

The announcement, which was expected on Tuesday, ends weeks of speculation over the future of the Loveland, Colorado-based squad, which took Britain's Justin Wilson to second place in this year's Champ Car title race.

Jeremy Dale, who will retain his role as team president, said: "I'm happy and, yes, slightly relieved, to be able to confirm that there has been a change of ownership, and that Dan Pettit has bought RuSPORT from Carl Russo.

"We will continue to run two cars in the Champ Car World Series. That is what Dan has committed to, and I'm pleased he looked at us and saw a strong and viable team."

"Also I can confirm that we'll be staying in Loveland. There were certain things that were important to Carl about any potential new owner, and one of those was that the team would not relocate.

"For one thing, that is very disruptive, and secondly, there are people's livelihoods to consider - a lot of our team members had staked their careers here."

Russo founded the team in 2003, when it dominated the Atlantic Championship with AJ Allmendinger, and this combination graduated to Champ Cars the following year.

In 2005, Wilson and Allmendinger scored two wins and three pole positions for RuSPORT, and this year Justin added two more poles and one victory.

However, Russo decided to sell up as he felt both his thriving telecoms multi-service access solutions company Calix and the RuSPORT team warranted his full attention, and that was logistically impossible.

Although Pettit had been linked to a potential RuSPORT buyout in October, autosport.com understands that this plan changed before the season finale in Mexico City - only to come full circle again.

Dale confirmed that he and Pettit only started talking seriously about the buyout over the last two weeks.

He also admitted that, as revealed last week in Autosport magazine, some senior team members had left 'by mutual consent', but he said that this would have happened whoever was in charge.

"The team's internal changes were inevitable because of Champ Car's new Panoz chassis which has created a different business model within the series.

"The DP01's development is much more restricted by the regulations, there is less you can modify as a team, so what you end up with is a simpler team structure."

With the future of the team now secured, Dale says attention must turn to the driver line-up for next season.

"Dan and I have been talking a lot about drivers," he said, "and without question our number one priority now is getting Justin re-signed.

"The team love him, CDW [team's primary sponsor] loves him and we don't believe there's anyone better out there.

"I'd say we were quite confident of getting him back; there has been a lot of positive dialogue. After that, we'll think about the other car."

In an officially released quote, Pettit declared: "I want to start by saying that Carl Russo has built RuSPORT into an excellent and competitive Champ Car team.

"After discussing my options with Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser at PKV Racing and Champ Car management, we decided that this purchase would be a good fit for both parties.

"I want to thank Carl for all of his work and efforts, Kevin Kalkhoven, Jerry Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi and Champ Car for their full support of RuSPORT and of my future ownership plans.

"We look forward to building upon the championship culture and traditions that Carl and the entire RuSPORT team have already established."

It remains uncertain, however, whether buying RuSPORT means Pettit will cut all ties with PKV Racing, which he co-owns with Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser.

Autosport.com understands that the team will be running one Red Bull-sponsored car for GP2 ace Neel Jani in 2007, but the second car is likely to go to someone with Champ Car experience.

Current PKV incumbent Oriol Servia and Champ Car's newest winner Nelson Philippe are both thought to be strong candidates for the drive.