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Walker wary of IRL costs

Leading team owner Derrick Walker has warned that getting up to speed in the newly-unified IRL IndyCar Series will be an expensive process for the ex-Champ Car squads

Walker intends to run at least one car in the IRL and already has a Dallara chassis at his team's workshop.

But with fewer development restrictions in the IndyCar Series than in Champ Car, Walker fears that a large budget will be required to catch the leading IRL teams.

"I think the Champ Car teams are going to be somewhat surprised when they see the cost of the Indy Car and this will be an ongoing concern as the season unfolds," Walker wrote in a column on his team's website.

"For example, in Champ Car you can't do wind tunnel testing. In the IndyCar Series you can. There are areas on the car that teams will have to go back and regenerate their wind tunnel programmes for, and go into the wind tunnel as soon as possible and get the valuable data on the car, which will ramp up the costs.

"I think for the teams that don't have unlimited resources, it's going to be a problem until we can raise the sponsorship level up higher to compete on an even level with the IndyCar Series counterpart."

Walker hopes that the IRL will consider adopting the development restrictions that helped keep costs down in Champ Car.

"As we have seen in the Champ Car situation, it is possible to reduce the cost and not affect the show," he said.

"For the 2007 season, there were more competitive entries and more challenges for race wins than there probably were in the last three years prior.

"Stabilising the formula, bringing the costs down, and containing development would really be a request, if nothing else, to the league for 2010."

Will Power is set to remain with Walker's team, and Walker suggested that the Team Australia branding will also be retained.

"It is still our intention to keep going with the gold and green," he confirmed.

"It's hard to imagine the effect on a driver to be put on hold like this, but Will has been very supportive of the team and has been standing by for this important announcement to be made so that he can get into the car and go racing."

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