Pat Patrick may withdraw
Pat Patrick is considering closing down his IRL IndyCar Series race team, according to SpeedTV.com
The veteran team owner who enjoyed enormous success in Champ Cars before switching codes last year, has laid of his workforce and put his Dallara chassis up for sale.
"Honestly, I'm not sure what I'm going to do," said Patrick. "I've got a conference call Monday with some people who might be interested in doing something but nothing definitive."
Patrick, whose team won three Indianapolis 500s with Gordon Johncock (1972-1982) and Emerson Fittipaldi (1989), was a co-founder of CART along with Roger Penske. Patrick sold his Champ Cars at the end of 2003 and switched to the IRL with Al Unser Jr in 2004.
The Patrick Racing programme didn't get started until the Indianapolis 500 and Unser was uncompetitive in three races before retiring from the sport. Jacques Lazier replaced Unser until former F1 driver Tomas Enge joined the team for the final two races.
The team which used Dallara chassis and the under-powered Chevrolet engines in 2004, was one of many to be trounced by the Japanese Honda and Toyota powered squads. Patrick admits it was a difficult season and to recover from it will be difficult.
"I'm already way behind everyone and last year certainly wasn't much fun," he said. "We didn't have the right engine last year and I've got to spend a lot of money to update our cars so I don't know."
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