Fittipaldi to Buy Patrick Racing?

[JoeBob]

According to Robin Miller, that's what he's saying. Emmo will keep the whole team together (probably with Jim McGee running the show) while Pat Patrick starts up (yet another) new team for Al Unser, Jr in the IRL.

http://espn.go.com/rpm/cart/2003/1205/1679087.html

[Railbird]

I find it interesting that McGee is staying on board since he pretty much has been the team in the last few years. With Emmo being much more of an attraction to sponsors than UE I would imagine McGee sees this as somewhat of a rebirth.

Pat Patrick shuffling off to be a front man for chevy owned team, who would have ever imagined that after the Alfa fiasco?

[XFT]

:eek: Alfa faisco? Shoulda seen me drifting in the snow yesterday:D ... Many people blamed Alfa performance in CART on the ferrari/...

[mapguy]

Originally posted by XFT
Many people blamed Alfa performance in CART on the ferrari/...

Why? They had nothing to do with Alfa's POS motor. Pat Patrick shipped a Chevy-Ilmor A to Alfa. They reverse engineered it and still could't get it right.

This also was the start of leasing iirc.

[racer2c]

Well, like 'bird wrote on 7G on this topic. U.E. isn't taking his team away from CART to go play with Tony, he's starting up another one, so it's no biggy. I never thought I'd see it, but I guess heck, these guys aren't getting any younger and it's obvious TG isn't budging, he's just waiting until CART is no more and he'll blame the split and CART for the state of the sport and say that he is going to rebuild it. I personally always felt that TG dreams decades down the road rather than in five year business plans and his vision when he's 60 is to control the world. (of auto-racing that is.) Time was always on his side.
Thumbs up to Emmo. I was hoping to see other past CART drivers show their support one way or another. I mean, somebody nudge Mansell from his afternoon naps. Hey Jacques, you have some time on your hands now! I hate the way some of these people have turned their back on CART. Remember about five or six years ago there was a big stink about how some of the CART PR people (one young lady in particular) had a reputation for really pissing promoters, sponsors and drivers off? Those types of things are not quickly forgotten.

[Sean O'Gorman]

Originally posted by mapguy
This also was the start of leasing iirc.

Quite ironic that the man indirectly responsible for engine leases in OW racing would end up in the IRL, wouldn't you say?

[cart7]

Originally posted by mapguy
Why? They had nothing to do with Alfa's POS motor. Pat Patrick shipped a Chevy-Ilmor A to Alfa. They reverse engineered it and still could't get it right.

This also was the start of leasing iirc.

I believe I read in Indycar mag a few years ago an article on the Rahal meeting with Ferrari deal in '86 -87?(Ferrari's interest in Champcars turned out to be a ruse). The article stated that the Ferrari engine that was built for the Ferrari champcar later went on to be badged as the Alfa.

BTW, I wished I'd saved that issue, Rahal's comments about the engine facility at Ferrari were unbelievable. Crates of V12's, V10's, V8's, I4's, 6's stacked everywhere. :eek:

[Railbird]

The original Alfa engine, regardles of origin, was such a stone that Patrick thought the only hope was reverse engineering the all-conquering Ilmor/Chevy A.

[RTKar]

Originally posted by cart7
I believe I read in Indycar mag a few years ago an article on the Rahal meeting with Ferrari deal in '86 -87?(Ferrari's interest in Champcars turned out to be a ruse). The article stated that the Ferrari engine that was built for the Ferrari champcar later went on to be badged as the Alfa.

BTW, I wished I'd saved that issue, Rahal's comments about the engine facility at Ferrari were unbelievable. Crates of V12's, V10's, V8's, I4's, 6's stacked everywhere. :eek:

If I recall, the ruse was ploy by Ferrari to get concessions by the FIA, (it may have been during the F1 turbo debate era?). Ferrari ended up making a Champcar chassis during the period. I don't think it was ever tested. I've seen a picture of it somewhere but I don't remember the title of the book.

[XFT]

In the mid-80s, Ferrari also looked at a CART program. They developed an engine, but the program never happened, and being as Alfa and Ferrari were both under Fiat at the time, resources were shared. “As for the engine, it was a development engine and it was taken over by Alfa Romeo when they started their CART program. Of course, by the time Alfa got it, it was two years old, so they started out behind.” That quote by Truesports CART team owner Steve Home describes why the Champcar program by Alfa Romeo never made it to victory lane

[cart7]

Thanks for clearing that up XFT. :cool: