SurfaceUnits
11-24-05, 08:59 PM
Panther Racing Facing at Least a Temporary Shutdown
Written by: Robin Miller
Indianapolis, Ind. – 11/23/2005
Panther Racing claims its doors aren’t closed for good, but the shop lights have been turned off and most of its employees are out looking for jobs.
One of the Indy Racing League’s most successful stories for the past eight years, winners of two championships and 15 races, had to layoff the majority of its work force earlier this week due to financial reality.
“We’ve never, ever laid anyone off before but when you don’t have any income what else can you do?” said Mike Griffin, one of the five co-owners of the Indianapolis-based team. “We wanted to be up front and honest about our situation. It’s not like we shut things down, it’s just that we don’t have an operating budget at the moment.
“With our situation with Pennzoil, there’s simply not enough cash to sustain 50 people and right now there’s nothing for them to do anyway. We understand the consequences of letting guys go because they’ve got to look out for their families so we know they’re out looking for jobs.
“But, hopefully, we’ll be calling people up to come back in a few weeks if one of our sponsorship deals comes through.”
Panther Racing has been sponsored by Pennzoil since 1998 but that contract, estimated to be worth $4 million, expired two months ago so the principals of Panther have been scrambling to find money.
“We’re looking at several options,” said Griffin, whose group is thought to be talking with Pat Patrick and the sons of Jonathan Byrd about keeping Panther alive. “We’ve got five sponsorship deals in the hopper and several people have inquired about buying the place. The people we’re talking to want us to stay in the IRL and, obviously, our druthers would be to keep going in the series we love.
“This has always been a family deal and we want to keep it going. But you can’t do anything without money.”
Keeping driver Tomas Scheckter and his reported $2 million salary would appear to be out of question since the Honda engine lease is likely to cost $1.8 million and it takes another $4 million to run one car competitively.
“We told Tomas if he finds something to go for it, because we don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Griffin. “We just need one of these sponsor deals to come through and we could have a positive answer for everybody by December 5.”
Panther’s plight is the latest to hit IRL mechanics. Eddie Cheever had a massive layoff at the end of this season and Ganassi Racing let nine mechanics go when it decided to cut back from three to two cars.
Written by: Robin Miller
Indianapolis, Ind. – 11/23/2005
Panther Racing claims its doors aren’t closed for good, but the shop lights have been turned off and most of its employees are out looking for jobs.
One of the Indy Racing League’s most successful stories for the past eight years, winners of two championships and 15 races, had to layoff the majority of its work force earlier this week due to financial reality.
“We’ve never, ever laid anyone off before but when you don’t have any income what else can you do?” said Mike Griffin, one of the five co-owners of the Indianapolis-based team. “We wanted to be up front and honest about our situation. It’s not like we shut things down, it’s just that we don’t have an operating budget at the moment.
“With our situation with Pennzoil, there’s simply not enough cash to sustain 50 people and right now there’s nothing for them to do anyway. We understand the consequences of letting guys go because they’ve got to look out for their families so we know they’re out looking for jobs.
“But, hopefully, we’ll be calling people up to come back in a few weeks if one of our sponsorship deals comes through.”
Panther Racing has been sponsored by Pennzoil since 1998 but that contract, estimated to be worth $4 million, expired two months ago so the principals of Panther have been scrambling to find money.
“We’re looking at several options,” said Griffin, whose group is thought to be talking with Pat Patrick and the sons of Jonathan Byrd about keeping Panther alive. “We’ve got five sponsorship deals in the hopper and several people have inquired about buying the place. The people we’re talking to want us to stay in the IRL and, obviously, our druthers would be to keep going in the series we love.
“This has always been a family deal and we want to keep it going. But you can’t do anything without money.”
Keeping driver Tomas Scheckter and his reported $2 million salary would appear to be out of question since the Honda engine lease is likely to cost $1.8 million and it takes another $4 million to run one car competitively.
“We told Tomas if he finds something to go for it, because we don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Griffin. “We just need one of these sponsor deals to come through and we could have a positive answer for everybody by December 5.”
Panther’s plight is the latest to hit IRL mechanics. Eddie Cheever had a massive layoff at the end of this season and Ganassi Racing let nine mechanics go when it decided to cut back from three to two cars.