Shakeup At Panther...

GP Racer · 23 Jul 2004, 22:25 (Ref:1045124)

Got this off the Speed web-site:

Penzoil Panther Racing fired Pancho Carter, driver coach, on Friday because of "a series of incidents detrimental to the team".

"Pancho has consistently been one of the best spotters in the League and has played a major roll in the development of our drivers" the statement said. "However, there have been several instances in the course of the last few seasons that were not representative of Panther and the team felt it was best to part ways".

Well this brings alot of questions. What kind of problems could the racing legend have? Could this have been Mark Taylors problem on the Panther team? Could he have something to do with Scheckters problems to?

I guess Panther needs to clean house abit, to get competitive again...

macdaddy · 23 Jul 2004, 22:38 (Ref:1045130)

Raises more questions than it answers, doesn't it?

I've always been a Pancho Carter fan, for as long as my memory reaches, and so I'm very curious.

Kicking-back · 23 Jul 2004, 22:45 (Ref:1045143)

His spotting has been slated in recent races after a few incidents.

GP Racer · 23 Jul 2004, 22:45 (Ref:1045144)

Yes it does mac, and I've always been a fan to.

This has to be especially tough on Pancho's 2 boys who race in the USAC series, and are both racing in Milwaukee this weekend. One of there cars is owned by Panther!

This seems to have nothing to do with racing, it sounds like it's more personal...

BootsOntheSide · 24 Jul 2004, 11:50 (Ref:1045624)

It's strange. When Sam was driving the car, he rarely crashed. Scheckter has a (justified) reputation as a car-wrecker, and Taylor had little wheel-to-wheel experience as he dominated IPS, and they've crashed several times. Is there anything suspicious in that?

Then again, one or two of the incidents have been attributed to the spotter, so perhaps there are questions over his health. Or maybe there are internal issues at stake, perhaps nothing to do with racing, whcih would be unfortunate.

Kicking-back · 24 Jul 2004, 11:58 (Ref:1045630)

Ironically, since Sam's moved to Penske, he's been in a lot of crashes.

MLM · 24 Jul 2004, 14:43 (Ref:1045795)

That's true and with the exception of last week, you cannot blame Tomas for Panther's woes this season.

B/Mark · 25 Jul 2004, 09:43 (Ref:1046460)

Nothing to do with his spotting per se, he remains one of the best spotters in the league. He has been fairly aggresive with some other spotters when their driver was blocking Sam/Tomas.
It seems the argument spilled over off track on Thursday night.
Panther therfore dismissed him for off track activities.
His spotting remains great and Tomas' season is still in the toilet - and thats a car/engine thing.

Kicking-back · 25 Jul 2004, 10:05 (Ref:1046483)

Thanks for the insight, B/Mark.

Any idea who'll be replacing him this weekend?

BootsOntheSide · 25 Jul 2004, 11:15 (Ref:1046551)

Fair enough Mark, nice to have someone from Taylor's team explaining things. Maybe there was just too much alcohol in Pancho's veins that night. It doens't reflect well on a professional racing team for antics like these to occur, so I think their decision was probably right.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Panther	kmsport	IRL Indycar Series	30	9 Feb 2006 12:24
Panther Racing... ?	macdaddy	IRL Indycar Series	59	22 Dec 2005 19:25
Panther to stay in the IRL	luke	IRL Indycar Series	17	28 Jul 2005 01:50
Panther 2nd Car	B/Mark	IRL Indycar Series	25	29 Oct 2003 14:31
Scheckter to Panther?	rush1	IRL Indycar Series	21	17 Oct 2003 11:23