Unser jr & Patrick - confirmed at last!

[Down F0rce]

Two men with success in the Indianapolis 500 will join forces for an IRL IndyCar® Series team, beginning with the 88th running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” on May 30.

U.E. “Pat” Patrick, who has three 500-Mile Race victories as a team owner, will file an entry to run two-time race winner Al Unser Jr. at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the No. 20 Patrick Racing Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone.

“I am very excited about competing at the Indianapolis 500 again and in the IRL IndyCar Series,” Patrick said at a news conference before the Copper World Indy 200 at Phoenix International Raceway. Full story

Terrific news! Another car on the grid, Patrick gets another shot at Indy, and Little Al gets a decent ride as well. Well done to all those invloved!

[GP Racer]

Originally posted by Down F0rce
[i]
Terrific news! Another car on the grid, Patrick gets another shot at Indy, and Little Al gets a decent ride as well. Well done to all those invloved!

Wow, the good news just keeps on coming! This is shaping up to be a banner year for the series.

Alot of hard work went into this ride, best of luck to this "new" IRL team!

[rustyfan]

Great news!

[BSchneiderFan]

Great news indeed. I just hope that the game proves to be worth the candle.

[rustyfan]

More on this, axed from today's daily report at the IndyRacing.com website. Much of it was included in the separate article (posted above), but it also contains some other, more detailed information that might be of interest;

At a press conference in the media center, U.E. “Pat” Patrick announced he will field an IRL IndyCar® Series team beginning at the Indianapolis 500 in May. Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser Jr. will drive the No. 20 Patrick Racing Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone entry. Steve Newey will be Unser's engineer.

U.E. “PAT” PATRICK (Owner, Patrick Racing): “ I just want to announce that Patrick Racing will be joining the IRL starting in Indianapolis. We'll race the rest of the season, hopefully for a while longer. We'll have Chevrolet engines, and our driver will be Al Unser Jr. What we did is make a deal with Derrick Walker to lease a portion, probably half, of his facilities, use his equipment and his racing personnel. Derrick has been very, very helpful about letting us do this. It does crimp him a little bit, because he has a rather extensive program building Grand Am cars in there.” (About reuniting Indy-style racing): “As a lot of people can tell you, (IRL President) Tony (George) and myself tried very diligently to put the deal together about that timeframe, maybe it was a year or so later. I'm not sure that cooler heads have prevailed. It looks to me that most of the people are going to be in the IRL.” (When did discussions begin with Al Unser Jr?): “Al Unser Jr. and I talked, probably last fall. Steve Newey talked to him at the Texas race. He and I had several conversations since then. It's been very difficult to put this deal together with all of the players involved. However, we finally got everything in place Friday night at 6 p.m., and Al and I signed the contract this morning. So that's how it is.” (Why did it take so long to put the deal together?): “It takes a lot of ingredients to make a race team run. I had sold all of my assets in Patrick Racing and my employees were terminated because I did not intend to continue. It didn't look like we could get sponsorship at the time. Then the deals started coming together on sponsorship and Al and Chevrolet. So then we have to get new employees, facilities and start over, in effect.” (About sponsorship of the No. 20 car): "We have several things working. We're very close.”

AL UNSER JR. (Driver, No. 20 Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone): “I'm extremely happy to be with Patrick Racing. I've raced against the 20 car pretty much my whole career. Now I'm very proud to be driving the 20 car for Pat. I'm happy to be in a Chevrolet engine. I won my first (Indianapolis) 500 in a Chevrolet engine. I'm very excited."

STEVE NEWEY (Engineer, Patrick Racing): “We're going to take delivery of our first car a week from Monday. We are about three-quarters fully staffed. We hope to be on track mid-April to do a shakedown test prior to attending the Indianapolis Open Test."

[climb]

From what I could understand, their rentry at Indy500 is sure, whilst the completion of the season is just something more that a hope, cos they're seeking for sponsorship.

Obviously I do hope they'll succeed

[BootsOntheSide]

Great news to have Al back on track. I doubt Pat will be desperate to do the whole season, or any future races beyond the 500, but the option exists - and, of course, a good result may help motivation and sponsorship issues.