Patrick Racing
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Patrick Racing was an auto racing team in both Champ Car and the Indy Racing League.
Patrick Racing was started by Pat Patrick with the formation of CART in 1978. Patrick Racing would win three Indianapolis 500s and two CART championships, making it one of the most successful CART teams ever.
In 1989, Chip Ganassi joined Patrick as a co-owner. After winning the 1989 Indianapolis 500 and the 1989 CART championship with Emerson Fittipaldi, the team decided to split and take on new ventures. Fittpaldi took the Marlboro sponsorship to the Penske Team. Ganassi split off to form his own team (now known as Chip Ganassi Racing), and Patrick took over the upstart Alfa Romeo Indycar project for 1990. Roberto Guerrero signed on as primary driver with Al Unser driving a second car at the Indianapolis 500. The team made headlines when it landed sponsorship from Miller, which had previously been with Penske. Unfortunately, the team saw little on-track success, and even less success in the engine development. For 1991, Danny Sullivan took over as primary driver, and the team continued to fail miserably. By the end of the 1991 CART season, Patrick was in financial and legal trouble. As the team was collapsing, rumors surfaced that Patrick had based parts of the Alfa-Romeo engine on the Chevrolet Indycar engine.
At the conclusion of the 1991 season, Patrick sold the assets of the team to Bobby Rahal and Carl Hogan. They formed Rahal-Hogan Racing, which is now known as Rahal Letterman Racing.
In the mid-1990s, Patrick began to rebuild his team from scratch. In 1994, Patrick formed a testing team for Firestone tires, and spearheaded Firestone's return to Indycar racing for 1995. They did not enter any races in 1994, and instead tested all year. Scott Pruett signed on as the driver, and won the 1995 Michigan 500. In the next few years, Patrick experienced moderate success in CART. Due to money issues and the constant uncertainy of racing in Champ Car, Patrick Racing jumped over the IRL in 2004 running Al Unser, Jr. until his mid-season retirement and then Jeff Simmons, Jaques Lazier, and Tomas Enge. With no sponsorship for 2005, the team ceased operations and its assets have been for sale since the end of the 2004 season.
[edit] CART drivers
- Mario Andretti (1981-1982)
- Tom Bagley (1980)
- Townsend Bell (2001-2002)
- Raul Boesel (1997)
- Pancho Carter (1984)
- Kevin Cogan (1986-1987)
- Wally Dallenbach, Sr. (1979)
- Adrian Fernandez (1998-2000)
- Emerson Fittipaldi (1984-1990)
- Chip Ganassi (1983-1984)
- Spike Gehlhausen (1980)
- Bruno Giacomelli (1984-1985)
- Roberto Guerrero (1990-1991)
- Gordon Johncock (1979-1984)
- P.J. Jones (1999)
- Steve Krisiloff (1981)
- Jan Magnussen (1999)
- Roger Mears (1979)
- Roberto Moreno (2000)
- Danny Ongais (1983)
- John Paul, Jr. (1984)
- Scott Pruett (1995-1998)
- Johnny Rutherford (1983)
- Oriol Servia (2002-2003)
- Gordon Smiley (1980)
- Danny Sullivan (1991)
- Sammy Swindell (1985)
- Al Unser (1990)
- Jimmy Vasser (2001)
- Rich Vogler (1985)
- Don Whittington (1985)
[edit] IRL drivers
All IRL drivers drove in 2004 only.
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