OCTOBER 11, 1999
Chip Ganassi, Toyota and David Sears
THE rumor in the United States that Chip Ganassi is planning to run a second team in CART next season has led to suggestions that there will be some European involvement in the planned team, which will be based in Ganassi's existing premises while his Target Chip Ganassi Racing operation will move to a new purpose-built facility in Indianapolis.
We hear that the second team will get free engines from Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. which is frustrated at failing to make much of an impression in CART despite supplying All American Racers, Arciero Wells, Team Gordon and DellaÊPennaÊMotorsports.
Ganassi - who has won the last three CART titles and may also win this year with Juan-Pablo Montoya - is keen to take up the challenge to prove that his organization can win without Honda involvement.
Our spies tell us that Ganassi has been talking to British team owner David Sears about running the new team. Sears manages Montoya and also runs the successful Super Nova and Petrobras Junior Team operations in Formula 3000. Super Nova has been mentioned as a possible junior team for Jaguar next year and this may give Sears the chance to concentrate on other projects. He has been looking at CART for some years and it is a logical step for the former racer. It would also be a good move in the long-term because if he is successful in the United States, the Toyota link could be a useful one in F1...