Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Several CART teams may defect to rival IRL

Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2001 | 9:49 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

Honda's announcement last weekend that it would follow Toyota's lead and pull out of the CART FedEx Championship Series after the 2002 season has fueled speculation that several of the series' top teams would defect to the rival Indy Racing League.

According to sources in the open-wheel racing community, as many as a half-dozen CART teams are exploring moving to the IRL after the 2002 season and a couple of teams could make the jump as soon as next season.

Marlboro Team Penske is one of those teams that are rumored to be considering switching to the IRL. Team owner Roger Penske is one of the founding members of CART.

Gil de Ferran, who won the CART championship last year in his first season driving for Penske, confirmed that he has heard those same rumors.

"I think, certainly, Roger is analyzing his options and trying to decide what the future holds," de Ferran said. "I'm not too sure which direction he's heading."

De Ferran, who leads the CART standings with two races remaining, said he would remain loyal to Penske -- whatever he decides.

"From my own standpoint, my allegiances are to the team," he said. "I have very strong feelings for this team and I don't say that lightly; this has been one of the happiest periods of my life.

"I really have a good relationship with Roger and (team president Tim Cindric) and the rest of the team and I'm very happy driving for them so I think my allegiances are to this team."

De Ferran was particularly upset to learn of Honda's decision to get out of CART after the series elected to abandon the turbocharged engine in favor of a normally aspirated engine formula beginning in 2003.

"I'm very sad, really," de Ferran said. "It's probably the greatest racing company in the world and they have a very deep, ingrained tradition in racing -- not only in North America and not only in CART, but worldwide and for many, many years.

"You don't lose a partner like Honda and not miss it, that's for sure. I've been working with them since 1996 and probably one of the things I'm going to miss the most is working with the engineers, something I did a lot in helping in the development of the engine. For me, that was a relationship that I enjoyed very much."

"I'm in contact with several CART teams at the moment, and I'm following the CART scenario very closely and trying to make this decision for my future," Papis said Tuesday. "But I was not very surprised to receive phone calls from IRL and sports car and possibly you are going to see me in the future testing in NASCAR, as well.

"I just feel that from my perspective, Max Papis is in a good demand but I don't beg anybody for my ride because I don't think I should."

Reigning IRL champion Sam Hornish Jr., Eddie Cheever Jr., Buddy Lazier, Johnny Herbert, Rick Treadway and Jaques Lazier are among the drivers taking part in the test.

Bell was penalized for "unjustifiable risk" and "failure to follow the instructions of an unofficial" for a pair of incidents after clinching the title with his win. After taking the checkered flag, Bell stopped his car in Turn 2 and did a series of tire-smoking doughnuts directly in the path of oncoming cars.

Later, on the same cool-down lap, Bell ignored the directions of a CART official and drove past the entrance into victory lane, began another series of doughnuts in front of oncoming race cars and then drove his race car counter-course back to the victory lane turnoff, directly in the path of oncoming racecars.