Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Michael Andretti ready to take risk as owner

Wednesday, July 24, 2002 | 9:13 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Michael Andretti admitted he is taking a gamble by buying the majority interest in Team Green, which fields cars for Andretti, Las Vegan Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti in the CART series.

Andretti will assume control Dec. 1 of an organization that has no commitments from sponsors or drivers for 2003. In fact, Andretti said he isn't sure if his team will compete in CART, the rival Indy Racing League or both next season.

"I think we're buying a great organization here and we're hoping that (if) the sponsor is going to want to be in open-wheel racing, they're going to want to be with a team like this," Andretti said. "That was the gamble we took. Having said that, the team has a lot of good partners and a lot of good sponsors that seem to be very happy so we're hoping that they would want to continue.

"We do not have a signed sponsor (for 2003) but we're going on the hope that what we're buying is going to help sell itself."

Team Green's sponsorship from Kool expires after this season and there are rumors the cigarette company would prefer to be in the IRL next season. Andretti said no decision has been made where the new Andretti Green Racing team will compete -- or whether he will be one of the team's drivers.

"It's going to be totally up to our sponsors and our partners (in which series we compete)," Andretti said. "At this moment, we just wanted to get this (deal) done and now we will start working on the sponsorship side of it."

Andretti said his desire would be to continue racing in CART, but did not rule out fielding cars in both CART and the IRL.

"I would really still like to drive next year but at this point we don't have anything solid," he said. "Again, it's going to come down to what we can do with sponsors. I would definitely still like to do Indianapolis. As you know, that's a race that I still very much want.

"Our main responsibility is making sure the 75 to 80 employees that we have here have a good, secure job and we're going to do whatever it takes for that. If it takes running in two series then we're going to run in two series. If it takes running in one series, we're going to run in one series."

Once Andretti and partners Kim Green and Kevin Savoree line up sponsorship, his hope is to keep Tracy and Franchitti with the team.

"I have the utmost respect for both of those guys -- I think they're the two best guys out there," Andretti said. "I know they're tough competitors and I know how fast they are. I would still love to keep them involved with this team as it goes forward.

"We already talked to (Tracy) a little bit and said that we very much would like to have him involved with us and he told us the same thing, that he would like to continue as well. We still first have to get our sponsor committed before we can commit to Paul."

At 39, Andretti is CART's winningest driver with 42 career victories. He said he got the idea of moving into an ownership role as his driving career wound down after seeing his father, the legendary Mario Andretti, adjust to retirement.

"I guess I've sat back and watched Dad and I think he really missed that he's not directly involved with racing after he was out of the seat," Andretti said. "I started thinking that I still want to stay involved with the sport, but I want to be actively involved with this sport.

"A couple of years ago, I started thinking I would really like, when I am retired, to stay involved in an ownership (role)."

Bell, 27, crashed out of five of the first nine races this season and was excluded from the Molson Indy Toronto two weeks ago after causing an early accident. He crashed on the first lap of the most recent race, the July 14 event in Cleveland, for his sixth DNF in nine races.

"I don't know whether I'm going to be driving, but if (Cheever) needs to make a decision like he is going to, then make the decision," Scheckter said. "My feeling is they most probably will make the decision to fire me. Hopefully, I can move on to bigger and better things, which I don't think will be much of a problem."

Scheckter said he already has received calls from CART teams.