Wednesday, March 24, 2004 | 9:08 a.m.
Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4089.
Despite having a broken hip and no contract to drive a racecar, Al Unser Jr. remained confident that he would return to the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series this season.
While he was recovering from a broken hip he suffered in an all-terrain vehicle accident in New Mexico last October, Unser and longtime CART team owner Pat Patrick began talking about forming a new IRL team for the 2004 season. Although the new team took longer to get on the track than he had hoped, Unser said he is "thrilled" to be starting his season in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
"It's disappointing we were not at the first three (IRL) races, but what a place to begin the season with the Indy 500," said Unser, a Henderson resident and two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500. "It's going to be great."
But that's not to say that it wasn't difficult for Unser to have to watch the first two races of the IRL season, at Homestead-Miami Speedway and last weekend at Phoenix International Raceway, from the sidelines.
"It was pretty tough," he said. "To be real honest with you, I felt that I was missing out. All that it did was remind me of the time that I had to watch those few races in 1999 when I had my broken leg; that was pretty painful to watch that go on.
"But we have done it before and all it did was make me more determined to put a deal together with Pat."
Although the Patrick Racing entry will be a start-up team, Unser said he is confident it will be competitive out of the gate -- even though he acknowledged he has not been in a racecar since the 2003 IRL season finale at Texas Motor Speedway.
"We are definitely capable of running with these boys out there," Unser said. "I look forward to starting the season. I wish we could start in Japan. I wish that we would have been able to be at Homestead and Phoenix. But logistically, we were not able to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together.
"Pat is moving over from CART to the IRL and he sold all of his assets and equipment that he had from his CART team. So we are basically starting from scratch (but) we are going to go to every single race trying to win every single race that we enter, just like I have my entire career, and I really feel that with Steve (Newey) running the team and Pat's backing, that we are going to be competitive."
Unser, who turns 42 next month, said his broken hip is completely healed and he never gave serious thought to retiring this winter when his prospects for landing a ride appeared slim.
"I guess when ... I quit enjoying what I'm doing and I get out there on the track and I'm not competitive, then it will be very obvious that it would be time to hang it up," Unser said. "But right now, I feel as strong as ever.
"I truly love getting out there and competing and driving the open-wheel cars. And I'm competitive, I can run with the leaders, I can win races and win championships and, so, we're going to keep going until it's obvious that we can't do it."
Long-time CART team owner Dale Coyne announced that he would field two cars this season in Champ Car. Coyne, who fielded two cars in all 18 races last season, said he would announce his drivers in the next "five to 10 days." ...
Newman/Haas co-owner Paul Newman said there was no substance to speculation that the Champ Car team would follow Fernandez Racing and Team Rahal in jumping to the rival IRL.
"Any rumor that Newman/Haas Racing is leaving the Champ Car World Series is a figment of somebody's imagination," Newman said in a prepared statement. "We remain committed to the series and are looking forward to the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach season-opener on April 18."
Newman/Haas fields cars for Bruno Junqueira and Sebastian Bourdais, the 2003 Champ Car Rookie of the Year.
Others to be inducted during the May 21 ceremonies are former team owners John Zink and the late Lindsey Hopkins.
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