Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: With only IRL offers, Carpentier will switch

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2004 | 9:30 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.

It appears as if Patrick Carpentier of Las Vegas will be leaving the Champ Car World Series for the rival Indy Racing League in 2005.

Carpentier's contract with Forsythe Championship Racing expires at the end of this season and he said Tuesday that he has received no offers to drive in Champ Car next year.

"Right now, the way it stands, I've got four teams that I've talked with and that are offering me something and I have none in (Champ Car)," Carpentier said. "They're all in the IRL."

Carpentier said he is close to an agreement with one IRL team -- which he declined to name -- but said nothing is signed.

"It's still not done so I want to keep all the options open," Carpentier said. "There are a couple of things we don't necessarily agree on ... but I'm sure we'll work it through."

Carpentier, 33, is in his eighth season in the open-wheel series -- seven with Forsythe Championship Racing. He earned his first victory in the series in 2001 at Michigan International Speedway and he earned his fifth career victory two weeks ago at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, Calif.

Carpentier will be one of four Las Vegas residents competing in Saturday night's Bridgestone 400 Presented by Corona at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

NASCAR's Jeff Gordon, however, won the third quarter honor because the fan vote counted for only one of the 19 available votes; members of the motor sports media have the other 18 votes.

Bourdais holds a 24-point lead over Newman/Haas Racing teammate Bruno Junqueira going into Saturday night's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Spectator gates will open at 11 a.m. Friday. The first practice session will run 12:15-2 p.m., qualifying will be 4:30-6 and the day's final practice session will run 8-9:30 p.m.

There will be no on-track activity Friday for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Medeiros, who earned his fifth victory of the season two weeks ago at Chicagoland Speedway, holds a 95-point lead over Paul Dana with two races remaining. Medeiros needs only to start the next race in order to clinch the championship.

Schmidt, a former IRL driver, was paralyzed from the shoulders down in a testing accident in Orlando, Fla., in January 2000. He has fielded a team in the Infiniti Pro Series since its inception in 2002.

The races were Brack's first since he suffered life-threatening injuries in the 2003 IRL season finale at Texas Motor Speedway.

"It was fun but too much hype around the event about me," Brack said. "There were press and people everywhere.

"It's quite difficult to come in at the end of the championship when everybody has had a full year to prepare. I never could get the car to handle like I wanted. But it was fun to race again and that's the main thing."