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Le Mans / ALMS
ALMS: Fernandez Ready To Fold
Team owner says: I don't know what I'm going to do but I want to stay in racing. If you know anybody who wants to [buy my team] tell 'em they can have it all for $1 million.
One of those successful little teams with more moxie than money is shutting down.
Fernandez Racing, a winner in Champ Car, IndyCar, Grand Am and American Le Mans during this decade, will close its doors on Oct. 30, barring any last minute saviors.
"It's been a good run but we're between a rock and a hard place and our poker hand didn't come up so good this time," said Tom Anderson, the co-owner with driver Adrian Fernandez.
"I told our guys that we didn't have anything that's even close so they all needed to go look for jobs. Go look now and go look hard."
A regular front runner in ALMS the past three years with sponsorship from Lowe's, Fernandez Racing was hoping to stay in sports cars or return to Indy cars in 2010 but just couldn't find the funding.
"Adrian has always found his own sponsors but we've both turned over every stone looking for something and we even hired a guy with some connections down south to try and find us sponsorship," said Anderson.
"Ideally, the cheapest deal would have been to stay in sports cars because we've got our car, we could lease an engine from Acura and probably do the season for $3-3.5 million. After that, we thought Indy cars made the most sense but it's really tough right now to find anything."
Fernandez, the most popular athlete in Mexico for most of the past 20 years, started his own team in 2001 in CART and scored his initial W as a driver/owner at Portland in 2003. Switching to the Indy Racing League in 2004, he won three times and teammate Scott Sharp scored one victory in 2005. A Grand Am triumph in '06 was followed by seven wins in ALMS from 2007-2009.
With veteran John Ward engineering, Fernandez Racing won at every level because it had talented people.
"We only have 17 employees but there's a lot of good ones and most of them have been very loyal so that makes this deal even tougher," continued Anderson, the team manager of Target/Ganassi during its CART dominance in the late '90s.
"I don't know what I'm going to do but I want to stay in racing. If you know anybody who wants to buy a good sports car, two haulers, pit equipment and our shop machinery, tell 'em they can have it all for $1 million."
Fernandez, who is in Europe for two weeks, said last month he might have been able to keep Lowe's on board had he chosen to drive the Indy car again. But, now in his late forties, he wisely opted to pass.
"I've got a wife, two kids and my health and I'm too old for Indy cars," said Fernandez, who made his last Indy 500 start in 2005. "Hopefully, we can find a sponsor and a young guy to drive and keep this team going."
Sadly, that didn't happen.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, SPEED, FOX, or NewsCorp.
Fernandez Racing, a winner in Champ Car, IndyCar, Grand Am and American Le Mans during this decade, will close its doors on Oct. 30, barring any last minute saviors.
"It's been a good run but we're between a rock and a hard place and our poker hand didn't come up so good this time," said Tom Anderson, the co-owner with driver Adrian Fernandez.
"I told our guys that we didn't have anything that's even close so they all needed to go look for jobs. Go look now and go look hard."
A regular front runner in ALMS the past three years with sponsorship from Lowe's, Fernandez Racing was hoping to stay in sports cars or return to Indy cars in 2010 but just couldn't find the funding.
"Adrian has always found his own sponsors but we've both turned over every stone looking for something and we even hired a guy with some connections down south to try and find us sponsorship," said Anderson.
"Ideally, the cheapest deal would have been to stay in sports cars because we've got our car, we could lease an engine from Acura and probably do the season for $3-3.5 million. After that, we thought Indy cars made the most sense but it's really tough right now to find anything."
Fernandez, the most popular athlete in Mexico for most of the past 20 years, started his own team in 2001 in CART and scored his initial W as a driver/owner at Portland in 2003. Switching to the Indy Racing League in 2004, he won three times and teammate Scott Sharp scored one victory in 2005. A Grand Am triumph in '06 was followed by seven wins in ALMS from 2007-2009.
With veteran John Ward engineering, Fernandez Racing won at every level because it had talented people.
"We only have 17 employees but there's a lot of good ones and most of them have been very loyal so that makes this deal even tougher," continued Anderson, the team manager of Target/Ganassi during its CART dominance in the late '90s.
"I don't know what I'm going to do but I want to stay in racing. If you know anybody who wants to buy a good sports car, two haulers, pit equipment and our shop machinery, tell 'em they can have it all for $1 million."
Fernandez, who is in Europe for two weeks, said last month he might have been able to keep Lowe's on board had he chosen to drive the Indy car again. But, now in his late forties, he wisely opted to pass.
"I've got a wife, two kids and my health and I'm too old for Indy cars," said Fernandez, who made his last Indy 500 start in 2005. "Hopefully, we can find a sponsor and a young guy to drive and keep this team going."
Sadly, that didn't happen.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, SPEED, FOX, or NewsCorp.
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