INDYCAR: KV Keeping Busy With Testing, Driver Negotiations

IndyCar

INDYCAR: KV Keeping Busy With Testing, Driver Negotiations

“Come hell or high water,” KV Racing co-owner Jimmy Vasser tells SPEED.com, “we’ll have three cars next year.”

Marshall Pruett | Posted December 20, 2011

With Tony Kanaan, left, as his anchor, KV Racing co-owner Jimmy Vasser, right, is closing in on signing TK's two teammates for 2012. (LAT)

KV Racing has kept the publicity to a minimum since the season ended more than two months ago, but as co-owner Jimmy Vasser told SPEED.com on Tuesday, the Chevy-powered team has been plenty busy at the shop and at the race track.

“We just completed engine manufacturer testing last week, and half the test team is ours,” he said. “And Tony [Kanaan] got more than his fair share of testing with the new car over that period, so that’s been the biggest focus of our time recently. We just took delivery of our first car, like everybody else, and we’ll have more work to do once all of our cars arrive.”

Coming off a year where the team’s three-car effort featured a strong run by Kanaan to fifth in the championship, two poles and improved results for Takuma Sato (13th in the standings) and no surprises from E.J. Viso, Vasser says he and fellow KV owner Kevin Kalkhoven expect to have 2/3rds of their 2011 lineup back for 2012.

“Tony’s good to go and we’re getting close to wrapping E.J. [Viso’s] contract up too,” he said. “We have things going back and forth there to complete the second car and we’re doing good on the third [car].”

Takuma Sato departed the Chevrolet-powered KV Racing to sign with a Honda-powered team for 2012. (LAT)

Sato, who tested for Honda last week at the request of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, is expected to sign with RLL as its lead driver.

With one vacancy left to fill, it appears Vasser, the 1996 CART champion, and Kanaan, the 2004 IndyCar Series champion, will likely get the chance to mentor a new member of the IndyCar driver’s club.

“We have some exciting opportunities for the third car,” said Vasser. “More than likely, it’s going to be a rookie, either from Indy Lights or from Europe. Three cars is our business model. Come hell or high water, we’ll have three cars next year.”

Vasser has also been busy trying to add to his engineering ranks, with former Andretti-Green Racing and (most recently) Team Penske engineer Eric Cowdin expected to be reunited with Kanaan next month. KV sported one of the more impressive engineering departments in the paddock in 2011, and despite a few changes expected in that area, Vasser says KV should be just as strong when they start testing in January.

“We’re in a process of sorting out our engineering lineup,” he said. “There’s always new engineers coming in and young guys coming up. We’re not too worried about it.

“With some of the great guys we have already like Garrett Mothersead, some good young guys already here and some new people that are on their way in, I feel really confident about what kind of team we’ll have to go racing with.”

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. He also contributes to Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.