INDYCAR: Management Shuffle For Dreyer & Reinbold Racing

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Management Shuffle For Dreyer & Reinbold Racing

With a new car on the horizon and more than a decade since their last win, team owners Dennis Reinbold and Robbie Buhl are restructuring for 2012.

Marshall Pruett | Posted October 31, 2011

DRR owners Robbie Buhl, left, and Dennis Reinbold, right, are searching for a new team manager after parting ways with open-wheel veteran Larry Curry, middle. (LAT)

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing owners Dennis Reinbold and Robbie Buhl have taken the first step with their plans to revitalize the Indianapolis, IN.-based team after dismissing team manager Larry Curry and his son, Matt, who served as Justin Wilson's race engineer.

Dreyer & Reinbold won with Buhl driving during its debut season in 1999 and has shown sparks of competitiveness in recent years, but after two largely fruitless seasons with veteran driver Wilson in the cockpit--and rookie Ana Beatriz struggling at most rounds this year--DRR’s owners made the hard decision to overhaul its management and engineering staff with the new 2012 Indy car formula just around the corner.

“That’s exactly it,” Reinbold told SPEED.com. “We feel like we have to be as strong as we can be to develop the new 2012 chassis, as well as there’s going to be a lot more development overall with the engine manufacturer we partner with. That’s going to require us to take a big step up in all departments so we wanted to make sure we’re ready for that task.”

As one of the few original Indy Racing League teams left in the series, DRR has always remained true to its old school IRL roots—sometimes to a fault—which makes the decision to part ways with the Curry and Son rather intriguing.

Robbie Buhl won for DRR at Walt Disney World to open the 2000 IRL season. (LAT)

Compared to the industry-wide hiring practices of the leading teams, DRR's ongoing efforts to maintain a staff with heavy IRL ties became a liability as the IZOD IndyCar Series grew more competitive.

The friendly nature within the team often led its owners to hire familiar faces, and with Curry having served as Buhl’s team manager at Team Menard in the late 1990s. Signing the father and son team was an easy choice to make when the two became available after Vision Racing folded prior to the 2010 season.

The elder Curry brought decades of experience to DRR, with the 1997 IRL driver title (Tony Stewart) and team title (Team Menard) serving as his most recent accomplishment, while his son, who was groomed as a data engineer for many years before being promoted to race engineer, was still learning on the job and struggled to jell with Wilson during his time at DRR.

Respected engineer Yves Touron, who took over engineering duties for Wilson’s entry after the Indy 500 and delivered the team's best result of the year--a fifth-place finish at Edmonton--remains with the team.

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