INDYCAR: Tracy Vows To Continue In 2012

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Tracy Vows To Continue In 2012

Paul Tracy was pondering retirement after the tragic circumstances that took place at Las Vegas, but tells SPEED.com he's set on a fulltime return in 2012.

Marshall Pruett | Posted November 04, 2011

Paul Tracy's in the twilight of his Indy car career, but the popular Canadian isn't ready to hang up his helmet without a proper shot at winning in the IZOD IndyCar Series. (LAT)

Prior to the events that took place at the Las Vegas IZOD IndyCar Series finale, 2003 Champ Car title winner Paul Tracy had no doubts about his plans for next season, but in the days that followed, Tracy, along with a few other drivers who were involved in the accident, were left wondering if retirement was the better option.

“Everybody, in the moment, was reeling,” Tracy told SPEED.com. “There were a lot of conflicting emotions after what happened at Las Vegas and I think a lot of us were questioning things. None of our families wanted to see us get caught up in anything like that again. But the days go by and you feel that fire to keep racing is still there. I think we realized that you need to keep going and I definitely have some unfinished business in IndyCar.”

The Las Vegas race aside, Tracy’s season was already one to forget. Hopes were high after casting his lot—including an impressive amount of personal sponsorships—with Dragon Racing, but the Jay Penske-owned team struggled almost everywhere it raced. A finish of 12th at the first Texas race marked Tracy’s best result of the year, and a finish of 25th at the Indy 500 in a one-off with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing left Tracy rather unsatisfied.

Of the many lessons learned at Las Vegas, Tracy, shown here following Dan Wheldon, is unwilling to waste his time and money on uncompetitive drives. (LAT)

Tracy’s ability to secure decent levels of personal sponsorship has allowed the Canadian star to maintain a part-time presence in the IndyCar Series since 2008, but at 42 years old, and with the clock ticking on an Indy car career that started 20 years ago, he says he’s aiming higher for 2012.

“I’m not willing to do what I did last year—running part-time, no testing, no development and just show up and hope the team has its [act] together,” said Tracy. “You can’t compete that way. If that was my only option, I’ll stop. Anyone who knows me knows I wasn’t going to give less than 100 percent and in some of those situations last year, you probably saw me driving beyond 100 percent to try and haul the thing as far up as I could. You don’t want to have to work miracles every time you get in the car, so we’re working really hard to partner with the right team where we can go into each race expecting to have good results.”

Playing the role of driver/sponsor suited Tracy as long as it kept him in the game, but now that he’s four years removed from his last Indy car win, he’s looking for a team that can provide some of the budget to help solidify a fulltime return.

“Where I am now, I’d like to align myself a team that has some sponsorship of its own; I have sponsorship to bring to the table too. I’m just waiting to see what’s going to happen. We’re shaking out what teams want what for 2012. I want to run a full season, to do all of the testing to develop the new chassis for the team, to do the tests with the engine manufacturer and to have a fighting chance to be competitive and get wins. We’ve raised a couple million dollars but it has to be placed with the right team. That’s the hard part.”

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