Walker's Team Australia partnership with Craig Gore achieved success in Champ Cars, but the the two men have headed in different directions. (LAT photo)
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Speaking from Laguna Seca, Calif. where his Atlantic team is testing tomorrow, Walker was meeting Nigel Mansell on Sunday night. Mansell’s two sons, Greg and Leo, are hoping to compete in Atlantics for Walker this season.
“It remains to be seen whether Nigel’s sons will continue with us because there’s a lot of uncertainty about the Atlantic series. We’re hoping to get some answers and my goal would be to run four Atlantic cars to keep as many people going as possible.
“I’m also going to Mexico to check on the A1GP series and see if they need any personnel because this team’s biggest asset is its people.”
After helping run Roger Penske’s Indy-car operation from the trenches for 15 years, Walker branched out into ownership in ’91. Scott Goodyear won the team’s first race in 1992 and Robby Gordon added a pair of wins in 1995 with sponsorship from Valvoline and Cummins. But Walker’s greatest success came in 1997, when Gil de Ferran finshed second in the CART standings behind Alex Zanardi. He lost Valvoline and Cummins at the beginning of this decade and, since then, it’s been an annual scramble to find sponsors and keep
the doors open.
“We were assembling GT-40s one winter to keep going and I’ll explore everything I can to find other work,” continued Walker.
When Champ Car was absorbed into the Indy Racing League earlier this month, Walker was confident he could find sponsors to support the free engines and cars he received from Tony George.
“Tony’s Leaders Circle Program ($1.2 million per car) and the free equipment is very generous, but it was still going to take $3.5 to $4 million per car for a limited program and you would need all that,” he said. “We have two IRL cars in our shop and the boys just finished up one of them and had it painted in Team Australia colors, so we were looking pretty good for the test next week at Sebring and Homestead.”
As for Walker’s future?
“Nigel and I had talked about running one or both of his sons in Champ Car in a year or two, but I don’t know if he’s interested now that it’s the IRL,” he responded. “My goal would be to come back to Indy cars in 2009.
“But right now I’m just trying to keep the lights on.”
