Vision Racing to add second car?

UPDATE Despite struggling to find additional sponsorship, Vision Racing team owner Tony George said Thursday at Motegi that one way or another, he intends to field at least a one-car team in both the IndyCar Series and the Firestone Indy Lights Series next season.

George did indicate, however, that lack of sponsorship has clouded the future of his team – something ironic considering that George is the founder of the Indy Racing League and was the CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation before a dispute with the Hulman-George Family-controlled IMS board of directors led to his ouster on July 1.

“I have no formal agreements with anybody in terms of sponsorship," George said Thursday at Motegi. “We have some basic nods and agreements in some relationship that we want to continue for next year but until all of that gets firmed up I can’t say I absolutely have them in hand.

“I feel reasonably certain we’ll have at least one car and hopefully one in each series but my goal is to have two in each series."

George has fended off rumors that Vision Racing is considering shutting down its operation after this season.

“Right now I don’t have anything and I can’t continue if I don’t have funding," George said. “I’m working on trying to put programs together on two cars for both series and I may or may not be successful in getting to where I need to be." Versus

08/04/09 “I’m working to put a two-car program together right now and hopeful to be able to do that," Tony George said. “I’d like to build it around Ryan Hunter-Reay as a second driver but I’m sure he is talking to other people to see what opportunities are out there. Ed Carpenter and Ryan get along well and he fits in well and everyone likes him. It’s a goal of ours’ to have a second car but we might not be able to put a deal together any way.

“Whatever the schedule is we are going to work during the off-season to up our game all the way around," George said. “I can’t predict what will happen next year. The schedule is what it is and what happened at Milwaukee (which was dropped from the schedule because of financial difficulties) is something we can’t control. I think it is a pretty good schedule and we will do our best to be as competitive from the first race to the last race as we can." Versus