Another IndyCar team to fold? No!
Eric Bachelart, Conquest Racing team owner: “No matter how hard the current economic situation is making things for us in the racing world and everywhere else, never once did I think of closing the doors of Conquest Racing. I had two options in front of me. One was to reduce the number of employees while moving ahead on finalizing our program for 2009. The other was to ask the employees to take a salary cut and stay with the team while we move forward. I’m really happy that everyone has decided to stay together and that I didn’t have to layoff anybody.
“We’re a close group at Conquest Racing and we’re excited about the upcoming season. Our cars are ready to go racing per the 2009 rules and we hope to be at the test in Homestead in a few weeks time. We’re confident that we will succeed in putting together a strong program for the 2009 season. We are in contact with many potential sponsors and we should hopefully have deals finalized in a matter of weeks."
02/01/09 This rumor is downgraded 'false.' We spoke Eric Bachelart who assures us he is not going to fold the team. "I am confident that something will come together before the start of the season," said Bachelart. "We are working hard on many fronts and we have ongoing discussions with potential sponsors to run at least one car despite these trying economic times."
02/01/09 With the combination of the economy and the Versus TV deal, IndyCar teams are having a hard time justifying to a sponsor why they should put their name on the side of their race car. It appears the grid will be back down to 17 or 18 cars in 2009, to a level where it was prior to the merger with Champ Car. Failing are many of the ex-Champ Car teams who have had to make major adjustments to compete in IndyCar and effectively throw all the money they had invested in Champ Car equipment out the door.
SpeedTV.com' Robin Miller reports there is a good chance the Conquest Team will be forced to call it quits, but Eric Bachelart is still pounding the pavement looking for sponsorship.
"We had a long meeting on Friday and I gave them two choices," Bachelart told Miller. "I said we could close the doors or they could take a salary reduction and we could keep going and see where we were in a few weeks. "They agreed to stay with me so we haven't laid anybody off. We're a small team, I think we've only got 15 people, but they're a good group and most of them have been together for six or seven years."
However, when you have a monopoly like NASCAR with it's plethora of teams in the Truck, Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series looking for sponsorship they pretty much suck the market of potential sponsors dry.