Management Shuffle For DRR and Conquest

UPDATE Team owner Eric Bachelart recently hired ex-DRR team manager Larry Curry to manage his Conquest team on a part-time basis. We suspect his son Matt is along for the ride. The Currys have bounced around from team to team since Curry was fired after he was caught stealing from a team and spent time behind bars.

Larry Curry and his son are out at DRR

10/31/11 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.

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.