Yacaman to abandon open wheel for sports cars

Gustavo Yacaman

Indy Lights driver Gustavo Yacaman appears headed to a career in sports cars because there is no money to be made in IndyCar. In an interview on speed.com, Yacaman says he has sought the council of a few racing veterans to help form his decision, asking whether he should follow his passion to Indy cars or take the pragmatic approach with sports cars.

“I asked (HVM Racing team owner) Keith Wiggins what he thought because he’s looking at the same situation himself, and he said right now there’s more money to be spent in IndyCar than made there, and more to be made than spent in sports cars. And I asked Tony Kanaan, Juan Pablo Montoya, Ozz Negri, Michael Shank and a lot of guys what they think is the right move.

“And they all pretty much said the same thing. If my passion is IndyCar and I’m willing to take the risk, go for it, but if you want to be a professional driver and live off of it, then do sports cars. Tony said that since I have a good relationship with Shank, it would be smart to be part of GRAND-AM while the merger is happening. But right now there’s nothing confirmed."

As much as it appears Yacaman is leaning towards a life geared towards fenders and endurance races with Shank, he continues to work on finding the budget to land a proper IndyCar ride.

“I’ve been traveling a lot trying to find sponsorship and trying to get things going," he noted. “I’d very much like the do the Indy 500 and some road courses. That’s what JR [Hildebrand] did and got picked up (by Panther Racing), but that’s not a guaranteed way to make it in IndyCar, especially for an international driver like me. It’s a tough situation to be in. There’s nothing close to IndyCar, but I want to race more than anything.

“Wherever that is, I want to race for a long time. That’s my priority. Full-time IndyCar is not out of the question. We’re waiting to hear from some big proposals we have out and we’re squeezing the last bit from the sponsors we have to try and make something happen. It’s hard with the amount we have now to do [IndyCar] but if we can sign one or two big companies, it becomes much easier to sign and start testing right away."