IndyCar team to fold?

UPDATE KV Racing Technology has every intention of being a better IndyCar Series team in 2009 even though it appears its primary sponsor, Team Australia, won't return.

Mark Johnson, the general manager of the Indianapolis-based team, said today that team co-owners Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser have assured him "we're going racing" next season.

"The edict has been, let's improve our team," Johnson said.

The team hasn't named a driver for either of its two cars, but it seems fair to say that Oriol Servia and Will Power will be considered. Servia finished ninth in the standings with four top-five finishes in IndyCar Series races (he was also fifth at Long Beach, the final Champ Car World Series event). Power was dominating the street course race in Surfers Paradise, Australia, from the pole when his car struck a barrier.

Johnson, who works with the owners in sponsorship issues, didn't reveal any details of the 2009 program, but he insisted that "we're encouraged."

"We have more things going on that we've ever had at this point," he said.

KV has even hired four people since the end of the regular season, including two in the engineering department. Indy Star

10/30/08 If the Surfers IndyCar race gets axed, Team Australia will be no more in the IRL.

Before this year's IndyCar race in Surfers, the Australian newspaper Gold Coast Bulletin quoted Gore as saying: "I just hope that Tony George and the rest of his boys of the IRL see sense and recognize that this is probably like throwing away the Indy 500. … It is far and away their second-biggest race. They probably need to hand out corncobs at some of the races to get people to some of them. I can tell you now if there's no IRL on the Gold Coast, there's no Team Australia," Gore added. "I have invested $20 million into this event and this team and flying the Australian flag, and made a significant contribution to the state and the country. Hopefully we can win it this year so if I do have to walk away, I can say we that have achieved what we set out to do."

The team did not win the race after Will Power crashed out while leading and things don't look good that the race will get added to the 2009 schedule, so PKV Racing could be down to one car in 2009 unless another sponsor materializes.