Carlin to buy or team with KV Racing? (3rd Update)

UPDATE

This rumor is downgraded to 'false' today. Trevor Carlin has admitted that the chances of a KV Racing-Carlin partnership this season are now looking remote, having failed to land Mikhail Aleshin.

Carlin told Motorsport.com: "Through circumstances, 2017 seems to have slipped away from us. It's getting so late, it would be hard to put a team together now – not impossible, but very difficult.

"So we'll just get our heads down, crank on with the Indy Lights team, and try and defend our championship, and see where that leads for 2018."

"Kevin [Kalkhoven] worked really, really hard with us to get a car on the grid, and the idea of running Aleshin was really exciting. He won World Series by Renault with us back in 2010, and he's really looked strong in IndyCar, and he's learned the limits of these cars; he's not a wild rookie.

"So that was the deal we really wanted to put together, and if Aleshin turned up with the right money in the next two weeks, I'd have to seriously reconsider.

"But SMP don't seem that keen on the States at the moment, so the deal's not there to be done. Like I say, now it's looking too late, and we've said all along that rushing to do things at the last minute isn't how we work and doesn't help anybody."

"For the right deal – and Kevin offered an extremely good deal on his equipment – and the right driver, I considered it worth doing that one-year aerokit deal," he said. "But as time moves on now, it's probably best to just arrive with the new [universal] aerokit for 2018 at the same time as everyone else.

"The other thing is, I said all along that when we come in we want to stay in. We don't just want to come in for a couple of races and then disappear again. We want to set it up properly, start, and then be in for the long-term."

Trevor Carlin had to stick a fork in the KV Racing deal

10/15/16 Autosport's Bruce Martin writes that Kalkhoven is set to end his team ownership collaboration with Jimmy Vasser – which began in Champ Car in 2004 – and could join forces with Carlin at its existing Florida premises if a deal is completed.Carlin could make its IndyCar Series debut in 2017 in partnership with long-time entrant and current KVSH Racing co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven.

An eventual move into IndyCar has been Carlin's aim since it expanded into American racing by entering Indy Lights two years ago.

Team boss Trevor Carlin confirmed talks were in progress.

"It's being worked on, but it's a long way from being a done deal," he told Autosport.

"The team belongs 100% to Kevin Kalkhoven.

"He's got Jimmy there as racing mentor and Sulli [James Sullivan] who's the sponsorship guy, and they wouldn't stay around.

"Apart from that nothing would change apart from we would be involved.

"It's a way off yet and there are still some pieces of the jigsaw to put in place – a few million [dollars] of them!"

Autosport understands Kalkhoven is keen to scale down his role with a view towards moving out of motorsport team ownership, and a Carlin tie-up would be a step towards this. Autosport

09/21/16 In an update on Tuesday, Kalkhoven told racer.com said KV will be in action next year, which suggests a new partnership arrangement could be in the works.

"The reality is, we're just collecting a whole bunch of information, and gathering data, before making any decisions," Kalkhoven told RACER. "Certainly we're considering options, we're considering how many cars to run, and the only thing I can confirm is we'll be there next year. Any further than that – and I know motorsport loves speculation – but I'm not going to comment."

Multiple sources have said the Kalkhoven-owned assets headed to Carlin – namely the cars, transporters, and equipment needed to run an IndyCar program – could be leased, sold, or merged with another team.

We have updated our 2017 IndyCar Silly Season Page

Kevin Kalkhoven

09/17/16 According to AR1.com sources here in Sonoma is that Kevin Kalkhoven is thinking of folding the team next year. We have already rumored that Sebastien Bourdais is going to Dale Coyne Racing in 2016. And we hear Kalkhoven has moved to Florida – most likely to get away from a democrat state like California that taxes retirees up the wazoo and move to a republican state like Florida which has no state income tax, to inheritance tax and no estate tax.

The other rumor is that the team would merge with the Florida based Carlin Racing…..which could be another reason Kalkhoven would move to Florida. Ed Jones, the Indy Lights Champion for 2016, would be the driver, bringing the one million dollar prize to help fund the new team.