INDYCAR: 'All we need is a car' for Grace entry
Thursday, 12 May 2016
Marshall Pruett / Image by IMS
Grace Autosport team owner Beth Paretta
(above, left) has kept quiet while putting the final touches on her Indy 500 program, and tells RACER there's only one obstacle left to overcome.
"All we need is a car," she said. "We have our driver Katherine Legge
(above, right) ready to go, we've had a signed contract and amazing support from our engine partner for months, we have full funding, and we have an experienced team to run our program. But we haven't been able to get our hands on a car. If we had a car, we'd be in Gasoline Alley getting ready for the start of practice."
The Grace team has explored a number of partnerships with existing teams, and looked at acquiring the AFS Racing chassis that
went up for sale this week, but reported the amount of work required to assemble and complete the car could consume most – or all – of the time available prior to qualifying.
It leaves Paretta continuing her search for a team that would be willing to lease a complete spare chassis to Grace for the Indy 500 and, possibly, to explore a business relationship beyond the month of May.
"Our sponsors and our engine supplier are ready for Grace Autosport to continue after Indy, and if there's a team that is open to working together starting now, and for a few more races this year, that would be the best-case scenario," she added.
"But we need to get to Indy first, and either way, whether it's just for the one race or for more, having someone say 'yes' to making a car available is the starting point. A car is the only part of the puzzle we're missing."
--------------------------------------------------------
Two days later:
[h=2]INDYCAR: Grace suspends Indy 500 plans[/h] Tuesday, 17 May 2016
Mark Glendenning / Image by LAT
Grace Autosport has confirmed that it will not make an attempt to contest this year's Indianapolis 500.
The Beth Paretta-led team overcame numerous setbacks in its attempt to pull a program together to run Katherine Legge, and by late last week it had all of the pieces in place
except for a chassis. However in a statement released by the team on Wednesday morning, Paretta said that all avenues for a viable car have been exhausted.
"We met with many teams in the IndyCar paddock late last season to determine partnership feasibility and discovered numerous teams had chosen to scale back their plans for 2016," said Paretta
(above). "We were ready to announce a team partnership for the Indy 500 at the Grand Prix of Long Beach in mid-April but a change in terms proved unsound for Grace's sponsor partners and unfortunately we had to step away from the deal.
"The consolidation of teams and the decrease of entries in 2016 reduced the available options for us. Our partner spoke with Dallara about buying a new car after Long Beach but there wasn't a current 2016 car available in time for the 500. We evaluated an available chassis as late as last week, but there wasn't enough time to acquire all the needed parts to rebuild the car safely. Because of this sequence of events, we will not campaign a car in this year's Indy 500."
Despite having to halt the team's 2016 Indy 500 plans, Paretta said that the Grace Autosport project remains active.
"As I said last summer, Grace Autosport was not interested in just making the grid and running at the back," she said. "We wanted to put forth a respectable effort and we wanted to be competitive, while keeping safety at the very forefront of our program. We apologize to the many fans that have reached out to offer their support, which has been incredible. The good news is that we will not give up and are now working closely with our partners to map out Grace's future."
"The Grace Autosport initiative is far more than a race program. Concurrent to building the race team, we have been assembling commercial partners and the essential pieces for our STEM educational initiatives to reach the community and the classroom that we set forth a year ago. Thank you again to the many fans for the continued notes of support and appreciation since our announcement last May. We look forward to seeing all of you at the races in the near future."
While the suspension of Grace's Indy 500 program likely ends Legge's hopes of being on the grid for the 100th running, the Briton (with Paretta,
above) will
race a Michael Shank Racing Ligier-Honda in the IMSA round at Belle Isle the following weekend.