Davis-Craig Racing was born in Midland, Texas, and now a decision to stay there has been announced by Gerald Davis and Murray Craig, new owners of the IndyCar team that has given the Permian Basin some notoriety the last six years.

Canceling plans to move the team to Indianapolis, Davis explained that staying put makes economic sense at this stage of the team's development.

"We looked all over Indianapolis for a place to put our shop. The rents were not very encouraging to a move, which we would have made for economic reasons, to cut down on transportation costs," Davis said. "But after we studied all the factors, we couldn't see any savings.

"Between IndyCar teams and IRL teams the city is loaded with major racing organizations. In that setting we would be just another team. Here in Midland we have some status. Our many friends and fans here would have been disappointed to lose us. The prospect of leaving was a tough hurdle for me personally, too. Midland has been home for 18 years.

"We also found that our air fares out of Midland are very good, which we don't find to be the same in Indianapolis, competing for good rates with all those other teams. We had to stop and consider the fact that IndyCar has taken on a decidedly West Coast flavor, which is another reason to stay right here."

Races at Long Beach, Laguna Seca, Portland and Vancouver have been joined by a new race at Fontana, Calif. Another new race at St. Louis is also convenient to a Midland home base, and this year's race on the Gold Coast in Australia will feature a West Coast departure, rather than one from Indianapolis, as it was this year.

Davis owns the property at 1101 W. County Rd. 150, where the same team had been housed under a different owner. He said he also weighed the cost of moving heavy equipment, tools, parts and personnel to a new base in Indianapolis, and the idea of moving flunked again.

Rookie driver Gualter Salles, a Brazilian, lives most of the year in Miami, commuting occasionally home to Petropolis, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro. He has no current plans to live in Indianapolis, as did the team's previous driver, Brazilian Gil de Ferran.

So Texas is hanging onto its only IndyCar team.

Source: IndyCar News Service