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By Dan Proudfoot Bobby Rahal's search for a driver has taken him to the Indy Racing League and Indianapolis 500 winner Kenny Brack. But Rahal, who is releasing Bryan Herta after four years and two wins, yesterday stopped short of confirming he has signed the 33-year-old Swede as a teammate for Max Papis. "Kenny is on the short list," Rahal said at Houston, where Papis stood 13th and Herta third in first-day qualifying for tomorrow's Texaco Grand Prix. "I do not have a contract with anybody at this stage," said Rahal. "There are championships to be decided." Brack, under contract to A.J. Foyt, is racing at Las Vegas this weekend in the IRL's penultimate race of the year and couldn't be reached. The 1998 IRL champion is third in the all-oval series' point standing, three back of Scott Goodyear's 202 and still within reach of leader Greg Ray's 246. Finding a replacement for Herta has frustrated Rahal. Earlier this summer he was close to a deal with Gil de Ferran, only to be outbid by Roger Penske. Talks with Greg Moore ended the same way. "Bob has talked to two dozen guys, from Al Unser Jr. down. The list is down to three or four guys, and no contract has been signed," team spokesman Tom Blattler said, confirming Canadian Patrick Carpentier had called, but not that he was on the short list. Alex Barron, who started the year with Dan Gurney's team and also has driven for Penske, is a likely finalist, along with Brack. Roberto Moreno, no longer considered likely to replace Mauricio Gugelmin at PacWest, is a hot commodity who also is in the running at Patrick Racing, along with Herta. Brack has run exclusively on ovals during the past three years, and ovals have been Herta's weakness. Moving to CART would cost Brack the opportunity of returning to the Indianapolis 500, but it's believed Rahal is considering entering a car in next year's 500. As one of the leading forces working toward a CART-IRL merger, Rahal would enter Brack to demonstrate his commitment to working with IRL founder Tony George. Again, Rahal neither confirmed nor shot down the possibility of running at Indy. "That is not in our plans," Rahal said, "not at this stage." In the Player's/Forsythe pit, meantime, Moore's long-time engineer, Steve Challis, was shown the door after it was announced he had signed with Team Kool Green for 2000. Source: Canada Online, used by permission |
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