Roth lands IRL sponsor test
If you're in the racing business these days, and you want to go fast and do well, don't try to fly solo.
If you insist on being a one-man band, you won't have anybody to ride shotgun for you, to compare notes with, or to motivate you to put your foot not only a little closer to the floor but maybe right through it.
Look at NASCAR. There isn't a top Nextel Cup team that doesn't have four cars in the garage these days. They can go some place for a test and four cars can be trying out different things from fuel economy to tire compounds to aerodynamics and have four sheets of data to compare, instead of just one.
This is the story in the open wheel ranks, too. All four Andretti-Green cars in the Indy Racing League are capable of winning and, in fact, have dominated the last couple of races. The paltry two-car entries of Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi have been struggling to keep up.
Which brings us to Toronto's Marty Roth, a veteran motorcycle and car racer who's been tilting at windmills in the IRL for the past four years because of two distinct disadvantages: a) he's been all alone out there, testing and racing, and b) he's been lacking in sponsor support.
Money buys speed and stability, as they say, and Roth hasn't had a lot of outside help. He has financed his three Indy 500 starts and a half-dozen other IRL and Indy Pro races out of his own pocket.
Next weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, which will be the IRL's swan song for 2007 (Dario Franchitti is expected to be crowned champion, if he can stay on the ground), Roth plans to enter not one but two cars in the IRL race (ABC, 4 p.m.).
He'll be in the first car and veteran U.S. sprint car chauffeur P.J. Chesson will drive the other.
The big news today is that both cars will be sponsored by Dussault Apparel Inc. of Vancouver, a deal that was put together by a marketing company headed by Gene Simmons of KISS rock `n roll fame.
To say that Roth is pleased with developments is one of the great understatements.
"Jason Dussault (the owner) flew to Chicago for our two-day test (the week of Aug. 12) and he was tickled pink to be involved with our team. There's no doubt that he and his company are going to fit right in with Roth Racing and the Indy Racing League."
Roth was also thrilled to have a racing partner to practise with for the first time in his IRL career.
"It was great to have P.J. there for two days," he said. "We were able to talk things over (about how the cars were behaving) and I learned a lot of things that I wouldn't have if I'd been testing by myself.
"In fact, things went so well by about 3 o'clock on the second afternoon that we just loaded up both cars with fuel and went out and played for an hour."
The Toronto property developer, who stressed he has his fingers crossed that the IRL will one day be racing north of the border, said he has great respect for a number of talented young Canadian drivers, but opted for Chesson because "we do a lot of speedway racing and I needed a guy who's dialed in to speedways."
Roth explained that the second car came about because veteran owner Sam Schmidt put his Indy car operation on the market – the car, pit equipment, timing stand, refuelling rig, the works – and Roth decided to go for it.
To handle everything, Roth's doubled the size of his team's headquarters in Indianapolis (about three kilometres from the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway) to some 930 square metres, which is plenty of room for a two-car operation.
He has his eye on running those two cars at the Indy 500 and full-time on the IRL championship trail next year, but that takes money. He's crossing his fingers that Dussault will sign on as sponsor.
"We hope we can show them in Chicago what we can do for them in '08," Roth said, but quickly added: "They're a public corporation and, like everybody else, they have to report to people. We're working with them for one race and, essentially, starting to build a relationship.
"It's a one-off at the moment, but we hope this will continue into next year."
Roth said the deal with Dussault came about because of the IRL's relationship with Simmons and his marketing people.
"Gene Simmons and his company promote the IRL," Roth said. "The IRL likes what we're planning on doing with these two cars at Chicago and knows of our ambition to run a two-car operation next year. They asked Simmons and his firm to give us a hand. It shows up front how the IRL supports its teams."
Early indications are that as many as 24 cars will take the green flag next week in that last IRL race of '07 – a record number of entries for Indy-type racing in recent years.
The IRL's future looks bright. Marty Roth wants to go along for the ride.
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