OPEN WHEEL RACING Money, sponsorships help IRL edge Champ

Several top drivers have already made the switch.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Adrian Fernandez would rather be driving in the Champ Car World Series. He enjoyed racing in his native Mexico, embraced the challenging road courses and already had a veteran team in place.
Financially, he says, he had no choice but to switch to the Indy Racing League. With employees' jobs at stake and sponsors clamoring for stability, Fernandez couldn't risk his team's future.
"How can you not get sponsorships to support Champ Car? It just doesn't make sense," Fernandez said. "Nothing was making sense. For how long can you be hanging on, waiting for an answer?"
He's not the only one who didn't hang around. Team owners Bobby Rahal and U.E. "Pat" Patrick made the jump, too, giving IRL the upper hand in its open-wheel battle with Champ Car.
The timing was odd since all three teams announced decisions after the IRL's season started this year, setting off a scramble for equipment and familiarity with the cars.
Uncertainty has dramatically changed the equation in the bout between North America's two most prominent open-wheel circuits.
"I think what's going on is what we figured all along -- that the future of open-wheel racing is over here," said Brian Barnhart, head of the IRL's racing operations. "With the TV schedule, the teams and sponsors over here now, this is the future of open-wheel racing."
Before the season even began, IRL president Tony George and an ownership group including Gerald Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi and Kevin Kalkhoven filed competing bids in court to bring the now-defunct CART series out of bankruptcy. Until a judge ruled in January in favor of the Champ Car officials, teams and drivers weren't even sure there would be a season.
Costly delay
The delay proved costly.
Teams, like Fernandez's, and sponsors wanted assurances there would be money, a TV contract and a season this year after the former CART series lost $78 million in the first three quarters of 2003 and declared bankruptcy in December.
Since there were no guarantees, the IRL appeared to have a stronger foundation to owners like Rahal, Patrick and Fernandez.
So Rahal moved his single Champ Car entry to the IRL. And Patrick, who helped found the former CART series and change the open-wheel landscape, decided to field an IRL team with two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser Jr. as the driver, who switched series in 2000. Fernandez left, too.
Besides a battered image, Champ Car also has faced logistical problems.
It couldn't announce a schedule until mid-February, after the court proceedings ended. The first race will be April 18 at Long Beach, Calif., and while league officials have announced 15 races, they're still trying to add two more races. And only recently they announced a TV deal with the cable network Spike.
Champ Car president Dick Eidswick acknowledges mistakes have been made, but he believes that despite the defections, his series has turned the corner.
"When I got here we had some difficulties, we had problems we had to solve," he said. "My thing is to use simple business sense to move beyond the problems. Lately, I've been spending much more time on offense than I have on defense."
The question is can Champ Car -- and open-wheel racing -- recover from the battle that has raged since the two series split in 1996?
Champ Car has 18 cars committed to the series, while the IRL has 22. The IRL has three engine manufacturers -- Toyota, Honda and Chevrolet -- while Champ Car only has Ford.
And most of the big names -- Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi, Michael Andretti, Rahal and Patrick Unser Jr. -- who initially stayed with CART after the breakup are now racing exclusively in the IRL.