Long Beach race could be driver's final Champ start

He's leaving his options open for the upcoming season.
By MIKE HARRIS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jimmy Vasser wants to make one thing perfectly clear: He is not retiring from racing.
But the former open-wheel champion, now 40, says that the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 9 could be his final start in the Champ Car World Series.
"That might be it for Champ cars," Vasser said. "But there might be a few other selected races later, and I'm definitely driving in the Grand Am [sports car] race in Homestead later this month.
"I never made a retirement speech and said I'm not going to race any more," he added.
"After all, there might be some opportunities come along that I just can't say no to."
The teammates
He'll be part of a three-car effort at Long Beach for PKV Racing, with rookie Katherine Legge moving up from the developmental Atlantic series and Oriol Servia making his first start for the team after moving over from Newman/Haas Racing.
Vasser won the championship in 1996 and finished second in 1998 in what was then the CART series.
He owns 10 race victories and has been one of the steadiest performers in open-wheel racing over the years.
He has 231 starts, including an ongoing string of 210 consecutive starts, and is coming off a strong season in which he finished sixth in the points.
Moreover, Vasser has gained a reputation as one of the smartest drivers in Champ Car, both on the track and off. Besides being a competitive driver for more than a decade, he set his future path two years ago by becoming a partner with Kevin Kalkhoven and Dan Petit in PKV Racing.
The transition
"The whole reason I went with Kevin and Dan is to have the opportunity to transition out of the car and into the business side of the sport," Vasser said.
"I'm already taking a more active role in the team leadership and the business side.
"But, until now, I tried to let the other owners handle that side of it and I tried to help build the team from the performance side, engineering and strategy. And it hasn't hurt that I've been working side-by-side with [team general manager] Jim McGee, who is one of the most knowledgeable men in all of racing."
With that foundation to build on after his driving days are through, Vasser was asked why he didn't just call it quits before the 2006 season begins.
"Well, first of all, I love racing at Long Beach," he said. "Then we've just signed Oriol Servia, who is a great driver. But he's not going to have a lot of time to acclimate himself to the team, and we're throwing a lot at him in a short amount of time.
"Then, our other driver is Katherine, who is going to need time and some help to develop. I want to be a part of helping her make the transition to Champ Car with plenty of support and all the information she needs, especially during the early stages of the season."
Vasser's dilemma
Vasser said he thought long and hard over the winter whether to just step aside completely or to start the season in the cockpit. Kalkhoven said he would have been supportive, whatever Vasser's decision.
"We gave Jimmy the option of driving not only to help mentor our two new drivers, but because of his wonderful history in racing and the fact that we believe he remains very competitive," said Kalkhoven, who is also co-owner of the Champ car series.
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