Gil de Ferran rushes to get IRL team going

Rumors about who the former Indy 500 champ will hire as drivers include Danica Patrick, but she’s a longshot.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Gil de Ferran’s next big race is against the clock — and he’s already behind.

The soon-to-be retired sports-car driver is embarking on the most ambitious challenge of his career: Getting a new IndyCar team up and running in less than seven months.

“Time is against us,” de Ferran said. “For us to be competitive, there are a lot of things we need to do. Because it’s our first foray into IndyCar racing, we’ll probably have to do twice as much work.”

Working overtime is no problem for de Ferran.

It’s the catching up that worries the Brazilian.

De Ferran is scrambling to find sponsors in a tough economy, drivers who can give the team instant credibility, and crew members with enough experience to decode a car’s secrets. Established IndyCar teams have spent years fine-tuning their cars, collecting reams of computer printouts to make adjustments and developing, even funding wind tunnel programs.

But the 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner does have some advantages over most startup teams.

For four years, he got an inside look at the most successful operation in series history, Team Penske. Marketing his image as a no-nonsense winner with two CART points titles could help land funding. And at 41, his name still resonates with those in the racing community.

Those who know de Ferran best believe, despite the obstacles, he will have a strong two-car team in place next season.

“He’ll put together a first-rate effort and he’ll go into every race with an opportunity to win, that’s the way he is,” Penske president Tim Cindric said. “He’s a first-class guy and he’ll put together a first-class team.”

At his retirement announcement two weeks ago, de Ferran said he wanted to add a second car to his American Le Mans Series team and start a two-car team in the Indy Racing League.

Either venture requires a lot of time and money, but de Ferran is willing to try.

“We’re flat out, doing everything we can,” he said. “We feel like we have a good skeleton to work from.”

He’s not the first to create a new team. Sarah Fisher’s team, now in its second year of operation, continues to run a part-time schedule.

And last year, Graham Rahal won the season-opener in St. Petersburg, Fla., 41 days after his bankrupt Champ Car series merged with the Indy Racing League.

“The biggest challenge is the equipment and getting up to speed with the people you have around,” said Brian Barnhart, IndyCar president of competition and operations. “There’s not a lot of running and there’s extremely limited test time.”

De Ferran has already started looking for drivers and though there have been no announcements, there has been plenty of speculation.

Some wonder if de Ferran would make a bold move to take Scott Dixon, the defending series points champion and current points leader, from Ganassi. Dixon drove part-time for de Ferran’s ALMS team last season and the two are friends. But Dixon is already under contract for next season.

Others believe he will move Simon Pagenaud, his ALMS teammate, to IndyCars.

Hull offered another possibility — Danica Patrick — though it is a longshot. Rumors about where Danica will land next season have been rampant since the spring. She’s expressed interest in jumping to NASCAR and some think she’d be better off joining a team like Ganassi, which competes in both series.

Patrick would bring money and sponsors as the most marketable personality in the series.

It is possible, but only time will tell if de Ferran can win the race to race.

“The challenge is not so much putting a team together, the real challenge is competing at the front,” Cindric said.