PRI NOTES: Sachs Has Indy 500 Dreams

by Adam Fenwick
 

INDIANAPOLIS – If everything goes as planned, the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway could feature a car fielded by Eddie Sachs Racing.
 

Eddie Sachs Jr., the son two-time Indianapolis 500 polesitter Eddie Sachs, told SPEED SPORT on Thursday during the PRI Trade Show at the Indiana Convention Center that he is working on putting together a Verizon IndyCar Series program for the Indianapolis 500 next May.
 

“In 2016 it is the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500. We had sat down, oh, a couple of years ago to try and put a program together in honor of my dad to run the 500 in his 50th anniversary. Of course it all comes down to funding and putting everything together and it took some time,” Sachs said. “A great idea that was brought up to me was don’t go back in time, move forward. Why not take the 100th anniversary and start that as a new legacy or a new tradition and Eddie Sachs Racing could be involved as a 500 participant.”
 

Sachs, who fields teams’ at all three levels of USAC national competition, said he has had positive discussions with current Verizon IndyCar Series teams about becoming involved as a team owner. Sachs declined to say what teams he has spoken to or what drivers he may or may not be considering should the program come to fruition.
 

“I’ve negotiated with a couple different people, your top teams that have extra cars available are interested and are always interested,” Sachs said. “We’re trying to stay away from leasing cars. I’d like to really try to own the car because of the business side of it. Dallara has been very helpful at trying to establish chassis’ that they have available.”
 

Sachs said in order for the program to come together, he needs to locate additional partnerships to put the final pieces in place for the 100th Indianapolis 500.
 

“All the logistics are figured out. Right now if the funding was available I guess we could say we could move ahead. I’m cautiously saying that because I know how it is heart breaking and they put deals together and they don’t always work,” Sachs said.
 

Sachs said he would also like to try and put together and Indy Lights program for the Freedom 100 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He said should that work out, he hopes to put open-wheel dirt racer Davey Ray, who drives for Sachs in the USAC Silver Crown Series, in the seat for that event.
 

“I’d like to give him an opportunity in the Indy Lights car this year at the Freedom 100. We’re working on that,” Sachs said.
 

– John Force was on hand for a meet and greet at the Chevrolet Performance booth Thursday morning and was, as usual, in rare form. He recalled one particular story about recently retired NASCAR Sprint Cup Series star Jeff Gordon, whom he paid tribute to at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C., in September with a special one-off paint scheme.
 

“A lot of people asked me why did you do the tribute to Jeff Gordon. I knew Jeff when he was this tall,” Force said while using his hands to show Gordon’s height when he was just a young boy. “He goes to me, ‘Why are you always on fire?’ I said I don’t know, it’s just the way it goes. He said well you ‘ought to flame the car. So when we went to do the tribute of the 24 car and we ran it at Charlotte it was a way to flame a car for Jeff Gordon.”
 

– Matthew Brabham, who was recently named the driver of the PIRTEK Team Murray No. 61 Indy car for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, has dabbled in multiple forms of motor sport during the 2015 season.

He raced in handful of Indy Lights events, tested an asphalt late model owned by David Gilliland and raced in Robby Gordon’s Formula Off-Road stadium truck series, but one thing he said he wants to do and hasn’t done yet is try his hand at sports car racing.
 

“I’d love to get into some of the sports car stuff and do some endurance racing,” Brabham said. “My dad (Geoff Brabham) had some great success in that and I’ve listened to his stories and obviously my uncles stories at Le Mans too. I think that is a pretty cool thing as well.
 

“Right now I’m going to try and focus on Indy cars and if everything goes well then maybe I can start looking at doing some sports car stuff. There are just so many racing series out there and you want to drive everything and do everything, but you just kind of have to pick and choose and just kind of focus on what you want to do.”
 

– Bobby Rahal was on hand Thursday to announce that Steak & Shake would continue as a partner on the Rahal Letterman Lanigan (RLL) Racing Indy car driven by Graham Rahal in the Verizon IndyCar Series. Steak & Shake was a late addition to the RLL Racing sponsorship roster this year and the company was so pleased with the investment that they have expanded their support of the team to include five races as primary sponsor in 2016.
 

“It was frankly about February or March when we got together with them. It happened very late,” Bobby Rahal said. “I think they (Steak & Shake) brought us luck because once they came on the car we started doing some very good things. We’re very pleased to have them back.”
 

– Expect Venturini Motorsports to announce the signing of a young driver for a part-time ARCA Racing Series schedule sometime in the next few days. In other ARCA Racing Series news, Chase Briscoe will join Cunningham Motorsports for the full ARCA Racing Series schedule driving the No. 77 previously driven by Tom Hessert.
 

– Some of those spotted walking the PRI Trade Show floor on Thursday were defending Chili Bowl winner Rico Abreu, National Sprint League champion Danny Lasoski, new JR Motorsports NASCAR XFINTIY Series driver Justin Allgaier, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series veteran Johnny Sauter, Indy Lights champion Spencer Pigot, sprint car driver Sam Hafertepe Jr., Wayne Taylor Racing sports car driver Jordan Taylor, ARCA Racing Series champion Grant Enfinger, ARCA team owner ‘Big’ Bill Venturini and former Truck Series race winner Justin Lofton, among others.