Gordon’s Next Start Will Be His Own Team

Eight years ago, Jeff and Robby Gordon burst on the American motor racing scene as the two hottest driving prospects in the country.

Jeff went on to become NASCAR’s Winston Cup superstar, winning three championships in four years.

Robby, no relation to Jeff, has had a more circuitous career. He has raced stock cars, sports cars, Indy-champ cars and off-road trucks, sometimes with a brilliance that dazzled, but with minimal success.

Be won some--two Indy car races in 1995, a Winston Cup pole in 1997, a Trans Am race at Long Beach in 1992, two Daytona 24-Hour endurance events and the Baja 1000 off-road race--but he never seemed to stay in one vehicle very long.

Gordon, 30, announced Tuesday that he is starting his own organization, Team Gordon, to drive the full CART champ-car season in a Toyota-powered Swift, and the Indy Racing League’s Indianapolis 500 in a G Force.

Partners with Gordon in the project will be John Menard, one of the IRL’s most respected car owners, and Mike Held, Gordon’s business agent.

“Running my own team is nothing new for me,” Gordon said at his team headquarters in Anaheim, a few miles from his home in Orange. “I always ran my own truck operation and we were very successful with it.

“One reason I went to Winston Cup with the Sabco team two years ago was that I thought I would have some driver input in the team operation, but [owner] Felix Sabates had his own ideas. I felt to be successful, I had to be more than just a hired driver. I wanted to be in on how the cars were designed, built and prepared.

“Now, I will have that opportunity.”

CART officials say that it takes about $10 million to run a competitive single-car team for a season.

Gordon, whose off-road truck is a Toyota Tundra, became familiar with Toyota power when he was a test driver early last season for the Arciero-Wells CART team and later became its regular driver when Hiro Matsushita retired in midseason.

“The Toyota engine wasn’t given the notice it deserved last year,” Gordon said. “In the last few races, it was putting out plenty of horsepower. I believe Toyota can win this year and we want to be the first to do it.”

In what may be a forerunner of crossover teams, Menard--one of the Forbes 400’s richest people in the country with a net worth of more than $1 billion--also will run a full IRL schedule with Greg Ray as his driver. Tony Stewart, who won three races and the 1997 IRL championship for Menard in the last two seasons, left to drive a Winston Cup car for Joe Gibbs.

Menard has been involved with Indy car teams for 20 years and will become the first owner to field teams in both rival open-wheel racing series. Team Gordon will be sponsored by Menard’s chain of lumber and home-improvement stores.

“I am a businessman with a passion for open-wheel racing,” said Menard, whose stores make him the third-largest home-improvement retailer in the country. “Currently, there are 140 Menard’s stores, and the [CART] FedEx series holds races in six Midwestern markets crucial to Menard’s, including two races in our home state of Wisconsin [he lives in Eau Claire]. It makes sense to get involved for those reasons alone.

“My IRL team will aggressively take a run at the title, and with the opportunity to partner with Robby and Team Gordon, we’ll run for a championship in CART, as well.”

Gordon said he has been planning his own team since 1995 and was encouraged by the success of Bobby Rahal, who won the CART championship in 1992, his first year as a driver-owner.

With Rahal retired, Gordon will be the series’ only owner-driver.

“On paper, and on the sides of the car, I am the team owner,” he said. “But as far as I’m concerned, my main duty will be to drive the car, period. I certainly don’t think that concerns about not damaging or abusing the car will affect my driving.

“I expect to race it like I’d just stolen it.”