Patrick Racing


Patrick Racing was an auto racing team in both Champ Car and the Indy Racing League. Patrick Racing was started by Pat Patrick in the 1970s. The team is best known for winning the Indianapolis 500 on three occasions, and the Indy car title twice. Patrick Racing has 45 IndyCar wins.
The team fielded its own cars from 1975 to 1983 under the name Wildcat.
Over its history, the team has had three distinct manifestations.

Team statistics

Indy car champions

Indianapolis 500 victories

History

First stint

Pat Patrick started his Indy Car racing career as a sponsor of the team fielded by fellow Jackson oilman Walt Michner in 1967. He became a co-owner of the team in 1970 and established Patrick Racing.
The team won the 1973 and 1982 Indianapolis 500 with driver Gordon Johncock. Johncock also won the 1976 USAC National Championship. The team was closely associated with STP sponsorship.
In the mid-1980s, the team expanded to two cars, featuring drivers Emerson Fittipaldi and Kevin Cogan. The team parted ways with STP, and 7-Eleven became their primary sponsor for 1985. In 1986, Marlboro joined the team. Cogan won his first and only race of his career in 1986 at Phoenix. Fittipaldi won his first CART race, the Michigan 500, in 1985. Cogan finished a heartbreaking second place in the 1986 Indianapolis 500, after being passed with just over two laps to go.
For 1987, the team secured the use of the new Ilmor Chevy Indy V-8 engine. Fittipaldi won two races, and finished 10th in points. After dropping back down to a one-car effort, Fittipaldi won two more races in 1988, finished 2nd at Indy, and improved to 7th in points.

1989-1990 "trade" deal

In 1989, Chip Ganassi joined Patrick as co-owner for Fittipaldi's #20 Marlboro entry. Patrick was preparing to retire from the sport, and began putting the pieces in place to sell the team at season's end. Patrick struck a lucrative deal with Ganassi, Penske Racing, and Phillip Morris. Penske would supply Patrick with two PC-18 chassis for the 1989 season for Fittipaldi to drive. In return, Penske would take driver Fittipaldi and sponsor Marlboro starting with the 1990 season. Furthermore, Penske would receive interim Marlboro sponsorship to field a third car at the three 500-mile races in 1989.
For 1990, Chip Ganassi would take over the assets of Patrick Racing, which he would use to start his own team.
The Patrick team experienced dominating success in the 1989 CART season. After winning the 1989 Indianapolis 500 and the 1989 CART championship, at some point Pat Patrick changed his mind about retiring. With the wheels already in motion to dissolve his existing team, he decided to explore options, and was coaxed out of retirement for 1990.

Second stint

As planned, Ganassi split off to form his own team in 1990. Pat Patrick took over the upstart Alfa Romeo Indycar project previously run by Alex Morales Motorsports. Roberto Guerrero signed on as primary driver with Al Unser, Sr. driving a second car at the Indy 500 and the Michigan 500.
The new Patrick Racing team landed sponsorship from Miller. It was effectively another "trade" between Penske and Patrick, as Miller and Marlboro were owned by the same parent company, Phillip Morris. The services of Al Unser, Sr. were also effectively a trade between the two outfits.
The team saw little on-track success, and even less success in the engine development. Unser, in fact, had to sit out the Michigan 500 after he wrecked in practice, suffering a broken leg. Unser then quit the team.
For 1991, Danny Sullivan took over as primary driver, and the team continued to fail miserably. By the end of the 1991 CART season, Patrick was in financial and legal trouble. As the team was collapsing, rumors surfaced that the Patrick team had shipped one of the Ilmor Chevrolet V-8 engines over to the Alfa-Romeo engine developers in Italy, who in turn, tore the engine down to examine it and allegedly stole design ideas. It was returned in pieces and infuriated Ilmor officials.
At the conclusion of the 1991 season, Danny Sullivan left the team, and was replaced by Bobby Rahal. Sullivan went to Rahal's old seat at Galles-Kraco Racing. Patrick's contractual obligations with Alfa-Romeo had ended, so the team attempted to resign with Ilmor, or possibly acquire older Ilmor engines from Newman/Haas. Due to the possible fraudulent actions by Patrick against Ilmor, the team was refused an Ilmor Chevrolet engine lease, despite inking the popular Rahal. Facing a decidedly uncompetitive powerplant situation for 1992, and escalating legal problems, in December 1991, Patrick sold the team outright to Bobby Rahal and his partner Carl Hogan. They formed Rahal-Hogan Racing, which is now known as Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

Third stint

In the mid-1990s, Patrick began to rebuild his team from scratch. In 1994, Patrick formed a testing team for Firestone tires, and spearheaded Firestone's return to Indycar racing for 1995. They did not enter any races in 1994, and instead tested all year. Scott Pruett signed on as the driver, and won the 1995 Marlboro 500.
In the next few years, Patrick experienced moderate success in CART.
Due to money issues and the constant uncertainty of racing in Champ Car, Patrick Racing jumped over the IRL in 2004. They ran Al Unser, Jr. until his mid-season retirement and then Jeff Simmons, Jaques Lazier, and Tomáš Enge. With no sponsorship for 2005, the team ceased operations and the assets were put up for sale.

CART drivers

All IRL drivers drove in 2004 only.

Racing results

Complete CART Series results

  1. Patrick Racing used pieces of Reynard's 97i, 98i, and 99i chassis to create their own unique setup rather than the stock 99i. This setup became known as the "Franken-chassis."
  2. The Firestone Firehawk 600 was canceled after qualifying due to excessive g-forces on the drivers.

    Complete IRL IndyCar Series results

IndyCar wins

#SeasonDateSanctionTrack / RaceNo.Winning DriverChassisEngineTireGridLaps Led
11973May 30USACIndianapolis 500 '20 Gordon JohncockEagle 72Offenhauser L4t 159 ciGoodyear1164
21973August 12USACMilwaukee Mile '40 Wally DallenbachEagle 72Offenhauser L4t 159 ciGoodyearPole50
31973August 26USACOntario 500 Qualification Heat 1 '40 Wally Dallenbach Eagle 72Offenhauser L4t 159 ciGoodyear55
41973September 2USACOntario 500 '40 Wally Dallenbach Eagle 72Offenhauser L4t 159 ciGoodyear549
51973September 23USACTrenton International Speedway '20 Gordon Johncock Eagle 73Offenhauser L4t 159 ciGoodyearPole81
61973November 3USACPhoenix International Raceway '20 Gordon Johncock Eagle 73Offenhauser L4t 159 ciGoodyearPole71
71974August 11USACMilwaukee Mile '20 Gordon Johncock Eagle 74Offenhauser L4t 159 ciGoodyear460
81974November 2USACPhoenix International Raceway '20 Gordon Johncock Eagle 74Offenhauser L4t 159 ciGoodyear474
91975March 2USACOntario 500 Qualification Heat 2 '40 Wally Dallenbach Eagle 74Offenhauser L4t 159 ciGoodyear319
101975September 21USACTrenton International Speedway '20 Gordon Johncock Wildcat IDGS L4t 158 ciGoodyear333
111976July 18USACMichigan '20 Gordon Johncock Wildcat IIDGS L4t 158 ciGoodyear244
121976August 15USACTrenton International Speedway '20 Gordon Johncock Wildcat IDGS L4t 158 ciGoodyear258
131977April 30USACTrenton International Speedway '40 Wally Dallenbach Wildcat IIDGS L4t 158 ciGoodyear76
141977September 14USACMichigan '20 Gordon Johncock Wildcat IIDGS L4t 158 ciGoodyear76
151977October 29USACPhoenix International Raceway '20 Gordon Johncock Wildcat IIDGS L4t 158 ciGoodyear664
161978March 18USACPhoenix International Raceway '20 Gordon Johncock Wildcat IIDGS L4t 158 ciGoodyear2121
171978April 23USACTrenton International Speedway '20 Gordon Johncock Wildcat IIDGS L4t 158 ciGoodyear479
181979March 11CARTPhoenix International Raceway '20 Gordon Johncock Penske PC-6Cosworth DFX V8tGoodyear833
191979July 15CARTMichigan '20 Gordon Johncock Penske PC-6Cosworth DFX V8tGoodyear320
201982May 30USACIndianapolis 500 '20 Gordon Johncock Wildcat VIIIBCosworth DFX V8tGoodyear557
211982June 13CARTMilwaukee Mile '20 Gordon Johncock Wildcat VIIIBCosworth DFX V8tGoodyearPole139
221982July 18CARTMichigan 500 '20 Gordon Johncock Wildcat VIIIBCosworth DFX V8tGoodyear2117
231983April 17CARTAtlanta Motor Speedway '20 Gordon Johncock Wildcat IXCosworth DFX V8tGoodyear336
241985July 28CARTMichigan 500 '40 Emerson FittipaldiMarch 85CCosworth DFX V8tGoodyear1929
251986April 6CARTPhoenix International Raceway '7 Kevin CoganMarch 86CCosworth DFX V8tGoodyear459
261986October 4CARTRoad America '20 Emerson Fittipaldi March 86CCosworth DFX V8tGoodyear57
271987July 5CARTGrand Prix of Cleveland '20 Emerson Fittipaldi March 87CChevrolet 265A V8tGoodyear537
281987July 19CARTExhibition Place, Toronto '20 Emerson Fittipaldi March 87CChevrolet 265A V8tGoodyear367
291988September 4CARTMid-Ohio Sports Car Course '20 Emerson Fittipaldi Lola T87/00Chevrolet 265A V8tGoodyear662
301988September 11CARTRoad America '20 Emerson Fittipaldi Lola T87/00Chevrolet 265A V8tGoodyear435
311989May 28USACIndianapolis 500 '20 Emerson Fittipaldi Penske PC-18Chevrolet 265A V8tGoodyear3158
321989June 18CARTDetroit street circuit '20 Emerson Fittipaldi Penske PC-18Chevrolet 265A V8tGoodyear34
331989June 25CARTPortland International Raceway '20 Emerson Fittipaldi Penske PC-18Chevrolet 265A V8tGoodyear262
341989July 2CARTGrand Prix of Cleveland '20 Emerson Fittipaldi Penske PC-18Chevrolet 265A V8tGoodyear254
351989September 24CARTNazareth Speedway '20 Emerson Fittipaldi Penske PC-18Chevrolet 265A V8tGoodyear2123
361995July 30CARTMichigan 500 '20 Scott PruettLola T95/00Ford XB V8tFirestone1258
371997April 6CARTGold Coast Indy 300 '20 Scott Pruett Reynard 97iFord XD V8tFirestone716
381998March 28CARTTwin Ring Motegi '40 Adrián FernándezReynard 98iFord XD V8tFirestone2102
391998August 9CARTMid-Ohio Sports Car Course '40 Adrián Fernández Reynard 98iFord XD V8tFirestone526
401999April 10CARTTwin Ring Motegi '40 Adrián Fernández Reynard 97iFord XD V8tFirestone4153
411999October 31CARTAuto Club Speedway '40 Adrián Fernández Reynard 97iFord XD V8tFirestone1310
422000April 30CARTAutódromo de Jacarepaguá '40 Adrián Fernández Reynard 2KiFord XF V8tFirestone1611
432000July 2CARTGrand Prix of Cleveland '20 Roberto MorenoReynard 2KiFord XF V8tFirestonePole91
442000October 15CARTGold Coast Indy 300 '40 Adrián Fernández Reynard 2KiFord XF V8tFirestone1717
452001September 2CARTStreets of Vancouver 20 Roberto Moreno Reynard 01iToyota RV8E V8tFirestone710