Dragon Racing

Dragon Racing

Dragon Racing is a racing team in the Izod IndyCar Series owned by Jay Penske. The team debuted as Luczo Dragon Racing in 2007.

Contents

Team history

Luczo Dragon Racing

The team debuted as Luczo Dragon Racing in 2007. The team fielded a one-off entry at the 2007 Indianapolis 500 with driver Ryan Briscoe with Jay Penske and Stephen J. Luczo as owners. The car was prepared by Penske Racing which is owned by Jay's father Roger. In addition, Briscoe was a driver for Penske's American Le Mans Series team. Briscoe qualified 7th and finished 5th in the race. The car was notable for being painted in a "retro" paint schemes to resemble Rick Mears' 1988 Indy 500 winning car, a trend that Penske Racing would mimic in selected future races.

Scheckter's LDR car practicing for the 2008 Indy 500

Luczo Dragon ran a six-race schedule in 2008 including the Indianapolis 500 with IndyCar veteran Tomas Scheckter,[1] this time without support or cars from Penske Racing. While qualifying well, the team failed to finish every race but one, knocked out by crashes twice and mechanical trouble three times. Scheckter finished 21st in the only race he completed, the Detroit Indy Grand Prix.

The team expanded to a full–time entrant in 2009, fielding 2008 Firestone Indy Lights champion Raphael Matos.[2]

de Ferran Dragon Racing

For the 2010 season, the team merged with de Ferran Motorsports to form de Ferran Luczo Dragon Racing and Gil de Ferran joined as co-owner. The team ran a full season for Raphael Matos, plus Davey Hamilton at the Indy 500 in conjunction with his Kingdom Racing group. Hamilton planned to run at Texas also, but his crash at Indy precluded the start. His second start with the team came at Chicagoland. Prior to the 2010 Indy 500, the team renamed itself de Ferran Dragon Racing as the previous name was "too long" according to co-owner Steve Luczo.[3]

For the 2011 IndyCar Series season, Matos was released and series veteran and past champion Tony Kanaan was signed on to drive the team's primary entry.[4] However, after the team was unable to find sponsorship, de Ferran released Kanaan and the team shut down.[5]

Dragon Racing

After closing its doors in February 2011, Jay Penske revived the team. A month later, he re-branded the team as Dragon Racing in April 2011 and jointly announced that Paul Tracy had signed a five-race deal to compete for the team. Additionally the team entered two cars in the Indy 500[6] for drivers Scott Speed and Ho-Pin Tung. Tung crashed his car during qualifying and suffered a concussion. The team's second entry crashed in practice on the final day of qualifying with Patrick Carpentier behind the wheel, who was shaking down the car for Speed. Tung made his IndyCar debut for the team later in the season at Infineon Raceway. The car was run in association with Sam Schmidt Motorsports.[7]

Drivers

1Driver practiced but did not qualify for 2011 Indy 500.

References

  1. ^ Cavin, Curt & Ballard, Steve. Scheckter likely back at Indy 500, The Indianapolis Star, February 1, 2008
  2. ^ DiZinno, Tony. Matos, Luczo Dragon latest to confirm 2009 plans, Motorsport.com, October 7, 2008
  3. ^ Luczo Dragon becomes de Ferran Dragon, Racer, May 14, 2010, Retrieved 2010-12-25
  4. ^ Kanaan to deFerran Dragon, Indianapolis Star, December 21, 2010, Retrieved 2010-12-25
  5. ^ de Ferran and Kanaan part ways, Motor Racing Network, February 24, 2011, Retrieved 2011-03-01
  6. ^ http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/indycar-tracy-to-lead-restructured-dragon-racing/
  7. ^ Ho-Pin Tung to make debut at Infineon with Schmidt Dragon Racing, AutoWeek, August 24, 2011, Retrieved 2011-08-29

External links

v · d · e2011 IndyCar Series season
Teams
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10 Franchitti		 38 Rahal
83 Kimball		 3 Castroneves
6 Briscoe		 12 Power 7 Patrick
26 Ma. Andretti		 27 Conway
28 Hunter–Reay		 4 Hildebrand 22 Wilson
24 Beatriz
Foyt Schmidt KVRT Coyne Newman/Haas HVM Conquest
14 Meira 77 Tagliani 5 Sato
59 Viso		 82 Kanaan 18 Jakes
19 Bourdais/Lloyd		 2 Servià
06 Hinchcliffe		 78 de Silvestro 34 Saavedra
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Road to Indy
Indy Lights • Star Mazda • U.S. F2000
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