PacWest Racing

PacWest Racing was a Champ Car racing team owned by Bruce McCaw founded in 1993. The team's first full time season was the next year, 1994, with drivers Dominic Dobson and future Indy Racing League co-champion Scott Sharp. In 1995, the team switched to former Formula 1 driver Mauricio Gugelmin and a fading Danny Sullivan, who would be replaced late in the season by Juan Manuel Fangio II after an injury. In 1996, Mark Blundell took over Fangio's seat. 1997 became PacWest's breakout year, with the team taking four wins, including Gugelmin's single CART victory. The team was since considered a major team, and was figured to be in contention. The next three years, however, turned out to be a disappointment. 2001 saw Blundell, who retired after the previous season's end, replaced with 2000 Indy Lights Champion Scott Dixon, who earned PacWest's final victory at Nazareth, in which Dixon's teammate Gugelmin withdrew after the death of his son. 2002 was PacWest's final year, in which the troubled team could only obtain associate sponsorship from NTN. The team started four races with Dixon and Oriol Servia. After the third race, Toyota got Dixon a ride with Target Chip Ganassi Racing, and Servia started one more race before McCaw closed the organization. Toyota thought the world of Dixon and asked Ganassi to give him a shot. Toyota agreed to give Ganassi free engines for the rest of the year (2002). So, Ganassi agreed to field a third car for Dixon. The team was purchased by Kevin Kalkhoven and Craig Pollock to form PK Racing. The team continues to operate as KV Racing Technology.

The PacWest team's two cars were the cars used by main characters Jimmy Bly (#18) and Joe Tanto (#17) in the 2001 movie Driven.

Past Drivers

*flagicon|GBR Mark Blundell (1996-2000)
*flagicon|NZL Scott Dixon (2001-2002)
*flagicon|GER Dominic Dobson (1993-1994)
*flagicon|ITA Teo Fabi (1996)
*flagicon|ARG Juan Manuel Fangio II (1995)
*flagicon|MEX Adrian Fernandez (1997)
*flagicon|BRA Mauricio Gugelmin (1995-2001)
*flagicon|BRA Roberto Moreno (1999)
*flagicon|ESP Oriol Servia (2002)
*flagicon|USA Scott Sharp (1994)
*flagicon|USA Danny Sullivan (1995)

Sources

[http://www.champcarworldseries.com/Teams/Performance.asp?Year=2002&TeamID=13 Statistics for PacWest Racing's final season]