Panther Racing

JR Hildebrand in a Panther IndyCar 2011

Panther Racing was a team in the IndyCar Series .

history

The team was founded in 1997 , sponsored by Pennzoil at the time . The first driver was Scott Goodyear , who stayed with the team until 2000 , clinched his first win in 1999 and finished second in the championship in 2000. 2001 they picked Sam Hornish Jr. , who both this year and in 2002 won the championship. After a fifth championship rank in 2003 Hornish then moved to Penske Racing .

For the 2004 season , Panther merged with the Menard team, so that two cars were used for Mark Taylor and Tomas Scheckter . In 2005 Taylor was replaced by former Formula 1 driver Tomáš Enge . For 2006 they lost Pennzoil as a sponsor and Vítor Meira was the driver of the only remaining vehicle. In order to be able to use more vehicles again, there was a partnership with the Autobacs Racing Team Aguri from Japan in 2007 , which had cooperated with Fernández Racing in previous years . As a result, Kosuke Matsuura was again a second driver for the entire season, and a third vehicle was used in two other races.

Since Matsuura's sponsor Panasonic switched to Andretti Green Racing the following season , Panther had to shrink again to a one-car team. This was still driven by Vítor Meira, but Dan Wheldon was already at the wheel of the show race in Surfers Paradise , he took over the car for the 2009 season . Wheldon could not build on his successes at Andretti Green Racing and Ganassi and only achieved six top five placements in the two following two seasons. In addition to Wheldon, a second vehicle drove in individual races. 2009 sat Scott Sharp in this car in 2010 it was Ed Carpenter .

Wheldon left the team in 2003 and JR Hildebrand took over the regular cockpit at Panther. The rookie surprised at the Indianapolis 500 with a very good race and led the field into the last lap, but flew into the outer wall in the last corner. Ironically, Wheldon took the lead shortly before the finish line and won the race while Hildebrand only crossed the finish line in second. This was the fourth time in a row that Panther Racing had reached this place in Indianapolis. In the further course of the season Hildebrand could no longer confirm this performance and at the end of the season ended up outside the top 10 in the overall ranking. This continued in the following season and the young US boy reached 11th place in the final ranking.

Panther Racing did not use a second vehicle in 2012, but had incorporated its existing engine contract with Chevrolet for a second vehicle into the partnership with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (DRR). Both teams also cooperated from the middle of the 2012 season on using the vehicles. At the beginning of the 2013 season , Hildebrand stayed in the car, Oriol Servià was in the DRR car. After the Indianapolis 500 , Hildebrand was fired, while DRR withdrew from the series due to a lack of budget. Subsequently, Servià and Ryan Briscoe drove the races in the car with the number 4. Briscoe injured his hand in the first race in Toronto , which is why Carlos Muñoz was used as a substitute in one race.

Prior to the 2014 season , Panther Racing lost its main sponsor, the National Guard , to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing . The team has filed a lawsuit against the change of sponsor to competitor. In July 2014 it was announced that the team was auctioning off its equipment and thus closing it for good.

driver

Vítor Meira 2006 Panther Honda .

season	No.	driver	comment
1998	4th	Scott Goodyear
	43	David Steele	only Texas and Las Vegas
1999	4th	Scott Goodyear
2000	4th	Scott Goodyear
2001	4th	Sam Hornish Jr.
2002	4th	Sam Hornish Jr.
	15th	Dan Wheldon	only in Chicagoland and Texas 2
2003	4th	Sam Hornish Jr.
	44	Robby McGehee	only on the Indy 500
	98	Billy Boat	only on the Indy 500
2004	2	Mark Taylor	The first five races
		Townsend Bell	The races from Kansas
	4th	Tomas Scheckter
2005	2	Tomáš Enge	Missed from Milwaukee and Michigan
		Buddy Lazier	only in Milwaukee
		Townsend Bell	only in Michigan
	4th	Tomas Scheckter
	95	Buddy Lazier	only on the Indy 500, in Nashville, Michigan, Kentucky and Chicagoland
2006	4th	Vítor Meira
2007	4th	Vítor Meira
	33	John Andretti	only on the Indy 500
	55	Kosuke Matsuura
	60	Hideki Mutoh	only in Chicagoland
2008	4th	Vítor Meira	all races except Surfers Paradise
		Dan Wheldon	only in Surfers Paradise
2009	4th	Dan Wheldon
	16	Scott Sharp	only on the Indy 500
2010	4th	Dan Wheldon
	20th	Ed Carpenter	only on the Indy 500, in Kentucky and Homestead
2011	4th	JR Hildebrand
	44	Buddy Rice	only on the Indy 500, in Kentucky and Las Vegas
2012	4th	JR Hildebrand
2013	4th	JR Hildebrand	only in St. Petersburg, Long Beach, Barber, Sao Paulo and Indianapolis
		Ryan Briscoe	only in Detroit, Milwaukee, Pocono, Sonoma and the first Toronto race
		Carlos Muñoz	only at the second Toronto race
		Oriol Servià	Texas, Iowa, Mid-Ohio, Baltimore, Houston, and Fontana only
	60	Townsend Bell	only in Indianapolis

successes

• 2001: IRL championship with Sam Hornish junior
• 2002: IRL championship with Sam Hornish junior
• 2003: Indy Lights championship title with Mark Taylor

Web links

Commons : Panther Racing  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.motorsport-total.com/usracing/news/2011/05/Warum_Hildebrand_seinen_Fehler_beging_11053002.html
2. ↑ http://www.motorsport-total.com/usracing/news/2012/05/Chaos_vor_dem_Indy_500_Allianz_und_Klage_12050801.html
3. ↑ http://www.motorsport-total.com/usracing/news/2013/04/Das_Ende_fuer_Dreyer_and_Reinbold_13042601.html
4. ↑ http://www.motorsport-total.com/usracing/news/2013/07/Sechs_Tage_nach_Pocono_Dixon_siegt_auch_in_Toronto_13071401.html
5. ↑ http://www.motorsport-total.com/usracing/news/2014/03/national-guard-panther-und-rahal-streiten-14030401.html
6. ↑ http://www.motorsport-total.com/usracing/splitter/2014/07/panther-equipment-wird-versteigert-14071004.html