Hunter-Reay won’t get IZOD back as primary sponsor in 2011; Simona stays put with HVM
With drivers like Graham Rahal, Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan heading (or possibly heading) for new teams in 2011, it appears that this year’s edition of Silly Season in the IZOD IndyCar Series is shaping up to be quite interesting.
Now we can add Ryan Hunter-Reay to the fray. Two days after confirming that 7-Eleven would end its primary backing of Tony Kanaan — as well as telling the 2004 IndyCar champ that he could look for other opportunities — Andretti Autosport is now saying that IZOD will not return for another year as main sponsor for RHR.
A team release states that AA is in “negotiations with multiple companies” to take over from IZOD on the Hunter-Reay program. The American driver finished seventh in the championship with a victory at Long Beach, six top-5s and 12 top-10s this season — which would have been truncated if other team sponsors hadn’t stepped up in mid-season to keep him in the No. 37 machine.
John Lopes, the team’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer, said in the release that one of those negotiating companies has already put up an offer.
“We notified our sponsor family late last week that Ryan’s primary sponsorship was open for 2011 and 2012, and we have already received one offer,” he continued.
“Putting together a proper full-season IndyCar budget these days typically takes multiple sponsor partners working together with the team and its fellow sponsors. Putting the puzzle together takes time, but Ryan may well be the most in-demand driver in our sport right now and we are fortunate that he brought all the right stuff to the team, and lots of key people noticed. We agreed to a new contract with Ryan the evening prior to this year’s Indianapolis 500, and now it is the team’s job to pull the details together quickly in order to put that contract into effect.”
—–
Meanwhile, another IZOD IndyCar Series driver is staying put for next season.
Simona de Silvestro will be back with HVM Racing to contest her second campaign in the series. De Silvestro finished 19th in the championship but managed to claim Indy 500 rookie of the year honors and the Tony Renna Rising Star award at season’s end.
“We have tremendous chemistry as a team and money can’t buy that,” said De Silvestro in a team release. “I am thankful for the chance [team owner] Keith [Wiggins] gave me this year and for [team principal] Imran’s [Safiulla] support. The whole team has come a long way.
“We faced a lot of adversity, yet we remained strong and that speaks to the character and cohesiveness of our team and my supporters. We have proved we can run up front, despite the funding challenges from sponsorship short falls.”
The team will look to shore up its financial prospects over the offseason, with Wiggins stating that the team is “focused on getting the right package together to move forward.”
“When we started this season, we could not have anticipated the challenges we would face, both financially and on track with incidents and equipment damage,” he said in the release. “However, we could not also have anticipated the development of Simona in such a short period. The team and driver showed what is possible. Now, it is time to put 2010 behind us and do the job properly in 2011.”
