RuSport still in Loveland, speeding changes along

LOVELAND – Champ Car racing team RuSport is constantly on the move. Two years ago, the company was preparing to pack up shop and relocate from Loveland to Broomfield.

Since then, a lot has changed for the team -new cars, new races, a new driver and a new owner – but the location remains the same. Delays in the planning process for its new building helped the company decide to stay put.

RuSport was founded by Carl Russo in 2003. In its first year, the team raced in the Champ Car Atlantic – a series that typically leads teams into the Champ Car World Series or Indy Racing League. RuSport took home the championship title in its debut year. The next year, it moved into the Champ Car World Series, and needed more space.

By early 2005, RuSport was deep in the process of designing a 35,000-square-foot facility at the Jefferson County Airport.

“We were pretty much all set to go,” team president Jeremy Dale said.

But then a hiccup occurred. Dale recalls that someone stepped forward to object to the RuSport building, claiming to have some development rights for the property that the race team would be leasing from the county.

“We felt at that point we had to say enough is enough,” Dale said, adding that the company had already spent a good deal of money designing the building and the delay would have meant additional expenditures.

That caused the company to reevaluate its plan, and to remain in Northern Colorado.

“Our biggest task has been trying to stabilize,” Dale said. “What happened is that people started to get settled in up here.”

RuSport employs about 35 people, many of whom moved to the area to join the team.

Focus on racing

With the location issue resolved, the RuSport team was able to focus on its racing season. In 2005, both of RuSport’s drivers, Justin Wilson in the No. 9 car and A.J. Allmendinger in the No. 10 car, finished the season in the top five in championship points. The next year would prove to be a challenge.

RuSport released Allmendinger from the team early in the series.

“We went our separate ways after the fourth race,” Dale said, without elaborating.

Cristiano de Matta eventually took the wheel of No. 10. However, during a test session in August, de Matta was seriously injured when his car hit a deer at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

“He almost didn’t survive,” Dale said. “I’m glad to say he’s 99.9 percent back to normal.”

De Matta is recovering at home in Brazil. RuSport is still evaluating drivers for its No. 10 car.

A new driver won’t be the only new addition for this year’s racing series. In November, retired California businessman Dan Pettit purchased RuSport from founder Russo. Pettit was previously the co-owner of PKV Racing, another team in the Champ Car World Series.

In addition to a new, yet-to-be named driver and a new owner, RuSport and the rest of the teams in the Champ Car World Series will be racing new cars this year.

The new Georgia-built Panoz DP01 cars will replace the English Lola vehicles, and offer fewer options and extras than the Lolas. It is a huge change, according to RuSport commercial services coordinator Tom Lutz.

A ‘human game’

“Every team will have basically the same chassis,” he said. “It makes it more of a human game.”

The switch, Lutz explained, means that the race will depend less on how much money a team is able to spend and more on its mechanic preparation and driver skill.

To go with the new cars, the Champ Car World Series will also see several new races in the 2007 season. The season opener on April 8 in Las Vegas will be a first-of-its-kind race for Sin City. While previous races have occurred at a permanent racetrack, this year, it will be held on the streets of downtown Las Vegas.

“We prefer to race on the streets,” Dale said. “It’s more exciting.”

This year, two races have been added in Europe – one in Holland and one in Belgium. Dale said that there is a big Champ Car fan base in Europe. Additionally, the series will hold its first-ever race in China.

There will be one race missing this year, though.

Champ Car officials announced in February that the Denver Grand Prix event would be postponed for the next two years. The race was held on the streets surrounding the Pepsi Center in the Auraria area. However, scheduling conflicts with Cirque du Soleil this year and the Democratic National Convention next year pushed the series into a postponement.

RuSport is disappointed to see the Denver race on hold.

“For us, that is in effect our home race,” Dale said. “It gave us a chance to have friends and family come to the race.”

Although the Denver race is only postponed, Dale is still holding out hope that another option will work out for a Colorado race.

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