Sam Schmidt Motorsports have acquired Izod IndyCar Series team Fazzt Racing ahead of the 2011 season.
Fazzt was formed prior to the 2010 IndyCar season with Montreal entrepreneur Andre Azzi being the majority owner of the one-car outfit, whose sole driver Alex Tagliani also held a small stake in the term.As part of this deal Tagliani, who is also from Montreal and remains under contract this season with sponsorship from Toronto-based loudspeaker company Bowers & Wilkins, moves over to the Sam Schmidt Motorsports team.Tagliani said: “All I can say is that I will be driving the number 77 car all this season and there are many beautiful things happening right now. There was tremendous interest from Schmidt to jump into IndyCar and he contacted us.”Sam Schmidt, whose eponymous team are based out of Indianapolis, Indiana, had a previous spell as an IndyCar owner in the 2001 and 2002 season, before deciding to focus solely on the Indianapolis 500 from 2003 onwards. He initially launched his self-named team a year after being left quadriplegic from a crash in testing at the Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando.Schmidt said: “This is a fantastic time for me, my family and everyone at Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Though we competed in the IndyCar Series in 2001 and 2002, I can now admit we were naïve in our understanding of what it took to be successful at the top level of open-wheel racing in the United States. Ten years later, I have a much better understanding of what it takes to go IndyCar racing.”Schmidt will be able to start the 2011 season possessing a fully assembled team with a shop full of equipment ready to race and an experienced driver in Tagliani, who finished 13th in the IndyCar Series overall standings last year, with a full season’s sponsorship deal behind him.Joe Atkins, chairman of his sponsor Bowers & Wilkins, added: “Our support for Alex will transition with him to Sam Schmidt Motorsports. We are excited about this new relationship and look forward to supporting Sam and the team in any way we can.”The 17-race 2011 IndyCar Series schedule begins on Sunday 27th March with the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in Florida.
Source: SportsPro
