Back at the end of August the FAZZT racing team announced their intention to compete full time next year in the IndyCar series with Alex Taglianni their driver. The ownership group consists of Montreal entrepreneur Andre Azzi, Rubicon Sports Agency owner Jim Freudenburg and actor Jason Priestley.
Clearly, this endeavor is not just a pipe dream. They purchased the assets of Roth Racing which included their Indianapolis race shop and four good Dallara chassis. Further, they have signed Taglianni to a four year deal with an option on a 5th year.
We bring this up because FAZZT Racing was well represented on Indy Racing Weekly and they talked about how well the sponsorship work is going. They think their #1 car is fully funded for 2010 and they are starting to talk about running a 2nd car for a partial season or possibly even a full season effort. Long term they want to put a young Canadian driver into their 2nd seat.
The team will be in attendance at the Montreal Auto Show in January 2010, where they will unveil their livery and sponsorship. Maybe by them we will know for sure if they will be running a partial or full season effort for their 2nd car. We should hear more about this from the team in October as they firm up plans for their car launch.
Two things come to mind when I hear how well this team has been able to draw sponsors from North of the border:
1. Congratulations Alex. You have had some pretty rough breaks over the last couple of years, but you are a talented driver that really deserves this opportunity.
2. Paul Tracy could probably put together a similar deal if he would get off his but and stop complaining about how sponsors are not coming out of the woodwork to give him “hamburgers and hot dogs” to drive a “crapwagon”. Paul is easily more visible and marketable than Alex. Why has he not been able to get together anything long term?