Everything is fine' between Tracy, Forsythe: report

Published: Monday, January 07, 2008
Canada.com

It seems rumours of a rift between Champ Car star Paul Tracy and Forsythe/Pettit Racing were greatly exaggerated.

Tracy told motorsport journalist Gordon Kirby that whatever problems the Toronto-born driver had with Forsythe/Pettit Racing team owner Gerald Forsythe have been rectified following a meeting last week and that talk of Tracy jumping to the IRL are untrue.

He also said that former Newman/Haas/Lanigan assistant team manager Kenny Siwieck will be in charge of his car.

"The result of the meeting is that Kenny Siwieck is now in charge of my car and everything is squared away with me and Gerry," Tracy said in a story posted Monday on gordonkirby.com. "Everything is fine between us. I went into the meeting believing that Gerry was going to renegotiate my contract to a very low amount or I would leave. And the conversation never even went that way. It was never brought up."

Rumours ran rampant recently that Forsythe and Dan Pettit, his new partner, were hoping to revamp Tracy's five-year contract with the team and ask the driver to accept a substantial pay cut.
That didn't happen and Tracy said the subject was never brought up.

"Gerry's main interest was in asking me what I think has been going on with the team the last couple of years," Tracy told the website. "We went over a bunch of points that I had and he asked me what I think I need to win the championship. I told him there was obviously a conflict between me and (Forsythe-Pettit general manager) Neil (Micklewright). I said I would prefer to have Kenny running my car and let him put together a team of engineers and crew guys who he believes have what it takes."

Siwieck, who worked with Newman/Haas for 18 years and called pit strategy for the Newman/Haas/Lanigan championship car driven by Sebastien Bourdais of France, joined Forsythe/Pettit over the winter as team manager.