Funding Shortage Sidelines Gurney

Dan Gurney’s Santa Ana-based racing team, All American Racers, will not compete in the 2000 CART FedEx Championship Series.

Gurney’s announcement came after failure “to generate sufficient sponsorship funding for a credible, competitive program in 2000,” he said Tuesday. But the package Gurney proposed included driver Bryan Herta, and delaying a decision wouldn’t be fair to Herta or other team members who worked on the Gurney-built Eagle chassis.

Except for 1994-95, years AAR devoted to a testing program of the new Toyota champ car program, Gurney’s team has had an entry in Formula 1, Indycars, Champ cars or sports cars since 1965.

Gurney ended a 16-year relationship with Toyota in October, and has been reorganizing the program since.