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Walker Racing was a racing team founded byDerrick Walker in 1991 racing originally in theCARTChampionship Car series. It last competed in theUnited SportsCar Championship under the name of Team Falken Tire until Falken Tire pulled out of not only the series but the team in general at the conclusion of the 2015 United SportsCar Championship season.
The team was founded by Walker, who purchased the left over assets of the former Porsche Indy team. In the first season, 1991, the team successfully qualified rookieWilly T. Ribbs at theIndy 500.
In 1992, the team fieldedScott Goodyear on a full-time basis who won atMichigan and nearly won the1992Indianapolis 500. He was joined beginning with the1993 Indianapolis 500 byWilly T. Ribbs who raced with the team until the end of the 1994 season. The team ran a third full-time car in 1993 forHiro Matsushita.
Goodyear was replaced at the beginning of the 1994 season byRobby Gordon who raced with the team withValvoline sponsorship until 1996. Gordon raced alongside teammateMark Smith who was a championship contender in Indy Lights and showed promise in his 1993 CART rookie season but had a difficult 1994 season with the Walker Racing team. Smith was replaced by rookieChristian Fittipaldi in 1995 who finished second in the Indy 500 and finished 15th in points.
As a results of the CART–IRL split in 1996, the Walker team elected to participate in both races with Gordon andFredrik Ekblom driving in theU.S. 500 andMike Groff racing in the1996 Indianapolis 500.
In 1997,Gil de Ferran took over the Valvoline car and was the runner up in the championship that year, despite not scoring a victory. De Ferran stayed with the team until 1999, a year where he finally broke through and scored his first victory for the team, the team's first since Gordon's win atDetroit in 1995.
With no driver or sponsorship for the 2000 season, the team was forced to take onpay driverShinji Nakano who finished a disappointing 24th in points. Meanwhile, the team entered theIndy Racing League'sIndyCar Series in2000 with rookie female driverSarah Fisher who was inconsistent but fast in her two years with the team, scoring a career-best finish of 2nd place atHomestead-Miami Speedway in2001. Nakano was replaced in the team's CART entry in 2001 by countrymanTora Takagi who broughtPioneer Electronics sponsorship to the team. Takagi managed slightly improved results over Nakano scoring 10 top-10 finishes in his two seasons with the team. The team also attempted to fieldOriol Servia in the2002 Indianapolis 500 but he failed to qualify.
Takagi left to the IRL in 2003 and the void was filled by Mexican driverRodolfo Lavin who broughtCorona sponsorship. Walker ranDarren Manning full-time in a second car with a variety of different sponsors and he finished 9th in points while Lavin only managed 18th.
Both drivers were gone for 2004 as the series morphed into theChamp Car World Series. BrazilianMario Haberfeld drove the team's only full-time car. Late in that season Australian businessmanCraig Gore bought into the team and it becameTeam Australia.
In 2005 the team took an Australian turn due to its new sponsorship, with the addition ofAussie Vineyards sponsorship and Australian rookie driverMarcus Marshall joining Canadian veteranAlex Tagliani as the team returned to two full-time cars.Will Power made his debut in a third car at the 2005Lexmark Indy 300 in Australia and replaced Marshall for the season finale in Mexico. The pair of Tagliani and Power continued with the team in 2006 and Tagliani was replaced by 2006Champ Car Atlantic Series championSimon Pagenaud in 2007. Power won two races in 2007 including the season opener inLas Vegas, the team's first victory since Gil De Ferran was with the team.
Walker initially indicated that he believed that the Champ Car World Series had run its last race and he was preparing to race in the IRL IndyCar Series in2008.[1] However, on March 9 the team announced that it would not race in the IndyCar Series in 2008 as it was unable to find adequate funding to do so as sponsor Aussie Vineyards jumped ship toKV Racing.[2] Walker Racing did finally appear in the 2008 season in a joint effort withVision Racing at Edmonton to runPaul Tracy.
Walker fieldedStefan Wilson for a partial season campaign inIndy Lights in2009.
In 2011, Derrick Walker joined forces withTeam Falken Tire to run aPorsche 997 GT3-RSR in the upcomingAmerican Le Mans Series season in the GT class. Falken's motorsports division made their ALMS début in2009 racing certain events before entering a full2010 season. The team took its maiden victory at the2011 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge in which heavy rain towards the end of the race which favoured the team as the rain tires Falken developed were considerably better than those ofMichelin andDunlop.Wolf Henzler, one of the drivers in the race was in seventh when the rain started falling and went up to fifth before the safety car came out. In the restart, Henzler overtook the next four cars in a single lap to take the lead before the red flags came out around ten minutes before the end of the race. It was also the first win for a team running on Falken Tires and also the first wins for drivers Wolf Henzler andBryan Sellers.
In 2012, Derrick Walker returned to theIndyCar Series as team manager forEd Carpenter Racing, co-owned byTony George and driverEd Carpenter. The team is based in the Walker Racing facility and utilizes Walker Racing's equipment and personnel.[3]
On November 20, 2016, the team was put up for auction after a year of searching for a replacement sponsor for its IMSA team. On December 6, 2016, after the auction is complete the team will be officially listed as defunct.[4]
(key) (results inbold indicate pole position) (results initalics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Chassis | Engine | Tyres | Drivers | No. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | Pts Pos | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | SFR | LBH | PHX | INDY | MIL | DET | POR | CLE | MEA | TOR | MCH | DEN | VAN | MDO | ROA | NAZ | LAG | |||||||||||
| Lola T90/00 | CosworthDFSV8t | G | 15 | 23 | 7 | 21 | 27 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 19 | 8 | 7 | 15 | 24 | 8 | 11 | 9 | 21 | 11 | 13th | 42 | ||||||
| 10 | 11 | 22 | 10 | 6 | 21 | 10 | 17 | 12 | 17th | 17 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Buick3300V6t | 17 | 32 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1992 | SFR | PHX | LBH | INDY | DET | POR | MIL | NHA | TOR | MCH | CLE | ROA | VAN | MDO | NAZ | LAG | ||||||||||||
| Lola T91/00 Lola T92/00 | Chevrolet265AV8t | G | 15 | 9 | 18 | 5 | 2 | 22 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 1* | 10 | 20 | 5 | 16 | 4 | 26 | 5th | 108 | |||||||
| Lola T90/00 | CosworthDFSV8t | 17 | 23 | 26th | 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| DNQ | 58th | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lola T91/00 | Chevrolet265AV8t | DNQ | NC | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DNQ | DNS | 24 | 25th | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 21 | 48th | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DNS | 42nd | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 25 | 57th | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1993 | SFR | PHX | LBH | INDY | MIL | DET | POR | CLE | TOR | MCH | NHA | ROA | VAN | MDO | NAZ | LAG | ||||||||||||
| Lola T93/00 | FordXBV8t | G | 2 | 10 | 20 | 16 | 7 | 23 | 10 | 12 | 20 | 9 | 5 | 19 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 9th | 86 | |||||||
| 15 | 11 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 13 | 13 | 21 | 12 | 16 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 21 | 19 | 26th | 7 | ||||||||||
| Lola T92/00 | 75 | 21 | 11 | 12 | 16 | 27 | 18 | 10 | 15 | 12 | 16 | 11 | 19 | 28 | 20th | 9 | ||||||||||||
| 1994 | SFR | PHX | LBH | INDY | MIL | DET | POR | CLE | TOR | MCH | MDO | NHA | VAN | ROA | NAZ | LAG | ||||||||||||
| Lola T94/00 | FordXBV8t | G | 9 | 23 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 11 | 6 | 13 | 4 | 13 | 2 | 25 | 23 | 13 | 5th | 104 | |||||||
| 15 | 21 | Wth | 25 | DNQ | 24 | 14 | 16 | 22 | 30 | 5 | 20 | 12 | 8 | 26 | 12 | 14 | 19th | 17 | ||||||||||
| Lola T93/00 | 24 | 18 | 28 | 18 | DNQ | 22nd | 12 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Lola T94/00 | DNQ | 25 | 16 | 25 | 12 | 21 | 7 | 28 | 10 | 25 | 24 | 18 | 11 | |||||||||||||||
| 1995 | MIA | SFR | PHX | LBH | NAZ | INDY | MIL | DET | POR | ROA | TOR | CLE | MCH | MDO | NHA | VAN | LAG | |||||||||||
| Reynard 95i | FordXBV8t | G | 5 | 13 | 14 | 1 | 22 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 1* | 8 | 26 | 5 | 6 | DNS | 8 | 9 | 3 | 15 | 5th | 121 | ||||||
| 15 | 5 | 25 | 10 | 14 | 20 | 2 | 7 | 17 | 12 | 8 | 9 | 24 | 9 | 25 | 8 | 24 | 24 | 15th | 54 | |||||||||
| 1996 | MIA | RIO | SFR | LBH | NAZ | 500 | MIL | DET | POR | CLE | TOR | MCH | MDO | ROA | VAN | LAG | ||||||||||||
| Reynard 96i | FordXDV8t | G | 5 | 3 | 15 | 16 | 13 | 22 | 20 | 17 | 26 | 10 | 18 | 9 | 8 | 18 | 17 | 10 | 15 | 18th | 29 | |||||||
| FordXBV8t | 15 | 12 | DNS | 19 | 9 | 18 | 25th | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 14 | 34th | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 25 | 40th | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1997 | MIA | SFR | LBH | NAZ | RIO | GAT | MIL | DET | POR | CLE | TOR | MCH | MDO | ROA | VAN | LAG | FON | |||||||||||
| Reynard 97i | Honda HRRV8t | G | 5 | 22 | 5 | 21 | 4 | 11 | 3 | 7 | 3* | 2 | 2* | 25 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 2nd | 162 | ||||||
| 1998 | MIA | MOT | LBH | NAZ | RIO | GAT | MIL | DET | POR | CLE | TOR | MCH | MDO | ROA | VAN | LAG | HOU | SFR | FON | |||||||||
| Reynard 98i | Honda HRKV8t | G | 5 | 7 | 3 | 20* | 4 | 26 | 6 | 22 | 3 | 20 | 6 | 27 | 16 | 9 | 16 | 13 | 19 | 21 | 14 | 17 | 12th | 67 | ||||
| 1999 | MIA | MOT | LBH | NAZ | RIO | GAT | MIL | POR | CLE | ROA | TOR | MCH | DET | MDO | CHI | VAN | LAG | HOU | SRF | FON | ||||||||
| Reynard 99i | Honda HRSV8t | G | 5 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 15 | 10 | 25 | 3 | 1* | 2 | 14 | 19 | 24 | 22 | 6 | 13 | 26 | 6 | 17 | 27 | 9 | 8th | 108 | |||
| 15 | 25 | 16 | 19 | 27 | 14 | 22 | 20 | 19 | 35th | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 19 | 11 | 26 | 12 | 29th | 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2000 | MIA | LBH | RIO | MOT | NAZ | MIL | DET | POR | CLE | TOR | MCH | CHI | MDO | ROA | VAN | LAG | GAT | HOU | SRF | FON | ||||||||
| Reynard 2Ki | Honda HR-0V8t | F | 5 | 8 | 14 | 23 | 15 | 11 | 15 | 14 | 20 | 13 | 19 | 22 | 19 | 26 | 21 | 8 | 21 | 16 | 24th | 12 | ||||||
| 5 | 20 | 18th | 26 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2001 | MTY | LBH | TEX | NAZ | MOT | MIL | DET | POR | CLE | TOR | MCH | CHI | MDO | ROA | VAN | LAU | ROC | HOU | LAG | SRF | FON | |||||||
| Reynard 01i | Toyota RV8FV8t | F | 5 | 10 | 20 | C1 | 14 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 14 | 22 | 13 | 11 | 21 | 22 | 7 | 6 | 26 | 4 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 21st | 12 | ||
| 2002 | MTY | LBH | MOT | MIL | LAG | POR | CHI | TOR | CLE | VAN | MDO | ROA | MTL | DEN | ROC | MIA | SFR | FON | MXC | |||||||||
| Reynard 02i | Toyota RV8FV8t | B | 5 | 14 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 15 | 12 | 15 | 14 | 15 | 6 | 15 | DNS | 18 | 6 | 15th | 53 | ||||
| 2003 | STP | MTY | LBH | BRH | LAU | MIL | LAG | POR | CLE | TOR | VAN | ROA | MDO | MTL | DEN | MIA | MXC | SFR | ||||||||||
| Reynard 02i | FordXFEV8t | B | 5 | 18 | 15 | 18 | 15 | 9 | 14 | 19 | 11 | 14 | 15 | 8 | 19 | 12 | 15 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 8 | 18th | 17 | |||||
| 15 | 13 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 18 | 6 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 11 | 9 | 2 | 9th | 103 | ||||||||
| 25 | 19 | 27th | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004 | LBH | MTY | MIL | POR | CLE | TOR | VAN | ROA | DEN | MTL | LAG | LSV | SFR | MXC | ||||||||||||||
| Reynard 02i | FordXFEV8t | B | 5 | 9 | 15 | 10 | 9 | 14 | 4 | 9 | 11 | 8 | 13 | 7 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 13th | 157 | |||||||||
| 15 | 7 | 20th | 18 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 14 | 23rd | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(key)
| Year | Chassis | Engine | Tyres | Drivers | No. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | Pts Pos | Pos | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | WDW | PHX | INDY | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reynard 95i | FordXBV8t | G | 60 | 20 | 6th | 228 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1997 | NHA | LSV | WDW | PHX | INDY | TXS | PPIR | CLT | NHA2 | LSV2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Reynard 95i | FordXBV8t | G | 50 | 14 | 37th | 27 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2000 | WDW | PHX | LSV | INDY | TXS | PPIR | ATL | KTY | TXS | |||||||||||||||||||
| Riley & Scott Mk V | OldsmobileAuroraV8 | F | 15 | 13 | 17 | 18th | 124 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Dallara IR-00 | 31 | 12 | 25 | 14 | 3 | 11 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2001 | PHX | HMS | ATL | INDY | TXS | PPIR | RIR | KAN | NSH | KTY | GAT | CHI | TXS | |||||||||||||||
| Dallara IR-01 | OldsmobileAuroraV8 | F | 15 | 17 | 2 | 11 | 31 | 18 | 10 | 17 | 12 | 19 | 19 | 11 | 24 | 25 | 19th | 188 | ||||||||||
| 2008 | HMS | STP | MOT | LBH1 | KAN | INDY | MIL | TXS | IOW | RIR | WGL | NSH | MDO | EDM | KTY | SNM | DET | CHI | SRF2 | |||||||||
| PanozDP01 | CosworthXFEV8t | B | 15 | 7 | 32nd | 56 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dallara IR-05 | HondaHI7RV8 | F | 22 | 43 | 33rd | 51 | ||||||||||||||||||||||