by Roger Horton

It has been confirmed by American racing entrepreneur Roger Penske that Toyota are negotiating to purchase the Minardi Formula One team to facilitate their entry in Grand Prix racing. Penske was quoted as stating that he expected a deal to be finalized in the "near future."

It had previously been thought that Toyota would make their entry into Formula One as late as 2002 or 2003. If the purchase is confirmed, then it is likely that they will play an active part in the management of the team almost immediately. It was announced recently that Ford would no longer supply customer engines to Minardi and it is likely that Toyota could fund the use of SuperTec engines as an interim measure.

The role of Roger Penske in these negotiations is not clear, but the long time CART team owner recently sold 80% of his CART stocks for some US$20 Million and earlier this week stunned the American racing establishment by merging his Penske Motorsports Inc with rival International Speedway Corporation. With this deal, Roger Penske effectively gave up control of some of Americas (and Carts) most famous tracks including Fontana, Michigan, Nazareth and North Carolina. It is reported that he raised more than US$600 Million with these moves.

Roger Penske ran his own Formula One team in the 1970's, winning the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix with John Watson at the wheel.