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Roth Looking To Move Into IndyCar Series
By Tim Harms - www. indyracing.com
Thursday Jun 03, 2004

There’s a ‘For Sale’ sign up at Roth Racing in Indianapolis. But that shouldn’t be interpreted as trouble for the young race team. No, it’s a sign of bigger and better things on the horizon.

Marty Roth, who joined the Indy Racing League Menards Infiniti Pro Series™ as a driver in 2002 and formed his own race team after the 2003 season, surprised many people in March when he announced his intentions of running in the Indianapolis 500, the premier event in the IRL IndyCar® Series.

The rookie finished 24th -- earning $203,990 -- in the race on May 30, moving up from a starting position of 32nd. The confidence and experience gained during the month of practice, qualifying and racing have led Roth to put his two Menards Infiniti Pro Series cars up for sale so the team can focus on running additional IndyCar Series events later this season.

“We’re looking at running at Michigan (International Speedway) and Fontana (California Speedway),” Roth said. “We’re not sure yet about Chicagoland (Speedway) and the second Texas (Motor Speedway) race.”

Michigan and California are both 2-mile tracks while Chicagoland and Texas feature 1.5-mile ovals.

"We don’t have the wing configuration for the short tracks,” Roth said. “We have to rebuild the car and we want to put it together for the bigger speedways.”

The team is also seeking time to pore over all the data it acquired from running more than 1,800 miles at Indianapolis during May.

“Indianapolis was the best place to make this transition,” said Roth, whose team took delivery of a new Dallara chassis on March 25 and had it on the track for the Rookie Orientation Program on April 26.

“We were probably one of the only teams there to never have seen the inside of a wind tunnel. We’d like to put it through a wind tunnel, and now we’ve got the luxury to sit back, go through things, analyze it and see what the car is really like.”

"We want to do a bit of homework before we go back out there.”

Roth would also like to run a full season in the IndyCar Series in 2005, especially if the series adds road courses.

“I want to be among the first to get the road course configuration,” Roth said. “We’ll be at all the tests and do all the road courses next year. Hopefully, we’ll be in a position to do a full season.”

As Roth moves forward with the IndyCar Series, he joins drivers Ed Carpenter, A.J. Foyt IV and Mark Taylor as graduates of the Menards Infiniti Pro Series.

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