The Latest Chapter in the Rubicon Racing Story
So the latest rumbling out of the Robin Miller Mailbag is that Jim Freudenberg and Alex Tagliani are looking to buy Marty Roth’s equipment and form a new team for next season. You all remember Jim Freudenberg, right? He’s the main guy who was behind the Rubicon concept. I say concept because I really have no idea what else to label it. Still not ringing a bell? Rubicon…you know…the touch of death.
I really mean no ill will here, but here’s a team that started out at the 2008 Indianapolis 500 with decent sponsorship and Max Papis. Well, Max ended up putting the car into a wall and, after an attempt to mate it with Milka’s old SAMAX chassis, was unable to find the speed to qualify for the race. After that, there were constant rumblings from various sources that he had Steve Austin and his Six Million Dollars. With that $6M, he was going to bring Rubicon around full-time for 2009. It was, as far as I could tell, a given that they’d make it. They merged with Tyler Tadevic’s Pacific Coast Motorsports and were expected to name Buddy Rice as their driver. In fact, ol’ Buddy never came out and said it, but he wasn’t worried about getting a ride while en route to victory at this year’s 24 Hours of Daytona.
Well, for whatever reason (and the economy could have very well have played a role), the entry never materialized and Tyler Tadevic declared bankruptcy. Rubicon Race Team became Rubicon Sports Management or something and partnered with Conquest. Well, the trials and tribulations of Conquest this year have been well documented. They’ve struggled to make pretty much every race they’ve entered this season and missed quite a few along the way. Recently, Conquest severed ties with the Rubicon Agency or whatever it was going by at this point and promptly named two (albeit pay) drivers for three of the final four races of the season.
So that’s the story of Rubicon. I really wish them the best, but this is one rumor that I am definitely not holding my breath on.