Pratt Miller Engineering, the Michigan-based racing operation that supported Team Chevy’s IndyCar program through 2022 and is responsible for building the Corvette Z06 GT3 as well as running General Motors’ factory Corvette IMSA GTD Pro effort, continues to work towards creating an NTT IndyCar Series team of its own with goal of launching in 2025.
PME Motorsports VP Brandon Widmer told RACER last July that the race car constructor and racing team was keen to expand beyond sports cars, and in a new update, he says momentum continues to build towards joining IndyCar. PME isn’t ready to confirm its place on next year’s grid, but the work that’s necessary to get there is being done.
“We’ve been working on the potential IndyCar team program every day since we last talked, and it definitely continues to be a strategic goal for us,” Widmer told RACER. “At Pratt Miller, as you can imagine, we’re putting in a tremendous amount of effort into planning, budgeting, facilities, personnel, all those kinds of things that need to happen to add an IndyCar team to our current business.
“So that happens on a daily basis, as well as a lot of external work with potential partners, both equity partners as well as potential sponsors and other types of commercial partnerships. That’s going on frequently, and there’s definitely been a significant amount of interest. I certainly want to credit Jay Frye at IndyCar, as well, for helping make some key introductions to potential partners, which has been very much appreciated. We still have a lot of work to do to finalize exactly what the makeup of our partnerships look like.
“Although we do get closer every day, it’s still a little difficult to tell exactly when we’ll be able to finalize the partnership agreements and be ready to officially state that we are coming to the paddock. We still have our eye on the 2025 season but we know there’s a lot of work that needs to happen in a very short amount of time for that to be possible. We’re wanting to make sure that we do it right and do it with the right resources.”
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According to Widmer, PME has been receiving a steady flow of inquiries about its desired IndyCar program from those who want to be part of the effort.
“We continue to get phone calls from drivers to driver reps to engineers and mechanics, to potential equity partners to sponsors,” he said. “All the reception we receive directly has certainly been positive; anyone that’s reached out to us directly has been supportive and in most cases, interested in some sort of an opportunity with us. So that’s all been very positive and appreciated.
“Oftentimes, they’ve been people that our team has worked with in the past, in our prior role supporting Chevrolet in IndyCar, through relationships that were made through the paddock. And some of the new people are new that we didn’t have direct relationships with in the past that may know a bit about us, or at least our reputation, and have shown interest in in joining us if we do move forward with the program.”