Walker Racing was a racing team founded by Derrick Walker in 1991 racing originally in the

CART A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from the flatbed ...

Championship Car series. It last competed in the United 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.

Early success

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 rookie Willy T. Ribbs at the

Indy 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indianap ...

. In 1992, the team fielded Scott Goodyear on a full-time basis who won at

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

and nearly won the

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

. He was joined beginning with the

1993 Indianapolis 500 The 77th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 30, 1993. Emerson Fittipaldi took the lead with 16 laps to go, and won his second career Indy 500 victory. The race was sanctioned by USA ...

by Willy T. Ribbs who raced with the team until the end of the 1994 season. The team ran a third full-time car in 1993 for Hiro Matsushita. Goodyear was replaced at the beginning of the 1994 season by

Robby Gordon Robert Wesley Gordon (born January 2, 1969) is an American auto racing driver. He has raced in NASCAR, CART, the IndyCar Series, the Trans-Am Series, IMSA, IROC and the Dakar Rally. He is active in top-tier off road motorsports such as BITD, N ...

who raced with the team with Valvoline sponsorship until 1996. Gordon raced alongside teammate Mark 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 rookie

Christian Fittipaldi Christian Fittipaldi (born 18 January 1971) is a Brazilian former racing driver who has competed in various forms of motorsport including Formula One, Champ Car, and NASCAR. He was a highly rated young racing driver in the early 1990s, and parti ...

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 and Fredrik Ekblom driving in the

U.S. 500 The U.S. 500 was an automobile race sanctioned by CART, it was held at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. The event was held from 1973 to 1986 and again in 1996 due to the event being known as the as an alternative to the 1996 ...

and Mike Groff racing in the 1996 Indianapolis 500. In 1997,

Gil de Ferran Gil de Ferran (born November 11, 1967 in Paris, France) is a French-born Brazilian professional racing driver and team owner. De Ferran was the 2000 and 2001 Champ Car champion driving for Team Penske and the winner of the 2003 Indianapolis 5 ...

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 at

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

in 1995.

A series of pay drivers

With no driver or sponsorship for the 2000 season, the team was forced to take on pay driver

Shinji Nakano Shinji Nakano (中野信治, born 1 April 1971) is a Japanese professional racing driver. His father, Tsuneharu, was also a racing driver. He competed in the All-Japan Formula Three Championship. Racing career Pre Formula One Career Formul ...

who finished a disappointing 24th in points. Meanwhile, the team entered the

Indy Racing League The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices o ...

IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices o ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

with rookie female driver Sarah Fisher who was inconsistent but fast in her two years with the team, scoring a career-best finish of 2nd place at Homestead-Miami Speedway in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...

. Nakano was replaced in the team's CART entry in 2001 by countryman

Tora Takagi Toranosuke "Tora" Takagi (高木虎之介; born 12 February 1974) is a Japanese former racing driver. Early career Takagi was heavily influenced by his father, a touring car driver. In the early 1980s he began racing karts, competing in his f ...

who brought Pioneer 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 field

Oriol Servia Oriol () is a Catalan name, which can be found as a given name or a surname. It derives from the Latin word ''aureus'' (golden). It was originally just a surname, but started to be used as a given name in honour of Saint Joseph Oriol. It may refe ...

in the

2002 Indianapolis 500 The 86th Indianapolis race was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 26, 2002. It was the seventh Indianapolis 500 held as part of the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series schedule, and was part of the 2002 Ind ...

but he failed to qualify. Takagi left to the IRL in 2003 and the void was filled by Mexican driver Rodolfo Lavin who brought Corona sponsorship. Walker ran Darren 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 the

Champ Car World Series Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., or Champ Car, a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams ( ...

. Brazilian

Mario Haberfeld is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his crea ...

drove the team's only full-time car. Late in that season Australian businessman

Craig Gore Craig Gore is an entrepreneur from Sydney, Australia. Biography Craig Kirrin Gore was born in Fairfield, New South Wales on 7 January 1967. He is the son of Sanctuary Cove Developer Mike Gore. Gore spent his early life in the western suburbs ...

bought into the team and it became Team Australia.

Team Australia

In 2005 the team took an Australian turn due to its new sponsorship, with the addition of

Aussie Vineyards Aussie is Australian slang for ''Australian'', both the adjective and the noun, and less commonly, Australia. Pronunciation In Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, the word is pronounced , hence the alterna ...

sponsorship and Australian rookie driver Marcus Marshall joining Canadian veteran

Alex Tagliani Alexandre Tagliani (; born October 18, 1973), nicknamed "Tag", is a Canadian professional racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series, driving the No. 18 Chevrolet Camaro for 22 Racing. Tagliani has competed in a variety ...

as the team returned to two full-time cars. Will Power made his debut in a third car at the 2005

Lexmark Indy 300 The Gold Coast Indy 300 was an annual open-wheel motor race event that took place at the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia from 1991 to 2008. The challenging track, alongside a strip of beaches, had seve ...

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 2006

Champ Car Atlantic Series The Atlantic Championship is a formula race car series with races throughout North America. It has been called Champ Car Atlantics (after its former name), Toyota Atlantics (due to the series' previous history of using Toyota-powered engines) ...

champion Simon Pagenaud in 2007. Power won two races in 2007 including the season opener in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...

, 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 in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. 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 to

KV Racing KV Racing Technology was an auto racing team that last competed in the IndyCar Series. The team was originally formed as PK Racing before the 2003 season by Australian businessman Kevin Kalkhoven and former Formula One team manager Craig Pol ...

. Walker Racing did finally appear in the 2008 season in a joint effort with Vision Racing at Edmonton to run Paul Tracy. Walker fielded

Stefan Wilson Stefan James Wilson (born 20 September 1989 in Sheffield, UK) is a British racing driver. He is the younger brother of the late Formula One and IndyCar Series driver Justin Wilson. He is also the winner of the 2007 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award ...

for a partial season campaign in

Indy Lights Indy NXT, previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as Firestone Indy NXT Series for sponsorship reasons. Indy Lights is the highest step on the Road to Indy, a progra ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

American Le Mans Series

In 2011, Derrick Walker joined forces with Team Falken Tire to run a Porsche 997 GT3-RSR in the upcoming American Le Mans Series season in the GT class. Falken's motorsports division made their ALMS début in

racing certain events before entering a full 2010 season. The team took its maiden victory at the 2011 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 of

Michelin Michelin (; ; full name: ) is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes ''région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and larg ...

and Dunlop.

Wolf Henzler Wolfgang Henzler (born 5 April 1975) is a former German Porsche factory racing driver. He began racing in 1991 with a win in the German Junior Kart championship. Born in Nürtingen, Baden-Württemberg, he won one time the 24 Hours of Le Mans in ...

, 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 and

Bryan Sellers Bryan Sellers (born August 19, 1982 in Dayton, Ohio) is an American racing driver. Sellers won the title in the U.S. F2000 in 2002 and later competed in the Atlantic Championship and in racing sports cars. Racing career Bryan Sellers first co ...

Ed Carpenter Racing

In 2012, Derrick Walker returned to the

as team manager for

Ed Carpenter Racing Ed Carpenter Racing is an American racing team based in Speedway, Indiana that currently competes in the IndyCar Series. The team is owned by driver Ed Carpenter. The team is based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and currently fields the No. 20 Da ...

, co-owned by

Tony George Anton Hulman "Tony" George (born December 30, 1959) is the former Chairman, President, and CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Hulman & Company, serving from 1989 to 2009. He was also formerly on the Board of Directors of both entities ...

and driver Ed Carpenter. The team is based in the Walker Racing facility and utilizes Walker Racing's equipment and personnel.

Closure

On 20 November 2016 the team was put up for auction after a year of searching for a replacement sponsor for its IMSA team. On 6 December 2016 after the auction is complete the team will be officially listed as defunct.

Drivers

CART/CCWS

* Jon Beekhuis (1992) * David Besnard (2004) *

(1997-1999) * Luis Diaz (2003) * Fredrik Ekblom (1996) *

(1995) *

A. J. Foyt Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr. (born January 16, 1935) is an American retired auto racing driver who has raced in numerous genres of motorsports. His open wheel racing includes United States Automobile Club Champ cars, sprint cars, and midget cars. H ...

(1992) *

Memo Gidley José Guillermo "Memo" Gidley is a Mexican-born racing driver, of German and Canadian ancestry, born in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico on September 29, 1970. He holds dual citizenship - American and Mexican. In his early years, he sold his ...

(1999) * Scott Goodyear (1991-1993, 1996) *

(1994-1996) * Mike Groff (1992, 1996) *

(2004) * Naoki Hattori (1999) *

Bryan Herta Bryan John Herta (born May 23, 1970) is an American former race car driver. He currently runs his own team, Bryan Herta Autosport in the NTT IndyCar Series. His team won the 2011 Indianapolis 500 with driver Dan Wheldon and the 2016 Indianapolis ...

(2000) * Rodolfo Lavín (2003) *

Buddy Lazier Robert Buddy Lazier (born October 31, 1967) is an American auto racing driver, best known for winning the 1996 Indianapolis 500 and the 2000 Indy Racing League season championship. Lazier began his career in the 1980s by competing in such s ...

(1991) * Darren Manning (2003) * Marcus Marshall (2005) * Hiro Matsushita (1993) *

(2000) * Simon Pagenaud (2007) * Will Power (2005-2007) * Willy T. Ribbs (1991-1994) * Mark Smith (1994) *

(2005-2006, 2008) *

(2001-2002) * Michael Valiante (2004) *

Charles Zwolsman Charles Zwolsman (6 August 1955 – 21 January 2011) was a Dutch drug dealer and professional racecar driver and team owner. Drug dealing Zwolsman was born in Oostzaan, and started dealing in marijuana in the 1980s. He built an organization ...

(2005)

IRL IndyCar Series

* Paul Tracy (2008) * Sarah Fisher (2000-2001) * Mike Groff (1996)

Racing results

Complete CART FedEx Championship Series results

( key) (results in bold indicate pole position) (results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) # The Firestone Firehawk 600 was canceled after qualifying due to excessive

g-force The gravitational force equivalent, or, more commonly, g-force, is a measurement of the type of force per unit mass – typically acceleration – that causes a perception of weight, with a g-force of 1 g (not gram in mass measur ...

s on the drivers.

Complete IRL IndyCar Series results

( key) # Run to

Champ Car Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., or Champ Car, a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams ...

specifications. # Non-points-paying, exhibition race. # Run in conjunction with Vision Racing.

References

{{Champ Car teams 1991 establishments in the United States American auto racing teams American Le Mans Series teams Champ Car teams IndyCar Series teams Indy Lights teams 2016 disestablishments in the United States Auto racing teams disestablished in 2016 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams Atlantic Championship teams Formula BMW teams