Very popular and vastly experienced Adrian Fernandez was Newsmaker of the Week on my The Race Reporters PowerUpChannel radio show Wednesday night. Joining me in the questioning were media panelists Gordon Kirby (Motor Sport), Larry Edsall (iZoom.com) and John Oreovicz (ESPN.com). I asked Adrian about the current health of the ALMS and reports he might move his team (winners of all four ALMS P2 events this year) to the IRL in 2010 (with another driver), sponsorship permitting:
"It's difficult," said the Lowe's Acura driver-owner. "We would like to compete against the Porsches from Penske (not running ALMS this season). It was very strong last year. People say, 'You don't have as much competition as last year' . . . I know we have a good team and a better program and we would like to be able to prove that against the same competition we had last year. I'm a little worried about the prototypes because they are very expensive, very high-tech, very beautiful machines to drive and see. I would like to keep driving these, because I really love it. But, in reality, the economy has hit everywhere around the world. All racing has been affected. Prototypes in the American Le Mans Series have not been excused from this situation."
"They (Lowe's) would jump if I were to run IRL again. But I'm 46. I've been successful there and there's nothing for me to prove. I don't want to go around ovals anymore, especially with a lot of rookies around. I've had a few injuries and would like to live the rest of my years in good health."
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