It has emerged that Alex Tagliani had been the first to enquire about Derrick Walker running an IndyCar at next weekend's Rexall Edmonton event, only for Paul Tracy to eventually get the opportunity to join the series.

Team boss Walker, who ran Tagliani in the last-ever Champ Car event at Long Beach in April, revealed in a lengthy communiqué posted on the team's new-look website that the Canadian had approached him earlier in the season about contesting the sole Canadian round on the merged schedule. However, at the time of the enquiry, Walker claimed that he was unable to source a suitable car to run Tagliani, despite the driver bringing sponsorship with him.

"It all began when Alex Tagliani contacted me to see if I could run a car for him because he had some potential sponsors," Walker confirmed, "Unfortunately, there wasn't a car available, nor was there sufficient money to run it. A couple of individuals in Edmonton [then] asked me if I would be able to run a car for Paul Tracy and that they had several sponsors who had interest in putting up some funding for Paul."

With what seemed greater interest in getting one of the more outspoken members of the Champ Car field installed in an IndyCar for Edmonton, Walker then set about trying to find the means to run Tracy.


"At that point, I started contacting the teams who we thought may have cars that they could lease to us," the ex-pat Scot continued, "Understandably, with the busy IRL schedule, the teams were somewhat reluctant to make a car available. [But] before I gave up on the idea, I decided to call Tony [George]. I presented the idea to him suggesting that we may have some money and, in the big scheme of things, we may have some benefit to the league and what is now a new promoter for IndyCar in Edmonton.

"Tony liked the idea. As time went by, we worked on the various aspects of trying to pull it together. It really wasn't getting enough traction, so Tony came up with the suggestion that he could possibly make it happen if it was a third car at Vision Racing, and would we be interested in collaborating with him. He would supply a car and we would work closely with their team. I would supply manpower, engineering and use our transporter to ship the car and equipment out.

"That's how we got there. It was several weeks of working behind the scenes trying to pull it together. Without Tony's help, we wouldn't have the opportunity that we do now to run in Edmonton. As a result of all of this collaboration, we were able to begin work this week. Fortunately, Vision Racing had the car, [which] has been used as an active vehicle in their inventory."

Walker added that he was pleased to have put a deal together to run a Canadian in Edmonton, knowing from his Champ Car days how popular the event is - and how important it could be the IndyCar Series.

"This opportunity is important in many, many ways," he explained, "It's important to the promoter and open-wheel racing in Canada to see a Canadian drive in the first Canadian IndyCar event. It's also important to Tony George to have a successful three-car team. Road courses haven't been their strong point, and perhaps Paul, together with what we have learned before at Edmonton, can help develop their road course set-up. It's imperative to have a star driver like Paul in the series. As we have always said, it's about 'the stars and the cars', and having Paul in the series is a must as he deserves to be there."