Vasser and ‘Sulli’ to hookup with another IndyCar team

Vasser (L) was happy to see his former driver Bourdais (R) win in St. Petersburg

Jimmy Vasser is preparing to do something strange and unfamiliar. For the first time in four decades, the 1996 CART IndyCar Series champion and longtime co-owner of the KV Racing team will head to the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach this week without a car to drive or team to run, and the native Californian plans to take full advantage of the open schedule.

"It reminds me of my first time there in '83 for the last Formula 1 race," Vasser told RACER. "I was a senior in high school, and it was great to see the Formula 1 cars and walk around and see the race as a fan before I started coming back later in the '80s as a driver. But it's going to be weird, definitely, not being on the timing stand and with a team of my own there."

The good news is Vasser, along with former KV co-owner James "Sulli" Sullivan (his SH Racing effort joined with KV in 2013), have some regular business to tend to at Long Beach. With KV's closure during the offseason, Vasser and Sulli have a number of meetings in place this weekend as they work on finding new avenues to make an IndyCar return.

"[IndyCar competition president] Jay Frye was kind enough to extend a hard card for the season as we navigate what our next step is going to be, and we need reasonable access to do that," he said. "With the relationship I have with Sulli and his youthful enthusiasm, it's not a secret he and I work well together and we're trying to find a way to work well in the future. We still have a lot of friends and connections in IndyCar and have a decent idea of where we'd like to go in 2018 and see how that will develop."

With KV Racing, car dealerships and his own vineyard to look after for so many years, taking a year away from active IndyCar participation racing has given Vasser his first chance to downshift since his rookie debut in 1992.

"Not having to jump straight from one thing to the next and take a deep breath has been nice," he said. "I really didn't have the chance when I went from being a driver to an owner in 2004 with PKV; this is the first time I've been able to do this since my IndyCar career started and to not be pressured from a timeline standpoint."

Missing the season opener at St. Petersburg was another odd occurrence for Vasser, but watching his former driver Sebastien Bourdais and other former members of the KV team earn the win brought joy from afar.

"It was great to see the success for everyone there in St. Pete, for some our old KV guys, and there's some old KV sponsors with GEICO and Mouser carrying on with Seb on the car when they won," he said. "It was a positive thing for everybody involved." Marshall Pruett/Racer.com