Petty-Yates merger on track, could include Saudi investor
The planned merger between Richard Petty Motorsports and Yates Racing is on track, but might include a strange twist – an investment in the organization from Prince Faisal bin Fahad bin Abdullah Al Saud of Saudi Arabia.
RPM majority owner George Gillett said in a rare news conference Oct. 3 that a partnership with Prince Faisal is not imminent but is a possibility.
He dismissed the notion that having a Saudi investment – a very small investment – in his team would be an issue, calling it a positive for the sport. He and Prince Faisal’s sports management company, F6, are looking into developing a stock-car series in the Middle East. Gillett said it would be easier to develop that series if the prince had a very small stake in RPM, so they could speak freely about trade secrets.
“It was a very early conversation. … I come here today a man with a clean conscience and potentially a very attractive partner,” Gillett said. “If he, or they, became small investors with us, I can’t imagine it would be anything but positive for the sport.”
Richard Petty admitted it might seem weird to have his organization owned in part by a Saudi prince.
“Anything that revolves around Richard Petty is weird, anyway,” said Petty, whose company is on its third new merger/partnership in the last 15 months. “We’ve started a lot of firsts. This is just the [next] one.”
For now, the focus for Petty and Gillett is the merger with Yates. RPM and Yates Racing officials announced plans to merge Sept. 10 but have not yet completed the agreement. Gillett said RPM is leaning toward working out of the current Yates shop. He said RPM Executive Vice President Robbie Loomis would play more of a role in day-to-day operations after the departure of former vice president Mark McArdle.
Gillett would not speculate on what the organization will look like. It had been announced Sept. 10 that the expected drivers would be Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler, AJ Allmendinger and Paul Menard. The organization has sponsorship from Budweiser for Kahne and sponsorship from Stanley and Best Buy for another car. Menard, who is completing the first year of a two-year deal with Yates Racing, brings sponsorship from his family’s chain of Menard’s home-improvement stores.
“We’ll have for sure three teams and hopefully four,” Gillett said. “No names.”
Despite some of the uncertainty, Gillett said his organization is not in chaos and that his team, which fields Dodges, had to do something after Chrysler went through bankruptcy. He scoffed at the idea that 2010 is critical for RPM. All of its driver and sponsor contracts are up for renewal at the end of 2010.
“I keep hearing 2010 is critical for us and critical this and critical that,” Gillett said. “… I think our team is in extraordinary good shape relative to the sport and relative to the general economic tone of the country.”
