Tim Crawford, father of young American driver Jak Crawford who competes in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, has postponed his plans to form a new Indy Lights team for the 2023 season. As well as looking for Indy Lights equipment to buy, the man from The Texas-based business has been active within the NTT IndyCar Series paddock for the past few months seeking a connection that would create a Road to Indy bridge for its drivers.
Working with veteran team owner and team principal Rick Gorne on the project, Crawford has been rumored to have a strong European angle to the initiative which could include employing a Formula 2 team to lead the program. Crawford’s son Jak – the 17-year-old Red Bull junior team driver who won two top 10 finishes last weekend at Silverstone – is not involved in Indy Lights plans.
“He’s ready for F2 next year,” Crawford told RACER. “We’re in Austria at the moment and it has nothing to do with Jak. We form a group, we talked to the IndyCar teams, then we had a European team coming in. We’re funded, but we have just decided today to pull the plug today for an Indy Lights team because we can’t get the gear and put it all together fast enough It’s a supply chain issue, to be honest, with the obtaining new Dallara bathtubs.
Crawford will look to 2024 as the next opportunity to launch the team.
“It’s me and Rick Gorne, and we’re going to take a few months off and then start again,” he said. “We have planned a really cool platform. It is based on the euro; we’re not trying to poach anyone from the United States, or from the Indy Lights or Road to Indy grid. There are plenty of drivers here that we can park on the Indy road. We will do it the following year.
With his son’s career progressing on its own, Crawford says creating an Indy Lights team – which adds to some of his other motorsport ventures – is perfectly suited for this stage of life.
“I have a big go-kart facility in Houston and I own two tracks and stuff like that, so it’s just an extension of trying to get out of my kid’s business,” he added. “Red Bull is taking more control over their racing, and I can’t be as involved anymore, so it’s up to me to find an outlet. And then Rick and I have known each other for a long time and were the architects of it all, bringing all the pieces for a team.
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