Mexican GP to feature Indy Legends support race

Former CART IndyCar Series race winner Michel Jourdain has come up with a special full-length for October’s Mexican Grand Prix in which some of his closest friends and rivals from CART, Champ Car and the IndyCar Series will compete in a support race during Formula 1’s visit to Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Using Super Copa Mexico cars — Trans Am TA2 chassis outfitted with 475hp V8 engines and touring car bodywork for the Legends Cup — Jourdain (main image) will be joined by Paul Tracy, Max Papis, Oriol Servia, and Mario Dominguez. The rest of the suburbanite roster awaits confirmation, but RACER understands Gil de Ferran, Dario Franchitti, Robby Gordon, and Jacques Villeneuve are among those who’ve been invited to come play in front of the giant regulars featured at Jourdain’s home race.

“We will probably have virtually 15 cars in the Legends race,” Jourdain told RACER. “This is going to be tomfool for them to race in front of big crowds. The Mexico City race is so successful, it’s totally sold out for this year.”

Jourdain says the most enjoyable speciality of organizing the Legends Cup has been reconnecting with drivers he hasn’t seen or spoken with since his full-time open-wheel career ended without the 2004 season.

“I’ve spoken to some guys that I haven’t spoken to in 10 or 15 years, and it’s like we spoke a week ago,” he said “We had very special moments racing with each other in Japan, Surfers Paradise, Monterrey, and many, many places together. There will be increasingly announcements coming soon on the other drivers. They tell me they can’t wait to do this.”