Part of Richard Petty Motorsports may be sold to Saudi Prince

Don · #1 (**permalink**) 09-30-2009, 03:01 PM

Part of Richard Petty Motorsports may be sold to Saudi Prince

" The Middle East will gain another presence in major-league U.S. motorsports if the King from North Carolina and a prince from Saudi Arabia complete a commercial pairing. That's the scenario if part of stock-car legend Richard Petty's four-car NASCAR team is sold to Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdullah al-Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family. "

Article:

http://www.autoweek.com/article/2009...#ixzz0Scqt5qVD

Sporting News Today version of the same subject, click on the article to enlarge

http://today.sportingnews.com/sporti...folio=CGI#pg46

DAVID GAGNARD · #2 (**permalink**) 09-30-2009, 04:37 PM

Don't believe everything reported about NASCAR..... The writers/reporters make up their storyline as they go to make a headline!!!!!!!!!!! and most of the time they know not what they are talking about!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was also reported that Richard Petty was the majority owner in RPM Motorsports and then according to jayski.com, George Gillette was interviewed and most definetly said HE WAS the majority owner and Petty only owned a small part of the business, and Gillette also said he has NO intentions of selling out to anyone, he said he plans to be in NASCAR for a long time.... The deal with the Saudi people was to bring the Richard Petty driving thing to them and possibly build a track or two over there............

Now, with that said, which story is the truth?????????????

I have NO IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and really don't care...............

David

rustyBob · #3 (**permalink**) 09-30-2009, 08:34 PM

the story i heard was Gillette was selling a british sports team to the Prince and it had nothing to do with RPM..........

Ron61 · #4 (**permalink**) 10-01-2009, 06:05 AM

That had an article on the NASCAR site some time back that Richard Petty was going to join with Robert Yates and they would run Fords next year. Wonder what he will actually do.

Ron

Don · #5 (**permalink**) 10-01-2009, 08:04 AM

Ron:

FYI on the Petty merger. Click on the page to enlarge the font

http://today.sportingnews.com/sporti...folio=CGI#pg47

Ron61 · #6 (**permalink**) 10-01-2009, 08:13 AM

Don,

That is an interesting article. If the Saudis should ever get into NASCAR I wonder what rules their Camels would have to meet.

Ron

Don · #7 (**permalink**) 10-02-2009, 09:11 AM

In these economic times, anything is possible when looking for additional funding/sponsorship.

Quotes from the latest update on AutoWeek.com:

" You can bet the farm right now that one of the most popular questions this weekend at Kansas Speedway will go something like this: So, what's the deal, Richard, with you and this prince what's-his-name in Saudi Arabia? "

" And Richard Petty will probably shake his head slowly and say something like this: I don't know much about it. What have you heard? Catch me up. What's going on? That seems to be the current state of an “exclusive commercial collaboration” between Richard Petty Motorsports and Prince Faisal bin Fahad bin Abdullah Al Saud of the Saudi royal family. "

" On Wednesday, during an appearance at Lowe's Motor Speedway to promote an upcoming race, Petty said he doesn't know much about what his partner and the prince are doing.That's one of George's deals,” the seven-time NASCAR champion said. “You'll have to talk to him on that. That's purely his deal. He'd been meeting with these guys for a pretty good while about his [soccer] team.”

Complete Article:

http://www.autoweek.com/article/2009...SCAR/910019987

Wayne Maybury · #8 (**permalink**) 10-02-2009, 09:20 AM

George Gillette needs cash. He just sold the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League to the Molson family (yes, Molson beer) for a couple of hundred million bucks. GG also owns half of a major British soccer team (Liverpool???) which he is trying to hang on to but he has major debt repayments to make. He has multi-million dollar assets but also has multi-million dollar debts. It sounds to me like he is a very rich guy that is actually more or less broke.

Wayne

sllib · #9 (**permalink**) 10-02-2009, 09:00 PM

Point of interest: I just spent 4-5 months in Qatar. They had a racing series all around the Gulf and the Near East called "SpeedCar Series". They used identical (except for paint and decals)cars that had 620 hp, shaped like a Monte Carlo with a Camaro front end and NO electronic communications with the pits. Most of the drivers were ex Formula drivers and Arab royalty, and the tracks were all road courses. These guys traded paint, bumped each other off the track, and generally had a good time. Much more exciting than NASCAR. Unfortunately the series lost their funding and stopped in early 2009. The city I lived in, Doha, had a nice track. All the racing was done at night due to the heat and in the occasional dust storm. If the Saudis want to fund a good series they should think about funding the SpeedCar guys.
Bill Stradtner