THE CANADIAN PRESS
EDMONTON -- With the IndyCar season just weeks away, Canada's best hope for a full-time driver on the open-wheel circuit is finding big-bucks sponsorship elusive and the future a toss up.
"It's 50-50 at the moment," Alex Tagliani said from Las Vegas when asked if he'll be racing in all 17 IndyCar events for Conquest Racing this summer, including races at Toronto and Edmonton.
"We've been working really hard on sponsorship. It's just trying to put everything together."
The 36-year-old from Lachenaie, Que., says he has rounded up a couple of sponsors in his home province, but still lacks a major advertiser to reach the $2 million to $3 million needed to at least get his ride secured for the first two races.
"Two million would get us out there, for sure," he said. "The best thing would be to have three.
"But if we have two, we're out there and we can go race."
IndyCar launches its season April 5 with the Honda Grand Prix at St. Petersburg, Fla. The teams race July 12 in Toronto and July 26 in Edmonton.
Tagliani is gunning to be the second driver, with Brazilian Jaime Camara, on Eric Bachelart's Conquest Racing team.
After driving for most of last season in NASCAR Canada, Tagliani slipped into a Conquest seat for the last three IndyCar races of 2008 when driver Enrique Bernoldi injured his thumb.
Tagliani drove to a fourth-place finish at Surfers Paradise, Australia -- the best finish of the year for Conquest -- to demonstrate his experience on the road courses.
"We were the only car capable of following the pace of Ganassi and Penske (teams) at Surfers," he said.
But the economic downtown that has hammered the global economy in recent months has also been felt at Conquest and IndyCar.
The circuit may be down to 22 cars for St. Petersburg as some teams have scaled back to one car or, like Rahal-Letterman, left altogether.
Toronto's Paul Tracy signed on for a one-off race in Edmonton last July, finishing fourth, but has not secured an IndyCar deal for 2009. Marty Roth of Toronto -- Canada's only full-time driver in the series in 2008 -- is not returning.
Conquest employees, meanwhile, have taken pay cuts to keep the doors open, and the team so far has only committed to Camara in 2009.
Bachelart declined an interview request, but has said there's a possibility Tagliani would share the ride with the 28-year-old Camara, who cracked the top-10 just twice in 14 races in IndyCar last season. He finished 23rd in the overall rankings and eighth in the rookie points race.
"It's always a possibility, but it's not the best one," said Tagliani of the shared ride.
Last month, it was Camara who tested the Conquest car in pre-season testing on the oval at Homestead-Miami.
Tagliani said he's keeping fit at his condo in Las Vegas, working out and riding his bike 50 kilometres a day through nearby Red Rock Canyon.
He said if it comes down to the wire, so be it.
"I've been able in the past to jump in the car at the worst possible time with the least amount of track time and still come out decent," he said. "The most important thing right now is to get a letter of intent and some kind of idea of what we're working with."
He said he would prefer to race full-time and not be dropped in on Toronto and Edmonton as a last-minute gimmick to hype ticket sales.
"It's not the best thing because you're showing up in the middle of the championships and there's no followup for the fans," he said. "A one-time deal is not as interesting as having a Canadian represent the interests of the country in the program."
