SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -Gil de Ferran's retirement has gone full circle like a lap on the tracks he used to dominate on the IndyCar circuit.
De Ferran, the 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner and two-time CART champion, ended a five-year hiatus by starting his own team and getting behind the wheel again in the American Le Mans Series.
One year into the comeback, de Ferran still seems to have the touch. He has won the last two stops on the ALMS circuit, most recently last weekend when he and co-driver Simon Pagenaud blew away every other car on the track at the Utah Grand Prix.
De Ferran says he chose to drive again not only because he still loves it, but also because he needed an experienced driver.
"The biggest decision wasn't me getting in a cockpit," de Ferran said. "The reason I'm doing this is to establish a racing team and trying to make this team as successful over the long term as I can."
De Ferran picked up his first post-retirement win on April 18 at Long Beach, Calif., then added the Utah title last week at Miller Motorsports Park. The de Ferran Acura ARX 02a started from the pole and crossed the finish line 1 minute, 13.693 seconds ahead of the second-place car.
The next ALMS race isn't until July 18 at Lime Rock, Conn., and de Ferran welcomes the long break. Pagenaud will race next month at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, while de Ferran will try to catch up on his other duties involved in trying to build a racing team.
De Ferran said the differences between being a driver and team owner have been surprising.
"Come race weekend, I try to pretend I drive for somebody else," de Ferran said. "There's no doubt that balancing both is a major challenge."
De Ferran first returned to racing last May, when he and Pagenaud finished third at the Utah race. They started last season racing in the P2 ALMS class, but moved up to the top and have won the last two P1 races.
De Ferran was in search of a driving partner last year and contacted Pagenaud, a promising young Frenchman on the Champ Car circuit who found himself without a team after the open-wheel series merger.
The 25-year-old Pagenaud still hopes to race at Indy someday. Who better to get him there than a former champion?
"It's great. He's giving me a fantastic experience. All this knowledge is very important," Pagenaud said. "It's just fantastic to have a chance to be beside somebody like him. He's an engineer. He knows everything that's going on in the car."
After retiring, de Ferran spent a few years as sporting director for Honda's Formula One team. He had also driven for Honda, so when Acura - a Honda subsidiary - approached him about expanding the young Acura Motorsports division, he jumped at the chance to create de Ferran Motorsports.
For de Ferran, the return to road courses was part of the ALMS appeal. The Utah track, just south of the Great Salt Lake about 30 miles west of Salt Lake City, winds through the desert with 24 turns and 12 straightaways and is a different challenge than the mostly-oval tracks he used to race in Indy cars.
De Ferran said he still has a passion for the open-wheeled cars he drove to championships, but Indy cars are not likely to be part of his comeback - as a driver, anyway.
"Quite frankly, it's where I made my name in the sport and I will always love it," he said. "But it's not what I'm looking to do. I'm in a different phase of life trying to build a team."
De Ferran used to spend all of May in Indianapolis, fine-tuning on the 2.5-mile Brickyard oval where he won in 2003. He may get back to Indy yet, but only as a team owner if de Ferran branches out to the IRL.
"We're looking to see if we can put a competitive package together. Do I want to do that instead of the sportscar (ALMS) thing we're doing with Acura? No, I want to do that in addition," he said. "This is not about me trying to relive the dream as a racing driver. This is about the team and about trying to make de Ferran Motorsports a success."
