SEBRING, Fla. — A sudden lack of sponsorship has led Walker Racing to withdraw from the IndyCar Series.
The team’s partnership with Team Australia and the association with Australian businessman Craig Gore and drivers Will Power and Simon Pagenaud has also come to an end.
 “It's a great pity that the team has had to abandon our IndyCar program,” said team owner Derrick Walker. “So much work by so many has gone into the Team Australia program over the last three and a half years, but now it will remain unfinished business for us. I wish my co-partner well with his new venture and to Will, Simon and all the employees, associates and fans who have given me the opportunity. Many thanks.”

• Dreyer & Reinbold Racing has signed IndyCar Series veteran driver Townsend Bell to drive in selected races, including the Indianapolis 500.
Bell, 32, who will drive the No. 23 car in races that Milka Duno is not scheduled to race, hasn’t been in the IndyCar Series since the 2006 Indianapolis 500.
“I’m ready to get going,” Bell said from Sebring Int’l Raceway where he participated in the IndyCar Series Open Test. “There are a few new things (associated with the car), and obviously the driver has a lot of rust. That showed up on the very first lap. I’ve done 15 laps in one of these cars on a road course at Sonoma a year and a half ago, and prior to that I hadn’t been on a road course in three years. This is just a lot of cobwebs getting out of the system. The first couple of laps when the track was green it was like, ‘Oh, yeah, these things are pretty fast.’”
Bell’s first race for Dreyer & Reinbold will be the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on April 6.
Bell has 12 IndyCar Series starts dating back to 2004. His best finish came in 2004 when he finished fifth at the Nashville Superspeedway with Panther Racing.

• Tony Kanaan is adjusting to life as the senior driver on the Andretti Green team, which includes Danica Patrick, Marco Andretti and Hideki Mutoh.
“Obviously I have a big responsibility, and the bigger responsibility on the team now just because, you know, I have three young guys, there young guys and a girl, let me rephrase that, otherwise Danica will get mad at me. They are probably relying on me a lot more than I’m relying on them, but they are very experienced.
“I mean, Danica and Marco I think can get the job done, and Hideki (Mutoh) is learning pretty quick. I lost my wing man, Dario (Franchitti). So for me, it’s a transition time, but I don’t think it’s a huge deal. I just think that I’m going to have to work a little more and take a little bit more time to adjust.”

• In addition to adding National Guard as a sponsor, Panther Racing has hired Henri Durand as technical director for the team that fields the No. 4 for Vitor Meira.
“As a team, Panther has done everything we can this off-season to contend for our third championship,” said John Barnes, co-owner of the team. “We’ve spent multiple hours working on our research and development initiatives, and our new Technical Director (Henri Durand) has overhauled our entire technical operation and made some major improvements. He’s quickly proven himself as a key addition to our team. We feel like this is going to be a special year for our team, sponsors and fans.”
Durand is entering his first year with Panther after spending 20 years in Formula One, including 11 years at McLaren F-1, where he was chief engineer of aerodynamics.

• Roth Racing’s full-time entry into the IndyCar Series in 2008 is a story of perseverance, both for owner/driver Marty Roth and for rookie driver Jay Howard.
Roth, a long-time competitor in Indy Lights and the Indy Pro Series, took his first step toward team ownership in 2004, purchasing Panther Racing’s Indy Pro Series equipment. A few months later, he purchased IndyCar Series equipment and fielded an entry in the Indianapolis 500.
In 2006, he competed in three IndyCar Series races, and last year he made four starts, recording a career-best finish of 14th at Chicagoland.
This year, the team expands to a two-car effort for the entire season.
“It’s a huge step up from where we started from,” Roth said. “This is what you need to do to build a product that would attract sponsors. That’s what we at Roth Racing have done. This is a product that we offer to a sponsor to represent them in a first-class manner.
“We hope to have a very competitive team out there. We’re going out there to be a strong, competitive team and win some races.”

• RLR/Andersen Racing will campaign J.R. Hildebrand in its No. 25 Indy Pro Series car this season. Hildebrand, 20, joins Andrew Prendeville in the RLR/Andersen Racing Indy Pro Series lineup and reunites with engineers Dominic and Nicholas Cape, who guided him to the Cooper Tires Formula Ford 2000 championship in 2006.