D-Day looming for Galles.

Rick Galles is facing an anxious Christmas period as the clock ticks down to a self-imposed sponsorship deadline that should decide whether both his eponymous team and driver Al Unser Jr are on the 2002 Indy Racing League starting grid when the season opens at Homestead in March.

Veteran open wheel constructor and team owner Rick Galles has yet to unveil his plans for the 2002 Indy Racing League Championship and even though the 15-race series does not kick-off until March 2nd, unless a full-time sponsor can be found for Galles Racing by January 1st the team owner has said he will close the doors.

Galles has been a part of the IRL since its inception in 1996 after 13 years as a team owner in CART but it wasn't until he teamed up with Al Unser Jr, with whom he won both the CART title and the Indianapolis 500 did Galles Racing become a major contender on the IRL scene. Now, despite having one of the most marketable names in US Motorsport anywhere today on his books, it seems as though Galles cannot raise the finance to run a one-car operation full-time next year, never mind the ambitious three-car team that started the 2001 season.

Unser Jr ran with Tickets.com sponsorship in 2000 and with Starz-Superpak colours in 2001 but it is thought neither concern are able to supply a full-time budget in 2002 and with the entire Galles Racing team failing to deliver many worthwhile results last season, one of the IRL's biggest draws could find himself sitting on the sidelines next year.

Didier Andre and Casey Mears, who both drove for the team during the 2001 campaign, ran largely unsponsored barring a few localised efforts and the nadir for the team came at the blue-riband Indy 500 where both Andre and Mears failed to qualify the reluctant G Force chassis and Unser Jr was eliminated by an errant Sam Hornish Jr inside the first ten laps.

Despite overstretching resources with three cars in the first four races of 2001 and suffering with a G Force-Aurora combination that simply would qualify and was often way-off in the races, 'Little Al' still salvaged seventh in the points on the back of a well-timed win at Gateway and four consecutive top-ten finishes to end the season.

Galles Racing may not shut its doors immediately on January 1st if no sponsors are forthcoming but Rick Galles is not a man who enjoys racing on a shoestring and unless adequate money can be found in time for the team to prepare themselves properly for the season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway it is unlikely that the team would risk starting another year in a similar state of flux to which they began 2001.