A Litany of Pay-drivers
In 2000 Goodyear, Walker's tire supplier, pulled out of Indy Car racing and with de Ferran off to Penske, ironically enough, Walker was forced to hire a pay-driver and found one in F1 refugee Shinji Nakano. It must be said though Nakano did not cover himself in shame and did a fair job, doing better than was expected despite missing a couple of races due to a testing accident. Bryan Herta filled in but was unavailable to run full-time in 2001. Walker hired another Japanese ex-F1 driver in Toranosuke Takagi, who brought sponsorship from Pioneer. Takagi stayed two seasons with Rodolfo Lavin and Darren Manning running out-dated Reynard chassis in 2003. The team ran a third car for Luis Diaz at Mexico City. Manning scored the team's best result of the year, finishing 2nd in a bizarre race at Surfer's Paradise. Unfortunately he left for Chip Ganassi Racing and Walker downsized to one car, running the lone Reynard for Mario Haberfeld.
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