Emerson Fittipaldi is the latest former driver being linked to a possible buy-out of 'Pat' Patrick's eponymous Champ Car team, as the veteran team owner seeks a way out of the se🍸ries.

Following on from speculation that either Jimmy Vasser or Paul Tracy may become involved with the team, espn.com reports that F🍨ittipaldi - already an owner viౠa the Fittipaldi-Dingman set-up - is interested in doing a deal with Patrick.

"I'm having discus🐎sions with Emerson," Patrick, a co-founder of CART, admitted to journalis﷽t Robin Miller, ""He wants my equipment and part of the stipulation would be to keep my team together. It's not a done deal yet, but I think we've arrived at a fair price."

Patrick went on to say that the uncertainty over the future of CART - which is being pushed to filܫe for bankrupt🦋cy by potential saviour OWRS - and the global economic problem, which is preventing sponsorship from flowing freely, was part of his reasoning for selling up.

"Nobody has offered me any꧑ money and sponsorship is a concern," he confirmed, "I've got th🀅ree people looking for money."

Fittipaldi entered CART as a team owner in 2003, running a single-car effort boosted by handout✅s from CART along with business partner Jamie Dingman. The team, which fielded Portuguese rookie Tiago Monteiro, operated out of Eric Bachelart's MiJack/Conquest Racing premises, bu💞t Fittipaldi is now looking to go it alone.

"Emerson is charged up, and he's been trav🌃elling all over the world to put this deal together," said Patrick team manager Jim McGee, "He wants to buy the whole pa🔜ckage, and that's good because the biggest thing I'm trying to do is keep this team together. He's got a lot of passion to own a race team, [and] I told him, if he gets the sponsor, we'll run the race team."