IndyCar: Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Indianapolis 500 deal with Didier Calmels officially off

By Asher Fair | Dec 7, 2017

ASSEN, NETHERLANDS - SEPTEMBER 01: Tristan Gommendy of France and PKV Racing in action during practice for the Dutch Champ Car Grand Prix at the TT-Circuit Assen on September 1, 2007 in Assen, Netherlands. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images) /

The Indianapolis 500 deal for the 2018 IndyCar season between Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and Didier Calmels has officially been called off.

The 2018 Indianapolis 500 deal that involved a partnership between the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports IndyCar team and former Formula One team owner Didier Calmels has officially been called off.

This news really does not comes as a surprise to a lot of people, as once the news broke that Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and Calmels would be partnering to field an entry in the 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500, almost all of the coverage that this deal got was negative. This almost immediately raised doubts as to whether or not the deal would actually happen.

As opposed to focusing on Tristan Gommendy, the 38-year-old who was set to drive the #77 Honda for the team in the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” in the 2018 IndyCar season, much of the focus went to Calmels, who is a convicted murderer. He murdered his wife back in 1989 and served close to two years in prison for it.

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Many news outlets keyed in on this fact and scored Schmidt Peterson Motorsports for essentially taking money from Calmels, thus backing up the idea that money is the only thing that matters in racing, even when it comes from a convicted murderer.

The one thing that could prove to be a negative result of this deal falling through is the fact that Gommendy is really the person who gets the short end of the stick. At the time Calmels murdered his wife, Gommendy was only 10 years old and had absolutely nothing to do with it. Yet it is he who loses the opportunity to drive in his first Indianapolis 500 over this deal falling through.

Gommendy’s IndyCar experience is limited to just the 2007 Champ Car season when he drove for PKV Racing in 11 of the 14 races that season. He finished seven of the 11 races in which he drove en route to a 12th place finish in the championship standings after recording a career-high 4th place finish at Assen along with another top 5 finish at Las Vegas and three other top 8 finishes.

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With Tristan Gommendy pretty much out of the picture with the partnership between Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and Didier Calmels falling through, who will end up being the driver of the #77 Honda in the 2018 Indianapolis 500 as a teammate to James Hinchcliffe and Robert Wickens? We should know more within the next few months.