Carlin: IndyCar is “obviously our ambition”

Carlin, who had been hoping to join forces with and eventually take over the remnants of the now defunct IndyCar team KV Racing, said that graduation from Indy Lights was part of his plan.

Following his driver Leist’s victory in the Freedom 100, he said that graduation to IndyCar was “obviously our ambition.”

He went on: “This is a very big moment for us to win the Freedom 100 at Indianapolis. My next target obviously has to be to try to win the main race.

“I'm constantly working on trying to put the funding together to put a package together, because I believe I've got an amazing team… I've got access to some of the best drivers in the world. So at some stage we want to be here and lift that Borg-Warner trophy – if it's not too heavy, of course!

“It's quite a logistical challenge for us but we run each of our teams as independent units, so they've got their own team manager, mechanics, engineers. I'm very fortunate I've got a wonderful bunch of people working for me in every category. So I can rely on them.

“I travel around and try and keep them company and get in the way and annoy them. We've got a culture. We always try and do our best for our drivers. We want them to be successful. And if they're successful, then obviously so are we.”

Carlin admitted that it was Danny Sullivan’s Indy 500 victory in 1985 – when he spun the lead away and caught back up to Mario Andretti – that got him hooked on the Memorial Day Weekend classic.

“I was actually living in California and I watched the Indy 500,” he said. “It was the year Danny Sullivan spun and won the race. I thought, ‘Oh, my God, how can that happen? It's incredible.’

“So since then I followed the race, I watch it every year on TV. Now, you know, I thought I would love to enter a team here at Indianapolis. And this is the first step on that journey.

“I'm very proud of Matheus and the team that we've now won here. But you know, the job isn't finished, it's just one step on the way to hopefully winning the great prize.

"We know it's impossibly difficult to do, but realistic. And if you don't try, you have no chance. We will try and the luck might go our way.

“The atmosphere here is just incredible. There's nothing like it in motor racing in the world, and I've been to pretty much every motor race in the world and this is number one by far.”