Forsythe Racing began its involvement in motorsport in 1981 by sponsoring Lee Brayton's entry for his son Scott. Forsythe then started his own team, racing part-time in CART in 1982 with Héctor Rebaque and Danny Sullivan. Sullivan drove at the 1982 Indianapolis 500 and finished 13th, while Rebaque claimed a win at Road America. That same season, Al Unser Jr. made his CART debut for the team at Riverside International Raceway, finishing fifth.
Success continued from 1983 to 1985. Rookie driver Teo Fabi was particularly impressive in 1983, winning four races and starting from pole position at Indianapolis. The early Forsythe squad established a reputation as a competitive team capable of nurturing talented drivers.
After a hiatus, the team returned in 1994 as Forsythe-Green Racing, with co-owner Barry Green joining forces with Forsythe. Jacques Villeneuve drove for the partnership that year. However, the alliance quickly fractured. By 1995 Green departed, taking Villeneuve and the Canadian cigarette sponsor Player's LTD with him to his new team, Team Green, where Villeneuve went on to win both the 1995 Indianapolis 500 and the CART championship.
Forsythe reunited with Teo Fabi for a full-time effort in 1995 with Combustion Engineering as sponsor. Separately, the team retained Player's LTD backing for its Indy Lights program, where Canadian driver Greg Moore claimed the 1995 Indy Lights championship, winning ten of twelve races. When Villeneuve's contract was bought out by Williams Formula One for 1996, Moore stepped up to Champ Car for Forsythe with Player's LTD returning as primary sponsor.
Moore drove for Forsythe for four full Champ Car seasons — 1996 through 1999 — following his Indy Lights campaign. He captured five Champ Car victories and achieved a best championship finish of fifth in 1998. His career was cut short when he died at the end of the 1999 season.
In 1998, Forsythe expanded to a two-car operation by adding Patrick Carpentier alongside Moore, forming an all-Canadian lineup. Carpentier remained with the team through 2004, scoring five wins during that period. For 2000, rookie Alex Tagliani joined Carpentier; over three seasons Tagliani recorded three poles and five podiums but no wins and was replaced for 2003.
Paul Tracy joined the team for the 2003 season and delivered Forsythe its only championship, winning seven races in CART's final year of operations before the series itself folded.
For 2005 and 2006, Mario Domínguez drove alongside Tracy. Mid-2006, Domínguez was released and replaced by AJ Allmendinger, who went on to win his first three Champ Car races with Forsythe — a remarkable run for a newcomer. Despite that impressive debut, Allmendinger and the team could not agree terms for 2007 and he departed for NASCAR with Team Red Bull. Domínguez returned in his place before eventually being replaced by Oriol Servià on a race-by-race basis, with Servià subsequently hired full-time.
For 2008, Forsythe and former RuSPORT owner Dan Pettit planned to merge into Forsythe/Pettit Racing fielding at least two cars. The unification of North American open-wheel racing into the IndyCar Series changed the landscape, however. Forsythe judged competitive participation financially unviable under the new structure and elected not to enter the IndyCar Series. The team fielded three of its Panoz DP01 chassis at the 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach as a farewell to Champ Car competition.
The team's Atlantic series operation continued racing through the end of 2008. In July 2008 Forsythe announced plans to return to the Firestone Indy Lights grid in 2009, and reports indicated possible IndyCar and American Le Mans Series programs, but neither materialized.
Over its history, the Forsythe organization served as a proving ground for Canadian talent — Greg Moore, Patrick Carpentier, Alex Tagliani, and Paul Tracy all drove for the team — and was one of the most consistent forces in North American open-wheel racing across two decades.
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