[URY914]

Penske Racing's two IndyCar race chassis were destroyed when the transporter they were travelling in caught fire on the way to this weekend's race at Sears Point.

The blaze, believed to have been caused by a wheel bearing failure, could not be extinguished immediately, so the cars of Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe were incinerated as the truck burned to the ground on an interstate in Wyoming.

The transporter's drivers were uninjured but could only save the truck's cab, while the majority of the team's equipment in the truck was also destroyed.

Penske team president Tim Cindric told the Indianapolis Star newspaper: "It's a disaster, a big, melted mess. It was like a house fire where it burns at the ceiling, we probably lost 80 to 90 per cent of everything on board."

The team will use their test cars, which were already in California following a test at Sonoma, for this weekend's event.

Castroneves, who trails Scott Dixon by 78 points in the championship, added: "I hope we can turn it around pretty quickly, I know my guys are going to be extremely tired but we seem to perform well in these circumstances."

Penske's headquarters suffered major losses to flood damage in 2006, but the team responded by winning the next race, at Kansas Speedway.