By Andrew Benson BBC Sport Online motorsport editor

Former British American Racing team boss Craig Pollock has refused to deny that he is attempting to buy the troubled Arrows team.

Pollock, the manager and close friend of 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, is understood to be one of two parties interested in buying the cash-strapped Formula One outfit.

The other is Dietrich Mateschitz, the boss of soft drink company Red Bull, which sponsors the team.

Pollock told BBC Sport Online: "I've seen and heard the stories myself. I'm off to America right now, and I don't really know what to say about it. I can't say anything."

Some sources say that Pollock has joined forces with US racing magnate Jerry Forsythe, who is also a BAR shareholder.

If Pollock is able to raise the money to buy Arrows, he would almost certainly have to sell his shares in BAR, which he ran from 1999-2001.

Pollock was one of the founding members of BAR but was ousted by the team's majority shareholder and title sponsor - the tobacco giant BAT - at the end of last year.

He has been replaced by David Richards, the boss of Prodrive, a motorsport engineering specialist that runs the Subaru world rally team.

Richards, a favourite of BAT, is widely believed to have taken over the team with a view to buying it.

Arrows came close to missing last weekend's British Grand Prix because team owner Tom Walkinshaw could not afford to pay a bill to engine suppliers Cosworth.

The crisis was precipitated by investment bank Morgan Grenfell, the team's co-owner, who took out a High Court injunction to prevent Walkinshaw concluding a deal with Mateschitz.

A High Court judge was highly critical of the management of Arrows, calling it "underhand and improper, indeed downright dishonest".