http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/champcar/42908/
TEAM AUSTRALIA STILL MIA
Once again there was no sign of Team Australia at Sebring, leaving the car count at 14 on the day. Will Power, who won a pair of races last year and who is widely regarded as one of the favorites for the ‘08 title sounded nonplussed when we tracked him down by cell phone.
“We’re sorting a few things out,” he said, “and we’ll be at the next test for sure. We had the car on the shaker rig early this week and everything is going forward. It’s all good.”
Team co-owner Derrick Walker was similarly upbeat.
“I’ve got the same driver, the same car and the same crew we had last year, he said, tongue firmly in cheek. “Why do we need to go to Sebring and run up the mileage for two and half days? It’s not like we have a rookie driver to test. It’s not like we have a bunch of mechanics who’ve never worked on the Panoz before. It’s not like we’ve hired a whole bunch of engineers from other teams and we’ve got to sort through all their setups to see what works.”
Some cynics suggested that Walker was trying to send a message to Champ Car owners Gerald Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi, Kevin Kalkhoven and Dan Pettit by not showing up; others suggested the message was not directed at Champ Car’s owners but at Walker’s partner in Team Australia, Craig Gore . . .