Vasser signed with Patrick

[jamie928]

Since I haven't seen it on this forum, I thought I'd post it.
Jimmy Vasser has signed a multi year deal with Patrick Racing. No details or sponsors have been announced yet.
One more piece of the puzzle falls into place.
That leaves only a few seats left open for 2001. Zakspeed looks like it will sign a German and theres an outside chance thar Sevia may go to Della Pena with his Telefonica money. Where does this leave Herbert? It's looking like he'll be on the outside looking in.

[Liz]

Glad to know Jimmy is settled! I have heard that Pioneer may be sponsoring him as well as da Matta. Jimmy and Moreno should deal well together and I wish him all success.

[craigmanning]

...I was thinking earlier this evening as I was watching Speedvision news that Jimmy might be making a quantum leap forward here in going to Patrick.
When you think about the loss of Morris Nunn and now Tom Anderson of Ganassi you have to wonder if that team has some glaring holes in their technical and organizational capacities.
If this premise is even close it may make it tough for Junquiera and Minassian to look as good as Zanardi and Montoya have recently. Good engineering helps doesn't it?

On the other hand we have Jimmy who is moving to the team which I think finished what?...second and third in points this year? I haven't heard of any major changes at Patrick. Certainly Jim McGee remains and I think he's shown himself to be a major strategist and organizational guy for many years now.
Plonk a good guy like Jimmy in the middle of that stable unit with a very decent man like Roberto Moreno as a team mate and you might have something there. Dynasties typically only last so long, Jimmy might look back and see the perfect fruition of timing and events which although appear to be well orchestrated, have indeed been laborious, anxious,and apparently with feelings hurt all around. I guess one big question is the quality of Jimmy's driving. He generally has started to look a little like Al jr. to me but he did a good job in Houston. He actually used the words '****ed off' on TV tonight to describe his feelings. Sounds motivated enough, hmmm.....

The other thing that is mind boggling is this...Speedvision had footage of Jimmy at Patrick headquarters which I think is in Indy and could only have been filmed today.
Apparently they're testing at Sebring tomorrow. WOW!

Good luck Jimmy!

[Liz]

Those are good points. Getting fired by Penske turned out to be the saving of Paul Tracy, after all. If Penske had kept him on, he'd probably be in the Idiot Racing League by now. And it never does you any permanent harm to have to get out there and sell yourself to a new employer; it makes you assess your skills and abilities and realise that you are really a valuable addition to the team - and that gives you confidence you might not have had if you'd stayed in your comfortable rut.

I think you're right; this may be the making of Jimmy and if it is not, it will certainly give him a more graceful exit scenario.

Anyway, good luck to him.