SILLY SEASON pt.7 ?!?!

[Liz]

When we interviewed Bruno for our website last month he became quite angry about all the rumours trying to stuff him into Another Series. He's not the least tiniest bit interested in driving in Another Series and will be back at Newman Haas in 2004 for sure. If Chip Ganassi couldn't force him into it, nobody can.

[corkholio]

Bruno did not say in fact he would be with N/H for 04, and in fact even the interview admitted that and she assumed he meant he would be staying with N/H. Bruno only said he has a ride for next year, not stating where or even what he would be driving, but only denying that he would be driving in an all oval series. I think motorsports journalists that have followed Bruno at all would know he would indeed bolt for F1 (which is another series) if a seat, as unlikely as that would be right now, opened up for him.

[Dov]

There's a HUGE difference between the roundy round series and F1! Who wouldn't bolt for F1 if they had the opportunity!?

[snakepit27]

i read over on eastcoastracingnews.com a while ago that both rocketsports and pkr would hvae 2 cars.. It makes sense because their owners are running the series!

[gaines]

Do you know how much a TV commercial costs during the Super Bowl? It's enough to put OWRS out of business before it gets started.

Okay, so we'll spend our butts off to field 18 cars with 2 sponsors but we won't at least try to market the series with a bang? Our problem is nobody cares. I'll go ahead and admit that for all of us. Other than those of us that are here and the very few CART message boards like this, nobody cares about our favorite racing series. So, the very least we could do is try and get our series out to the sports fan. Remember, not everyone is buying into the taxi cab version of roundy roundys. There are those Molson and Labatt's drinking racing fans who enjoy a damn good, old fashioned road/street course race where you turn ~gasp~ right! They've forgotten good racing exists because the INDY 500 is owned by the league that decided circles is the only way to play in open wheel. If you smack the rich old crowd in the face between the Cadillac and PGA commercial they'll say....hmmm maybe I'll check this thing out. Then you make Long Beach THEEEEEEE race of the series, put up several million in purse(okay this is a stretch but if you sell every sponsor in our series that this is a necessity and get them all to throw in some cash...) and put on a show maybe, just maybe you'll get some fans. When CART was THEEEEE racing series in '95 you know who was watching? The 35 to 50 age group in the states. The guys with all the cash. That's why we had the sponsors we had. Beer, smokes, cars and oil...ahhh the grown up crowd. Why not try and get them back?
-Steve

[gaines]

Uh, sorry about that Labatts and Molson thing, I was referring to myself. You Canadians put on great races, fabulous hockey and make great beer. Cheers, mates.

[Dov]

I guess all American race fans like to watch race cars turn left all the time and forgot what real racing is all about!?

[GP Racer]

Please Dov, don't get me started...

Gaines, people care about CART. It would be great if they could put a commercial on during the Super Bowl, I'm not disagreeing with that. The power of that commercial advertising is second to none. But that territory is strictly for the Fortune 500 crowd, and even many of them shrink away when they hear the price. Also, sponsors aren't going to be lining up to be seen on Spike TV. OWRS simply doesn't have the money to make it happen.

As a matter of fact, I don't even know where there going to get the 80 to 100 million dollars its going to take to put on a season in 2004, do you?

[Jay]

Hey if they can come up with it, I could care less where it comes from. Also, now that they're a private company you won't see these number figures and they'll just be wild rumours through the paddock - they could come from Paul G's pocket, they could from Gerald F's pocket....they could even come from Paul Newmann's or perhaps even an off-shore drug ring. We have no way of knowing, so as long as they're bringing it, should we care whos pocket it's coming out of?

[Liz]

Bravo, Jay! If it's not coming out of my pocket, I don't care where they get it. And I think the most important thing is to have the races on at a time and location where people are certain to be able to find them. No more "Is it on TSN? Is it on CBS? Is it on SPEED? Is it blacked out? Is it on tape delay?" -- we will hunt them down but the average casual fan will not. You can't build an audience by making people play "Where's Waldo" every time they want to watch a race.

[GP Racer]

Apparently, it looks like more people care where it comes from than you might think.

Just an observation...

[zerO]

Let's play with bad news.

Three latest rumors:

1. PATRICK RACING - Pat Patrick closed shop, laid everybody off, and started selling off his "toys". Emerson Fittipaldi is suppossedly buying those "toys" and is planning to run two Lolas next year. Mark C. contradicts this, but he's the only one... Robin Miller and a ton of others confirm the Emmo story. On the other hand, GM/Chevy is wooing Pat Patrick to run a car in IRL for Al Unser Jr. next year. Also, just because all this is happening - it doesn't mean that Pat Patrick might not still run one car in OWRS next year - he hasn't retired yet.

2. RAHAL RACING - While Bobby Rahal is contemplating of adding another car in OWRS next year (maybe Andre Lotterer, maybe Justin Wilson, maybe ???) he's about to sign Jimmy Vasser to take over Kenny Brack's car in IRL while Brack is reccuperating from his horrible crash. Say "Bye-Bye" to Jimmy Vasser in Champ Cars ?!

3. CONQUEST RACING - a week ago Eric Bachelart announced that he's going to field a car in OWRS next year, now a rumor starts floating that MiJack is moving to IRL - whether there will be one Conquest car in each series or only one in one of 'em is yet to be seen. But, logic would dictate that the rumor is false since Bachelart aready has a car in OWRS and $$$ for new equipement do not fall from trees. Unless something drastic has happened, and that would not reflect too well on Kevin Kalkhoven's promise that "OWRS plans to help the struggling teams as much as possible in order to ensure an 18 car field next year".

Don't know where all this is going, but it sure doesn't sound too good. :confused:

zerO

[macdaddy]

Thanx for the updates, zerO. But rumours are nothing more than that.

1) I think Pat Patrick is gone, and won't be back. He's getting abit older now, all he wants is one more BorgWarner. And that's cool with me, he owes us nothing. He's supported the series longer than anybody else.

2) Gentillozi has said that both Vasser and RHR will be back, but with different teams. I want to believe that.

3) Sure would cost MiJack a ton to run two series. Going from one car in one series to two cars in two series probably wouldn't leave them with enough advertising budget to run a newspaper ad! I'm confident that the team will remain in ChampCar, as zerO alluded to they've already got the equipment.

[zerO]

OK, here's a funny tidbit:

BUDDY RICE = he happens to be a Red Bull driver, run a few races for Eddie Cheever (in IRL) last year, (Eddie "the Big Mouth" Cheever also belongs to Red Bull, btw), then Eddie sacked Buddy Rice... now, a new season is on the doorsteps: for some strange reason Red Bull have decided to stay in IRL one more year, so Eddie Cheever's team is still alive, with the free engines from GM/Chevy he'll be able to field a team in IRL next year - maybe one car, maybe two... Alex Barron is signed on to be te primary driver, now the question is concerning the #2 driver (if there shall be one): many would like to see Ed Carpenter (TG's nephew) to get that seat (and it's the last of 19 seats that are to be the IRL's starting grid next year), but there is a slight complication - since Red Bull is sponsoring the team, they would like to have one of their drivers in the seat: either Buddy Rice or Narain Karthikeyan... now, since there is such a dilemma - there is a strong possibility that there won't be any second car from Eddie Cheever and Buddy Rice will be shopping for a ride in Champ Cars ?!?! Especially since Red Bull is very seriously looking towards switching from roundy-roundy to Champ Cars... there is also a possibility of a Mo Nunn car in Champ Cars with Buddy Rice behind the wheel, and no mo' Mo Nunn in IRL should Tora Takagi take his Pioneer sponsorship over to the Foyt Team - Toyota shall make this call (before Homestead)...

So, to all the Champ Car fans - please, do not fret, the other side has as much or more problems than us... odds are that both leagues shall have the same car count on the starting grid next year - the exception being that the Indy will not be able to garner 33 cars no matter how hard they'll try ?!?!

The saga shall continue...

zerO

[corkholio]

Narain Karthikeyan a Red Bull driver?

[Snrub]

I didn't know that PG had said that Jimmy would be back in CART next year.

Recall last year Pook was busy saying stuff like Chip would participate in 2003 and stuff like that. The OWRS guys seem to be less balsy with their statements, although I suppose they can be.

[Hazza]

And remember, Cart wouldnt be in such a mess if the 2 3 car teams haddn't of pulled out in 2002 and IRL would be up the creak if they haddn't (13 car grid - heck Formula 4000 would probably get a bigger field)

And remember OWRS or whatnot said that IRL is also loosing money. (Speaking of which, isn't it time that they started calling themselves the Indycar Series again?)
But still, next year's IRL season is looking good, so it'll be twice the fun.

EDIT: By now, everybody should know better than to try to avoid the autocensor. In this post, it was quite blatant, Hazza.

[cos]

Champweb's latest Silly Season page has Vasser with Nunn and Wilson talking to Rahal.

[carsten66]

and in the meantime some fun... I put some cartoons from Jim Bamber and create a new one...

[zerO]

Originally posted by corkholio
Narain Karthikeyan a Red Bull driver?

Hey Corky,
Narain Karthikeyan has to major sponsors: TATA (an Indian conglomerate) and JK Tires... recently Red Bull came into the picture - do not know to what extent they are involved (at this time), but Red Bull is representing Karthikeyan in US... and since they're trying to stick him with Cheever - one would assume that he'd be wearing a Red Bull patch somewhere on his suit... btw, first Karthikeyan is trying to get a testing job with Minardi in F1 - US is his second choice (like everbody else's)...

zerO

[zerO]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by zerO

Here's an updated 2004 Line-up picture:

1. NEWMAN/HAAS - Sebastien Bourdais
2. NEWMAN/HAAS - Bruno Junqueira ?
3. FORSYTHE - Paul Tracy
4. FORSYTHE - Patrick Crapentier
5. WALKER - Michael Valiante
6. WALKER - Jonathan Macr or Ryan Dalziel
7. HERDEZ - Mario Dominguez
8. HERDEZ - Roberto Gonzalez or David Martinez ?
9. FERNANDEZ - Adrian Fernandez
10. FERNANDEZ - Luis Diaz
11. RAHAL - Michael Jourdain
12. POLLOCK - Mika Salo
13. FITTIPALDI - Tiago Monteiro
14. FITTIPALDI - Tomas Enge or Rodolfo Lavin ?
15. GENTILOZZI - Alex Tagliani
16. GENTILOZZI - Ryan Hunter-Reay
17. COYNE - Joel Camathias or Tomas Enge ?
18. RUSSO - A.J.Allmendinger

Those are the 18 promised... now, here are other possibilities:

19. RAHAL - Andre Lotterer or Justin Wilson ?
20. POLLOCK - Jacques Villeneuve or Guy Smith ?
21. BACHELART - Mario Haberfeld or Giorgio Pantano ?
22. COYNE - Alex Yoong or Alex Sperafio ?
23. McGHEE - Jimmy Vasser or Bjorn Wirdheim ?
24. NUNN - Felipe Giaffone or Hoover Orsi ?

More detailed version = SILLY SEASON page ?!

============================================

Latest from the "Grapevine" is that Jim McGhee (Pat Patrick's partner) might not sell off all it's equipement to Emmo and field one car himself. Should Jimmy Vasser join him in this endeavor then he'd most probably be the driver, Oriol Servia is still in a picture.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! to all 10-Tenthers ?!

zerO

[corkholio]

Even though you seem to have a tendency to bark at anyone who dares to ask you for a link to validate your made up "rumors", I still don't see Narain as a Red Bull driver as anything other than a figment of your imagination.

I have not seen anything from a reliable news outlet that even connects the Indian with Red Bull, not the least that Dieter wants Americans, because he is after the American market and not the Indian market. Karthikeyan's been racing in Europe for years and Red Bull has never sponsored him? Why now?

[power&glory]

.

[power&glory]

oops- just tried to post a little "prospective grid" table, but it came out all messed up so i got rid of it.

[Omega99]

In the link supplied by zerO, it shows only two teams running Reynard's, which would be at most four cars. Kind of sad to see, since the Reynard really is a good chasis, just a little under-developed and harder to dial in on the perfect setup.