2004 lineup

[corkholio]

Keohane's got some family money at least. Though I don't know if he is going to be willing to run around the back of the grid with Coyne for too long.

[cos]

Keohane's a half-decent driver, a winner in F3 (I think). Better than Yoong did in B-F3 so he should work wonders with the car...

[Tenoch]

apparently ASTJ wiill be shutting down and Ryan has signed with another Cart team, and our valley boy is out of job. From the asl Astj thread.

[corkholio]

Originally posted by Tenoch
apparently ASTJ wiill be shutting down and Ryan has signed with another Cart team, and our valley boy is out of job. From the asl Astj thread.

But you know that can't possibly happen til someone approves that, even if some of the staff were apparantly laid off.

[Tenoch]

I know that, I was putting the info that was in another thread in the thread that it belongs in. If I knew how to do that quate thing then that's what I would of done.

[Tenoch]

It truly be a shame to lose our american spirit team, owned by a swede and sponsored (one race) by a mexican car parts maker.

[macdaddy]

Last week I notice that Steven Johnson's team webpage was unavailable, but didn't give it much thought.
It's still down.

Entertaining the idea that the rumour is true, I would foresee Jimmy in Busch (much to my dismay), but what about Ryan? "Already signed"? By whom?!

Silly Season is upon us, folks.

[Tailwind]

Macdaddy is that a different sight than the ASTJ sight? I went into that sight a couple of times tonight after hearing the rumor about them closing the doors and everything seemed to be up and running like normal.

[macdaddy]

Same link is working fine now...
You be magic or sumptin!

[BootsOntheSide]

Worked fine for me. www.AmericanSpiritteamJohansson.com was my fourth guess at their address though.

[Hazza]

On a guess, whats the worst case, and best case scenario for grid sizes next year?

[MLM]

Originally posted by sgw2
Liz,

Forsythe I list 1 car as 100% and the second as better than 50% (being conservative) based on Tracy and Forsythe's comments. Whether there is a sponsor or not changes this picture not one bit. Perhaps you'd have objected less if I said 75% on the second car? Whatever, I expect two cars here.

As for Montiero, yes that is my guess; the team is looking at other drivers (e.g., Lamy, Christian F.), but not hiring mechanics. I doubt Tiago's salary is a significant factor. This looks pure and simple like a driver replacment search to me, not a second car.

Wayne Taylor's Grand-Am announcement is available on the 7G rumor page.

ASTJ layoff of all but a few of Ryan's mechanics, and it is on the web, as you know Liz. (Check out the team members page on the ASTJ website today.) So it doesn't take much imagination to see Ryan perhaps taking his daddy's money to a more stable team.

Darren Manning leaving Walker for Ganassi IRL was reported by Robin Miller, as you also know. Walker's budget info for 2003 is publicly available to anyone who cares to search the CART SEC filings (you'll find his team budget and $5.9M TAP, but you'll have to do some math to get the $1.4M ESP).

Liz, I think you are the one being arrogant. Assuming that without subsidies the field will grow. Silly season always produces dreams and vapor teams. But budget constraints grind that back down to reality. Last year Pook opened the piggy bank and made up the shortfall. IMHO unless the OWRS trioka opens up their checkbooks sevral teams will vanish, and others will run less than a full season. The IRL 2003 is the model.

sgw2,I don't particulary care for anyone dissing any of my friends....in OR out of CART.

I think we're all on edge until this OWRS sale (hopefully)goes through. A friend of mine told me a few days ago that this is going to be a difficult winter.
That,unfortunately, could be true.
Until then, we could guess on what could(or could not) happen and hope/pray for the best.

[Jay]

I have no idea what next year will bring...who will be here and who won't. Whatever's around will have to be practically bought and paid for by OWRS, pay drivers and sponsors that are gathered as the season progresses. First the buyout has to be completed, second an official and final calendar has to be released, third the necessary financing has to be secured - mostly out of pocket I'd guess. Finally, who will drive almost seems like a side story... There are hundreds of worthy drivers out there, but in the end, apart from a few of the top teams, it'll be whoever can bring the money.

[Snrub]

I don't get why this OWRS deal doesn't finish up. It causes uncertainty and weakens CART for next year. Sponsors will still be reluctant to come into the series when it could colapse. It would be worth atleast a few million to cut the **** and start signing.

[Jay]

I'm sure OWRS is going as fast as they possibly can. The whole transition of CART from a publicly traded company to a privately held one has gone at lightspeed thus far...unfortunately, it's not nearly fast enough for teams to put together a sponsorship package for next season...

[Jordi]

It might have been lightspeed, but for us fans it's slooooow....

[429CJ]

Do anybody know anything about 'Morello'?

[Liz]

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

[evo]

Well, here's an interesting idea. If someone wants a driver who could attract sponsorship and increase the profile of the series, they should hire Colin McRae. He's out of a rally job next year and he did test for Jordan a while back... did quite well too.

[Jordi]

Oh, that's interesting, but he'd like to earn money to do that...

[codename_47]

Originally posted by MLM
I think we're all on edge until this OWRS sale (hopefully)goes through. A friend of mine told me a few days ago that this is going to be a difficult winter.
That,unfortunately, could be true.

I hadn't planned on this winter being easy (heh, I find it hard enough to hold onto finger nails before biting as it is! )
But could this winter REALLY be as bad or worse than last years, when we were wondering if there was going to be a series to support, and then frantically fretting to see if we got that magic number of 18 cars? :confused:

[corkholio]

Originally posted by 429CJ
Do anybody know anything about 'Morello'?

Apparantly not anyone with money.

[Jordi]

Yeah, been a long time without any news on 'em

[power&glory]

I think we're looking at this:

Forsythe- 2 (same)

N/H- 2 (same, but I think Bruno will run at Indy)

Rahal- 2 (Team Rahal is expanding at all levels)

Rocketsports- 2 (Dario?)

Fernandez- 2 (addition of Diaz)

Herdez- 2 (Moreno replaced by Gonzalez)

Patrick- 1 (Servia)

Walker- 2 (Lavin and Valiente; with this series as wildly popular as it is in Mexico, Valiente will find sponsorship)

PKR- 2 (They've said that they are ready to expand, it's just a matter of finding the right driver and personnel)

Fittipaldi- 2 (Emmo has stated that he already has a short list of drivers for the second car)

Coyne- 2 (Coyne will give a drive to whomever has the $$)

Conquest- 1 (Haberfeld, if they can find the money)

RuSport- 1 (AJ!)

ASTJ- 2 (Jimmy and Ryan, because I honestly think that they'll be able to find an interested sponsor as they switch to the more competitive chassis)

So that's 22-25 cars in 2004; 25 according to my list, 22 according this: if Conquest folds, it'll merge with FDR, and if ASTJ folds, we know that Jimmy and Ryan will both be in the series next year.

[jjspierx]

Jimmy has said he won't run if doesn't think the team can be competitive.

As for Rusport, I HOPE they have a 2 car team, I think Russo probably has the money to run a 2 car team if he thinks it would help AJ, and I think ti would