2010 Silly Season

[JagtechOhio]

JTO said:

"Indy will be a full field, many for their only race of the season. I forsee that as having an effect on the condensed practice and the race."

There will be 15-20 deals put together for the Speedway this year. The compressed practice and qualifying schedule, and the reduced Honda engine lease deals for a one-off program have insured that.

Drivers, some experienced and some novice, will all be turning their first laps of the season. Same for their crews. They will have a shortened window in which to work up to competitive speeds. They will also have the knowledge that a practice crash might well put them out of the race, with no T car at their disposal and not enough time and money for a small team to replace a car.

When you wreck a car, you have to buy the engine from Honda. Junking an engine in a wreck is not part of the lease cost to use it.

All entrants will be hoping to impress sponsors enough to acquire funding to run additional races on the schedule. It's hero time.

So my view of those facts leads to the following conclusions: drivers will be pushing for their fastest speeds of the week when they attempt to qualify. That has not always been the case in the past, when drivers strapped in and knew what they, and their car, were already capable of.

Things will be a bit more desparate than normal as the six o'clock gun approaches. These same factors could affect the patience and wisdom that running the 500 mile race requires.

I am hoping not to see many wadded up race cars either before or during the 500. These added pressures, evident to more drivers this year than in the past, will not make for a reduction in the likelyhood of mishaps.

We will all hope for the safety that good judgement and skill can provide. And for full fields at every race.

And we will see what reality has in store for us.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by icemachine

George, Kalkhoven say they are not trying to buy IRL

http://www.indystar.com/article/2010...ing-to-buy-IRL

I'll believe it if it gets sold to someone else first but otherwise I wouldn't be surprised if the "right opportunity" justs drops in their laps

You never know what could happen but I don't think they have the money, unless mommy george gives it to little georgie as another present. TG is toothless without being able to raid the family trust bank accounts and apparently has been trying to sell off his big home and other toys to stay afloat, not to mention shutting down the race team.

Kalkoven's fortunes I heard took a hit in the downturn and he's been there done that with owning a series so I don't see that either. There are a lot of rumors KV might shut down as well.

[JagtechOhio]

Yep, there has been nothing publicly announced about KV Racing, and very little in the rumor cloud. Moraes has just been trotted at for the press in Sao Paulo, so it is likely he will race there. For who, and where else, is another matter. He is one of the "local heroes" I was referring to, Ana Beatriz may be another, perhaps another. One-offs.

If I wrote this before here, I apologize for repeating it, but it is a view I have not read elsewhere:

Speculation about Tony George's personal net worth and access to investment capital is surprising to me. He shuttered Vision racing. In doing so, he put his stepson out of an IndyCar ride and his daughter out of her role as IndyLights Team Manager.

If finances are that desparate, I feel sorry for them all. If George does in fact have access to funding, and refused to devote the money towards the efforts of his own children, he is a bigger creep than I could ever have guessed.

[marcostraz]

And now:

1) What's the future of EJ Viso?
2) Is it possible a Hildebrand+Scheckter lineup for Coyne?

[JagtechOhio]

Viso, see post #198. I'm told Viso's confirmed, I can't confirm it.

Coyne presents a fine public face, and only his own private funding to date:

http://www.dalecoyneracing.com/release020210.html

When Vision was announced as closed, I wrote for a meeting of team owners to consolidate their resources and form partnerships. Too many will not find enough funding on their own.

That is what Nascar owners did before the 2009 season.

I don't think I read where one blogger or internet poster agreed with me. My first choice was a Vision/ Coyne merger, to bring Izod "Stars" Ed Carpenter and Graham Rahal to Vision, and thus fully fund the Boy Scout car. If that also required the participation of another partner, such as Bachelart with his "I Drive Green" sponsorship, cut him in as a partner too. There are a variety of combinations possible, and I hope the principles involved are reaching the same conclusion.

At present, neither the title sponsor nor the Scouts can be very pleased. Mistakes are being made, and nice press releases and television commercials are not sufficient to reverse them.

Transporters load for Barber testing in 19 days.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by JagtechOhio

Speculation about Tony George's personal net worth and access to investment capital is surprising to me. He shuttered Vision racing. In doing so, he put his stepson out of an IndyCar ride and his daughter out of her role as IndyLights Team Manager.

If finances are that desparate, I feel sorry for them all. If George does in fact have access to funding, and refused to devote the money towards the efforts of his own children, he is a bigger creep than I could ever have guessed.

I have to pat myself on the back as several years ago I speculated if there was one thing that could stop tony george it was the hulman george trust. Apparently all the members of the family share in the wealth and profits to varying degrees and in the pre split days you had a ton of revenue coming in from a prosperous month of may and the brickyard 400 starting in 1994. When the split came all that money ended up being diverted into tony's pipe dream. Now with indy on a long decline and the brickyard 400 as well, it's estimated half a billion bucks has gone down the can into the black hole called the indy racing league(never made a profit either). That means all those other trust member missed out on that money.

Well they have their own dreams and aspirations and for a lot of them that didn't ever include tony's pipe dream(bomb). I remember tim northcutt and indycool being very insistent that this family was loaded and nothing like this could happen, but it did.

Without carte blanche access to writing endless checks out to the irl and his own team, he really doesn't have the money or the power anymore. I think it's pretty clear how bad it all is when the series owner couldn't even attract decent sponsorship to his own team.

Actually for "special Ed" and whiny lauren george(put yer fingers in yer ears) the best thing to ever happen to them is for them to have to go out and get "real jobs". The problem with that whole hulmangeorgeclan is they have been riding the coattails of the long dead old man, Tony Hulman Jr. and for many of them need to strike out on their own.

[JagtechOhio]

I gotta tell you Star, and I mean this to your credit, that on the few occasions I argued with your material facts I ended up having to apologize for it. Most of them have been a realistic picture of what was going on, and what could possibly happen as a result.

I will still remain thankful for my ignorance of past events, because they have no direct bearing on the racing I have been watching since last April. Or the racing I will resume watching this March.

Everyone can explain their position on how things got to the point I first turned the TV back on. So what. Everyone can say this ship is sinking, and tally the series of events that dripped in through the leaking bulkheads. So what.

The question is how the current realities will be faced, and what changes can be introduced to ballast the prospects for tomorrow. That is where I have been devoting my attention.

Hoping for some future expedition to raise the sunken ship is a dreamscape. Immediate action can be taken, based on a thorough asessment of what transpires today.

While I continue to read your views as far too pesimistic, and far too overshadowed by the past, I will thank you for your clear views on the current storm.

Old weather patterns are not the best way to create a forcast for tomorrow. Not for 2012, for tomorrow. And unlike the weather, the future outlook for the IndyCar Series can be controlled. If done correctly, it will float. If not, it's a washout.

Thanks for keeping it real.

[Alwaysfirst]

Originally Posted by JagtechOhio

Viso, see post #198. I'm told Viso's confirmed, I can't confirm it.

Coyne presents a fine public face, and only his own private funding to date:

http://www.dalecoyneracing.com/release020210.html

When Vision was announced as closed, I wrote for a meeting of team owners to consolidate their resources and form partnerships. Too many will not find enough funding on their own.

That is what Nascar owners did before the 2009 season.

I don't think I read where one blogger or internet poster agreed with me. My first choice was a Vision/ Coyne merger, to bring Izod "Stars" Ed Carpenter and Graham Rahal to Vision, and thus fully fund the Boy Scout car. If that also required the participation of another partner, such as Bachelart with his "I Drive Green" sponsorship, cut him in as a partner too. There are a variety of combinations possible, and I hope the principles involved are reaching the same conclusion.

At present, neither the title sponsor nor the Scouts can be very pleased. Mistakes are being made, and nice press releases and television commercials are not sufficient to reverse them.

Transporters load for Barber testing in 19 days.

I must confess that I think that that would have been a great idea. Agreeably some of the teams may have been slightly weaker as individual entities as a result, but they would still be in business & it would only have helped car count IMO. Whilst I am staying positive on the chances of good sized fields this year I'm not oblivious to the financial realities of racing & if plans like this help then I would have been all in favour.

[JagtechOhio]

Thanks Alwaysfirst,

Hopefully there are deals being evaluated behind the scenes right now. No way to know but I fail to see, as you do, why this is a bad plan.

I THINK right now that some owners have contracts with associate sponsors: $0.5 and $1M deals, that sort of thing. Bachelart, De Ferran, prospective new entries from Wachs and Stargate, etc. etc. Also existing teams that are looking for the ride buyers, none of whom have personal sponsorship committments.

The 2009 TV ratings are not going to enable major sponsorships in this present climate. Partnerships will enable some of the teams to compete when they will otherwise be incapable.

Rahal without a ride is a disaster for Izod. The Boy Scout car parked in the garage is a disaster for the IICS public image.

[JagtechOhio]

Marlboro's sponsorship committment had previously been vastly reduced. I just read a rumor that they are gone.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by JagtechOhio

Marlboro's sponsorship committment had previously been vastly reduced. I just read a rumor that they are gone.

I think that all went down last fall when they cut funding to all the consumer programs they were running to support it. The free tickets, hats, race car rides, etc that all got cut. So without that the sponsorship was a bit redundant.

There are rumors one of the top teams was going to pull out here very shortly before the season started. Could it be Penske? Dunno. But I know Penske doesn't like to go racing unless he has a full budget. He's always been 100% full in or 100% out. No halfways scraping by, at least not for long.

[JagtechOhio]

My impression was that other sponsorship committments were in place at Penske which enabled them to add the third car for Will Power. I have no confirmation to offer for that: just the assumption that Marlboro money had already been replaced by other deals, or the team would have held station as opposed to expanding.

Robin Miller had said that N/H/L/ was not a cohesive unit, and there has been no confirmation of Lloyd or Mutoh's sponsorship situation. With Rahal publicly campaigning for a ride, Carl Haas has mentioned nothing more than an expansion of his parts business.

If there is a major team to go down, and I consider them to be major, N/H/L MIGHT be the one. Pure speculation on my part. I tend to trust Robin Miller's information.

What has actually happened to the supposed "Formula Dream" money remains a mystery. If it's a $5M package, it's enough to buy the No. 2 seat at USF1. There are either a bunch of blockbuster deals to drop, or the lack of news is because there just flat isn't any to tell.

What did you think of the mergers idea? Any input?

Andy

P.S. In Ohio, the term is "roadkill". Where I grew up, that's "street pizza".

[JagtechOhio]

Cindic's own words on Penske, 12/09. No mention of Marlboro.

http://www.racer.com/tim-cindric-add...rticle/159458/

[JagtechOhio]

One more, and I'll shut up for a while. This is Curt Cavin writing in the Indy Star about Rahal today:

"Answer: Be careful here: No one said Graham "couldn't" land a ride; we said he hasn't. You know he doesn't want to take a step backward in terms of teams, and he shouldn't. He wants to be with a group he can win races with, so he's being patient and selective. At least for right now he has the time to do that."


Graham Rahal's twitter account reveals that he has been skiing in Vail, Colorado the last two days. Way to pound the pavement , dude.

[Alwaysfirst]

http://translate.google.com/transla...tml&sl=pt&tl=en

Brazilian article stating that Takuma Sato & Mario Moraes will be KV's drivers for this season

[JagtechOhio]

That will bring about a major announcement which I will be delighted to hear, and believe when I see.

[cmk]

Originally Posted by JagtechOhio

One more, and I'll shut up for a while. This is Curt Cavin writing in the Indy Star about Rahal today:

"Answer: Be careful here: No one said Graham "couldn't" land a ride; we said he hasn't. You know he doesn't want to take a step backward in terms of teams, and he shouldn't. He wants to be with a group he can win races with, so he's being patient and selective. At least for right now he has the time to do that."


Graham Rahal's twitter account reveals that he has been skiing in Vail, Colorado the last two days. Way to pound the pavement , dude.

Isn't pounding the pavement the exact opposite of being patient and selective?

[JagtechOhio]

That would be my point. Alex Tagliani didn't put a ride together without throwing his full effort into developing and securing his own sponsor relationships. Same for Sarah Fisher Racing. They now have seats in the IndyCar Series.

I hope the Series and Rahal's representatives will offer him a list of sponsors from whom to patiently select his new partner. If one of them is Rossignol, you can accuse me of putting my ski in my mouth.

Izod needs to see him in a car. It won't be on their dime.

[AndrewF31]

Originally Posted by Alwaysfirst

http://translate.google.com/transla...tml&sl=pt&tl=en

Brazilian article stating that Takuma Sato & Mario Moraes will be KV's drivers for this season

Link doesn't work? Do you have the direct link? I speak Portuguese.

It's good news for KV and those 2 drivers.
Although I read in another thread that Kalkhoven was in money trouble.

Isn't KV where Tracy will be racing for the 500 and other races?

I'm really surprised by the Penske / Marlboro link being possibly over. I know that the last few years there has been cars in the team with other colors but for all I can remember, there's always been at least 1 red/white machine.

Is there any news on the Newman/Haas/Lanigan topic? Their site has the 1st race of the IRL season on the schedule so I guess they're still aiming to appear. It could be the life support for Rahal and ServiÃ*.

[JamesRamone]

Does anyone have a list of confirmed / probable and possible lineups for this year?

[marcostraz]

Originally Posted by JamesRamone

Does anyone have a list of confirmed / probable and possible lineups for this year?

Confirmed (16):

M. Andretti – Andretti
T. Kanaan – Andretti
D. Patrick – Andretti
R. Hunter-Reay - Andretti
R. Briscoe - Penske
H. Castroneves – Penske
W. Power - Penske
S. Dixon - Ganassi
D. Franchitti - Ganassi
V. Meira - Foyt
R. Doornbos - HVM
R. Matos - Luczo Dragon
D. Wheldon - Panther
A. Tagliani – FAZZT
J. Wilson - D&R
M. Conway - D&R

Presumable (8):
T.Sato - KV
M. Moraes - KV
G. Rahal – Coyne
J. Hildebrand - Coyne
S. De Silvestro - HVM
A. Lloyd - NHL
H. Mutoh - NHL
P. Tracy - KV (part time)

Doubt (4):
?.????? – Conquest
?. ????? -3G
E. Carpenter - Vision
?.????? – Luczo Dragon

Part Time (3):
S. Fisher - SFR
J. Howard – SFR
D. Hamilton – Hamilton/Kingdom

Indy only (3):
T. Bell – Schmidt/Ganassi
?. ????? – BHA
?. ????? – Rahal Letterman

[Stefvh]

Will we have 33 for Indy ?

[Alwaysfirst]

Easily...just because there always is. Somebody somewhere will have the money for an entry even if it isn't somebody or a team that we will have heard about before

[JagtechOhio]

Idy will be fine, $.5M gets you a one week deal. That's the only race many drivers will participate in .

HVM is a probably, Doornbus supposedly is under contract but that doesn't mean his entry is fully funded.

The "presumables" are "I wish". Nowhere has the KV entries been confirmed. Coyne has nothing right now.

[gomick]

I like that Coyne team - hope they run well again. Was suprised to see Wilson leave...