Craig Pollock to start CART team for 2003?

[Fogelhund]

http://www.tsn.ca/auto_racing/news_story.asp?id=20277

Well, who knows......

[Snrub]

I really hope this is true and not because of the JV connection. (althought that would be cool too)

[Jay]

Interesting... well, I hope they're working their arses off in the background to make it all happen - if we're going to have 18 cars in St. Petes they'll have to.

[tanalised]

It was rumoured quite some time ago that this had happened

[DNQ]

Good to see the rumours coming back again. We'll have 18 cars at round one - we're already at 17 confirmed entries aren't we? And Herdez and Newmaan Haas are both expected to have a second car.

[macdaddy]

17?

[DNQ]

Well I can think of 17 cars that are near certain, and Pook is saying 19-20.

Certain
Newmaan Haas (1) - Junqueira
BC Motorsport (1) - Pantano
Johannson (2)
Herdez (1) - Dominguez
Forsythe (2) - Carpentier, Tracy
Walker (1) - Rodriguez
Corona (1) - Lavin
Rahal (1) - Jourdain
Fernandez (1) - Fernandez
Rocketsports (1) -
Patrick (1) - Servia
Conquest (1) - Haberfeld
Coyne (1) - Camathias

That's 16 that are as certain (or close to it anywhere), and Newman Haas will have a second car despite what anyone will have you believe.

Well that's how I read it anyway

[f1manoz]

I've read rumours about Pollock buying a certain defunct team, but other than that I haven't read anything saying he WILL have a team ready for St. Pete's in February. But we can always hope!

[*formula3*]

Originally posted by DNQ
Certain

Corona (1) - Lavin

sorry if that has been discussed in another thread, but who´s lavin?


anyways, back to topic, it´ll be really cool if the pollock rumour was true, i don´t think that CP is as bad as it may seem after the BAR thing, imo he´s a really good manager and i really hope that it´s true

[cos]

According to this article he's bought PWR's old assets.

[Jay]

It starts out with "Our spies..." so it's anything but official, but we can hope...

Here's the info on Lavin: http://www.toyotaatlantic.com/Driver.asp?ID=52 It's not a very impressive record, but considering the team he's been with in Atlantic he hasn't done too badly.

[Lee Janotta]

*cough* Pay hack! *cough*

Nice paint job, though.

I _know_ Mexico must have good drivers, though! Why don't any of them get rides???

[Jay]

pay hack, got a sponsor, whatever... As long as he doesn't crash into people, I don't care (I bet Lavin is faster than Yoong). And another car's another car.

[DNQ]

Well if you look at Lavin's record, he isn't actually too bad, and I think that it is quite possible that he indeed better than Alex Yoong.

[Ben 93 325is]

That would be great...JV is a silent partner for 2003...finishes his contract with BAR...then comes and competes as a driver/owner in 2004!

[Jay]

He won't do that. I think JV will retire once he's done F1...and he's sounding as if that day's coming. To be honest, I think he does more for Cart by praising it while in F1 than he could in Cart.

[Snrub]

I agree that it helps JV being in F1 praising CART, but he's still considered one of the top drivers. (probably 3rd) Being in CART at this time would effectively be saying that Penske, Andretti, et al moved for the wrong reasons. It also raises the calibre of drivers in CART which is a bit weak this year. People want to go out to see heros and a F1 WDC certainly fits the bill.

Having the Indy500 win under his belt is also a insult of IRL if he chose to do CART after F1. I don't know why that's considered one of his "vital stats," either. Winning the Indy500 is no different from winning any other 500 mile race, other than the fans and hype. JV's indy500 win was impressive because he came back from 2 laps down.

It's funny to this day Goodyear says he was robbed by the penalty, neglecting that JV had the EXACT same "violation" but the penalty was stiffer.

I think JV will probably retire too, but he did seem pretty positive about the possibilities of doing CART 2003, to resume in F1 for 2004. Mr. Richards clearly didn't like the 2nd half of that proposal.

[BootsOntheSide]

I was wondering who was going to buy the PWR stuff, a few names have been put forward, including Barry Green some time ago. I don't see JV returning to CART though, but if he's really disillusioned with F1, and believes he can enhance his reputation by returning, it would be good. The question is then- who drives the car in 2003? Tags?

[rush1]

DNQ's list says it all. Compare the 2002 - 2003 CART driver lineups. Da Matta (F1), Franchitti (IRL), Andretti(IRL), Brack (IRL), Dixon (IRL), Fittipaldi (NASCAR), Kannan (IRL). So many defectors!

These drivers are replaces by who? Mario Haberfeld, Rodolfo Lavin, Roberto Gonzalez, Panatano, Camathias. If Paul Tracy's circus clown suited up you all would cheer. St Pete (if it happens) should be exciting.

[¡As-de-mim!]

It's already a bad year for the trolls, can it get any better?

[macdaddy]

Rush1 is holding names like daMatta, Franchitti, Dixon, Kanaan in such high esteem, it's like they were big stars before they even came to CART. Truth is, nobody had heard of them, either. And so likewise, guys like Haberfeld, Lavin, Gonzalez, Panatano, Camathias et al will be stars of tomorrow.

[tanalised]

MacDaddy, i gotta say I'd heard of Dixon before he reached Cart or Indylights for that matter.

[BootsOntheSide]

The only one I'd heard of out of that list was Franchitti. I'm sure you can spot the pattern. The point is valid, but I don't have high expectations of many of the rookies, Pantano will certainly be likely to challenge, Haberfeld maybe, but many of them are in new teams who need to learn the ropes.

[macdaddy]

Sure, sure... I know many of us had heard of the drivers before. Much as many of us know of Pantano et al. It was just a point I was trying to make.

[MA2]

Lavin wasn't much of a driver in Lights - a good friend of mine (who also engineered Tracy to his Lights championship) was his engineer & wasn't too impressed. He'll be way over his head in a Champ car.