Unexpected Performers of 2005?

[Snrub]

Did anyone surprise you as to how well they performed in the 2005 season? To me both PT and Bourdais were far less dominant in the past and I felt that the more compelling stories lay with some of the other drivers. Thoughts?

[drewdawg727]

I don't necessarily see how Bourdais was less dominant...he was on the front row for almost every race and finished on the podium for almost every race, and only had one DNF within the last ten laps of the season...

But probably the best improved driver i saw this year was Ricardo Sperafico. He used to be at the tail end of the field in every race at the beginning of the year, but when San Jose hit, he was on pace during almost every race after that.
Glock and Servia also are on my list of unexpected performers.

[Tenoch]

Most Improved for me was Nelson Phillipe, last year he was always in the back now he has consistently moved midpack who knows what can happen next.

[enemy-ace]

I would have to vote for Phillipe as well. He seems to have showed some pretty good pace and with some more consistency could possibly be a podium contender.
Bremer also was very good and it showed regardless of which team he drove with.

[macdaddy]

RuSport, their drivers individually and the team as a whole.
On the other hand, PKV didn't live up to my expectations. Especially daMatta.
Same goes for Rocketsports, and Tagliani.
Philippe showed great improvement, and that's great to see.
While Ranger wasn't the RoY that I thought he'd be.
Power and Glock proved that they belong here.
And Servia really rose to the task, having big shoes to fill.

[BootsOntheSide]

Criticising Tagliani for his effrots at Team Australia seems pretty unfair there macdaddy - did you mean Hunter-Reay?

RuSport and Wilson were a lot better than expected, AJ merely continued his progression at an expected rate. Glock's results and championship position were as expected, but it seems like he had inferior hardwware to what was expected, so I guess he did very well. Ric Sperafico and Philippe showed reasonable improvement as well.

[codename_47]

This is the sort of thread I like to see,....well done Snub!

Rusport obviously raised their game considerabley this year, with two wins for Justin and AJ being on the cusp of his first win all year (and it surely won't be too long before he gets one! )

I was also very impressed with the late season form of Team Australia, probably one of the few Champcar teams to improve their performance AFTER adding a third car......(could it be that Red Flag Marshall was holding them back all along?)

Glock too was really giving the otherwise under-performing Rocketsports team results it probably didn't deserve, especially Montreal.

On the other end of the scale, Forsythe disspointed in 2005....I was hoping it'd be more even between them and Newman Haas this year, but despite a good early part of the season with two wins for Tracy, their form dropped off sharply towards the end of the year....
Last year the excuse offered was that running three cars was hurting them compettitiveness wise, so what is the reason this year?

[Woolley]

The general impression is that RuSport upped their game, whereas I would suggest that they had two drivers who were either able to up it for them, or more likely, were equal to what the team was capable of anyway. I'm not so familiar with AJ, but Justin is a class act.

The team as a whole haven't surprised me, because I had a hunch they were capable of it from the start. I would put them up for regular podiums next year and outsiders for the title.

[Jordi]

I didn't expect Glock to outperform Hunter-Reay so much, but then again I don't know much about the inner workings of Rocketsports. The team has had two cars for two years but only one seems to work each year.

Philippe would be "Most improved" for me.

[Pete Fenelon]

Originally Posted by Tenoch

Most Improved for me was Nelson Phillipe, last year he was always in the back now he has consistently moved midpack who knows what can happen next.

I didn't expect Oriol Servia to be quite as quick, given a partial season, but he was quite astonishingly competent and proved himself to be almost as good as Junqueira.

NP matured immensely as a driver this year, and made fewer mistakes than I expected.

Timo Glock was also faster and somewhat tidier than his F1 exploits had led me to believe he'd be.


Ronnie Bremer was the biggest disappointment of the year for me, although a few drives apart, Jimmy Vasser seemed to have lost interest.

[Pete Fenelon]

Originally Posted by codename_47

On the other end of the scale, Forsythe disspointed in 2005....I was hoping it'd be more even between them and Newman Haas this year, but despite a good early part of the season with two wins for Tracy, their form dropped off sharply towards the end of the year....
Last year the excuse offered was that running three cars was hurting them compettitiveness wise, so what is the reason this year?

PT was spending so much time hanging round the GrandAm people and teams at Mexico City that it's hard to believe he doesn't have fairly serious plans in that direction himself. I would not be at all surprised if 2006 was his last season in Champcar before a full DP schedule in '07. I've been at other Champcar races and PT tended to hang around the Forsythe team and not spend much time looking round. At the Autodromo he was having a LOT of deep conversations with the DP drivers and teams. Paul's interested, you can tell, and I don't think he's just thinking of a one-off in the 24.

[Pete Fenelon]

Originally Posted by Woolley

The team as a whole haven't surprised me, because I had a hunch they were capable of it from the start. I would put them up for regular podiums next year and outsiders for the title.

Got to agree with this, RuSport has had sensible money put into it and has built up steadily on the technical side. AJ has what it takes to win, but he's still young and needs to learn to race with his head, not his heart; Justin's very cool under pressure, so one would hope that he can learn from his team leader.

[Snrub]

I was really impressed with Glock. I don't know how he could be so quick in those races with that turd of a car. I expected him to be fairly good, but he's quiet possibly the 3rd fastest driver in the series (Bourdais and PT ahead of him).

I was really impressed with Tag too. Some races didn't work out that well, but many others were downright fantastic given the fact that he set up his own car. NH ought to consider paying Craig Hampson less when Tag can be only a tenth or two off of Bourdais.

Power was impressive, but we'll see next year what he's really made of. Ranger is one reason I have caution over Power. Here was a guy who was running near the front in a weak car and looked like the next Bourdais caliber driver and suddenly he falls off the face of the earth. I don't get it.

RuSport was fairly impressive, but I don't think either driver is getting 100% of what is theoretically available or what they are capable of...yet (AJ in particular). The RuSport crew is obviously one to watch.

Interesting comments about PT and Grand Am. I have a hard time believing that PT would give up CC for DP, I think more likely is that he'd like to do more races in DP. eg. IMO Pruett is probably the best in DP and a better sports car driver than OW, but the CC level of driver competition is much higher in CC. Given that money is so important to him, I don't think he'd earn anywhere close in DP as he does in CC.

[codename_47]

Originally Posted by Snrub

Interesting comments about PT and Grand Am. I have a hard time believing that PT would give up CC for DP, I think more likely is that he'd like to do more races in DP. eg. IMO Pruett is probably the best in DP and a better sports car driver than OW, but the CC level of driver competition is much higher in CC. Given that money is so important to him, I don't think he'd earn anywhere close in DP as he does in CC.

Perhaps it's a case that some Team Owners in G-A also happen to own NASCAR teams........

Whatever, I love Paul Tracy when he's on track, it seems every time he's in a Champcar there's interest, action and controversy (think of his race in Mexico when during a tumultous front to back to front to back to front race, his one block on Glock created a multi-page thread here......that's the kind of controversy we need IMO, not more threads on finances ), but he's done a LOT for Champcar over the year, been it's mouthpiece in it's darkest hour.

He sees his racing career is coming to an end, so as a fan of his I can't really blame him if he wants to go to NASCAR while he still can to earn the $$$ while it's coming his way (milking that first Canadian to NASCAR when it might be looking at going to Canada itself must be tempting after all.....)

We all know his heart will always be in Single Seaters, but Open Wheel seems to be a young mans game increasingly...whereas in NASCAR he can have another 10-15 years of racing......who can blame him?