2006 IndyCar Silly Season

[macdaddy]

Recently (Tony George) told a fellow IRL owner he was contemplating selling his Indy-car team and going Grand Am racing because his series was more expensive than he envisioned.

Silly-Season Commentary.

[Tim Northcutt]

Robin's comment is interesting....and apparently off-base

The Indy Star reports this morning that TG is close to announcing that actor Patrick Dempsey will become a team partner....

He also said that not only will they race in the IRL next season, but also that they will field two-car teams...in both the big Series and in the Infiniti Pro Series.....

Finally, George "hopes" to have a Grand Am program to run in the three joint events Grand Am will run with the IRL next year...he hopes to drive the car with Ed, and maybe even Dempsey...

The Grand Am foray has been known about, or speculated, for a while now....

[macdaddy]

7-11 and AGR have extended their deal, for both primary and associate sponsorship.

[drewdawg727]

I hope Tora Takagi or Airton Dare comes back

[Down F0rce]

I doubt we'll see Tora back.

[Hazza]

No-one posted in my Honda thread.

So I won't bother with a Ganassi thread.

Originally Posted by Grand Prix.com

Chip Ganassi says that he is not planning to switch his team from the Indy Racing League into the rival Champ Car World Series next year.

Ganassi to stay in the IRL

[mac]

If Ganassi has Honda engines, Ryan Briscoe WILL NOT be driving for him.

[racer69]

Briscoe said in an interview with MN a while back that engines wouldn't be the deciding factor on whether he stayed at Ganassi, just that he hoped it would be a Toyota. At the time talk was Ganassi was trying to convince Chevrolet/Cosworth to stay in.

[drdisque]

here's an idea, don't know how reasonable it is, but why doesn't Toyota pick up the Cosworth engine for next year? It would probably be better than their current limp, i mean lump.

[climb]

About Ganassi, rumours say they'll switch to Dallara chassis.

[Tim Northcutt]

Originally Posted by climb

About Ganassi, rumours say they'll switch to Dallara chassis.

Without a driver who gan give them good set-up info so that they can tweak settings, it won't matter one bit...

Dixon's championship was due as much to Scheckter helping the team set up the cars as it was anything else....

and they haven't had that set-up guy for the oval events since he left for Panther Racing...

[Tim Northcutt]

Here is an item from today's Indy Star:

"Vitor Meira Talks to 'Everyone'"

To paraphrase, even though Vitor finished 5 places higher than Danica and 8 higher than Buddy Rice in the season points, Rahal-Letterman Racing lost money on Vitor's ride this year, and they may not be prepared to do it again in 2006...even though he finished 2nds at Indy and kentucky, and was competitive this season....

Vitor is shopping around, and Panther Racing is a possibility due to his ties with Menard's and Menard's previous association with Panther...


Here is the link to the item, which also has a piece about bruno Junquiera...

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...510210461/1052

[Kicking-back]

If I was Rahal and only doing a 2 car team next year, Danica and Vitor would be my drivers.

[mac]

Originally Posted by racer69

Briscoe said in an interview with MN a while back that engines wouldn't be the deciding factor on whether he stayed at Ganassi, just that he hoped it would be a Toyota. At the time talk was Ganassi was trying to convince Chevrolet/Cosworth to stay in.

One of the main reasons Ryan has not really investigated A1GP is because it does not have a Toyota engine. He is a Toyota contracted driver and there is no chance in hell that they will let him drive a Honda!!!

[D.R.T.]

Hasn't Ryan speculated that an A1 drive is not out of the question of the winter/summer (Depending on what continent you live)

[N I Tram]

As for Takagi, no chance, Tora was pretty shell-shocked by his awful 2004 season and is probably better to stay away from ovals.

[climb]

Originally Posted by Tim Northcutt

Without a driver who gan give them good set-up info so that they can tweak settings, it won't matter one bit...

Dixon's championship was due as much to Scheckter helping the team set up the cars as it was anything else....

and they haven't had that set-up guy for the oval events since he left for Panther Racing...

About Tomas' setup abilities, I just wonder why they work only for other drivers ; IMO the real reason of Dixon's negative turnaround is primarily due to Toyota engines who were the best in 2003 and the worst later on.
It's not a case then , that Ganassi drivers have had their best performaces on the road courses.
About the chassisi change, I think the main concern is about a provider who will be busy with other things next year, and whose customer care (and fight for improvement) is largely (and reasonably) expected to diminish.

[Tim Northcutt]

Originally Posted by climb

About Tomas' setup abilities, I just wonder why they work only for other drivers ; IMO the real reason of Dixon's negative turnaround is primarily due to Toyota engines who were the best in 2003 and the worst later on.
It's not a case then , that Ganassi drivers have had their best performaces on the road courses.
About the chassisi change, I think the main concern is about a provider who will be busy with other things next year, and whose customer care (and fight for improvement) is largely (and reasonably) expected to diminish.

You've got to be able to feel what the car is doing on the track through your butt and your hands, and understand how that has to translate into chassis changes so that you can communicate that to the engineers.....

That is what people I know have told me when I have asked them about Ganassi's issues...oval set-ups are obviously different that road course set-ups...

Hell, Lynn St. James was struggling with a set-up back in the late 1990s and Dick Simon brought in John Andretti to take the car for a spin...the set-up changes he suggested made Lyn St. James about 3 mph faster at Indy...

BTW...I believe Team Owner also has stated this, If you do a search history on his posts..

[climb]

Originally Posted by Tim Northcutt

...
BTW...I believe Team Owner also has stated this, If you do a search history on his posts..

I'll never be so crazy to challenge your aencyclopaedian knoewldge Tim .

My point was, the engine issue was primary to explain Ganassi negative turnaround from 2004 on, as it involved every Toyota team.

And Panoz' expectable lack of investment on a last-year chassis to motivate Chip's switch to Dallara.

[Tim Northcutt]

I'm sure that the Toyota power was a significant part of the equation as well...particilarly after the engine formula changed from 3.5 L to 3.0 L...that is when Honda really had the difference under the cowling...

[macdaddy]

SpeedTV reports that Panther Racing has just laid off 12 mechanics, and Cheever's team has done similarly to 8 more.

[rustyfan]

Ryan Briscoe might be set to take part in PKV's shoot-out for Vasser's seat and as I wrote in the 2006 Champ Car Silly Season thread, I hope Briscoe does indeed take part and even does get a Champ Car ride, leaving Ganassi - for some reason it seems he just hasn't been able to adapt to IndyCars very well. Then again, perhaps it was somewhat expected with him going from a non-competitive testing-enviroment straight to ovals for the first time and the close, hard racing there.

[Alex K]

for some reason it seems he just hasn't been able to adapt to IndyCars very well. Then again, perhaps it was somewhat expected with him going from a non-competitive testing-enviroment straight to ovals for the first time and the close, hard racing there.

Well, so what will you tell about Briscoe's Nordic Racing adapt few years ago ? He hadn't been able to adapt to F3000 Lolas too? So what, the only machines he can adapt are F1 cars and F3/FR2.0 cars ?

We shall see what will happen, but I hope Kalkhoven do not give the kid a wheel, because it will end up crash testing week-in-week-out.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by Alex K

Well, so what will you tell about Briscoe's Nordic Racing adapt few years ago ? He hadn't been able to adapt to F3000 Lolas too? So what, the only machines he can adapt are F1 cars and F3/FR2.0 cars ?

We shall see what will happen, but I hope Kalkhoven do not give the kid a wheel, because it will end up crash testing week-in-week-out.

Briscoe did have some trouble at times with F1 testing.

I think the reason he's done poorly on ovals is because he doesn't know anything about them. I thought one of the founding principles of the IRL was to bring up the USAC guys who weren't getting a chance because of CART. One has to question the wisdom of hiring a Formula 3 champion who has never seen an oval in his life.

[BootsOntheSide]

Toyota had to put Briscoe somewhere, and Ganassi needed to do something to keep Toyota on his side - hence this undesirable and unpractical outcome, which nearly ended in real disaster.