Walker Confirmed 2 Lolas for 2005

[Snrub]

http://www.champcarworldseries.com/N...le.asp?ID=8646
CC's website has confirmation from the 14th but only put up today that Walker Racing plans to run two Lolas in the upcomming season. Unfortunately there are no details on drivers or sponsorship. After the horrible news regarding the potential loss of Dominguez, I suspect CC's wanted to post something positive so this is it. Once upon a time Walker was a real threat for the championship, so perhaps now that they've have improved equipement perhaps they'll be competitive?

Does anyone know what caliber of Lola they'll be running and where they got them from? eg. I know for a fact that RuSport and Conquest were running lesser Lolas than NH and Forsythe. In case you've never heard or noticed that before, if you looked at them from front on it was quiet obvious that there were a number of different aero bits found on the newer/propriatary extra developed cars.

[Kicking-back]

Good news if he can get decent drivers

[camcartfan]

I thought Rahal "donated" the last of the Lola's to Honda. I'm sure Walker would have had to buy them new from England?

[BootsOntheSide]

Derrick hardly ever gets decent drivers - usually just whoever has the money. Since de Ferran left he's had quite a mediocre batch overall, with Manning the one standout. Unfortuantely he's struggled bravely to kepe his head above water over the years,a dn I suspect this will continue.

How many Lola chassis are known to be in existance, how many teams are likely to replace their current worn-out ones with new ones, and how many are sitting inactive having not been used in 2004?

[mac]

What odds a Valiante/ Marshall combination?

I would suggest RHR is probably in with a show too, depending on how things stand with his 2004 employers.

[Tenoch]

I thought Nelson's LOLA was Michel's old one from Team Rahal if you look at them they have very similar paint schemes.

[JohnSSC]

I think this was covered last season - iirc there are a number of Lola (pre-owned) still out there and of course they would be happy to build a few more. The problem has been finding owners with enough $$$ to buy pre-owned or new, not lack of supply.

[Omega99]

Yeah that's really the way it is I believe. I don't know where the idea got thrown around that a chasis freeze meant that Lola would simply stop producing. I suppose it might have been spurred on by the fact that Reynard pretty much went under, and got sold a bunch of times... does anyone know who, if anyone, owns the rights to the Reynard chasis and the molds etc?

Still, it's sad to see the Reynards go.

[camcartfan]

I thought Derrick Walker still owned the rights to Reynard. No?

[macdaddy]

I believe you're right camcartfan, as I've never heard anything to the contrary.

And Omega99 is correct also. The "chassis freeze" is on development, the Lola factory can (and would surely love to) build brand-new cars under the existing specs.

I must wonder if Tres Hombres aren't scrambling around right now, trying to get some solid Mexican talent into the 2005 grid. Perhaps this is why no drivers were named?

[marcus]

so Mario haberfeld isnt in contention for a drive then is he ???

[Ac.]

Here are some details on the story from SpeedTV. Mostly confirmation of the thoughts of the posters above.

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/champcar/14753/

[BootsOntheSide]

Seems like Vailente is the favourite for a drive, which would be fantastic long-overdue news. The notion of an OWRS-funded Mexican in the second car seems quite likely - although I doubt OWRS would confirm extra funding for that until they see for sure what HVM are doing.

I may have seemed a little critical of Walker before, so let me balance it out. Derrick's entries have a habit of performing beyond the theoretical potential of the driver - witness how Lavin did as well for him as a rookie as he did as a sophmore at Forsythe.

[Snrub]

Lavin performed the same with Walker as he did with Forsythe? That's the first time I've heard anyone say that. I don't remember in 2003 seeing Lavin qualify second, land a podium and be often be genuinely racy making professional passes on reasonably quick cars.

[Omega99]

Lavin's getting better. Now doubt bout that in my mind.

[bart_jacobs]

I hope that Mario Haberfeld gets the drive than, he deserves it

[macdaddy]

Yes... He certainly does. The way he wrestled the Reynard last year was very impressive.

[Snrub]

According to this: http://www.champcarworldseries.com/N...le.asp?ID=8653 Walker bought his Lolas from Rahal. Sounds like good news, I imagine they'd be better than the ones RuSport and Conquest were running in 2004.

[BootsOntheSide]

Hopefully RuSport will be able to get newer Lolas then - it'd be a shame if their equipment holds them back. And I guess Valiente and Haberfeld is the ideal Walker lineup.

[jjspierx]

I don't think they need newer Lola's. The chassis's are all pretty much the same as far as I know. The differences is the changes that teams make. Those changes aren't done to the chassis but to the bodywork mainly, like different windvanes, and slight differences to the front wing endplates and such. And of course some of the teams use metal braces to hold the front wing to the nose-cone, vs. the fiberglass (or carbon-fiber, not sure which) that holds them on from the factory.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by bart_jacobs

I hope that Mario Haberfeld gets the drive than, he deserves it

Mr Haberfeld did a good job, but I was very surprised to see how close (and sometimes in front of..) David Besnard got to his times on the Gold Coast circuit....

I would have thought Mr Haberfeld would have blown Bezzy away with his times, given the miles he had in 2004 in that chassis... but it wasnt quite like that...

Unless of course Mr Besnard has a lot more talent than we have given him credit for in the past....

[carsten66]

I don't remember... was the Cummins sponsorship-deal with Walker a multi-year-contract or only for one year...?

[JohnSSC]

Slightly off-topic here, but does anyone know what the "life" of a chassis is? With all the stresses and strains they experience during tests, practices and races it would seem that at some point the chassis would itself begin to fatigue and no longer maintain it's original torsional rigidity (kind of like a middle-aged male, but I digress...).

In all seriousness there must be a fatigue factor similar to what an airframe would have. An aircraft can be expected to last so many hours and so many rotations (takeoffs) before the frame itself must be overhauled and then eventually retired.

[Kicking-back]

Carbon fibre doesn't lose rigidity with age, John.

So the tub would be fine.

The parts which do wear are regularly changed.

[macdaddy]

Are you sure, Kb?