Australian rookie looking to ChampCars

[enemy-ace]

It would appear there is an Australian rookie on the horizon. Don't know much about this guy; anyone have any details?
http://www.christianmurchison.com/

[Dov]

Thanks for the info, enemy-ace!......More good news for the CCWS!

MURCHISON SET FOR CHAMP CAR IN '04 - 22.12.03

Aussie young gun, Christian Murchison looks set to join the 2004 Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered By Ford. Vitenat Management Group, who has represented Murchison for the past year, confirmed today that they were in serious negotiations with a leading Champ Car outfit and were close to securing an agreement for 2004.

The management group headed by Australian Formula 4000 President and team owner, Chris Hocking, stated that, “there are a number of options for next year, one of them is Champ Car. Several teams have shown an interest in obtaining Christian’s services for next year”.

It is expected that the twenty-three year old West-Australian will test in late January and it believed that a large multinational company is behind him. Murchison spent the last twelve months in Europe contesting the ultra-competitive V6 Formula Renault series. Putting together a deal late to contest the series, Murchison, struggled to gather the funds to contest a level one campaign. Despite this, Murchison did impress many, running at the front for much of the season, proving that he has what it takes to be successful in the top echelon of motor sport.

Murchison returned to Australia last October in time for the Lexmark Indy 300 on Gold Coast, he together with his management continued talks with prospective Champ Car teams. Champ Car which has recently been taken over by the OWRS group, is expected to be a huge spectacle in 2004, with the season “kicking-off” on April 18 on the streets of Long Beach.

[BootsOntheSide]

I'd've said it's more like "ChampCars looking to Australian rookie", as Kevin Kalkhoven is known to be keen to have an Aussie on the grid in the near future. It may be that his PK team is the squad he could join.

[macdaddy]

Why does this name sound familiar? Has he previously tested a ChampCar?

[The Snout]

He needs Atlantic experience at least before jumping in a Champcar. Anyway we'll see what happens.

[GTRMagic]

More than Atlantic experience methinks.... a promising driver who had some success in several woefully underfunded Formula 4000 powered by Holden campaigns but not "on it" all the time....

He also drove a V8 Supercar as well, with similar levels of success... there or there abouts but not frontline....

Jason Bright should be the one in ChampCar!

[marcus]

Christian murchison in champ cars ???

me thinks he nowhere near ready for this.

he was very quick in Formula Ford here in Australia and then moved into Formuls Holden (Now formula 4000) which is Australias top flight openwheeler series , he was very quick in them as well and as GTR Magic stated in usually underfunded teams.

he was linked to a formula one team a few years ago it may have been Minardi or prost but nothing ever happened with that.

I'd like to differ against GTR Magic's point of view that he "Isnt always on it" I think Christian is amazing to watch, every time i have seen him he certainly is giving it 150% but thats not always a good thing.

i saw him race a Formula Holden at winto a few years back and in an 8 lap sprint race he managed to have 2 spins , 2 off track excursions and i think even contact with another car just by trying way to hard.

talented , yes definately.
inexperienced again yes.
likely prospect to do well , more than likely

I'd like to see him in chaqmpcars just to see how he goes, but im sure he would struggle a fair bit , but good on him and I hope this move for him comes off.

[marcus]

you can check out his website at www.christianmurchison.com with him looking all movie starish at the top

[jetsetter]

Murchinson is a driver with a great deal of talent & given a chance in the series i've got no doubt he'll impress.

[Dov]

It sounds to me that most of you Aussies believe that Christian would need at least a year or two in Atlantics or F3000 before making the final step up to ChampCars!? Can any of you guys give me some info on Jason Bright?

[marcus]

www.jasonbright.com

Brighty is a good driver and has had some good success over the years.

1991 1st in Victorian state go kart championship
1992 3rd Australian go kart championship
1993 debut in formula ford
1994 3rd Australian formula ford championship
1995 1st Australian Formula Ford championship
1996
Jason competed in the US Formula Ford 2000 championship in 1996 and finished 2nd in the championship and won rookie of the year honours.
he also competed in the Australian Formula holden championship (Now F4000) in the same year finishing 2nd in the series

1997 1st place in Australian Formula Holden Championship
also made his debut in V8 supercar at a very wet Symons Plains and finished 9th outright.
also competed in the sandown 500 v8 supercar race inn 97 partnered with 1980 F1 world champ Alan jones and finished 3rd.

1998 first full season in V8 supercar which resulkted in him winning the Bathurst 1000

1999 second season in V8 supercar with very good results.

2000 Moved back to the states to drive in the Indy lights Championship for Dorricott racing. Finished 6th in the series.
returned to Australia to finish 2nd in the bathurst 1000 v8 supercar race
Made debut in the American le man series at the "race of 1000 years" in adelaide and finished in 3rd place.

Made Champcar debut at Surfers paradise , cant remember team name , was the red car that Norberto fontana and memo gidley had driven that year.
ran very impressively as high as 5th at one stage , when on a restart Roberto moreno spun out of the last turn and jason was unsighted behind Maz papis and ran into the back of him damaging his suspension and ending his race.

2001 the end of a dream.
Jason was unable to obtain a Champcar ride and returned to Australia to compete in v8 supercar full time again and finished 3rd in the series.

2002 & 2003 also competed in V8 supercar and is one of the regular front running drivers.

after seeing all that seems jason has the runs on the board just a shame he couldnt or hasnt as yet gone further with his international career.

[Dov]

Thanks for the info, Marcus!

http://www.cart.com/Drivers/Performance.asp?DriverID=60

http://www.cart.com/Results/SessionResults.asp?ID=27

[racer69]

This ain't meant as a dig at CART, but with the depth of the field, will his lack of experience in high powered open wheelers really effect him?

He has stood still for a few years doing this and that, but pretty low key. Let's hope he can get a ride.

[Snrub]

He seems to be a pretty decent driver from the few races I've watched of the V8 Supercars.

[jjspierx]

ummm...do you guys know what Formula Renault V6 is? Its very similar to F3000. The cars have over 400hp, which is obviously a hell of a lot more than Toyota Atlantics. I'm sure this Christian wouldn't have any problems coming up to speed in a champcar. He'd have a better chance at figuring the cars out quickly than most Atlantic drivers. The only thing he would benifit from if he did a season in Atlantics would be learning the tracks.

[corkholio]

The Renault V6 cars were designed to be an intermediate b/w F3k and F3, with about 300hp or so. In anycase it's mostly irrelevent because Rodolfo "destined for F1 stardom" Lavin had a few years in Indy Lights cars and I wouldn't say he figured out the Champ Cars quicker than say, RHR.

Jason Bright drove in Indy Lights back in 01 and got whooped by fellow rookie teammate Townsend Bell, who no matter what he does will never be talented enough to carry Corona Boy's jockstraps, so obviously Bright is not good enough for Champ Cars.

If KK want a guy from that region, who did far better than Murchinson in Renault V6 this year but doesn't have "Hollywood" tattooed on his forehead, try Kiwi Matt Halliday, who didn't do too bad for Conquest back in Lights. Heck why don't KK give Rob Nguyen a call?

[mountainstar]

Murchison probably needs at least one year in atlantics before CART. If he finishes in the top 3 then I would say he's ready. But I'm sure if a cart deal is on the table he'll take it.

BTW, the F1 deal with murchison was with Prost. It was f1 testing and F3000 with prost jnr team. Price tag $1 million. He could not find the money for that and it's probably good for him that he didn't.

I think Jason Bright would be a better pick just because of his experience. Bright is a good driver in V8 supercars, but the jury is still out as to whether he would be a superstar in open wheel racing. He did ok at the surfers race and he did okay in indy lights. I'd say he deserves a proper shot, I can think of many worse drivers out there.

The team bright drove for at surfers was della penna. They ceased operations after that season.

[marcus]

thats it , thanks for filling in the blanks mountainstar

[mac]

Originally posted by corkholio
Jason Bright drove in Indy Lights back in 01 and got whooped by fellow rookie teammate Townsend Bell, who no matter what he does will never be talented enough to carry Corona Boy's jockstraps, so obviously Bright is not good enough for Champ Cars.

I wouldn't call it a whooping. In the first half of the year, Bright was well ahead of Bell. Then he had a bad accident at Chicago that shook him up and badly hurt his back (might have even missed a round). From there on Bright found it quite painful to drive for extended periods.

This, combined with several occasions where he was the innocent party in race-ending incidents - most notably Vancouver - saw his championship bid fade away.

Bright shared his first ChampCar test with Bruno Junqueira and Nicolas Minassian. In his Della Penna piece of rubbish, he was quicker than the other two in their Ganassi cars.

He was running 5th at Surfers, and was on the same strategy as Fernandez who won the race, and was leading when Bright retired. Bright was trying to snuff out for a ChampCar drive, and plenty of team bosses were interested, but Bright simply had no cash to bring.

Bright should have had a better chance at ChampCars, but I would probably say he has missed his chance.

Murcho has been sniffing around F3000 and IndyLights previously, but he has never really got the chance. His name probably sounds familiar because he tested IndyLights a few years back - maybe 2000? - and I think he may have even done a race or two.

He's definitely a good driver, but if he does get this gig, I hope he's given some time to grow into it (as well as good testing time), as whichever team it is will reap benefits from patience.

corkholio - I agree with you about Rob Nguyen - I think he's made for ChampCars.

[Chucky]

I think there's more than one Aussie in the running for that seat. Apparently Peter Hackett is also having a solid tilt at the moment with a large property trust behind him.

[mountainstar]

Maybe we will have a couple of aussies in cart next year...

[racer69]

Peter Hackett deserves a go somewhere overseas, he has been pushing for it since he won the Australiian F3 title, testing for F3000 teams etc....

I wouldn't bother with Jason Bright, he could have made it, but is firmly settled into his V8 retirement home now

[D.R.T.]

Saddening isn't it. One thing forgotten to JB list of achievments is his 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour victory.
Lets give Brocky ago. In all serious , Marcus Ambrose. Open wheel experience fast as anyone in the world. Get him out of a V8 and into a champcar.

[mountainstar]

Ambrose would not be a bad pick for champcars. I think he did pretty well in europe considering he did not have much money.

Ford Australia would probably not want to let their new star go.

I would assume given a good deal was on the table, Bright would take a champ car ride. He could come back to supercars really anytime he wanted. His reputation is V8's is established, so if he stepped away for a while, I don't think it would hurt him.

[marcus]

we have alot of talent all wanting these rides but very few seem to come off.

I guess we should be happy that these guys manage to get V8 drives at least.