Count

[¡As-de-mim!]

Full-time Rides:

American Spirit Team Johansson (2)
12- Jimmy Vasser
31- Ryan Hunter-Reay
Conquest Racing (1 or 2?)
34 - Mario Haberfeld
- Tiago Monteiro (?)
Dale Coyne Racing (1 or 2?)
19- Joel Camathias
- Memo Gidley (?)
Fernandez Racing (1)
51- Adrian Fernandez
Herdez Competition (1 or 2?)
55- Mario Dominguez
- Roberto Moreno
Newman Haas (2)
1- Bruno Junqueira
2- Sebastien Bourdais
Patrick Racing (1 or 2?)
20- Oriol Servia
- Bryan Herta (?)
Player's Forsythe Racing Team (2)
32- Patrick Carpentier
3- Paul Tracy
PK Racing (1)
27- Patrick Lamarie
RocketSports Racing (1)
33- Alex Tagliani
Team Rahal (1)
9- Michel Jourdain Jr.
Walker Racing (2)
15- Darren Manning
5- Rodolfo Lavin

Part-time 2003:

PK Racing (1)
- ?
(?) F3000 / Andreas Grajewski (1-2?)
- Sascha Bert (?)
- Andre Lotterer (?)
(?) Michael Shank Racing (1)
- ?

UPDATED:

CARS -
16 Confirmed Cars on 12 teams (ASTJ - 2, Conquest - 1, Coyne - 1, Fernandez - 1, Herdez - 1, N/H - 2, Patrick - 1, Players - 2, PK - 1, RocketSports - 1, Rahal - 1, Walker - 2)
4 Potential 2nd cars from confirmed teams (Herdez, Patrick, Conquest, Coyne)
4 Potential partial season cars from 3 teams (Shank, PK, The Germans)
16 CART contracts completed & announced, 3 in play.

DRIVERS -
16 Confirmed drivers with confirmed seats (RHR, Haberfeld, Camathias, Fernandez, Dominguez, Junqueira, Servia, Carpentier, Tracy, Lavin, Manning, Jordain, Vasser, Bourdais, Lamarie, Tagliani)
1 Confirmed drivers without a confirmed seat (Moreno)

So 18-24 cars at each race this season (16 confirmed) from 14 potential teams (12 confirmed) with many worthy drivers (Gidley!!!, Pantano, etc.) desiring rides still out there.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 17th driver is expected to be veteran Roberto Moreno, who will be in the second Herdez Competition machine. Negotiations continue with sponsors for his car.

The all-important 18th car, expected to be entered by former CART and Formula One driving legend Emerson Fittipaldi, will be announced shortly, according to series vice-president of communications Adam Saal.

"There are six different scenarios which could come into play for that final team," said Saal, who added that there could be more than 18 teams in the final lineup. "But right now we're looking at 18 solid teams."

[Snrub]

17 solid full time drivers at the start of the season is a good result. CART looks good and Pook looks good because his point of promising 18 was that they would have a good field.

[f1manoz]

18 is basically definite. Moreno is all but confirmed at Herdez, while Emmo and his partners are pulling out all the tricks to get a car on the grid. Things look good.

[sgw2]

It is 16 announced (solid), plus Moreno all but certain, as he was under contract already to test at Laguna Seca.

The 18th one is still up in the air. Rest assured there will be an 18th car, regardless of how Emmo's deal plays out. Even if Pook has to stick a driver in the #11 Dale Coyne entry for three laps at the rear before retiring due to that all purpose gremlin "vibration."

[mac]

You've all forgotten Yoong as well.

[Jordi]

So much for a dead championship, eh? 18 cars, with their eighteen engines and gearboxes and their 72 tyres and their 36 rear-view mirrors will be powering at St. Petersburg....

"CART is dead" they said. They aren't saying it now.

[f1manoz]

There are 12 teams at the moment with 17-18 drivers, depending on announcements, deals falling into place etc. If good things happen, there could oh so easily be 22-24 cars on the grid by mid-season. Fingers crossed...

[Liz]

I know of one more team that's coming on board by Long Beach.

[BootsOntheSide]

Also, remember that Brand are meant to be doing the 2 European rounds. Other teams may arrive or expand from June onwards, so 22 cars sounds reasonable, but that is CART's self-imposed limit until they can expect more like 28 entires, which seems unrealistic even for 2004.

It is amazing that, after osing half its entrants thanks to corporate greed and selfish drivers following the dollars, so many impressive newcomers have entered, famous respected names like Eric Bachelart, Chris Mower, Stefan Johansson, Craig Pollock and Paul Gentilozzi filling the field with some quality.

[macdaddy]

Because Yoong has supposedly got a briefcase full of dollars, I'm really surprised nobody's given him a car yet. Still expecting Forsythe to run him...

[The Snout]

Liz, is this the same rumour that I offered you a full sized Zonta for ? Just curious

[Jay]

One thing that's been confirmed is that Ford has 19 customers for St. Petes... with the more orders likely for later races, so...

[Snrub]

That's interesting info Jay.

[Jay]

That was a few weeks ago actually, and some of them were ordered in anticipation of deals that would come together. The point was that regardless of what happens between now and St. Petes, there will be at least 18 (most likely 19) on the grid, even if Chris Pook himself has to drive the final entry! Although, it's looking more and like those last few entries will come from Moreno and Gonzalez. And others will come and go throughout the season. PK Racing seems to be looking at two cars later on for example.

[Liz]

Snout: Yes. Further deponent sayeth naught.

[The Snout]

I was wondering about that.

[Crash Test]

Just a question of curiosity on my behalf, if Ford has 19 orders, how many engines do they take? How many spares are each car/team allocated?

[Jay]

Good question, the engines rev a lot lower this year than in the past and thus last a lot longer, but they'd still need at least 2 built per car + spare parts to build another each weekend. My guess is that's up to Ford though, as they'll probably be bring all the parts and supply them to the individual teams at each of the races. could always ask Cart, Ford or one of the teams...

[Snrub]

Originally posted by Jay
there will be at least 18 (most likely 19) on the grid, even if Chris Pook himself has to drive the final entry!

Pook is busy, he should get me to drive it.

[macdaddy]

I was just browsing around CART.com's wallpapers. They've got a six new ones, each featuring a different driver. One of them is Roberto Moreno. And the car he's driving is #4.

Just found it interesting, that's all.

[Liz]

Were any of them Memo Gidley?

[sgw2]

Moreno (#4) is confirmed. That makes 17.

Pacific Care is in for NHR, but Lilly is yet to be signed.

Fittipaldi's deal is running into difficulties. Supposedly he has switched to a Portugese driver instead of Papis/Bachelart, who in turn replaced the first effort of Herta/Patrick ... Somehow I am not surprised.

Pook is now focusing on having Roberto González in Dale Coyne's #11 car at the first two races anyway. Coyne's rental seat may be a grid filling fixture.

[macdaddy]

Sqw2, where did you hear confirmation of Moreno? I can't seem to find anything.

Again, here's "the way I see things".
http://groups.msn.com/MacdaddysRaces/2003gridsofar.msnw

[sgw2]

Mac,

I found it at 7G. Moreno was one of 17 drivers announced last night by CART. All 17 were up on stage.

I don't know why it isn't on CART.com; perhaps they are waiting to allow Herdez a formal press conference.

BTW I agree with your "grid so far" page except:

1) I downgrade PK's second car as unlikely based on Pollock's comments about it.
2) Alex Yoong with Forsythe seems pretty dead now.
3) European ownership that Pook was referring to was another team(s) for 2004 not later in 2003.

[macdaddy]

You're right about some of those rumours being rather dead in the water sgw2, but they're just to throw in a bit of spice. Yet somehow I still expect to see Yoong. He's got the money, and it seems that's what it takes these days.

But Pook definitely said something about a "new European ownership contingent, and and even bigger one next year."

Something else that Pook has made known is his desire to have an Aussie driver.

Something I'm ever-curious about is the whereabouts of the Sigma chassis. It was reported that Dana Brewer and BC Motorsport bought them. But that certainly doesn't seem to have been the case now. So where are they?