The Three Drivers TBA Indy 500 Thread

[Tim Northcutt]

Let's speculate a little bit here....

Some names to consider, since they have tested or passed IRL oval tests, competed last year, or have raced in open-wheelers and still have some skills:

Young Guns:

Jeff Simmons
Thiago Medieros
Derek Hill
P.J. Chesson
Luis Diaz
Jay Drake
(feel free to add to these lists)

Vets who Know how to drive:

Felipe Giaffone
Memo Gidley
Roberto Moreno
J.J. Yeley
Any Drivers that Didn't get OWRS Seats
(again, add your names to this list)

Now for some wild speculation on my part:

1. Curb/Agajanian/Beck Motorsports

- Will P.J. Jones come back for a sequel to the legendary reunion of two famous racing families...complete with the signature Agajanian livery that the fathrs of these two men displayed back in the early 1960s???....It made a great story last year...I'm hoping for a repeat performance....

- Billy Boat had a lengthy relationship with Mike Curb as a sponsor....is he a possible candidate for this seat???

- Maybe any one of those on the lists above??...I would think Giaffone might be an outside shot here...

2. PDM Racing

- I see the vets on the lists as possibilities...with Giaffone being a top candidate...

- Or Derek Hill if he comes to the table with $$$

NOTE: He leased Robby Gordon's backup car last year...is he leasing Robby's equipment this year???

and if he is, would he pick up Thomas Knapp (Robby's engineer last year) as part of his effort???

3. Penske TBA

- I don't think Roger will run three cars on his own...this will be something that is leased out to someone...

- I also think it will be a Panoz that Sam & Helio will drive some in practice...

Questions:

Who might be candidates to lease it???

(How's your checking account stand, Team Owner????)

and who might get a seat with that team???

- Will Phil Hill have the capital to get Derek a ride via a lease of this Penske Chassis???


I've got a deadline to meet, so I'll stop there with this partial list of names and ideas...

Now it is your turn....

Have Fun!!!

[BootsOntheSide]

I'm somewhat saddened that Simmons and Giaffone are both currently without rides, although I suspect PDM's driver will have to bring a lot of money, and the Beck car is more likely to go to Boat. Penske might be willing to run a young talent as a third driver hismelf, although a more likely outcome is for the car to be leased, perhaps to an IP team. Maybe someone like Derek Hill will bring money to Schmidt to get him to run it as a second car for them?

[Tim Northcutt]

I agree with you on all counts....

Maybe Sam can make another call to the guy who owns Lucas Oil...a native Hoosier who now lives in California, and was excited about being involved last year...

[Tim Northcutt]

I did a quick seek and see on the MIPS teams....

What about Genoa Racing???

Some of the others are either already entered on the list (Hemelgarn, Schmidt, Roth) or seem to be a little too new to this level of racing to take that step....

Genoa, however, has been racing for a long while...they go back to the old SCCA-Can-Am days...and they also ran in feeder series similar to MIPS since the mid-1980s.....


Just a little more speculation here to add a little bit of spice to it...

and they could lease it for either one of the Chesson's or for Medeiros, who has driven for them as well...

[rustyfan]

Thiago Medieros is definitely one whom I'd like to see get a ride for the 500, as well as for rest of the season for that matter.

He deserves better than driving the two-seater exhibition-car (which he, if I'm not mistaken, currently does).

[drdisque]

I highly doubt that any Penske cars will be Panoz chassis, it seems that they sold all of their complete Panoz (G-force) cars from '03 to Sam Schmidt. I think this entry is just something that Penske has started doing after the '94 problem to ensure that in case they show up with a setup thats uncompetetive, that they have another entry for both drivers that they can use if they want to start fresh.

Anyway, back to the original thread, I think that Billy Boat is a good shot to get into the Beck car, i haven't heard of what he's been doing lately though, speaking of Beck, anyone know what happened to Hideshi Matsuda? man that guy could qualify well with little to no practice. Back on topic, I think for the PDM ride it will come down to something similar to what happened last year with Jeff Simmons getting in the Mo Nunn car, he already had a seat made and had already completed ROP. I'm also willing to bet that any extra Penske cars will probably end up being the PDM car or cars, I haven't seen a chassis that was owned by PDM in the past several years. Another issue is that we may not see some of these TBA slots filled, there's 33 drivers named already, and it would take alot for one of the teams to gamble to bump their way in, it would take an easy target (my prediction is Marty Roth or Larry Foyt).

[Tim Northcutt]

Originally Posted by drdisque

I highly doubt that any Penske cars will be Panoz chassis, it seems that they sold all of their complete Panoz (G-force) cars from '03 to Sam Schmidt. I think this entry is just something that Penske has started doing after the '94 problem to ensure that in case they show up with a setup thats uncompetetive, that they have another entry for both drivers that they can use if they want to start fresh.

Anyway, back to the original thread, I think that Billy Boat is a good shot to get into the Beck car, i haven't heard of what he's been doing lately though, speaking of Beck, anyone know what happened to Hideshi Matsuda? man that guy could qualify well with little to no practice. Back on topic, I think for the PDM ride it will come down to something similar to what happened last year with Jeff Simmons getting in the Mo Nunn car, he already had a seat made and had already completed ROP. I'm also willing to bet that any extra Penske cars will probably end up being the PDM car or cars, I haven't seen a chassis that was owned by PDM in the past several years. Another issue is that we may not see some of these TBA slots filled, there's 33 drivers named already, and it would take alot for one of the teams to gamble to bump their way in, it would take an easy target (my prediction is Marty Roth or Larry Foyt).

Gil DeFeran won the 2003 Indy 500 in a G-Force...and I don't believe they did sell the Panoz to Sam...the way I understood it, he leased it for the race.

But he might have purchased them over the winter or this spring....

If there is anything you can guarantee about Roger Penske, is that he will do whatever he feels needs to be done to win the Indy 500...including having both types of chassis, in case one works better than the other...

He has shown up with both Panoz and Dallara chassis the past two years....why would he change from that???

He may not race the Panoz, but I believe that the TBA car will be a Panoz, just from the past two years...

on the TBAs:

I think that a driver like Giaffone, Simmons, or PJ Jones could get comfortable in a car and probably outqualify:

Marty Roth
Scott Mayer
Larry Foyt

That would be three "bump" spots right there...


Also, I think that both PDM and Curb/Agajanian/Beck actually have chassis, because they have engines listed with them as well...

I think that PDM had one last year, but it needed upgrades....

One or both may have leased the Dallaras that Robby Gordon bought last year....that's who PDM cut their deal with to race last year....

I don't know any of this for sure....but they have engine deals in place....gotta have something to put that engine into, don't you???

[drdisque]

at the Media day Schmidt said that he was picking up Gil's Backup car from '03 and the #66 from last year from Penske this week. From the way he worded it it sounded like he was buying them.

[courageous]

Has Mayer passed the ROP? the other thing to consider, from a drivers point of view - is it better to take a ride with a team that ain't going to win (probably not even get a podium) or hang around indy & wait to see if something comes up with a big team?

[drdisque]

the first weekend in may there will be an ROP session where all of those guys will pass ROP. Bourdais and Carpentier will only have to pass the final stage so they probably won't go, but Patrick, Mayer, Bucknum, Enge (I doubt they'll waive the early stages for him), Briscoe, and Dana will be running that weekend to pass ROP. I wouldn't be suprised if Panther or Dreyer & Reinbold made their cars available for IPS drivers like Medieros and Chesson to take ROP (for a fee of course) if there's time available after their rookies pass. I also wouldn't be suprised if Vision had Jay Drake take ROP in one of their cars and you know if the field was ever in danger of reaching 33 that TG would throw Drake into a 3rd car.

[sgw2]

I suspect there will be a "new" team or two that will form from somebody's back-up car, as that happens every year. I expect about 25-26 cars to qualify on pole day, about 30 after the first weekend. At this point the "new" teams will emerge and about 5-6 serious driver/car combinations will attempt to get into the field.

Yes Gracie that means bumping is back

[BootsOntheSide]

With any luck 36 cars attempting to qualify is a minumum figure this year, and it'll be nice to see Bump Day with a really top-notch field for the first time in a decade. I can't see any of the real big names getting bumped - Roth, Larry Foyt and Mayer do indeed seem the most vulnerable - bit it will still add some real drama.

[Tim Northcutt]

Originally Posted by sgw2

I suspect there will be a "new" team or two that will form from somebody's back-up car, as that happens every year. I expect about 25-26 cars to qualify on pole day, about 30 after the first weekend. At this point the "new" teams will emerge and about 5-6 serious driver/car combinations will attempt to get into the field.

Yes Gracie that means bumping is back

The qualifying format has changed for this year's Race:

On "Pole Day" only the fastest 11 will get placed on the Grid, with each car having three complete attempts that day...

On Day 2, grid positions 11-22 will be filled....same number of attempts with the same car being allowed....

Day 3 will fill Grid postions 22-33....again, every car eligible gets 3 attempts...

Day 4..."Bump Day"....The slowest average speed from any of those first three days will be on the "Bubble"...if it is bumped (even if it qualified on the first day), everyone behind it will move up a spot, and the new qualifier will take the 33rd spot, since it was the first car to make the field that day.....again the slowest speed remaining in the field after that bump would be on the "Bubble" this time....

If a second car attempts to qualify, and goes faster than the slowest speed, he/she will "bump" the slowest car...

If the 2nd qualifier to bump his/her way in bumps a car that qualified on a previous day, but is faster than the 1st car that bumped it's way in on Day 4, the 2nd guy would line up 32nd...

otherwise, he/she would be 33rd on the grid if the 2nd car bumped the 1st "bump-in" qualifier that day, or is fast enough to bump in, but slower than that average speed of the 1st qualifier that day....

Remember...everyone will still get three attempts per day....

So a car that is "bumped" can try to bump its way back in that last day....they will get 3 attempts to do so....

BOTTOM LINE:

If you thought the old way of qualifying was confusing, try this on for size!!!

But I think it is going to be great!!!! Because teams won't have to buy into other cars in the Garage area if their primary and backup cars are bumped....

and you know that the teams will try to bump thir way back into the show.....

[drdisque]

ya, this does help in situations like Takagi had last year where he screwed up his first 2 attempts (on day 1)and had to take his 3rd attempt (done on day 2) even though the car had alot more. This year he would have 3 fresh attempts on day 2 of qualifying. Not only are we going to see more bumping, but there will be more attempts made with borderline teams having more attempts at their disposal. So you won't have those long stretches of practice like we usually see, especially on day 2, where we will see at least 11 attempts, probably around 20, when in past years we only would see 3-5

[Tim Northcutt]

Originally Posted by drdisque

ya, this does help in situations like Takagi had last year where he screwed up his first 2 attempts (on day 1)and had to take his 3rd attempt (done on day 2) even though the car had alot more. This year he would have 3 fresh attempts on day 2 of qualifying. Not only are we going to see more bumping, but there will be more attempts made with borderline teams having more attempts at their disposal. So you won't have those long stretches of practice like we usually see, especially on day 2, where we will see at least 11 attempts, probably around 20, when in past years we only would see 3-5

Weather also used to play a huge factor in this equation....

Under the old system, a guy who would qualify on the 1st day that had fairly bad weather conditions (cold, windy, etc) could run a lot slower than he/she would have on a fourth day that might be ideal for qualifying...that could make 2-3 mph difference in the speeds....

This system takes that out of the equation...because anyone who is bumped on a given day is competing in fairly similar conditions as the person who bumped him or her when they try to bump back into the show or a given one-third of the grid...

I think this system is much more fair

[courageous]

Bit ironic that the qually rules were changed so we would definately see some sort of bumping & there is a good chance of a proper bump day anyway for the first time in a couple of years.

[JohnSSC]

Well if I had my pick for the seats (JohnSSC examines checkbook - sadly notes that there is not enough to field a Club Ford...) then I would like to see a mix - how about Gidley, Moreno and Yeley?

I would love to see the three of them with at least a competitive ride and hopefully a starting position.

[rustyfan]

Yeley's participation would depend on whether Gibbs would let him do it or not, but at least Yeley wouldn't have to do the rookie orientation etc.

[drdisque]

well, he would have to take the refresher course because he hasn't been to indy since '98. Adrian Fernandez had to take the refresher course last year.