'05 Silly Season

[stmookeyj033]

Originally posted by StickShift

Andrew Ranger is looking to Cart? Yeah, right. I'd find it much more believable that he's looking to go to F3 in Europe. Away from the North American career killer feeder system.

**Hopefully one Walker car (_______) -- quite frankly, I'd be very surprised to see them around next season. They can't afford Lola's, and their Reynards are dreadfully slow. Someone explain to me why it makes sense for Derrick to continue.

First of all, F3 in Europe is dying a quick death, being superceded(sp) by categories such as Formula Renault. Ranger has more chance of getting a champcar ride than an F3 ride given that his sponsors don't have any interest (to my knowledge) in the European market. (If I am wrong then please correct me).

As for Walker, they ordered Lola's some time ago, and I believe that if they get some more sponsorship dollars, they'll field 2 cars, even if it is 1 of each like Mi Jack ran for half of this season.

[drewdawg727]

Why is Herdez leaving?

[Cowboy]

StickShift, are you sure you are in the right forum? On the front page of Ten-Tenths, the the irl forum, just like in the real world, is one step down. The whole purpose of having discussions about the '05 season now is to promote and show positive comments about Champ Car.

Basically - Relax.

[fobi0]

Originally posted by Snrub
Lavin might have F1 ambitions, heck if offered $50M a year I'd consider filling in for MS at Ferrari , but that doesn't mean either of us are going anywhere. There's no way Lavin is ready for F1 testing duties right now. If his current rate of progress continues, maybe in a few years.

I am going to defend StickShift here. It would be a far more logical move for Ranger to go to Europe than to stick around here. He is not yet ready for Champ Cars and Atlantics is in trouble, so Europe is a logical move. When you have a thread about silly season, you are going to have the good and bad, that's the reality of it. It's childish to automatically label someone an IRL fan just because they aren't brown-nosing.

[Dov]

'05 LINE-UP Update:

According to Paul Tracy, who just announced that he's staying with Forsythe, Cristiano DaMatta will be in a third NHR entry next year. Other ramblings have Darren Manning returning to Champ Car next year, possibly with Walker, since Patrick Carpentier is most likely to replace him at Ganassi in IRL.

Here's how the line-up scenario for next year looks like now:

1. NEWMAN - #2 - Sebastien Bourdais
2. NEWMAN - #6 - Bruno Junqueira
3. FORSYTHE - #1 - Paul Tracy
4. FORSYTHE - #3 - Rodolfo Lavin or Rafael Martinez or Luis Diaz or Homero Richards
5. WALKER - #5 - Mario Haberfeld or Darren Manning
6. WALKER - #15 - Michael Valiante or Jonathan Macri or Andrew Ranger or Rafael Martinez
7. WIGGINS - #4 - Ryan Hunter-Reay
8. WIGGINS - #55 - Mario Dominguez
9. COYNE - #11 - Oriol Servia or Michael Keohane or Tomas Enge
10. COYNE - #19 - Gaston Mazzacane or Jaime Melo or Ralph Firman or Andrew Ranger
11. BACHELART - #14 - Nelson Philippe or Mario Haberfeld or Ricardo Sperafico or Andrew Ranger or Memo Gidley
12. BACHELART - #34 - Justin Wilson
13. KALKHOVEN - #12 - Jimmy Vasser or Patrick Carpentier
14. KALKHOVEN - #21 - Roberto Gonzalez or Rafael Martinez or Homero Richards
15. GENTILOZZI - #8 - Alex Tagliani
16. GENTILOZZI - #17 - Guy Smith or Michael Valiante or Andrew Ranger or Memo Gidley
17. RUSSO - #9 - Michel Jourdain
18. RUSSO - #10 - AJ Allmendinger

Possible new entries in 2005:

19. NEWMAN - #? - Cristiano DaMatta or Ralph Firman or Dario Franchitti
20. FITTIPALDI - #20 - Ricardo Sperafico or Mario Haberfeld or Jaime Melo or Ricardo Zonta or JP.DeOliveira or Tiago Monteiro
21. KALKHOVEN - #22 - Christian Murchison or Josh Hunt or David Besnard
22. LEBERLE - #33 - Ralph Firman or Tomas Enge or Jos Verstappen or Dario Franchitti

Longshot entries for 2005:

23. MENARD - #18 - Jeff Simmons or Mark Taylor
24. NUNN - #30 - Felipe Giaffone or Alex Barron
25. SIERRA - #26 - Andrew Ranger or Jonathan Macri
26. GRAJEWSKI - #24 - André Lotterer or Pierre Kaffer
27. JENSEN - #23 - David Sterckx or Eric Jensen
28. PROST - #27 - Jacques Villeneuve or Jonathan Cochet
29. PROST - #28 - Nicolas Prost or Franck Montagny
30. CONDOR - #31 - Jon Fogarty or Townsend Bell
31. CONDOR - #32 - Marc Hynes or Ryan Dalziel
32. DYSON - #16 - Chris Dyson or Gunnar Jeannette
33. HEMELGARN - #91 - Townsend Bell or Jaime Melo

btw, for an updated picturesque version of the current line-up and the next year's possibilities -> go to www.champcarfan.com and click on the "Line-up" thingy ?!

[luke]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dov
[B]


Other ramblings have Darren Manning returning to Champ Car next year, possibly with Walker, since Patrick Carpentier is most likely to replace him at Ganassi in IRL.
[QUOTE]


Darren Manning is not returning to Champ Car next year he is happy where he is. Your paragraph does have an element of truth however that Patrick Carpentier will go to the IRL and join Chip Ganassi but Chip Ganassi and Penske will field 3 car teams so there will be room for Dixon, Manning and Carpentier.

[blaarg]

I'm really beginning to 'hate' that website.

[rustyfan]

Originally posted by luke
Darren Manning is not returning to Champ Car next year he is happy where he is. Your paragraph does have an element of truth however that Patrick Carpentier will go to the IRL and join Chip Ganassi but Chip Ganassi and Penske will field 3 car teams so there will be room for Dixon, Manning and Carpentier.

I think there is a possibility Manning could indeed switch back to Champ Car for 2005. Considering how bad 2004 has been so far for Ganassi, I wouldn't rule him out wanting to shake things up a bit, and Manning *could* be in danger being left out if that was to happen.

As for Carpentier I think his situation is still very much an completely open deal - could go either way, really. Regardless of what series he does end up in, however, I hope he gets to drive for a competitive outfit.

In both cases we will - as usual - have to wait and see how they pan out.

[Muzza]

At this moment the likelihood of a Fittipaldi Racing team materializing for next season is very low. Emerson has not even talked about it since the fall-out with OWRS in January.

[Dov]

Darren Manning is not returning to Champ Car next year he is happy where he is. Your paragraph does have an element of truth however that Patrick Carpentier will go to the IRL and join Chip Ganassi but Chip Ganassi and Penske will field 3 car teams so there will be room for Dixon, Manning and Carpentier.

Hi luke, I did not write this paragraph, therefor these are not my opinions! It is "courtesy of zerO". Btw, how do you know for SURE what you said in your paragraph to be true?!?!

[Snrub]

Originally posted by Muzza
At this moment the likelihood of a Fittipaldi Racing team materializing for next season is very low. Emerson has not even talked about it since the fall-out with OWRS in January.

Do you have any details on exactly what happened?

[mountainstar]

Originally posted by Snrub
Do you have any details on exactly what happened?

The way I can remember it, Fittipaldi wanted money like he got in 2003 to run the team and OWRS ended all the pookfare, so that was that. I don't believe there was any bad blood between them, but I could be wrong.

[Snrub]

mountainstar not that I am questioning what you've said, but it seems a bit strange. While the OWRS guys changed the way subsidization was paid out, there is still "Pookfare" and it can't possibly be a small amount for each team. Because funding was contingent on certain drivers, perhaps the OWRS guys didn't like who Emmo wanted to run?

[Muzza]

Originally posted by Snrub
Do you have any details on exactly what happened?

Fittipaldi was willing to assemble a team, but the time schedule was ever tighter than the eleventh hour Fittipaldi Dingman Racing of 2003. In such conditions, finding major sponsors (or any sponsor at all) became quite difficult, and Emerson was concerned with the possibility of a reprise of FDR, which was a (completely) deficitary operation (note: Emerson did not lose money with that team; it was financed by Dingman).

Emmo had several meetings with the (then) OWRS troika, and he made clear that he would not run a team if it were not self-sustainable; he would not put money out of his pocket to keep it afloat. I understand from a very high source that Gentilozzi would have said in a meeting with Emerson that the Brazilian was "not being committed to the series". This comment seriously upset Emerson - particularly as Gentilozzi had made several public statements in the lines of "we have people like Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi with us" (*) without talking to Emmo beforehand - and they had a rupture of sorts.

(*)This was part of the strategy conceived mostly by Kevin Kalkhoven of enhancing the profile of the series. Long-time racing insiders had been critical of the new ownership of Champ Cars as Kalkhoven was someone with very little experience in the domain. Thence he concoted a "circle of notables" (my expression) with people like Mario and Emmo to have a public relations/face role (of course telling Tony George "these guys are with us" was part of the plan).

[BootsOntheSide]

Thanks Muzza. Ultimately, Emmo owes ChampCars nothing, he's a legend, and I cna udnerstand that he didn't want to throw his own money into a hugely risky venture. OWRS wanted him on board as a figurehead, which is hardly fair on him. I only hope the OWRS attitudes discussed don't dissuade he or other would-be team owners from running teams in future.

[drewdawg727]

If Fittipaldi does come back...any chance of Tiago coming on board?
I liked Tiago, his rookie season went well IMO

[stmookeyj033]

Originally posted by drewdawg727
If Fittipaldi does come back...any chance of Tiago coming on board?
I liked Tiago, his rookie season went well IMO

Depends on what happens with his F1 Venture.

[rustyfan]

Since there seems to be an interest in Monteiro, this might be of interest (even though it's not related to Champ Car);

GrandPrix.com reports;

Monteiro tests for Minardi

Tiago Monteiro was out testing for Minardi at Vallelunga this week, the Portuguese driver setting a best lap of 1m03.810s, just a couple of tenths slower than the best lap achieved by regular driver Gianmaria Bruni. The test either shows Monteiro's speed or Bruni's lack of it, depending on how one wishes to analyses the results. Monteiro had never before tested at the track near Rome.

"I have no doubts he is perfectly prepared to enter the F1 circus," said Giancarlo Minardi. "He's a driver who makes no mistakes and has an amazing development capacity. Tiago improved systematically throughout the whole morning, giving good feedback to the engineers."

The Portuguese driver is currently racing in the Nissan World Series.

[Kicking-back]

He's a possibility for F1 next year if he gets the backing, clearly.

[rustyfan]

Originally posted by Dov
Other ramblings have Darren Manning returning to Champ Car next year, possibly with Walker, since Patrick Carpentier is most likely to replace him at Ganassi in IRL.

Manning has been confirmed with Ganassi for 2005, so he can now be removed from the 2005 Champ Car "Silly Season".

I have to admit I'm a bit surprised that the news came this early - I was pretty sure there was a chance Manning would go back to Champ Car.

Shows how much I know

[stmookeyj033]

Conversely, could that mean that Carpentier could go to another Champcar team now that Ganassi is out and not much else that I know of is available in IRL?

[rustyfan]

Originally posted by stmookeyj033
Conversely, could that mean that Carpentier could go to another Champcar team now that Ganassi is out and not much else that I know of is available in IRL?

Ganassi as well as Penske have been rumored to expand to three teams each for '05.

How much weight those rumor carry is a different matter...

As for Carpentier, his stated situation remains the same regardless of whether there is a natural opening in the IRL or not - what Champ Car team would he go to? That he's leaving Forsythe - unless, of course, a sponsor steps forward - is pretty much a given, from what I understand, and according to Carpentier himself he would have to bring funding - as it is right now anyhow - in order to have a Champ Car ride for '05 while he has gotten, it seems, several IndyCar offers where he - supposedly - wouldn't have to bring funding.

Then again, it could obviously be somewhat of a "smoke and mirrors" act on the behalf of Carpentier to upgrade his stock somewhat, and I don't think anyone - except for Carpentier himself - really knows the current facts.

At least one things is for certain: Where Carpentier eventually ends up (because I can't imagine he won't get a drive somewhere for 2005) will most certainly be one of the more interesting storylines this silly season

[BootsOntheSide]

I'm pretty sure Pat will be in the IRL next year - not sure which team, but it'll be interesting to see if Penske or Ganassi do expand for him (Ganassi seem more likely to, as they've had more setup problems). Rahal, Fernandez and Panther might make sense as well.

[rustyfan]

I think it comes down to one simple thing: Whether or not a sponsor can be secured for a Champ Car effort.

It's no secret Carpentier's first love is Champ Car, but he won't race there if he has to pay for it.

[Uesque]

From Autoweek today:

Rocketsports owner Paul Gentilozzi has said he is trying to put together a deal to get veteran Memo Gidley in one of his cars full time next season.