LBGP Staring Grid ?!

[zerO]

Originally posted by bella
correction : i doubt thomas enge will drive for coyne, since he has confirmed in f3000 for this year. but i may be wrong.

Tomas Enge's contract with Ma-Con in F3000 isn't finalized yet, and supposedly he's still mulling Champcars ie: Coyne

zerO

[x_dt]

If Enge has got an offer of a drive in CART/OWRS he should take up that offer (whoever its with). What benefit is there of doing yet another season in F3000 if such an offer exists?

[JohnSSC]

The benefit is a potential test driver's role in F1 - not sure he is far enough past the cannabis thing to threaten for a race seat.

[indycool]

Nary a word has been heard from Walker throughout the offseason. Nothing from Fittipaldi lately. Nothing about Hemelgarn in the past week or so. Think the best guess for the 18th is zerO's speculation about a third car for Kalkhoven. Think the others would probably hold OWRS up for more money than it's willing to spend.

[zerO]

Originally posted by indycool
Nary a word has been heard from Walker throughout the offseason. Nothing from Fittipaldi lately. Nothing about Hemelgarn in the past week or so. Think the best guess for the 18th is zerO's speculation about a third car for Kalkhoven. Think the others would probably hold OWRS up for more money than it's willing to spend.

Not only that, which is very disappointing, though I still believe that Walker and Emmo will come through maybe a few races later in the season, it's starting to look like the 18th car will come from PKVR courtesy of Kalkhoven (surely he doesn't want to lose the bet) and Christian Murchison is back in the picture ?!

zerO

[zerO]

Update:

Latest from the Grapevine is that Kalkhoven is mulling over whether to add a third car to the PKVR stable for either Oriol Servia or Townsend Bell or Christian Murchison ?!

Here's the line-up is shaping up:

1. FORSYTHE - Paul Tracy
2. FORSYTHE - Rodolfo Lavin
3. FORSYTHE - Patrick Carpentier
4. NEWMAN/HAAS - Sebastien Bourdais
5. NEWMAN/HAAS - Bruno Junqueira
6. HERDEZ - Mario Dominguez
7. HERDEZ - Ryan Hunter-Reay
8. COYNE - Michael Keohane or Tomas Enge or Oriol Servia ?
9. COYNE - Mario Haberfeld or Jaime Melo or Geoff Boss or ?
10. BACHELART - Justin Wilson
11. BACHELART - Alex Sperafico
12. KALKHOVEN - Jimmy Vasser
13. KALKHOVEN - Roberto Gonzalez
14. GENTILOZZI - Alex Tagliani
15. GENTILOZZI - Nelson Philippe
16. RUSSO - Michel Jourdain
17. RUSSO - AJ Allmendinger

Possibles:

18. WALKER - Michael Valiante or Jonathan Macri or Oriol Servia ?
19. WALKER - Ricardo Sperafico or Mario Haberfeld or Christian Fittipaldi or Townsend Bell ?
20. FITTIPALDI - Gaston Mazzacane or Mario Haberfeld or Christian Fittipaldi or Ricardo Sperafico or Oriol Servia ?
21. KALKHOVEN - Oriol Servia or Townsend Bell or Christian Murchison ?

btw, for an updated picturesque version go to www.champcarfan.com and click on the "Line-up" thingy - note: "confirmed" is in black ?!... sorry, next update by Wednesday (ie: gremlins)

zerO

[mitchie]

I got an email today that says that a 'young Queenslander' who will be announced this time tomorrow (Australian time) will be driving in Atlantics this year, and stepping up to Champ Cars for the Surfers Round.

Not sure who it would be, but a couple of potential drivers floating around in my head. Im pretty sure that Murchison is from Western Australia, so he would possibly be ruled out.

[bella]

re coyne and michael keohane - interesting random fact for you. michael himself doesn't know if he's going back to america this week or not. sounds a bit strange!

how well did murchison do in formula 3 last year? didn't he do the euroseries?

[mitchie]

Originally posted by bella
how well did murchison do in formula 3 last year? didn't he do the euroseries?

Murchison did the V6 Formula Renault Eurocup Championship, and finished 10th overall in the series.

[bella]

oops. i'm sure he did a couple of rounds though? right at the beginning?

that's not a very good record for renault v6 though (especially las year), i assume he's shown better form than that in the past?

[Kicking-back]

Originally posted by bella
that's not a very good record for renault v6 though (especially las year), i assume he's shown better form than that in the past?

No

[stmookeyj033]

Originally posted by mitchie
I got an email today that says that a 'young Queenslander' who will be announced this time tomorrow (Australian time) will be driving in Atlantics this year, and stepping up to Champ Cars for the Surfers Round.

Not sure who it would be, but a couple of potential drivers floating around in my head. Im pretty sure that Murchison is from Western Australia, so he would possibly be ruled out.

Could it be Andre Morgan who is based in the US from what I have heard?

[Kicking-back]

Originally posted by stmookeyj033
Could it be Andre Morgan who is based in the US from what I have heard?

It's Josh Hunt.

[Marcel ten Caat]

Originally posted by zerO
btw, for an updated picturesque version go to www.champcarfan.com and click on the "Line-up" thingy - note: "confirmed" is in black ?!... sorry, next update by Wednesday (ie: gremlins)

zerO

So you calling me a gremlin?
Lineup page won't be updated before the end of the week. I am unable to work on the site until Friday, due to some other work that has to be done.

[cybersdorf]

Out of curiosity: how much for a Champcar drive these days?

[zerO]

Update:

Latest from the Grapevine is that sometime this week an announcement is expected from WALKER regarding his plans for 2004 - most likely a one car entry will be announced with plans for a second car somtime later into the sason ?!... also, HEMELGARN is expected to join CCWS with a single car entry (Reynard) at Monterrey or later...

Here's how the line-up is shaping up:

1. FORSYTHE - Paul Tracy
2. FORSYTHE - Rodolfo Lavin
3. FORSYTHE - Patrick Carpentier
4. NEWMAN/HAAS - Sebastien Bourdais
5. NEWMAN/HAAS - Bruno Junqueira
6. HERDEZ - Mario Dominguez
7. HERDEZ - Ryan Hunter-Reay
8. COYNE - Tomas Enge or Oriol Servia or Townsend Bell or Michael Keohane ?
9. COYNE - Mario Haberfeld or Jaime Melo or Geoff Boss or ?
10. BACHELART - Justin Wilson
11. BACHELART - Alex Sperafico
12. KALKHOVEN - Jimmy Vasser
13. KALKHOVEN - Roberto Gonzalez
14. GENTILOZZI - Alex Tagliani
15. GENTILOZZI - Nelson Philippe
16. RUSSO - Michel Jourdain
17. RUSSO - AJ Allmendinger
18. WALKER - Michael Valiante or Tomas Enge or Oriol Servia or Townsend Bell or Jonathan Macri ?

Possibles:

19. WALKER - Ricardo Sperafico or Mario Haberfeld or Christian Fittipaldi or Townsend Bell ?
20. FITTIPALDI - Gaston Mazzacane or Mario Haberfeld or Christian Fittipaldi or Ricardo Sperafico or Oriol Servia ?
21. KALKHOVEN - Oriol Servia or Townsend Bell or Christian Murchison ?
22. HEMELGARN - Richie Hearn or Townsend Bell or Jaime Melo ?

btw, for an updated picturesque version go to www.champcarfan.com and click on the "Line-up" thingy - note: "confirmed" is in black ?!... sorry, next update by Wednesday (ie: strange gremlins)

zerO

[Chucky]

Originally posted by JohnSSC
if this concept catches on soon Ford will be buying Tauruses from itself to improve sales...

They've been doing that for years. Why do you think they own Hertz?

My father worked for Nissan in Australia for years. the employees could always tell when a model wasn't moving because everyone would suddenly get their company car swapped out for a new one.

[macdaddy]

Ford doesn't own Hertz - Penske does.

[zerO]

Line-up update:

Latest from the Grapevine is that Kalkhoven will have a third PKVR car on the grid at Long Beach - most likely for Oriol Servia - and since the announcement of Josh Hunt driving it at the Lexmark Indy 300 in Australia it appears that KK will do "musical chairs" (throughout the season) with this entry as Coyne is famous for doing so ?!

Here's a good read on Walker = http://www.autosport.com/newsitem.asp?id=26721&s=7

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

1. FORSYTHE - Paul Tracy
2. FORSYTHE - Patrick Carpentier
3. FORSYTHE - Rodolfo Lavin
4. KALKHOVEN - Jimmy Vasser
5. KALKHOVEN - Roberto Gonzalez
6. KALKHOVEN - Orio Servia or Townsend Bell or Christian Murchison and/or Josh Hunt ?
7. NEWMAN/HAAS - Sebastien Bourdais
8. NEWMAN/HAAS - Bruno Junqueira
9. HERDEZ - Mario Dominguez
10. HERDEZ - Ryan Hunter-Reay
11. COYNE - Tomas Enge or Oriol Servia or Michael Keohane ?
12. COYNE - Jaime Melo or Geoff Boss or Mario Haberfeld ?
13. BACHELART - Justin Wilson
14. BACHELART - Alex Sperafico
15. GENTILOZZI - Alex Tagliani
16. GENTILOZZI - Nelson Philippe
17. RUSSO - Michel Jourdain
18. RUSSO - AJ Allmendinger
19. WALKER - Mario Haberfeld or Tomas Enge or Townsend Bell ?

Possibles:

20. WALKER - Michael Valiante or Jonathan Macri or Ricardo Sperafico or Christian Fittipaldi ?
21. FITTIPALDI - Gaston Mazzacane or Mario Haberfeld or Christian Fittipaldi or Ricardo Sperafico or Oriol Servia ?
22. HEMELGARN - Richie Hearn or Townsend Bell or Jaime Melo ?

btw, updated picturesque version is coming soon ?!

zerO

[jjspierx]

Originally posted by macdaddy
Ford doesn't own Hertz - Penske does.

Well who do you thin owns Penske then? Oh wait, thats Roger Penske...well who do you think owns Roger Penske then? Oh wait, thats Tony George. Where was I? I forget.

[zerO]

Line-up update:

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

1. FORSYTHE - Paul Tracy
2. FORSYTHE - Patrick Carpentier
3. FORSYTHE - Rodolfo Lavin
4. NEWMAN/HAAS - Sebastien Bourdais
5. NEWMAN/HAAS - Bruno Junqueira
6. HERDEZ - Mario Dominguez
7. HERDEZ - Ryan Hunter-Reay
8. COYNE - Tomas Enge or Oriol Servia or Michael Keohane ?
9. COYNE - Ricardo Sperafico or Jaime Melo or Geoff Boss ?
10. KALKHOVEN - Jimmy Vasser
11. KALKHOVEN - Roberto Gonzalez
12. GENTILOZZI - Alex Tagliani
13. GENTILOZZI - Nelson Philippe
14. RUSSO - Michel Jourdain
15. RUSSO - AJ Allmendinger
16. BACHELART - Justin Wilson
17. BACHELART - Alex Sperafico
18. WALKER - Mario Haberfeld

Possibles:

19. WALKER - Michael Valiante or Jonathan Macri or Tomas Enge ?
20. FITTIPALDI - Gaston Mazzacane or Ricardo Sperafico or Oriol Servia ?
21. KALKHOVEN - Oriol Servia, Townsend Bell, Christian Murchison, and/or Josh Hunt ?
22. HEMELGARN - Townsend Bell or Richie Hearn or Jaime Melo ?

btw, for the updated picturesque version go to www.champcarfan.com and click on the "Line-up" thingy ?!

zerO

[indycool]

The things left to happen for 18 at Long Beach:

1. Coyne must name two drivers.
2. An 18th car and driver must be found.

That's it.

[Fan]

Originally posted by indycool
The things left to happen for 18 at Long Beach:

1. Coyne must name two drivers.
2. An 18th car and driver must be found.

That's it.

Easier said then done! Any news on Dale's two drivers or the 18th car?

[bella]

none from here regarding michael and that second drive. i could find out where he is but that would be a faux pas.

if anyone could track down the other guys involved in the discussions then we might be able to figure something out

[sgw2]

Walker being the 18th has two sources:

1) Autoweek editors speculating lasts Friday (ignore the date stamp). This appears to be where zer0 got his info based on the drivers he lists

http://www.autoweek.com/cat_content...._code=01183738

2) And more importantly from Paul Gentilozzi control official CCWS team index page

http://www.champcarworldseries.com/Teams/TeamIndex.asp

No Fittipaldi, which is no surprise. Hemelgarn's latest move was to enter the Indy 500.

Walker and Coyne are merely providing shop space and crews for OWRS rentals. The rumors I have heard is both will be Reynards. (No, I have no clue about Coyne's three Lola tubs, expect that they may earmarked for RuSPORT or Conquest.)

As it was, Walker's budegt last year is largely public knowledge due to CART's SEC filings. His team sumitted an $11M budget for two cars ($6M for one, $5M for the second). He was allocated $5.9M in TAP and $1.4M in ESP Pook-fare. The guesstimate of the rest was over $2M from Corona, and under $1M from Manning's backers. The rest was covered by small sponsors, prize money and other.

**Rumors** from Indy say Hemelgarn was offered $3M, engines and Reynard rollers. Its a fair guess Walker and Coyne have been offered similar deals.

Anyway, those will be cars 16-18 at Long Beach, and anywhere else the three amigos deem 18 cars required - Obviously not the own controlled Cleveland, Portland, and Denver; or anywhere a renegotiated contract stipulates 16 as sufficient. Coyne will be the uy brought only when needed.