Michael Valiante to Walker Racing for 2004...

[Jay]

...if funding can be found. Walker is currently working the corporate board rooms to raise the money to get this guy a ride...unforunately he needs 5-8 million. I think this would be a great opportunity for a company that does business in Canada! Star drivers here get big coverage, and Team Players is a household name. I know a lot of people are in similar situations, but at least Michael appears is getting some help from an established Cart team. Michael is very fast indeed and no doubt, given the right car would be a contender in Cart. He's also very personable and would be a great driver for the sponsors and the fans. Hopefully they'll get something together. We need more like him in the series!

source: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vanc...1-6B9029CAF070

[evo]

Does this mean Darren Manning is going to lose his ride at Walker? This would be a shame. Maybe Molson will replace Corona at Walker and Lavin can take that money elsewhere...

[macdaddy]

Valiante confirmed last week that he has already signed a two-year deal with long-time CART team Walker Racing for 2004-2005.

Where would this leave Manning? It's important to Pook to have an English driver in the series.

Or Lavin? Here's a guy with questionable talent, but he brings with him a very major sponsor.

With CART's popularity in Canada, I sincerely hope that somebody steps in to replace Players. Molson or Labatt? Bombardier or even Tim Hortons?

[kmchow]

It would be nice to have another local boy race in CART. Valiante is from Burnaby, BC, just a few a hours away from Maple Ridge, where the late Greg Moore came from.

[*formula3*]

nice to have another canadian in the series...maybe walker should replace lavin with him and not manning...but i´m sure that manning could find another seat IF walker dropped him...

[corkholio]

Valiante is damn good, he should already have been in CART this year, but then again, why would anyone want to hire this guy when Pook has basically said he is inferior comparing to any Euro imports.

However, this is Derrick Walker we are talking about here. Considering that he has signed Nakano, Takagi, Fisher, Gonzalez, and Lavin the last 3 years, Valiante doesn't even have more than a million to bring to the table and I am skeptical that Walker would be able to find the money himself. IIRC Walker tried to get Valiante in a test for this year, but that never happened from what I assume was due to funding issues. Maybe Walker is hoping CART would subsidize the car but then we all know what Pook thinks of Atlantics-trained drivers. Though if Valiante gets the funding he deserves I much rather see him at a better team than Walker *cough*Patrick*cough*.

[racefanatic]

I agree, he should've been in CART this year. He's an EXCELLENT driver. I'd think Walker would want to keep Darren for next year too. I really haven't been impressed with Lavin so far, but he does have sponsorship, which is always a plus...

Where did Rodolfo Lavin race before CART? I never heard.

[corkholio]

Originally posted by racefanatic
Where did Rodolfo Lavin race before CART? I never heard.

That's because he *sucked* in the CART feeder system for 5 years before buying his way into CART.

[Omega99]

Another year in Atlantics never hurt anybody. It's better to wait unitil he's definitely ready. Look at Lavin. Is he ready? Was Gonzales? How about Yoong? On the other hand, Dominguez shows what a difference a year in CART can make. Well, whatever...

[carsten66]

remember back in the 98-99's, Walker stepped down to a one car team with Gil de Ferran (Valvoline-Cummins-Walker)... and in 1999 de Ferran was third at the Milwaukee Mile ( 12th in 2000 with Penske)

[corkholio]

Lavin, Gonzalez, and Yoong's problems had more to do with a lack of talent than lack of Atlantics experience.

[Omega99]

I didn't mean Atlantics specifically, any development series would be fine. But yes, talent may be the most important factor there....

[Fogelhund]

Originally posted by macdaddy
talent, but he brings with him a very major sponsor.

With CART's popularity in Canada, I sincerely hope that somebody steps in to replace Players. Molson or Labatt? Bombardier or even Tim Hortons?

Well there has to be some reason for the marketing.

Bombardier is hardly in a position right now to be taking on such a sponsorship deal, and given that over 75% of their current business is not in retail, I'm not sure this would make sense.

Molson and Labatt's would certainly be interesting candidates.

Tim Hortons? They haven't shown much of a passion in the past, and are now owned by Cara foods. I doubt this one.

How about one of the banks? Especially if mergers did go through, a BMO/BNS could easily justify such a deal, with companies combined having extensive US, Mexican and South American business interests.

[kmchow]

A Canadian bank sponsoring a racing team??? heee, heee, that has got to be the funniest suggestion. Somehow, Canadian companies just aren't sponsor friendly. At least open wheel wise.

CART is definitely high profile enough for companies, but Canadian companies can't justify the equally high profile costs associated with it.

[evo]

Maybe NTN will step up. They've been in Atlantics for a while, and they donate bearings to a lot of FSAE teams. It's a possibilty.

[Jay]

The banks have lots of money, but they like to keep it to themselves... they're good to own stock of though

It would probably have to be a brewery(Labatt?), licquor (Seagrams?) company, oil company(Irving?) or automotive related company(Canadian Tire, or their American counterpart?)...something that guys go for anyway.

[gaines]

Here is a question I'd like answered. In regards to Canadian sponsorship, would they have to pay for the sponsorship in Canadian or American funds. We all know how the drop in the Canadian dollar has severely hurt the NHL franchises in hockey who get canadian dollars at the door but pay the players in American $$. My point being would Canadian companies get hit harder for sponsoring than an American company would? The Euro is higher than the American $$ so does a Euro company get the same investment for less when you look at the whole picture? Just a thought.

[BootsOntheSide]

Thinking from my economics study, the level of the dollar against £/€/Can$ isn't the issue. What matters is how much it has changed over the recent time. They would probably pay in Canadian dollars, meaning that a further fall will see their sponsorship need to increase, in order to match American sponsorship. If Lavin's sponsorship is paid in Mexican currency, the ratio of the Mexican and Canadian dollars are important.

[Snrub]

Both Labatts and Molson have been advertising a lot in the US and both would be obvious choices.

As I've said several times before, Canadian Tire seems like a great choice, especially given what they are trying to do of late.

There are lots of big Canadian Companies that it would make sense for: Communications companies like Rogers, Bell are some examples.

TSN has not been very kind to CART this year. I find that strange given the Canadian presence in the series.

Pook simply stated that Atlantics isn't as good of preperation as F3000. That's no surprise to anyone. That doesn't mean they can't produce top drivers. Compare Moore to Bourdais. Granted he was a fair bit younger, but he clearly wasn't as developed as a driver when he started. It's just a matter of experience. Moore even had an advantage in that he was a very mature driver and used his head. Both are/were world class drivers and have/had the talent to be in a top F1 drive. Then again there are a lot of CART drivers in the last while that were of competitive F1 caliber.

[macdaddy]

Canadian Tire used to sponsor Empringham in Atlantics, so at least they do have some motorsport experience. And there's no question that they are a big company. There's one in almost every town, and the newer stores in the cities are monsterous.

[evo]

Moore came from Indy Lights.

[evo]

Oh, and I noticed that RAC is gone from the sidepods on Mannings car. Hope that's not a sign of things to come. It would be a shame if a major British company can't get behind him.

[macdaddy]

Well that's no good. Hadn't noticed that.

[evo]

Maybe he and Derrick should go visit Richard Branson and get Virgin on the side of the car.

[Snrub]

Yes I know Moore came from Lights, Pook was critisizing the US system vs. the Euro system. I suppose I should have made that clearer, but Atlantics is obviously what is there now.