2005-2006 IRL Off-Season News

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The rumour mill here has him heading for Target team Ganassi. That started with a news report broadcast by an Indy TV station. It is coupled to team target changing to honda engines, and Andretti Green cutting back to 3 cars.Supposedly Ganassi is offering far more than F1 teams, or AGR. Further to that Ganassi would cut back to 2 cars with NZedder Scott Dixon teamed with Wheldon. That would leave briscoe out in the cold, but the rumour mill has it that he will replace Vasser at PKV Racing
Aspirin time again

Couple of parts......

1=If Wheldon is returning to the IRL next year, then he's basically been blowin' smoke up AGR's tailpipe about going to F1(which can't make Mikey happy, considering his one yr. in F1!).
2=As for Ganassi, who isn't switching to Honda next year? I've got him listed with 2-3 cars for 2006, with Dixon in one car, and who knows whom in the other(s).
3=Briscoe's part of the "shootout" at PKV Racing for the second seat(currently held by Da Matta), along with Ryan Dalziel, Michael Valiante, Timo Glock, and a couple of others. The first seat(Vasser's), however, is the one everyone's watching, for, if everything goes as planned, by 2007 at the latest, Katherine Legge will most likely be in the #12 car.

Looks like your intuitiveness paid off, Julian. Wheldon officially announced today that he will drive for Target/Ganassi Racing in 2006. Looks like they have given Ryan Briscoe his walkin' papers, which would likely explain why PKV Racing's looking at him for 2006.

[Julian Mayo]

Sometimes it's quite a good rumour mill

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You and I do think alike. What a scary thought.....

[Julian Mayo]

You and I do think alike. What a scary thought.....

terrifying........................................for the world

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You and I do think alike. What a scary thought..... [/quote


terrifying........................................for the world

Exactly, my friend.

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3 bits of off-season IRL news for readers to peruse over......

1}New lead announcer for TV broadcasts? Sources close to ABC say that veteran auto racing announcer Paul Page may return to the broadcast booth to cover the IndyCar Series for ABC and ESPN/ESPN-2 in 2006, replacing current lead announcer Todd Harris. All I can say is....I don't care who they bring, just so long as it ain't Harris.....please.

2}Patrick to buy Panther Racing? Former team owner U.E. "Pat" Patrick is rumored to be pursuing a possible bid to buy out Panther Racing and keep a two-car team for 2006. The former CART owner and one of the signatories of the famous "Gurney White Paper"(NA's equivalent of Formula 1's Concorde Agreement) has a storied record in AOWR w/3 Indy 500's as an owner(2 w/Gordon Johncock, 1 w/Emerson Fittipaldi) and has been on the sidelines since a subpar-2004 effort, first w/Al Unser, Jr., and then w/drivers Mark Taylor, Jeff Simmons, Jaques Lazier and Tomas Enge.

3}Scheckter to Vision Racing? It's probably speculation, but series sources tell that current Panther Racing driver Tomas Scheckter may spearhead a two-car effort for Tony George and Vision Racing in 2006. However, regardless of who TG brings to that second seat, he can count and knows he needs a lot of extra cars to even think of having a 33-car field for the 500.

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With Roger Penske moving to consolidate all of his racing operations (NASCAR, ALMS and IRL) under one roof at his Mooresville, N.C. headquarters, the end may be near for the team's Poole, England facility, which has been underultilized since the late 1990's, when the team, still in CART at the time, stopped building its' own cars(Mercedes-Ilmor/Penske) and began using Honda/Reynards in 1999-2001. When the team switched series' in 2002, the team began using G-Force(now Panoz chassis) with first Chevy, then Toyota, and now Honda power. Sources close to the team say that the Poole facility may indeed be closed by the end of December at the earliest.

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Maybe it is the cold, Appalachian air, but the rumor mill reports that Andretti-Green Racing co-owner Michael Andretti, who was unable to win in 14 tries as a driver, but has one victory as an owner, is supposedly considering whether to do a one-off ride in the 90th Indianapolis 500...the only problem anyone can think of is whether they can find a sponsor to run with.

All I can say on this one is.....Did they spike Mikey's milk at the Brickyard last May, or are they really serious? Time will tell, time will tell.

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Recently, Sports Illustrated listed the top 10 "unique" winners' prizes that one can win, regardless of sport, whether it's auto racing, hockey, football(American-style, NFL), or so on. Well, the IRL IndyCar Series made two of the ten spots. Coming in first was the traditional bottle of milk given to the winner of the Indianapolis 500[officially known as...the Indianapolis 500-mile sweepstakes race], and in eighth place was the custom Gibson electric guitar given to the winner of the IRL race at Nashville[the guitars belong to Buddy Lazier, Alex Barron, Gil de Ferran, Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti, respectively].

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According to multiple sources, Andretti-Green Racing, which has won the last 2 Indy Racing League IndyCar Series titles, along with the 2005 Indy 500, will be fielding a 5-car effort for the 500, with a couple of surprises. The first is that apparently co-owner Michael Andretti will be driving in the 500 come' May 2006 in a one-off ride to help fill the 33-car grid. The second surprise, though, is a shocker....of sorts. It's no secret in NA motorsports that there is a tug of war of sorts btwn. Michael and Mario Andretti over the future direction of Michael's son, Marco Andretti, who won several Infiniti Pro Series races including St. Pete, Infineon and on the road course at Indy(the IPS Liberty Challenge at the Brickyard, held during the Formula 1 USGP weekend). Well, Michael won, for the young lad is apparently going to join the AGR stable for a full season in 2006. Chances are the lineup/sponsors are going to shake out as follows(assuming everything else falls in place....)

#7 XM Satellite Radio D/H--Bryan Herta
#11 Team 7-11 D/H--Tony Kanaan
#26 Jim Beam/Klein Tools D/H--Dario Franchitti
#27 ArcaEx D/H--Marco Andretti(R)
(for Indy only), Michael Andretti, Vonage/Jim Beam D/H

More to follow on this in the days to come....

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At their Indianapolis headquarters, Andretti-Green Racing made two announcements, that Marco Andretti, son of co-owner Michael Andretti, will be driving for the team in 2006, and that Michael will be doing a one-off drive at the Brickyard for this year's 500.

As to the first announcement......the team confirmed its' four-car lineup for 2006, as follows.....#7 Bryan Herta, XM Satellite Radio D/H, #11 Tony Kanaan Team 7-11 D/H, #26 Marco Andretti, ArcaEx D/H, and #27 Dario Franchitti, Jim Beam/Klein Tools D/H. The only major switch was that, since he's only 18, Marco will be in the seat formerly held by Franchitti, while the Scotsman will slide over to the seat formerly held by reigning series champion Dan Wheldon.

As to the second announcement.....the team also confirmed that co-owner Michael Andretti will indeed be returning to the Brickyard in a one-off drive in the Indy 500; he becomes the first person in the history of the race to defend the title as a driver after winning the 500 as an owner.

In case anyone's interested, here is the link to today's teleconference concerning today's announcements......
www.indycar.com/news/story.php?story_id=5802

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Here is the link for the press release from the United States Sports Academy concerning the award.... www.ussa.edu/news/2005/12/26/aoy.asp

IRL IndyCar Series driver and 2005 rookie of the year Danica Patrick will have one more award to celebrate over the New Year's Day weekend, as the United States Sports Academy awarded her the 2005 Female Athlete of the Year award, beating out a very talented group of competitors including runner-up Kim Clijsters and Annika Sorenstam. Voting for the award was held online between Dec. 1st and Dec. 24th and from the release, it appears Patrick, whose season was marked by her 4th-place finish at Indy, along with 7 top-10 finishes in 17 starts plus three pole positions during the year, took an early lead in the voting and never relinquished it during the voting period. Congratulations, and good luck in 2006!

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It is times like these that make you wish the CART/IRL split had never occured.


It does indeed appear that Panther Racing, one of the Indy Racing League's premier teams, has reached the end of its' road. According to multiple sources, the team will be auctioning all of its' equipment through one of the Midwest's leading auction houses, Key Liquidators, and judging by the list, about everything the team owned is up on the auction block. As a result, when the next silly season postings come up, the team will be listed as "provisionally" pending either confirmation that the team has indeed folded or news to the contrary.


Here is the link in case anyone's interested.....
www.keyliquidators.com/auction_detail.php?ID=82502

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In an effort to expand the series' fan base and bring in new fans, the Indy Racing League announced Tuesday an agreement w/Los Angeles-based marketing firm Simmons-Abramson Mktg. The multi-tiered agreement btwn. SAM and the IRL will give the marketing firm the chance to be actively engaged in series marketing, events, public relations, sponsorship, merchandising and branding efforts--everything from the IndyCar Series to the venerable Indy 500. To announce the agreement, IRL founder Tony George joined with SAM co-founders Gene Simmons(lead singer of the rock band KISS) and Richard Abramson(entertainment industry veteran). Here are the links to the story and the series' weekly teleconference.....


www.indycar.com/news/story.php?story_id=5849
www.indycar.com/news/story.php?story_id=5853

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Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials announced today that the starting time for this year's Indy 500 will be at 1 PM U.S. EDT, due to the state of Indiana's decision to adopt Eastern Daylight Time during the spring & summer months rather than remaining in the mixed time-zone setup they had been. (Several counties close to Chicago, IL were in Central Std. Time, several SE Indiana counties were in Eastern Daylight, and the rest of the state, including Indianapolis, remained in Eastern Std. Time) Accordingly, the pre-race show on ABC Sports will likely begin at 9 or 10 am Memorial Day Sunday; it also means that no one will be able to do the "Memorial Day Double", running both the Indy 500 and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, NC on the same day.