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Julian Mayo wrote:

My sentiments exactly, Julian.

As the dust settles from a historic week in the Champ Car series, another piece of the silly season puzzle appears set. Sources close to Forsythe Championship Racing confirm that Mario Dominguez will return to the team to partner 2003 series champion Paul Tracy in the 2006 season. An announcement is expected sometime next week.

mlittle wrote:As the dust settles from a historic week in the Champ Car series, another piece of the silly season puzzle appears set. Sources close to Forsythe Championship Racing confirm that Mario Dominguez will return to the team to partner 2003 series champion Paul Tracy in the 2006 season. An announcement is expected sometime next week.

Any word on Briscoe yet ?

Not yet. My guess.....he's either headed over to A}PKV Racing, or B}Team Australia. I suspect if he does land a ChampCar ride for 2006, it'll be with Team Oz.

mlittle wrote:As the dust settles from a historic week in the Champ Car series, another piece of the silly season puzzle appears set. Sources close to Forsythe Championship Racing confirm that Mario Dominguez will return to the team to partner 2003 series champion Paul Tracy in the 2006 season. An announcement is expected sometime next week.

The official announcement is set for Monday, when FCR is expected to announce that Dominguez is to return for 2006.

Another part of the 2006 Champ Car World Series grid was filled today as Forsythe Championship Racing confirmed that Mario Dominguez will be returning to the team to partner Paul Tracy in 2006. The team also confirmed that they will not be running a third car for the 2006 season.

Here's a link to the teleconference ChampCar held w/Forsythe earlier today......
www.champcarworldseries.com/News/Article.asp?ID=9972

According to the rumors page at paddocktalk.com, Team Australia has verbally agreed to re-sign current Team Oz driver Alex Tagliani for 2006. If confirmed, this would give the team two drivers for the upcoming season, as the team has already signed 2006 rookie candidate Will Power to a multi-year deal back in late 2005. The current question surrounding the team is....will they field just two cars, or will they try to field a third car during the 2006 season.

mlittle wrote:According to the rumors page at paddocktalk.com, Team Australia has verbally agreed to re-sign current Team Oz driver Alex Tagliani for 2006. If confirmed, this would give the team two drivers for the upcoming season, as the team has already signed 2006 rookie candidate Will Power to a multi-year deal back in late 2005. The current question surrounding the team is....will they field just two cars, or will they try to field a third car during the 2006 season.

I doubt Briscoe will have the seat if they do, he is doing the Enduros here for a Holden team. ( The enemy)

Nice to see tags staying in.

I would prefer if Briscoe was in another team.

rah wrote:Nice to see tags staying in.

I would prefer if Briscoe was in another team.

That could happen, rah. The way everything appears to be shaking out, I'd say he's either headed to Team Australia(if they run a third car) or to PKV Racing(to drive the team's second car). The problem if it's the latter team is that, chances are, they're not likely to pair two rookies on the same team for the 2006 season.

mlittle wrote:

rah wrote:Nice to see tags staying in.

I would prefer if Briscoe was in another team.

That could happen, rah. The way everything appears to be shaking out, I'd say he's either headed to Team Australia(if they run a third car) or to PKV Racing(to drive the team's second car). The problem if it's the latter team is that, chances are, they're not likely to pair two rookies on the same team for the 2006 season.

yeah, it would be a bit much to ask. Be interesting to watch though.

You would think that with 6 weeks before the first race, most teams would have their driver lineups settled. Are they waiting to see who can bring the most money to a team before then?

For some of the teams, that's the case. Thanks to A}the split, and B}the hesitancy of sponsors to enter the series, some teams are essentially "forced" to look for ride-buyers. This applies, usually, to the backmarkers and some of the mid-pack teams(Dale Coyne, MiJack-Conquest, for instance). Some teams, though, cmlean....usually just wait until the season opener is nearly upon them before making decisions.

The good thing, though, about all this is that, unlike in the past few years, where teams worried there would even be a new season ahead to plan for, this year, teams can basically take their time and....drag out silly season until the first practice at Long Beach begins.

Time is needed to gel the team. By leaving the decision until the last minute, you risk staying a midfield team as all your development has to take place in the season proper.