Silly Season--CCWS, 2006

[mlittle]

True, true. Best way to tell how the teams are doing is seeing who settles on a driver lineup and, more to the point, when. The best team in that regards is RuSport; those guys settled their driver lineup(Allmendinger, Wilson) back long before season's end of 2005. Now, some of the teams(MiJack-Conquest, Forsythe, Newman-Haas, etc.) had already settled on one driver(Phillipe, Tracy, and Bourdais) before season's end and have either decided(Dominguez w/Forsythe, Junquiera w/Newman-Haas) or, as w/MiJack, still deciding. Included in this group also is Team Australia(also referred to at times as Walker Racing), which had signed Will Power prior to season's end and is in the process of re-signing Alex Tagliani to their team for 2006. As for the others......


1}PKV Racing.....their predictament is this; with one rookie driver(Legge) on the lineup for 2006, they have to decide....do we pair her up with another rookie, or do we look for a veteran to partner alongside her?

2}CTE-HVM Racing.....formerly Herdez Competition, this team's cash-strapped and not sad to admit it. They've got one driver(Bremer) supposedly signed for 2006, but they're still looking for another.

3}Rocketsports......while they're keeping Michael McDowell for 2006, they have to find a second driver; Timo Glock, who everyone thought would return for 2006, has reportedly signed w/BCN to race in GP2 for 2006.....

4}Dale Coyne Racing......ChampCar's version of the former Minardi F1 team, these guys don't settle on a driver lineup until right before the season starts, so I won't even begin to wonder about them.

5}EuroInternational......supposedly, they're going to race a 10-race schedule in 2006 in preparations for the 2007 season; no one seems to know who will drive for them, though.....

You're right in this regards, cmlean.....the longer a team has to gel, the better the team will be. This silly season's just been a bit more hectic that most....thankfully, not as hectic as in years' past.

[mlittle]

2 bits of silly season news to add to the silly season "stew" for the off-season....

1}McDowell out at Rocketsports??? According to ar1.com, in a recent Autosport interview, Rocketsports owner Paul Gentilozzi all but admitted that the team will, A)run one car this year if sponsorship cannot be found for two, and that, B)former Renault F1 tester Franck Montagny is the team's preferred driver, not McDowell. Gentilozzi also said in the Autosport interview that the team expects to sign Montagny by this time next week.....

2}EuroInternational in Atlantics this year? In the same ar1.com news item, EuroInternational, which had been contemplating running a 10-car schedule for 2006, will likely run in the newly revamped Atlantic Championship for 2006 and then make the jump up into ChampCars for 2007. This actually makes sense, for by moving up in 2007, they will face the same challenges w/the new Panoz DP01 chassis as everyone else.

[mlittle]

Here are the current seat predictions for 2006......


1}Newman-Haas Racing(2):Sebastien Bourdais, Bruno Junquiera. No changes at present.

2}Forsythe Championship Racing(2):Paul Tracy, Mario Dominguez. The team confirmed recently that Dominguez will be returning for the 2006 campaign.

3}PKV Racing(2):Katherine Legge(R), Franck Montagny(?), Oriol Servia, Ryan Briscoe(?), Cristiano da Matta(?), Giorgio Pantano(?). No changes at present.

4}RuSport Racing(2):A.J. Allmendinger, Justin Wilson. No changes at present.

5}Rocketsports Racing(1-2):Michael McDowell(?), Franck Montagny(?), Antonio Pizzonia(?), Enrique Bernoldi(?). Now this makes little sense. The team dumps Ryan Hunter-Reay prior to Surfers....brings in McDowell for the last two races of 2005....and now is looking to dump McDowell??!? Either this team has some serious sponsorship problems, or.....where's that Motrin; that headache's returning...

6}CTE-HVM Racing(2):Ronnie Bremer, Dan Clarke(?), Rodalfo Lavin(?), Gareth Ridpath(?). 2 items of note here....1)scratch Duno's name for 2006; she recently re-signed w/Howard-Boss Mtrspts. in the Rolex Sports Car Series for this year, and 2)the team recently tested LMES veteran Gareth Ridpath this past week at Sebring, so his name gets added to the scrum.

7}MiJack-Conquest Racing(2):Nelson Phillipe, Andrew Ranger(?), Jan Heylen(?). It now appears that the second seat is either going to go to either Ranger or to Heylen, who has tested twice in the past week for MJCR at Sebring.

8}Dale Coyne Racing(2):Ricardo Sperafico(?), Gaston Mazzacane(?), Tarso Marques(?), Michael Valiante(?). This team is up in the air right now.

9}Team Australia(2-3):Will Power(R), Alex Tagliani, Ryan Briscoe, Charles Zwolsman(?), Will Davison(?). Chances are, when the season begins, Team Oz will have Power, Tagliani and Briscoe(if the team runs 3 cars in 2006), with Zwolsman serving as the team's test driver and Davison likely in Atlantics for 2006.


No. of confirmed seats:10
No. of open seats:7-11 seats(likely 8-9 seats)

[mlittle]

Apparently Nelson phillipe's seat at MiJack-Conquest Racing might not be as secure as once thought; according to ar1.com, he's now rumored to be in the running for one of the seats over at CTE-HVM Racing. Seems as though Phillipe and CTE-HVM principle Keith Wiggins have been talking about a possible ride for 2006. It's only speculation....then again, most everyone believed that Katherine Legge would be in Atlantics this year, and not in Champ Car, so.....draw any conclusions available.

[mlittle]

Apparently the idea of having a "national team" in the CCWS must be a good one.....sources close to Rocketsports Racing report that series co-owner(and team owner) Paul Gentilozzi is close to signing former F1 drivers Antonio Pizzonia and Franck Montagny for the 2006 season, according to autoracing1.com's rumors page. According to their info, Gentilozzi has entered into a partnership w/Brazilian entrepreneurs Marcelo de Oliveira, Paulo Isper, and several others to field a "Team Brazil", similar to the arrangement fellow team owner Derrick Walker has w/Aussies' Craig Gore and John Fish for "Team Australia". Sources also indicate that a decision on who will drive for the team could come sometime this week. More info to follow......

[Julian Mayo]

Apparently the idea of having a "national team" in the CCWS must be a good one.....sources close to Rocketsports Racing report that series co-owner(and team owner) Paul Gentilozzi is close to signing former F1 drivers Antonio Pizzonia and Franck Montagny for the 2006 season, according to autoracing1.com's rumors page. According to their info, Gentilozzi has entered into a partnership w/Brazilian entrepreneurs Marcelo de Oliveira, Paulo Isper, and several others to field a "Team Brazil", similar to the arrangement fellow team owner Derrick Walker has w/Aussies' Craig Gore and John Fish for "Team Australia". Sources also indicate that a decision on who will drive for the team could come sometime this week. More info to follow......

Pizza had a couple of starts in V8 supercars a while back.....failed

[mlittle]

Apparently the idea of having a "national team" in the CCWS must be a good one.....sources close to Rocketsports Racing report that series co-owner(and team owner) Paul Gentilozzi is close to signing former F1 drivers Antonio Pizzonia and Franck Montagny for the 2006 season, according to autoracing1.com's rumors page. According to their info, Gentilozzi has entered into a partnership w/Brazilian entrepreneurs Marcelo de Oliveira, Paulo Isper, and several others to field a "Team Brazil", similar to the arrangement fellow team owner Derrick Walker has w/Aussies' Craig Gore and John Fish for "Team Australia". Sources also indicate that a decision on who will drive for the team could come sometime this week. More info to follow......

Pizza had a couple of starts in V8 supercars a while back.....failed

What I don't get about Gentilozzi's decision(if this happens) is this....2 yrs., he's complaining to the masses...."there ain't enough Americans in Champ Car, etc., etc.". So he signs Hunter-Reay this year....and dumps him for McDowell w/2 races to go. Now, it looks like he's going to dump McDowell(a proven race winner in both Star Mazda and in the Rolex Series) for a former F1 driver(Pizzonia) who couldn't drive an F1 car worth a ----(fill in the blanks, there). I know this is silly season....but that's just ridiculous, IMHO..

[Julian Mayo]

Yup, this guy spun into the wall on his outlap, in practice

[mlittle]

Yup, this guy spun into the wall on his outlap, in practice

Ouch....

[Julian Mayo]

The team booted him because they were running out of a seasons body panels after 2 outings

[mlittle]

Although we're at a month's distance before the season opener on the streets of Long Beach, one question seems to be popping up at every juncture......who in the h---'s going to be on the grid at Long Beach?(Excuse my language, everyone.... )


This much we do know........these seats are confirmed:
1}Newman-Haas...........Sebastien Bourdais, Bruno Junquiera
2}PKV Racing................Katherine Legge(R)
3}Forsythe Ch:.............Paul Tracy, Mario Dominguez
4}RuSport.....................A.J. Allmendinger, Justin Wilson
5}Team Australia..........Will Power(R)

These seats are set to be confirmed:
1}PKV Racing........................Oriol Servia
2}MiJack-Conquest.................Nelson Phillipe
3}HVM Racing........................Ronnie Bremer
4}Team Australia...................Alex Tagliani

In all............12 drivers have either got their tickets puched for LB, or are in the process of doing so. Which begs the essential question......who else will be going????

Let's start with those teams that have at least one seat up for grabs(PKV, Team Oz, MJCR, HVM). Unless something radical happens, it appears at the moment that Catalonian Oriol Servia will partner alongside Legge at PKV. Team Oz has, at the moment, verbally agreed to re-sign Alex Tagliani for 2006, and are also considering a third driver for the year(most likely either Ryan Briscoe or Charles Zwolsman). MJCR is, according to the rumor mills, set to bring Andrew Ranger back for 2006, and HVM, when it dropped Bremer due to sponsorship woes in mid-2005, agreed w/series officials to bring him back for 2006, and are looking for a second driver(preferbly one w/a lot of funding) for 2006.

The wild cards, this year, appear to be the usual suspects, Dale Coyne Racing and Rocketsports. I'm actually not too concerned w/DCR; Coyne's always had a habit of waiting 'til the very last moment(usually when the transporters are pulling into LB!) to pick his driver lineups. Rocketsports, though, worries me, for this reason. Ever since the end of the season, they've been unusually quiet this silly season......except very recently, when the team began discussions w/a group of Brazilian investors on creating a "Team Brazil", similar to Team Australia/Walker Racing. However, the team's decision to field a Grand-Am DP team for 2006 also means that they would be stretching their resources for the year in two separate directions. If they should fail to appear for LB......then Champ Car would have very hard-pressed to field an 18-car grid for the race(reminiscent of 2004! ).

All told.......it's getting to be pretty turbulent waters for the Champ Car World Series in regards to silly season.

[mlittle]

Apparently, some of the teams in the Champ Car World Series have been listening to this heah' scribe.......what a scary, scary thought!!

2 teams, PKV Racing and Team Australia, have set their rosters for 2006. First, PKV Racing announced today two items of interest, the first being that 2005 series runner-up Oriol Servia will indeed be in the #21 Bell Micro FC/L for 2006, partnering rookie Katherine Legge, who will drive the #12 Gulfstream FC/L. The second item from the team was that they are currently looking for a top-name sponsor to run a third car at Long Beach for 1996 champion Jimmy Vasser as a possible farewell drive to start 2006.

Meanwhile, Team Australia has reversed course somewhat, deciding to indeed make the team an "all-Aussie" team, bringing former IRL and F1 test driver Ryan Briscoe into the team to partner alongside Will Power, effectively kicking Alex Tagliani to the proverbial curb. (So much for verbal agreements!! ) On the other hand, Tag might not have to drift for long; the same ar1.com sources alos point out that he may return to his old stomping grounds, a/k/a Rocketsports Racing, to partner alongside either Antonio Pizzonia, Enrique Bernoldi or Franck Montagny.

The bottom line.......it looks like both Cristiano da Matta, who drove for PKV last year, and Michael McDowell, who everyone assumed would return to Rocketsports for a full 2006 season, will have to pound the proverbial pavement to search for a ride in the upcoming season.

Projected driver lineup for 2006.........
1}Newman-Haas Racing:Sebastien Bourdais, Bruno Junquiera
2}PKV Racing:Katherine Legge(R), Oriol Servia
3}Forsythe Ch. Racing:Paul Tracy, Mario Dominguez
4}RuSport:A.J. Allmendinger, Justin Wilson
5}Team Australia:Will Power(R), Ryan Briscoe(R)
(these teams are confirmed for 2006.)

1}Rocketsports:Alex Tagliani & either Franck Montagny, Enrique Bernoldi or Antonio Pizzonia
2}MiJack-Conquest:Nelson Phillipe, Andrew Ranger
3}CTE-HVM Racing:Ronnie Bremer, 2nd driver tba
4}Dale Coyne Racing: drivers tba
(these teams have yet to fully confirm lineups....)

Drivers on the outside looking in from 2005:Cristiano da Matta, Michael McDowell, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Charles Zwolsman, Rodalfo Lavin, Ryan Dalziel, Michael Valiante

Drivers from previous seasons on the outside:Darren Manning, Michel Jourdain, Jr.

[Julian Mayo]

That is a real bummer about Tags
I am sure a driver of his calibre will find a seat. And hopefully a drive in our enduros

[mlittle]

Ain't it the truth? I think it's the second year in a row a team's given Tag a "verbal agreement", then yanked the rug out from under him. Irony is, if he does return to Rocketsports for 2006, he'll be returning to the same team that "verbally agreed" to sign him for this year....and then let him twist in the wind. Hopefully, Gentilozzi'll sign him ASAP and get ready for the opener at LB.

[mlittle]

Apparently, a whole lot of....what??

Latest reports are that Ryan Briscoe appearently turned down Team Australia's latest offer, althought there are still negoiations ongoing. It might just be looking like Alex Tagliani could return to Team Australia in 2006....