Customer Cars issue to boil over?

As previously mentioned, the thorny issue of chassis cloning in Formula 1 seems far from resolved, with F1 Constructors Williams and Spyker being the most upset about this…

It will be interesting to see what happens after the unveiling of the rival team’s new car launches. Sir Frank Williams has been even more outspoken on the issue by publicly declaring that he finds customer chassis to be illegal…

While Super Aguri seems willing to go through the extra hoops to remedy the situation, Scuderia Toro Rosso’s co-owner Gerhard Berger seems more flamatory towards the topic…

And while the Concorde agreement gives all of the Constructors definitive instructions for the 2007 regulations, the future is a totally different matter as the binding agreement expires at the end of the year…

I found Ray Madden’s “Layman’s” blog article even funnier as he mentioned that you could either read the 400pg Autosport article or his summarized version where Berger’s response towards Williams & Spyker was “Go FUCK yourselves!”

Ford QUITS Champ Cars

Although several teams running at Sebring featured Ford’s blue oval logo on the engine cowlings during the start of the Sebring tests, these logos were immediately replaced by Coswort decals after the surprise announcement that the Ford Motor Co. was ending its long standing association with Champ Cars…

After three decades of sponsorship, Ford claims it no longer feels that Champ Cars reflects its marketing strategies with Champ Cars decision to pull the plug on the pace car program in favor of running Paul Stoddart’s fleet of 2 seater Formula 1 chassis...

Champ Cars goes to Europe

Although it had been speculated that Champ Cars would fill the large gap left in its 2007 calendar with a pair of races in Europe, the two events have finally been announced. And while Holland still has its race, the rumored German event has been switched to Belgium

Phoenix gets Title Sponsor

This year’s upcoming inaugural Phoenix Champ Cars race has just announced it’s new title sponsor, with First Data Corp. signing up for 3 years…

As part of a deal previously made in conjunction with the Las Vegas event, First Data Corp. will now add its name to the Phoenix street race with the event renamed The First Data Grand Prix Arizona…

RuSPORT keeps Brit

The RuSPORT team has finally announced that current team leader Justin Wilson will return with title sponsor CDW for 2007…

Although RuSPORT plans to campaign a second car alongside Wilson’s #9 CDW Entries, with Briscoe jumping to the ALMS its unknown who’ll become his partner. Interestingly Mario Dominguez will test the team’s #10 entry at Sebring, yet there’s no confirmation on who’ll be driving in Las Vegas…

PKV gets Bullish

Although it had long been rumoured that PKV would reap some of Red Bull’s millions… PKV has finally confirmed the terribly kept secret of Red Bull becoming the team’s new title sponsor…
Red Bull PkV Racing also announced Champ Car Rookie Neil Jani as the pilot of the team’s #21 entry. Jani spent 2006 as Scuderia Toro rosso’s test driver along with competing in selected A1 GP races for Team Switzerland

Penske’s new “Aussie”

While it was hoped for that Australian Ryan Briscoe would return to Champ Cars RuSPORT team for 2007, Briscoe has signed to drive for Roger Penske instead…

Briscoe will pilot one of Penske’s two Porsche RS Spyder’s in this season’s hotly contested ALMS LMP2 category which will pit three Acura (Honda) powered teams vs. two Porsche factory backed efforts…

Sebring Test Notes

Now that the first open test of 2007 has wound up at Sebring, Here’s a quick recap of the 3 day test which featured the debut of Champ Cars “Car of the Future;’ the Panoz DP-01...

Day 1:
The opening day of testing shed very little light upon team’s final driver line-up’s with the Mi-Jack/Conquest Racing team electing to sit out the seasons first test, while some of the other teams were at half strength or testing un-confirmed drivers…

Jimmy Vasser did make a surprise return to the cockpit for PKV Racing. But don’t get your hopes up, Vasser just wanted a crack at the new Panoz to help with driver development in the upcoming season… (“Yeah that’s the Ticket!” What better excuse for a team owner to come up with who’s itching to drive a Champ Car once again)

Vasser has just completed running in this year’s Rolex 24 along with several other former and current Champ Car standouts…

Having the most fun was Alex Tagliani who has a penchant for NOT liking to do seat fittings… As the Rocketsports team had to mold a fourth seat at Sebring as TAG was unhappy with the first three seats the team had made…

The Champ Car driver roster swell to a full dozen pilots present vs. the just increased total of 7 confirmed drivers for 2007…

Yet nothing seemed too different from the ending of 2006 with Sebastian Bourdais topping the time sheets aboard his Newman/Haas Panoz followed by new Red Bull PKV Racing recruit Neal Jani who was making his Champ Car debut. Jani bested “Sand Dune” Tracy and the other participants…

Day 2:
The second day of testing saw the most Champ Car participants on track for the three days of testing with 17 drivers taking part in the day’s activities…

And while the front of the grid didn’t change much with “Sea Bass” and “Sand Dune” Tracy grabbing the top two spots… The next two drivers caused a slight stir as Dale Coyne’s two “guest” testers locked up P3 & P4 with Katherine Legge leading Bruno Junqueira who’s still searching for a ride…

Day 3:
Stamping his name to not only the top of the day’s time sheet, but the fastest time overall for the three day test was currently unemployed driver Oriol Servia…

Servia whose good friends with Jimmy Vasser was given the nod to take over testing of the team’s second car as Vasser was off to Daytona for the upcoming Rolex 24…

Following Servia was Neil Jani acting as Servia’s “wingman” as PKV Racing grabbed the first two slots on the day’s time sheets, followed closely by “Sand Dune” Tracy…

And don’t you just love the Media? Watching the Speed report their announcers stated that overall there were 14 drivers taking turns behind the wheel, while earlier published results listed 17 drivers including Jimmy Vasser…

Meanwhile the Panoz DP-01’s overall performance was generally good with the exception of numerous teams repeatedly reporting troubles with the new sequential shafting’s downshifts.

Several drivers either complained of the downshifts being too slow, not working at all or of broken gearboxes. As Junqueira noted: “If your car won’t downshift then it really doesn’t matter what your lap time is…”

Hopefully we’ll have a clearer picture of the 2007 Champ Car line-up when the teams show up for he series second open test at Houston’s Motorsports Ranch in February…

Tuesday (Day 1)
1) Sebastian Bourdais (51.024 seconds/117.756 mph) 2) Neal Jani: (51.620) 3) Paul Tracy (51.70)

Wednesday (Day 2)
1) Bourdais (50.888) 2) Tracy 50.960) 3) Katherine Legge (51.060)

Thursday (Day 3)
1) Oriol Servia (50.741) 2) Jani (50.904) 3) Tracy (50.925)


Teams:
(2) Dale Coyne Racing: Bruno Junqueira, Katherine Legge
(1) Forsythe Championship Racing: P. Tracy
(2) Minardi Team USA: Robert Doornbos, Nelson Philippe
(2) Newman/Haas Racing: S. Bourdais, Graham Rahal
(2) Pacific Coast Motorsports: Alex Figge, Ryan Dalziel
(3) Red Bull PKV Racing: N. Jani, Oriol Servia, Jimmy Vasser
(1) Rocketsports Racing: Alex Tagliani
(2) RuSPORT: Justin Wilson, Mario Dominguez
(2) Team Australia: Simon Pagenaud, Will Power

Red Bull Racing RB2

Red Bull Racing unveiled the team’s 2007 challenger at the Circuit de Catalunya last week. The RB3 is the first totally new Adrian Newey design for the team, which he’s focused on since last summer…

Mark Webber gave the RB3 its initial shakedown test while Formula 1’s new senior driver “DC” (David Coulthard) was also on hand for the unveiling...

Now opposing Formula 1 Constructors will be watching for the junior teams (Scuderia Toro Rosso) launch in regards to chassis cloning…

To read about Honda Racing's 2007 Launch, see: Honda RA107

Honda RA107

Honda unveiled its newest creation, the RA107 at Barcelona last week. And to keep the suspense going Honda unveiled the chassis in their winter’s testing scheme of black with a separate February launch to unveil the teams new racing colors…

Rubeins Barrichello gave the RA107 its initial shakedown test while Jenson “Crash” Button was on hand and seems to have healed from his cracked ribs…

To read about Renault's 2007 Launch, see: Renault R27

Renault R27

Last week saw the second installment of new F1 car launches with Renault leading the triumbrent of Constructors showing off their new race cars…

Renault launched its R27 in Amsterdam in deference to its new title sponsor AIG who replaces Mild Seven. The 2007 “Reggie” sports a striking new colour scheme along with new racing driver Heikki Kovalanen…

To read about BMW-Sauber's 2007 Launch, see: BMW Sauber F1.07

Little Al’s All Night Bender

For some reason the Unser’s seem to be continually stirring up negative publicity for the famous racing family of Albuquerque , New Mexico…

First Al Unser Sr. and bobby Unser were arrested outside their property during a police roadblock set up during a SWAT team stand off…

Now “Little Al” (Al Unser Jr.) Has been arrested in his hometown of Henderson, Nevada on charges of DUI after sideswiping a Mazda sedan in his Ford Excursion “$UV” on his way home from the Black Mountain Night Club in the early morning hours of last Thursday…

Unser Jr. hit the vehicle on the Las Vegas Beltway and proceeded to continue driving home without stopping before being arrested by Nevada police…

Forsythe’s Red Wings

Perhaps as a parting gift or smoothing the way for AJ Almendinger’s DEFECTION to “RASSCAR,” Red Bull will sponsor Gerry Forsythe’s Champ Cars Atlantic team in 2007…

The news came prior to Forsythe’s vote of no confidence towards Champ Cars by publicly stating that his team will only campaign a single car in 2007 unless he finds a driver bringing sponsorship of $5 million along with him…

Since the Champ Car season finale, Forsythe has reduced his payroll by keeping only a skeleton staff intact over the winter. And even though Red Bull will partner with Forsythe in Atlantics, Forsythe has reduced his entry from four cars to only two for the upcoming season…

As Robin Miller recently stated; what bad timing for Champ Cars… There doesn’t get any bigger backer of the series then Gerry Forsythe who’s thrown millions of his own towards Champ Cars since starting in 1983…

Yet Forsythe has been unable to find a legitimate sponsor for the past three years since Players was forced out when the Tobacco sponsorship ban was enacted. The only money Forsythe found was from Corona beer to sponsor Rodolfo Lavin for a single season…

So is it just the typical “scare tactics” prattle of an owner trying to “stop the bleeding?” Forsythe as all team owners is keen to spend somebody else’s money instead of watching his fortune slip away…

Or could Forsythe simply be trying to stir up some much needed off season controversy to keep Champ Cars in the media spotlight…

And speaking of fortunes… Formula 1’s Red Bull Racing’s current test driver Robert Doornbos is rumoured to be flush with cash, as in $5-10 million from a Dutch sponsor. What better way to promote the expected 2007 inaugural Netherlands Champ Car race, which is expected to be announced shortly…

F1 Cloning Controversy Continues

As previously noted the Formula 1 Team Bosses met in Monaco late last year to discuss the still smoldering issue of teams planning to use “cloned” copies of their big brother’s racing cars…

The team with the most to loose is naturally Spyker, whom as one of or perhaps the only privateer team left is currently forced to produce its own chassis since it doesn’t have any links to manufacturer’s or rich team owners…

After the meeting Spyker asked all of the Constructors to sign a letter of intent to uphold the current Concorde agreement which doesn’t expire until the end of the 2007 season. This in turn decrees that each Constructor will produce its own chassis that isn’t a watered down version of another team’s leftover rolling stock which both Scuderia Toro Rosso and Super Aguri plan to campaign in 2007…

Both teams have arrived at different methods to utilize
Existing variants of their major supporters while using different loopholes to circumvent the Concorde agreement. While super Aguri has gone to the trouble of setting up a third party design firm Toro Rosso seems intent on denying any wrong doing…

Interestingly Mario Theissen has recently spoken out against the subject of chassis “Platform engineering” in F1. Theissen makes a valid point towards this rule change leading towards the possibility of an all manufacturer’s championship. In the future Formula 1 could end up with just the current six manufacturer’s each campaigning squads of 4 “cloned” chassis and the death of true independent “Privateers.” Will we see “B” Teams blocking for their corporate backer’s designated numero uno driver?

Although it has long been a time honored tradition for Auto manufacturer’s to simply buy Formula 1 teams and rebrand them instead of creating a team from scratch, is this just the next evolutional step of Formula 1?

Meanwhile adding “Fuel to the Fire,” was Anthony Davidson who posted the fasted day’s time in testing at Valencia last week…

Yes, I had to do a double take as all of the headlines shouted Super Aguri FASTEST… When has a “Super Best Friends” ever lead anything except the race for the final row on the grid? And yet “ANT” posted a time ahead of the two brand new Renault R27’s…

2006 Champ Car Review (Part 3)

Mi-Jack:
(Ranger: 10th; Zwolsman: 13th)

Mi-Jack/Conquest soldiered on through another mostly mundane season. The team did however win the Benjamin Says Your Sponsors Name sweepstakes…

As apparently WALLMART du Canada must have given him a years free shopping? Mr. Benjamin would call out the #27 WALLMART/Tide entry of Andrew Ranger during every broadcast, on average 7 times per event…

Rookie Charles Zwolsman meanwhile had a fairly quiet year with occasional flashes of brilliance. Yet as the state of Champ Cars remains dollar orientated, I suspect Zwolsman’s ride will most likely go to another newcomer…

PKV:
(Servia: 11th; Legge: 16th)

Can it really already be a year since perennial Champ Car star Jimmy Vasser made his final race in Open Wheels at Long Beach…?

And yet the team’s chemistry continues to shift every season. This year saw Junqueira’s stand-in the previous year at Newman/Haas, Oriol Servia signed to a full year ride as team leader at PKV. Servia had mixed results along with dubiously writing “OFF” two $440k Lola chassis during the Portland weekend…

Meanwhile Champ Car Female Rookie Katherine Legge had a fairly adventurous season… Legge had multiple run-ins with fellow rookie competitors, but also led several laps on the Milwaukee oval. (Which appears to be Champ Cars final oval track race for the foreseeable future…?)

Legge made the most miraculous recovery when her rear wing disintegrated at somewhere between 160-180mph at Road America. This horrific looking accident saw Legge’s car barrel rolling down the track. The rear half of the Lola chassis broke away and passed her. Yet Legge not only escaped uninjured, she walked out of the medical center before the end of the race, smiled and waived to the crowd…

After winning Portland in 2005 with Cristiano da Matta, the team seemed to be off stride the entire season. It will be interesting to see how the team performs this year as another change of team chemistry is expected…


Dale Coyne:
(Heylen: 14th)

Wouldn’t it be nice to see this ever struggling team claim its very first victory? If effort counted the perpetually under funded “little team that could” would have scored multiple victories by now…

The team started the season with Cristiano da Matta and Rookie Jan “Van Haggar” Heylen. Da Matta then jumped ship in a 3-way driver swap which saw fired Forsythe driver Mario Dominguez as his replacement, while Da Matta went to RuSPORT…

Dominguez actually put in some good drives for the ever trying race team. I believe Dominguez was enroute to Coyne’s first podium when Servia dive bombed Dominguez on the final lap taking both drivers out…

“Van Haggar” soldiered on through countless bouts of banging wheels with Legge along with having a few new teammates. Uruguay’s Juan Caceres did a “one-off” before Forsythe Atlantics star Andreas Wirth contested the final two rounds in his maiden Champ Car season. Coyne has always been willing to give any aspiring driver a chance. Of course cash doesn’t hurt either…

And now the teams should be well on their way towards Sebring for the first Champ Car test of 2007. “Let’s get ready to Rumble…”

2006 Champ Car Review (Part 2)

CTE/HVM:
(Philippe: 4th; Clarke: 12th)

The never-say-die attitude of co-owner Keith Wiggins paid off in spades this season as CTE/HVM had another breakout year…

Vastly improving Nelson “Flowing Locks ‘O Hair” Philippe won his very first Champ Car race down under in Surfers Paradise. Philippe became the youngest ever winner of a Champ Car race in just his third season…

Meanwhile Rookie teammate Dan “Speedy” Clarke had a fairly adventurous season before finishing as the Rookie of the Year runner-up…


Team Australia:
(Power: 6th; Tagliani: 8th)

I really DON’T have anything good to say about Alex Tagliani since as time passes by I suspect more and more that it was TAG who WOULDN’T sign my poster at Portland…

Team Australia’s shining light definitely had to be Rookie sensation Will Power…

Power got off to a slightly shaky start before coming on strong during the second half of the season. Power took a hugely popular pole position in his native Australia and led the races firs 17 laps before being punted by Bourdais…

Yet Power scored his first Champ Car podium at Mexico City where he also captured Rookie of the Year honors…


Rocketsports:
(Dominguez: 9th)

To me this was without a doubt the worst performing Champ Car team on the grid. After winning “Rookie of the Year” in 2005 with Timo Glock and his bag loads of DHL’s Deutschmarks… Rocketsports struggled to keep 2 cars on the grid and shuffled multiple drivers through its doors.

Drivers included a “punted about” Mario Dominguez
And 3 Rookie drivers splitting driving duties between two ex-Formula 1 Drivers: Nicky Pastorelli, (Midland F1) Antonio Pizzonia (Williams) and rookie Champ Car driver Tonis (Tony) Kasemets. (Estonia) Interesting the three drivers finished 16th, 17th and 18th respectively…

While Pizzonia and Dominguez put in good showings, it seemed that press spotlight focused more upon the teams sponsors as Rick “Insert Sponsor Here” Benjamin tripped all over himself pointing out new sponsor’s Lexington Energy and PEMEX…

While Dominguez hopes to land a full time seat for the upcoming season, Tagliani sheepishly is also planning a return to the team that booted him in favour of Glock. It will be interesting to see if this indeed becomes their driver line-up in 2007…

To continue reading my Champ Car review see: 2006 Champ Car Review-Part 3

2006 Champ Car Review (Part 1)

With the fast approaching first Champ Car test of 2007 at Sebring this week, here’s a look back at the previous season’s results.

Newman/Haas:
(Bourdais: 1st; Junqueira: 5th)

It’s funny how fast opinions change… When Sebastian Bourdais first joined the Champ Car scene in 2003. You could sense right away “Sea Bass” was something special enroute to taking Rookie of the Year honors.

The following two seasons I found myself gleefully screaming at the TV every time thatBourdais showed Paul Tracy the “chrome horn…” And yet my attitude towards Bourdais quickly soured this season, and NOT because he’s French. First there was the mistaken outing at the Portland driver’s autograph session which was followed by “Sea Bass” whining on the podium ‘cause the other drivers didn’t pull over for him…

The final Bourdais “straw;” Along with his whininess I am NOT impressed by his driving techniques… a la “MAC” Montoya. I was really pissed off when he dive bombed Justin Wilson on the final lap in Mexico City…

Yet “Sea Bass” did manage to do something very special in Champ Cars by becoming only the second driver ever to win 3 consecutive Driver’s titles…

Bruno “Whiny Bags” Junqueira (“Junky”) has never been a favourite ‘O mine, since his rookie season with Target/Ganassi… And I know it’s cruel to hammer the guy after his horrific accident at Indianapolis, but “Junky” seems to have just never been able to beat his teammate… Junqueira had a disappointing year finishing 5th in a watered down championship after finishing runner-up three years in a row…

As you can tell I’m not a huge fan of Newman/Haas’s driving line-up, but you have to admire this team for consistently being the team to beat. And how can you not like co-owner Paul Newman’s forthright outspokenness on NEVER wanting to join the “Dark Side.” (IRL)

I look forward to Newman/Haas’s newest recruit Graham Rahal’s arrival in 2007…


RuSPORT:
(Wilson: 2nd)

This is my sentimental choice, considering my favourite Champ Car driver Justin Wilson races for them…

What a roller coaster season the team experienced. And I still do NOT understand the firing of AJ Almendinger… Since I believe that there were some high level shenanigans involved in order to spice up the show. (Unless Carl Russo knew of his impending DEFECTION to “RASSCAR?”)

Then there was the nasty testing accident at Road America where new recruit Cristiano da Matta nearly lost his life when colliding head on with a wayward deer… Fortunately da Matta has almost recovered entirely and is vowing to make a race return shortly…

Then Justin Wilson broke his wrist prior to the season finale the old fashion way, i.e.; driving his race car! In typical “True (Grit) Brit fashion, Wilson was determined to drive the finale after missing Surfers Paradise and led the race for the duration before “Sea Bass” PUNTED him out of the way. Nevertheless Wilson’s gritty drive vaulted him into the runner-up position in the Driver’s championship...

The team’s future looked bleak upon RuSPORT founder Carl Russo’s decision to quit Champ Cars. Fortunately Kevin Kalkhoven was able to entice PKV team co-owner Dan Petitt to step into the fray and purchase Russo’s team…


Forsythe:
(Almendinger: 3rd; Tracy: 7th)

Without a doubt, Forsythe was the most High Profile team of the year. After Mario Dominguez punted team leader Paul Tracy two races in a row, Dominguez became the “fall guy” in a 3 team driver swap…

AJ Almendinger’s Champ Car career went from “Rags to Riches” upon being hired by Forsythe. Almendinger scored his very first Champ Car victory at Portland. This victory opened the floodgates as Almendinger scored a hat trick of victories and finished the season with 5 total wins. Unfortunately the bag loads of money personal sponsor Red Bull offered was too much for the young Open Wheel star to resist. Almendinger DEFECTED to “RASSCAR” and was let go prior to the season finale at Mexico City. This led to Almendinger slipping to third overall in the driver’s standings…

What more can you say about “PT,” eh? Paul Tracy was definitely Champ Cars “Entertainer of the Year…” And what’s really funny is that he was clearly the fan favorite as I stood for nearly an hour in the paddock for the driver’s autograph session at Portland. The line for Tracy was by far the longest and this was prior to his San Jose, Denver and Montreal theatrics…

By now you’ve heard of how “PT” became known as “Sugar Ray” Tracy… After pulling off an extremely STUPID maneuver by blindly pulling out on track directly in front of the oncoming Alex Tagliani… “TAG” went ballistic in the paddock when confronting Tracy… As the camera’s rolled TAG exclaimed “What the FUCK! Were you doing?” And I sat there laughing heartily as CBS wasn’t “bleeping” TAG cussing out Tracy on-air… After saying the “F” word at least 7 times TAG ‘N Tracy got into a fight as the cameras showed them rolling around on the pit lane before CBS cut to commercials…

Next at Denver, “Sugar Ray” Tracy dutifully punted Bourdais out of 2nd place on the final lap at the final corner where “Sea Bass” quickly ran across the track to confront PT. Bourdais like TAG kept his helmet on and simply slapped Tracy before walking off in disgust…

Then just days prior to the next race in Montreal, “Sugar Ray” Tracy publicly stated how the French were AFRAID to fight with their helmets off… This of course grew instant attention as the predominantly French crowd voistriously booed PT every time he appeared on track. Yet Tracy quickly turned the tables by making fun of himself and scored major “points’ when taking the drivers parade lap donned in cape and blue fighting mask…

Then PT garnered another new nickname, “Sand Dune” Tracy after flipping his Rhino ATV in the Nevada desert prior to the season finale…

Interestingly Tracy finished 7th in the final standings, splitting the Team Australia drivers and finishing just one place ahead of arch nemesis Tagliani. This was due to PT being docked 10 points for his on-course shenanigans. I’d love to know how much the point demotion has cost him…

With both of Forsythe’s regular driving duo out of action for Mexico City, the squad drafted IRL refugee Buddy Rice and Mexican newcomer David Martinez. Martinez did an excellent job in his Champ Car debut, finishing ahead of fellow Champ Car debutant Rice…

To continue reading my Champ Car review see: 2006 Champ Car Review-Part 2

BMW Sauber F1.07

BMW-Sauber has just launched the teams newest challenger, the F1.07 at Valencia’s expo center where the team’s 4 drivers were on hand for the unveiling of BMW’s first all new Formula 1 race car…

To read about McLaren-Mercedes 2007 Launch, see: McLaren MP4/22

McLaren MP4/22

Wishing to capitalize upon its new driver line-up and new title sponsor Vodafone, McLaren made a splash last week in Valencia while having its newest racing drivers cruise the streets to an estimated throng of 150,000 Spaniard’s before unveiling the new MP4/22.

Lost in all of the launch excitement was the news of former Williams sponsor Fed Ex moving to McLaren for 2007…

To read about Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's 2007 Launch, see: Ferrari F2007

Ferrari F2007

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro held a very low key launch of its 2007 challenger yesterday at its Fiarono test track. The only glimpses of the new chassis were supplied by Ferrari’s media center…

Ferrari has also once again changed the chassis model’s name, reverting back to earlier practice with the launch of the F2007…

To read about Toyota's 2007 Launch, see: Toyota TF107

Miller Knows

Here’s a written version of what Robin Miller said recently on The Speed Report. And it was pretty funny hearing him slam certain racing “celebrities…”

For more Robin Miller rantings, see: Robin's Rant

More about the Panoz DP-01

Now that the existing Champ Car teams have all picked up their first Panoz DP-01’s and are set to shortly debut them at Sebring. (Jan. 23-25) Gordon Kirby has revealed more about the new cars design process…

Although I was aware of the new cars major changes, i.e.; Front nose wing; Paddle shift gear selector; Removal of the ubiquitous “Pop-off” valve and new Anti-stall technology. I wasn’t aware that the new car will feature Aluminum wheels vs. traditional Magnesium…

The new Panoz also will cost significantly less then a current Lola chassis. The DP-01 goes for a cool $220,000 which is approx. half the cost of the recently retired Lola B2K chassis…

With the completion of the firs 10 customer chassis, Panoz will continue production in batches of 5 cars until reaching the planned for 35 car allotment for 2007…

McLaren joins the Middle East

Interestingly while the never ending Middle East power struggle continues, including the fight over who has the most oil… The Bahrain Government has just purchased a 30% stake in McLaren…

If and when the deal is approved, McLaren’s new ownership will see Daimler-Chrysler become the majority stakeholder and the Bahrain government with the second largest stake. This will see the team’s previous majority shareholders Ron Dennis and Mansour Ojjeh whom had already sold initially to Daimler-Chrysler, now further reduce their holding by selling a second block of the company to Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding… (A newly formed holding’s company of the Bahrain Government)

Interestingly there are two other teams on the Formula 1 grid with minority shareholdings being owned by Middle East concerns. Ferrari has a 5% foreign stakeholder while Spyker F1 is owned by a Dutch-Arab consortium…

Humming thru Africa

After a slow start the Team Dakar USA entry has begun picking up its pace. As the announcer on The Speed Report retorted “C’mon, how can that Hummer get Stuck in the Mud?”

In case you were unaware, for the second year in a row (3rd Overall) Robby Gordon is contesting the Paris-Dakar rally in a Hummer.

This year Gordon’s black Hummer H3 got off to a rocky start when he got stuck in some mud on Stage 1 while avoiding some of the massive throngs of spectators in Portugal…

After falling down the order to a 71st starting position for Stage 5, Gordon mashed the “GO-Pedal,” humming his way into a 15th place finish while raising the ire and praise of fellow competitors…

Gordon was reprimanded for pushing opposing racer’s out of the way while utilizing his typical “RASSCAR” driving style… (“Rubbin is Racin”) Apparently with the Hummer painted black, Gordon must have felt a bit like ‘ol “Iron-Head…” (Dale Earnhart Sr.)

Gordon noted that in the Baja that’s how you get it done... (Passing slower vehicles) Yet The Dakar is a bit more civilized, even going so far as utilizing in-car warning devices…

On Stage 6, the constantly changing landscape saw the day’s route take the competitors onto the vast sand dunes. And Gordon’s black bandit hammered across the dunes in record time as Gordon claimed the Stage win…

Today Gordon made certain to give everybody wide berths while overtaking slower vehicles “legally.” Gordon commented that he’d even backed off towards the end as he became concerned over his dwindling petrol supply in the Hummer’s fast emptying tanks…

The stage victory was the very first for Hummer and Gordon’s third overall. Gordon claimed his first two stage victories when competing for Volkswagen in 2005… (Gordon’s Paris-Dakar debut)

Starting first on Stage 7 the inclement weather played major havoc with all competitors as the organizers shortened the route due to swirling wind conditions causing severe sand storms…

Gordon got lost temporarily before encountering soft sand. Gordon then reduced the Hummer’s tire pressures down to 10lbs as the black monster H3 continued bogging down in 2nd gear…

Gordon finished the stage in 13th place nearly 6 minutes off the winner’s pace and has slowly crept his way towards the top 10, now residing in 16th place overall after several days of fuel issues. After the team tore the complete system apart they discovered it was simply a case of bad fuel…

Toyota TF107

Drum roll please…. “Let the Car Launches begin!” Toyota unveiled its 2007 challenger, the TF107 yesterday in Colone…

“Billy Bob” favours Ferrari

Yes that’s right, Martin “Billy Bob” Brundle has picked Ferrari as his favourite towards taking top honours in 2007…

The ex-Formula 1 driver earned his nickname back in the late 1980’s after competing in what was still a truly International Race ‘O Champions…

Unfortunately the IROC series has long since become a “RASSCAR” celebrity race and is no longer worthy of this moniker. Hell just look at who’s the title sponsor, can you say Crown Royal? This is why I prefer the “REAL” international ROC… (Race of Champions) OOPS! Just heard that the IROC is on hiatus due to lack of sponsorship this year…

Brundle who is now an ITV Formula 1 commentator hasn’t gone too far out on a limb by “just” only choosing Ferrari and Kimi Raikkonen as his early season favourites for F1’s crown jewels in 2007…

Brundle site’s Ferrari’s interlocking relationship with Formula 1’s sole tire supplier Bridgestone as a key factor while reigning champion Renault and McLaren will have to play catch-up after loosing their Michelin rubber…

Meanwhile the Prancing Horse’s newest man in red, Kimi Raikkonen made his first public appearance at the Scuderia’s annual holiday trek to the Alps for a little skiing. And you know what? Raikkonen looks good in red...

Smoke and Mirrors

Once again it’s almost time for Formula 1’s new car launches… And these gala events usually quickly turn into a repetitive series of “Dog & Pony” shows…

Nevertheless these daily touting's of the media’s paparazzi give hope to each team’s upcoming season…

I do enjoy these launches if only from a remote locale via the internet as it’s usually the only chance I get to see the new cars holding still…

Many F1 teams will be anxiously awaiting the launch of Red Bull and its sister’s team Scuderia Toro Rosso to see how closely the two chassis resemble each other in the still unresolved thorny issue of chassis cloning…

Here’s what I’ve gleamed so far regarding roll-out with Toyota winning the race to launch first...

Dates:
Jan. 12: Toyota; Jan. 14: Ferrari; Jan. 15: McLaren; Jan. 16: BMW-Sauber; Jan. 24: Renault; Jan. 25: Honda; Jan. 26: Red Bull; Feb. 2: Williams

Interestingly that just leaves the three supposed “minoe’s” to find launch dates. Spyker is most likely awaiting delivery of their new customer Ferrari engines while the drama builds over the launches of Scuderia Toro Roso and Super Aguri…

Super Albert

BMW-Sauber’s team principal Dr. Mario Theissen, who was responsible for enticing BMW into purchasing Peter Sauber’s Formula 1 team, continues looking for alternative strategies to lead his team to the forefront…

And I find Theissen’s methods refreshing, since he seems determined to reach the front of the grid. Although he uses all the right buzz words like “thinking outside the box.” Theissen is the ultimate taskmaster, keeping his staff’s noses to the grindstone…

The BMW-Sauber team has quietly gone about the business of marching to the front by leapfrogging Formula 1 giant Toyota in the Constructor’s championship during its debut season…

While the simple answer in Formula 1 is to add another wind tunnel, BMW has instead completed installation of Albert 2.

Not to be confused with Fat Albert… Albert 2 is one of the world’s most powerful super computers and BMW-Sauber will utilize it to run CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) for Aerodynical computations…

Although Theissen says that outright race victories aren’t BMW-Sauber’s target for 2007, the team would like to continue vying for podiums and be ready to pounce if any of the “Big Four” falter…

In regards to the team utilizing Albert 2, I surely hope Theissen. won’t be heard saying “Open the Pod Bay Doors Albert!”

Open Wheel moving further Apart?

A few weeks ago I was reminded to not paint a picture of “Doom ‘N Gloom” over the possibility of a Champ Car-IRL merger actually happening, after writing the story: Discussing the Future. Yet I continue to rite that the chances of this happening appear to be slim to none…

Yet with the dawn of a new race season just a few months away, brand new non-oval track friendly Panoz’s taking flight, different engine formulas, methanol vs. ethanol and the IRL’s slowly increasing number of competitors, its hard to see how any fruition of such a merger will occur…

As David Phillips recently noted, both Open Wheel series seem most determined to move on, as their schism continues. Yet both Open Wheel series futures aren’t all roses…

Champ Car seems to be having as much or more trouble towards filling its field as the IRL. First Carl Russo walked away from RuSPORT, causing Kevin Kalkhoven to scramble before convincing his partner Dan Petitt to buy the top notch racing team…

Now Gerry Forsythe is threatening to run only one car in 2007 unless he gets $5 million in sponsorship to campaign a second car along “Sand Dune” Tracy…

Rightly so, Forsythe is still smoldering over AJ Almendinger walking out on him in favor of Red Bull’s easy money. And even though Red Bull will partner with Forsythe to run his Atlantics team, Forsythe is still stinging over Almendinger’s DEFECTION! This comes on the heels of Forsythe’s not being able to find a sponsor the past 3 years…

And in what is becoming a bad yearly tradition… As of just two weeks prior to Champ Cars first test at Sebring, Robin Miller has just reported (The Speed Report) that champ Cars has ONLY 5 confirmed drivers. (Sebastian Bourdais, Paul Tracy, Will Power, Alex Figge and Ryan Dalziel) Yet I expect the 10 Champ Car teams to show up with two drivers each for the season opener in April. Perhaps a total of 21 cars?

Meanwhile the IRL continues to announce new driver/car combinations with the announcement that IRL series founder/owner “Ronnie” (Tony) George’s IRL Vision Racing team will run AJ Foyt IV in a third car this season…

This is in addition to Adrian Fernandez’s planned single car effort along with roumours that long time IRL competitor Dryer & Rhinebold is trying to put together a deal to run Buddy Rice & Sarah Fisher which would give the IRL 20-22 cars prior to its season opener…

Speaking of George, the 47 year old Hoosier decided to purchase a Grand Am DP chassis from Eddie “Underachiever” Cheever in order to enter this years Rolex 24. (Daytona 24hrs) Funny how the leagues most despised driver (Cheever) is in cahoots with George, eh?

So George decided that he’d like to try racing again, possibly contesting this year’s Rolex 24 alongside his three hired guns. (Ed Carpenter, Thomas Scheckter, Foyt IV) Taking the #0 (interesting choice) car out for a spin during this past weekend’s testing, George promptly lost control and slammed into a wall…

Perhaps George should stick to sticking it to rival racing series instead of behind the wheel of a racing car? Or perhaps the two rival Open Wheel series should reconsider merging…

Nah, there’s too many cooks in the kitchen and too many egos in the way to accomplish the revival of Open Wheel racing as the premiere motor racing series it once was…

Especially if Champ Cars send Devoted Fans Fuming, eh?

Pumping Up Marco

While Marco Andretti’s father Michael had mixed emotions over his son’s Formula 1 testing debut with Honda this past December at Jerez, Grandpa Mario was very upbeat…

Mario could do nothing but sing the praises of his grandson, saying the kid’s got the “right stuff” for becoming a Formula 1 driver…

Mario says that he’ll accompany Marco to his next F1 test and is fairly certain that Marco will test again sometime in 2007. Mario commented on how Marco’s got the right physique for being a modern day Formula 1 driver…

In his best “BLOODY NIGE” (Nigel Mansell) impersonation… Mario noted how he’d like to sample a modern day Formula 1 chassis. Mario noted that the cockpits are a bit tighter than the days of his World Championship driving, but his shoulders aren’t that broad…

Perhaps you’ll recall that Il Leone’s (Mansell) backside became too large to fit into the McLaren chassis after his planned return to racing full time in Formula 1 for 1995…

Toyota gunning for GM

Although there has been speculation that the Toyota Motor Corp. was poised to overtake General Motors for most sales the past few years, Toyota appears to be set to finally accomplish this task in 2007…

Toyota is set to supplant GM as the world’s number one Automaker with production of 9.3-9.4 million units this year while GM hovers around its past 2yr’s production level of 9.1-9.2 million units…

This would make Toyota the very first non-American manufacturer to do so, as GM has held this honor for 75 years since surpassing the Ford Motor Co. back in 1932…

Toyota seeks further media exposure this season as its key racing programs will spotlight the world’s two largest series: Formula 1 and “RASSCAR” as Toyota makes its Nextel Cup debut with their No. 1 selling Camry…

A Brawny Ferrari?

Although it’s been widely speculated for some time now, Ross Brawn has finally publicly stated that he hopes to return to the Prancing Horse in 2008…

Brawn who was Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s Technical Director for 10 years decided to take a sabbatical at the end of the 2006 Formula 1 season…

Brawn departed along with Ferrari’s engine guru Paolo Martinelli, upon Michael Schumacher’s retirement. Brawn now hopes to return to Ferrari in 2008 most likely as Jean Todt’s replacement as Team Principal…

100 MPH Club

Ok, so I’m tooting my own horn… But today’s stories marks the 100th blog posting of my short lived career…

Paris-Dakar Rally

Although you would be hard pressed to even know that this truly remarkable event is about to take place, the Paris-Dakar Rally is set to begin the 29th running of the epic event tomorrow…

Unfortunately all the Speed Channel can dribble on about is “RASSCAR,” the Barrett-Jackson auction, “Pinks,” Unique Whips and other non-worthy television programming…

Truly exemplifying the meaning of Extreme sports, The Dakar makes the X-Games look like child’s play…

To me the Paris-Dakar Rally is the Ironman of all motorsports... The challenging marathon tests the limits of fellow competitor’s driving skills, navigational abilities and mechanical reliability over a 15 day span…

Not only do the competitor’s encounter the physical demands of competing and just trying to survive the event, they’re subjected to a vast range of brutal terrain, constantly changing climate conditions as well as possible brushes with gun toting bandito’s…

The United States most noticeable competitor will be “RASSCAR’s” Robby Gordon, once again competing in a Hummer. Gordon previously became the first American to win multiple rally stages of The Dakar behind the wheel of a VW. Gordon enters this year’s event fresh off his win in the Baja 1000...

It will also be interesting to see how Dakar Rally debutants Peterson/White Lightning do…

Robin’s Rant

Robin Miller has penned his version of Champ Cars 2006 season review and he’s managed to squeeze it all into a single page…

Miller seems to lament on his favourite “whipping-boy,” better known as either “Sugar Ray” or “Sand Dune” Tracy. Miller also gives AJ Almendinger his just rewards, from zero to hero and back to zero in less than six months, i.e.; fired by RuSPORT. Winning his very 1st Champ Car race with Forsythe, going on a tear to challenge for the Championship prior to DEFECTING to “RASSCAR…”

I’m very pleased to see that Miller gave Justin Wilson a classy move award regarding his non-plussed attitude over Sebastian Bourdais PUNTING him out of the lead during the final lap at Mexico City. As Miller noted, Wilson didn’t whine about the incident and this inspired him to give Wilson the recognition that he so rightly deserves…

For more Robin Miller rantings, see: It's Miller Time

Counting Cars

As previously mentioned, conversations between Kevin Kalkhoven and “Ronnie” (Tony) George have cooled considerably regarding the two Open Wheel stalwarts “secret talks” last summer towards an impending Champ Car-IRL merger…

In a previous interview wit the IRL’sPresident Brian Barnhart: Barnhart has publicly stated that although he thinks Kevin & Tony are still talking to each other, they’re talks have diminished since they both have realized how difficult a possible merger would be…

Barnhart also went on to discuss the conjecture over lack of entrants for the upcoming IRL season, saying he’s not concerned about only having 16 cars at the moment. Barnhart expects 2-4 more cars to show up on the grid prior to the Homestead season opener next March…

Rumours of Adrian Fernandez’s IRL team’s demise appear to be premature. Speculation suggests that Fernandez is close to finalizing a multi-year deal to run P.J. Chesson in a single car effort beginning next season…

There have also been reports that Larry Cahill will campaign a two car team next season as part of his efforts to sanction a new event in Missouri in 2007…

The IRL will switch from Methanol to Ethanol in 2007, becoming the very first racing series to run on 100% Ethanol as its fuel source. Interestingly the IRL has allowed Honda to revert back to equipping all of the teams with 3.5 liters naturally aspirated engines vs. the 3.0 liter units run previously. This is due to the loss of horsepower upon converting to Ethanol…

Spyker Suits Up

In a totally opposite vain than the previous owner, (Carl Shnaider ) the Spyker F1 Racing team continues to attract new sponsorship arrangements…

First the team went for clearing up its drivers complexions upon announcing a multi-year sponsorship deal with Philoderm. Next the team went after ex-Minardi sponsor Trust and now the team will focus on gussying up its drivers off track apparel…

Spyker has announced another multi-year deal with clothing manufacturer McGregor…

Spyker also announced its upcoming launch of the team’s brand new Spyker F1 by McGregor clothing line. Look for this new apparel to appear in spring of 2007. The McGregor moniker will adorn the Spyker’s rear wing end plates along with the driver’s uniforms…

As ZZ Top once said: “Everybody Likes a Sharp Dressed Man,” And Spyker is quite literally going for an image makeover with new suits and fresh faces. I just hope their cars will be as good looking as the rest of the team…

Yamamoto’s Super Best Friends

Super Aguri F1 has confirmed that Sakon Yamamoto will remain with the team in 2007 as its second test driver. Yamamoto like Glock will compete in another race series in addition to his limited testing role. Yamamoto most likely will compete against Glock in GP2…

Spyker speaking Chinese?

Current rumours suggest that Dutch born Chinese driver Ho-pin Tung is seeking employment with the Spyker F1 Racing team as a test driver…

BMW’s new Glock

BMW-Sauber F1 has confirmed Timo Glock as its second test driver for 2007. Glock will partner the teams test and reserve driver Sebastian Vettel. Glock will continue competing in the GP2 Championship along with his BMW-Sauber testing duties…

Spyker goes German

Since the sale of the Midland team speculation swirled over who would partner Christijan Albers next season Spyker F1 Racing recently confirmed that F3 “hot-schue” Adrian Sutil will replace Tiago Monteiro for 2007…

The 23 year old German drove for Spyker as its Friday third driver in 3 events last season along with winning the Japanese F3 Championship this year. Sutil got his first F3 drive with spyker’s Team Principal (Colin Kolles) F3 team in 2004. In 2005 Sutil was runner-up to teammate and European F3 Champion Lewis Hamilton…

Doornbos to buy into Toro Rosso?

As previously mentioned, Scuderia Toro Rosso partner Gerhard Berger is under pressure to come up with funding for the team and Berger would prefer to use somebody else’s money to do so…

Dutchman Robert Doornbos appears to have the inside track to a seat with Toro Rosso in 2007. Doornbos did a good job as Red Bull Racings third driver before replacing Christian Klein in the later stages of 2006 and also reportedly has $5-10 million in sponsorship backing…

This appears to be potentially bad news for Scott Speed. Although Speed did a good job last season, he lacks the funding necessary to keep his seat…

New Ferrari

Over the just concluded Holidays, Santa apparently got his addresses mixed-up once again since the new Ferrari F430GT was delivered to Peterson/White Lightning instead…

Peterson/White Lightning has announced that it will switch from Porsche to Ferrari for 2007…

The team has campaigned Porsche 911GT3 RSR’s successfully in the American Le Mans LMGT2 category enroute to two successive Drivers Championships. For the upcoming season they will switch to a Ferrari F430GT…

In 2007 the new Ferrari team will bolster the number of Ferrari’s in the LMGT2 category, joining Risi Competizione. Risi campaigned two F430GT’s this season which saw ex-Ferrari Formula 1 driver Mika Salo clinch the LMGT2 Championship with a victory in the season finale at Laguna Seca Raceway…

Peterson/White Lightning will start the new year off differently by competing in its inaugural Paris Dakar rally…