Wednesday evening, Speed’s Robin Miller released an article hinting strongly that the team owners were on the verge of outright and open rebellion against the 2012 car. I read the article and had to pause to think about the veracity of the claims made within the article, or at the very least the commitment of the team owners mentioned to stick to their stated convictions. Here’s the meat of the allegations as told by Eric Bachelart. “The league decided to do a new car and never consulted the teams and…
Read MoreTag: Gil De Ferran
IndyCar – de Ferran Motorsports Teams with LRD
Luczo Dragon Racing released a statement today revealing that LDR and de Ferran Motorsports will join forces for the 2010 season. This is great news for the former Indianapolis 500 champion’s suddenly ailing team. Last year, Gil announced that 2009 would be his last year in the cockpit of a racecar and he was going to focus on being a team principal fielding both an ALMS prototype effort and a two-car effort in the IZOD IndyCar Series. As the season ended, and we got deeper into the off-season, it became…
Read MoreIndyCar – SATO?! New info from de Ferran
Robin Miller was hinting this early in 2009. We heard more rumors about it when Gil de Ferran said he was starting an Indy program. But now we have new word from John Oreovicz at ESPN that Takuma is joined at the hip with Gil’s new Indy effort. Clearly, this still stands as a rumor though since this comprised one line in John’s article. But it doesn’t take much to get me excited about the prospect of Sato taking to the grid in an IndyCar. Takuma showed a very aggressive…
Read MoreALMS – Pagenaud Signing at Patron Highcroft Raises Questions
Simon Pagenaud has signed a contract with Patron Highcroft for 2010 to replace Scott Sharp who previously left the team to start his own GT2 team. Simon will partner with David Brabham in the newly revised Acura ARX-01c LMP2 car. This will give Patron Highcroft a very impressive driver pairing. David Brabham is one of the most talented and experienced sportscar drivers of this generation. Teaming him with a very quick and capable Pagenaud only spells wins for the team. Especially since Pagenaud is a more reliable and less erratic…
Read MoreALMS – Mid-Ohio Recap and RA Preview
Round 6 of the American Le Mans Series was contested last weekend at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, OH, and I was there representing Openpaddock.net and taking in all the action. Sadly, there’s not much competition in the ALMS this year with the absence of Audi LMP1 cars and the Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 cars. Now, the Acura LMP1 and LMP2 factory efforts are running away from what privateers remain. Gil De Ferran and Simon Pagenaud easily took the overall victory, …again, and trail the Patrón Highcroft Racing…
Read MoreIndyCar – Roth Not Racing the 500
Marty Roth has had a temperamental relationship with the IndyCar series. Before reunification, Roth was a necessary evil to keep car counts up, but after CCWS folded into the IRL, Roth’s lack of real talent behind the wheel started to garner him black flags. The other teams level of ire rose to a crescendo at Belle Isle last year when Roth consumed most of the practice time by spinning his car on five separate occasions. Some have theorized the the IRL had a chat with him at the end of…
Read MoreIndyCar – Sato+de Ferran+Roth=?
Is It May Yet? has been doing some trackside math after observing that Takuma Sato and Gil de Ferran are on the ground in Indy. Marty Roth has a sign up in Gasoline Alley over his garage space, but as of yet they have not moved equipment over from his shop. It could be inferred that he is mounting a one or two car effort on one of the 2nd week engine deals, but it certainly is confusing that they haven’t at least started preparation for that. Roth has had…
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