Well, last night I made a quick trip to the Gryphon and The Other Side's favorite bartender was working. No beers for me last night, but, plenty of rumors. He was quite upset with me not showing up for a while. Said he didn't have anyone to talk Indycars with and joked that he thought the blog went under. Anyways, he sent along some juicy ones this week. Here we go.
- To back up all the rumors about ALMS teams coming over to the IRL next season, he said de Ferran is already a done deal. Says it will be Pagenaud and a second driver, most likely F1 veteran Takuma Sato.
- On top of de Ferran, he says all the Acura teams are likely to bolt to the IRL if the Prototype classes don't grow. This goes right along with various rumors, summed up well by Mr. Estrada over at IRR.
- He says he can't figure out which other team Marco would drive for next year, unless it's one of the new ALMS teams that come over. He says he expects Marco to stay at AGR because there just aren't any other seats open that Marco would consider, unless, Panther is able to find sponsorship for a second car.
- Apparently one of his old teams is already planning for two Brazil races next year even though nothing has been announced.
- He says Milwaukee won't be on the schedule when it is released in a couple of weeks.
Well, that's what I got out of him last night. He said he was at the Toronto race and was not pleased with the off-track atmosphere and lack of ammenities compared to usual. He said that it was so far off of what it used to be that he was embarrassed about his home race.
Anyways, that is it. I'll make a trip back out there soon, and probably stay a bit longer for a drink or two.
Oh, let me know what you guys think about his stuff on the comment section.
6 comments:
I think I really need to hire him at my site! Would be interesting if you go back and revisit all of the stuff he told you and how accurate he was. Good post!
RE Toronto: that's life.
It's not like 7 time winner Andretti, the race promoter, doesn't understand what it used to be like. But Molson sold the race to KK, and then the race was eventually cancelled for a year, and those partners that were making the race what it was sort of wandered off. AGP is faced with building the race back up, and that's not going to happen overnight. The roster of partners that bring value to the event has to be grown.
Things are tough all over. Don't get discouraged. No need to be embarrassed in a nationalistic way for your country's race, because the only people worrying about that are people that actually attended. Those of us that watched on TV basically saw a great race, and some skyline shots of Toronto, and some boats sailing around, and that's pretty much all we see at St. Pete or Long Beach too, so...
No big deal. This ain't the Olympics.
Love the bartender rumors man; seriously one of my most favorite things out there.
Only thing I would note about Marco/Panther etc, is that Panther Racing confirmed, via their Q&A, that they are already working with Scott Sharp/Patron to run him in a 2nd car again this year with plans for him next season. So that'd likely nix Marco there and also likely turns Patron/Highcroft over to Panther merging (which really begs to be curious where David Brabham lands)
Re Toronto: I understand what you're saying. It is a process, and I watched the race on TV, and you couldn't tell from there that there was anything wrong on the grounds. The only thing I thought before the race was that the tix were a bit pricey. Asides from that, they will build on this.
The city looked good in the shots of the cars coming down Lake Shore Blvd. and was nice to see the skyline in the background.
As for Marco @ Panther, I'm thinking Duncan Dayton and Panther are fighting for the Patron sponsorship for ICS next season. If you see Scott Sharp and Patron end up at Panther, then Macro stays at AGR. If you see Patron Highcroft running 2 cars in the ICS (as rumored), the drivers will be Scott Sharp and David Brabham. That opens up the second car for Macro if they can find sponsorship. Maybe move Marco into the National Guard car (an American in an American defence car?) and put Wheldon in the other car?
I'm speculating just like you guys are, that is why this is so much fun.
Hey Matt - Drewdawg here...
I just wanted to comment on the DeFerran entry into ICS...whatever happened to the Scott Dixon possibility? Did the bartender even mention Dixon joining the team at all? Dixon and Pagenaud would be a great force for an ICS team.
He didn't say anything about Dixon and de Ferran specifically, but next time I'm there, I'll bring it up and see what he says.
If they are talkin' still, the Chipster has kept it more quiet.
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