Franchitti On Point, Tagliani Surprises

Well, turns out the lack of practice on a green circuit in Sao Paolo, the silly season musical chairs, and the overall talent level of the Izod Indycar drivers has produced some good results for fans during qualifying for the first race of the 2010 season.

After the track grinding was completed overnight, drivers reported no issues with the previously slick Sambodrome section of the track. Warmup was dusty due to the grinding but the end result was qualifying times about 5 seconds faster then practice times yesterday.

Dario Franchitti took the pole for todays race on the streets of Sao Paolo with a time of 1:27:73. Surprisingly, Dario was the only true championship contender from 2009 to make the Firestone Fast 6.

The surprise of the session was Alex Tagliani and his FAZZT Race Team who are participating in their first Izod Indycar race ever. For a team that wasn't even truly formed 5 months ago, they have managed their first front row start and Tagliani has a great opportunity to put his B&W Dallara in victory lane.

Here is what Alex had to say about his teams first Firestone Fast 6.

"This was a huge team effort. Qualifying is just pure speed and the time to show what the Bowers and Wilkins FAZZT Race team is capable of. We came here with confidence but we were a little bit nervous like passing our first exam. We knew we had studied hard and did everything that we had to do but it is when you get to the race track that you can compare your self to others. I think it's a relief now, we broke the ice and we know where we stand. It's a tribute to all of the work that the guys have done. It's not just about building a car to go race, it's about building a team. From last September to now it shows what a good group of people we have built. I want to give a big thank you to the Bowers and Wilkins people who are here at the inaugural event for the IZOD IndyCar Series, what a great result for them! I am hoping we have just as good results for today's race."

Finishing third in qualifying was Justin Wilson in his first race with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Seeing DRR near the front in qualifying is a good sign for the team and puts J-Dub at the front where he belongs.

Ryan Hunter-Reay, also in his first race with a new team will start fourth, right ahead of his teammate and local favorite Tony Kanaan who starts sixth. This could be a sign of the beginning of a resurgence for Andretti Autosport (formerly Andretti-Green Racing) as I cannot recall the last time 2 AGR/AA cars made the Fast 6.

In fifth, Will Power makes his competitive return to American Open-Wheel Racing after his devastating crash with Nelson Philippe at Sonoma in 2009.

Rookies in the field include Takuma Sato at KVRT who starts 10th, Simona de Silvestro at HVM/Team Stargate Worlds who starts 11th, Alex Lloyd at Dale Coyne Racing who starts 15th, Mario Romancini in Conquest Racing's Dallara who starts 20th, and Ana Beatriz in the third Dreyer and Reinbold entry starting 22nd.

With three Ganassi or Penske cars outside of the top five, and other experienced and fast drivers spread throughout the field, it will make for an interesting race with what should probably be a pretty surprising podium.

I'm going to throw it out there, I've got Alex Tagliani as my underdog to take the win, if you can call a second place qualifier an underdog.

However, it will be tough to take the race away from Dario unless he makes a mistake somewhere on the course. He thrives on street circuits and usually doesn't put a wheel wrong.

Make sure you guys tune into Versus in the USA and TSN2 in Canada at 11:30AM EST for the pre-race show with the green flag scheduled to drop at 12:00PM.

It should be an exciting race. It seems as though there are plenty of passing opportunities and drafting opportunities and observers were saying drivers were getting drafts of up to 6 or 7 car lengths to pass during practice.

Make sure you sit down and enjoy the first race of what should be a very exciting 2010 Izod Indycar Series!

Bartender Rumors #7

Alright, I might had forgotten to get questions from Twitter, as I had originally planned to head over before the weekend, but then realized there was a race on Friday night, which changed my plans. So I bring you rumors only, no responses, sorry, I'll make up for it.

Anyways, I went by last night and here is what the good man had to tell you and me.

-He says LDR will be a two car team in 2010, no news on driver. He still expects Takuma Sato at LDR for Homestead.

-He says asides from the FAZZT Racing team with driver Alex Tagliani, you can expect one more new (or old) team for 2010, one that no one is talking about.

-Sponsorship packages are hurting for 2010. Teams are hoping that the Homestead numbers turn out to be very good being the championship deciding race. They figure that will finish the season off on a good note, and help sell sponsors on Versus.

-Vision will answer the call in 2010, but one other team won't.

-He says Brazil is 50/50 at the moment.

-A1GP is counting on Brazil happening because they want to be a support race, and have already held discussions with the IRL. They have scheduled their race in Brazil for the same weekend.

-VW may use the IRL as a way to introduce the high end Phaethon back to the USA. They are planning to relaunch the previously failed model to the US in 2011 or 2012.

-Milka is back full time for 2010.

Lots of stuff to go through here, what are your thoughts.

PS: The bartender wants you to sign the petition to bring in more chassis manufacturers in 2012!

Come Back Time

Well, I'm finally back on the scene. Took some time off from the blog simply because I didn't have the time for it unfortunately. I was in Edmonton for the Founders Cup (Jr. B National Championship), and prior to that, we were going 110% to get ready for the tournament. Hopefully you guys can forgive me and I can get whatever followers I had on the blog back for the last couple races and into the off-season. I'm planning on doing a silly season page for the site to keep everyone up to date on the multiple situations regarding empty race seats and new teams.

Anyways, I missed the Sonoma race as I was flying back from Edmonton, saw the intro show on the plane, and got home to see the winner interview. I had heard about the Will Power/Nelson Philippe crash and am very happy Nelson was not hurt further then he was. Happy both men will be alright. If Will is ready for 2010 hopefully we'll see him in a Penske Dallara. As for Nelson, if he is ready to go, expect him back at Conquest for a lot more races, if not the full season under the i drive green banner.

Luckily, I planned timed into schedule last saturday to watch the Chicago race, and got to watch another race from start to finish. And what a race I got to watch. Close action lap after lap, passing, side by side racing, and a top four that didnt involve Red-Red-Red-Red (or in Dario's case, the yellow Lifelock livery).

Mario Moraes managed his best finish in his still short ICS career in a race dedicated to his father. Graham Rahal also made a strong push for first with a couple of laps to go. I know I was on the edge of my seat to see if Graham could make it stick around the outside and take the lead, but he just didn't have the help he wanted.

As for those who are complaining about the Indycar Series at Chicagoland being dangerous and contrived, I say to you, Chicagoland has always been a very tight track competition wise. Look back at the 2008 race and you'll see that the cars were just as tight, yet there were simply less cars able to hang with the Penske/Ganassi bunch last year. And if I recall correctly, I didn't hear anyone complaining last year about the pack racing. As for the danger involved in the close, sidepod to sidepod action, perhaps the danger involved will help teach the drivers on track to respect eachother a bit more. It seemed like drivers had learned to be fearless with all the new safety innovations, and can be attributed to some stupid accidents where drivers didn't mind putting someone in the wall at 220 mph. Hey, by the way, unfortunately, danger gets the viewers attention.



Now we have this Versus/Comcast/DirecTV issue coming up. Obviously, people aren't happy about this, especially those subscribed to DirecTV. As far as I'm concerned, give it time. They've got about two more weeks before you really need to worry about not being able to see Motegi.

By the way, big thumbs up to Alex Tagliani who managed to put something together to run full time in 2010 (atleast that's the plan) with entrepreneur Andre Azzi. This current and future unofficial Team Canada seems to have the makings of something good right off the bat. They bought the remnants of Marty Roth's ICS team, which includes 4 top of the line (yet heavily crash damaged) Dallara's. Those cars, according to Robin Miller, are all top of the line Dallara's, and Roth spent top dollar to buy all the little extra's for his cars. If Tag's can bring up James Hinchcliffe and Andrew Ranger once he retires, then his team will be a success.

Grand-Am Rolex Series at IMS? Screw that. If you want a sports car race there, run a 12 Hour ALMS race there. An Indy ALMS 12 or 24 hour race would bring in the same major entrants from across the pond as Petit Le Mans brings across for Road Atlanta. Grand-Am is slow, boring, and very low car counts, and it's Nascabish.

Alright, well, I will drop by the Gryphon and see if our favorite bartender still has his job, hopefully he will be working and can give the dish on some silly season stuff. Stay tuned folks.

Conquest Confirms 3 More Races

With Alex Tagliani leaving Conquest, effective immediately according to his column for RDS in Canada, Conquest have landed a couple of other drivers to fill their driver line up for the rest of the year.

Nelson Philippe will compete for Conquest at the snoozer called Sonoma and the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Sonoma will be the first race Nelson has competed since Indy where he finished 25th for HVM Racing alongside E.J. Viso, and it will be his first road course race in a Dallara. This will be Nelson's third stint with Conquest after about 1 1/2 seasons with the team in the Champ Car World Series. It's unknown at the moment if Nelson is bringing his "i drive green" sponsorship (if there was even any money involved in this sponsorship) with him to Conquest.

And 2004 ICS Rookie of the Year and Indianapolis 500 ROTY Kosuke Matsuura will run for Conquest in Japan at the Motegi track Jack Arute so elegently describes as an egg. Matsuura is a veteran of 64 ICS races. He is the second Japanese driver entered into the Motegi event alongside Roger Yasukawa with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.

The car count for Motegi actually looks pretty good for an overseas race. Looks like we'll have atleast 21 for the race, and if you still believe Takuma Sato will run the race with someone, it would make three Japanese drivers in the race, which would tie the most ever Japanese drivers in a CART or IRL race at Motegi.

It's good to see Conquest getting a couple more races in, but it's too bad it can't be full time from here on out. They seemed to have something set up for 2010 though according to Tags, but it involved multiple drivers. We'll see what happens.

Tags is another question mark for 2010. He seemed pretty confident that he would have a full time ride in 2010, and he mentioned his strong runs at Indy and Toronto opened some doors for him. Maybe AGR wants him to help set cars up for their younger guys? He can be quick, but he really has a knack for setting cars up. It's what he was known for in CCWS and CART, and Conquest raved over how much they learned from Tags running their car.

By the way, Homestead should be a nice turn out for cars. I'm counting 25 or 26 right now if Vitor is able to get back in the car in time.

Editor's Note: Nelson Philippe will be carrying the "i drive green" colors for Conquest as per Racer.com.

Toronto Race Review

Well, I didn't get to catch the race live, but, thanks to the channel I moaned and groaned about not getting, which made many IRL races unavailable to me, I was able to watch most of the replayed race as soon as I got out from my lacrosse game.

And thank the Lord I was able to see most of it. I'm a road/street course fan, and I make no secret of that amongst many oval enthusiasts who read this blog. But even at the beginning of the season, I would had told you that atleast one of the two most exciting and best races this year would be an oval.

Now, I haven't seen every race myself, but, so far, among all the races I've seen, Watkins Glen and Toronto are both at the top of the list (Iowa is a close third). These races included passing! What a novel concept, one car going past another, for position, out side of the pits. There has been drama at both races, racers have put on some great driving, decent car counts, and no sense of knowing who would win.

Of course, Toronto, being my home track and seeing two Canadians running 1-2 part way through the race, it was special. And seeing PT picking off car after car at turn 3 was priceless. It's too bad Helio and PT got together, because they were both having a good run. I don't think there is anyone to blame, but Helio should had known PT wasn't going to give Helio the spot. PT isn't racing for points or a championship, he was racing for a win. I recall PT running down the inside of Bourdais at Denver in '06 with the same mentality.

And what a treat to see Tags run up front most of the race. You've got to feel good about seeing Alex Tagliani and Eric Bachelart having a good day. They scrapped everything they had together just to get out to the track for Toronto and Edmonton, and they are probably done after that. Hopefully they can have another good run and woo some sponsors for 2010. Only bad part about today was Tags taking out Scheckter on a dumb move. It sure did get Mona-Vie some airtime though.

Anyone have any objection to calling turn 3 in Toronto one of the most exciting right turns of the circuit? Did you see Dixon pass Wilson on the outside of turn 3? That takes balls to put your car out that close to the wall on the exit of turn 3.

Big day for Ryan Hunter-Reay who finally got a full race under his belt and came home with a 7th place finish. I'm sure that 7th place feels like a win after all he has been through this year.

At the end of the day though, I'm happy with the way things shaped up. Sure, the top five included 4 Penske and TCGR cars, and there was no PT or Tags involved in the podium ceremony, but, one of those Penske's was Will Power, and it was nice to see him run well. Also, seeing "Bad Ass" Justin Wilson run in the top 5 again was wonderful. DCR was running some Canadian sponsorship this weekend as well, with Leon's on both wings.

I enjoyed the race, and it seemed like a pretty good crowd was on hand, you could tell from all the boo's Helio got after the Tracy incident. But, it felt good to have the race back in Toronto and seeing the Indycars running down Lake Shore Boulevard again. I might had missed it this year, but I made a promise to my girlfriend that we'd do our best to keep next year's race weekend open so we could make it out there. I can't wait.

Shake 'em up

Well, Milwaukee is done, and count that towards another race I missed due to my terrible lacrosse schedule that this past weekend, included a 5 hour bus ride to Ottawa to play a team we knew we'd beat, and we did. Unfortunately, game time was race time, which meant I had to go have rubber lacrosse balls hurled at me while Indycars flew around the Milwaukee Mile a couple hundred plus times.

Anyways, Dixon won, Briscoe continued his strong performances at Milwaukee, Danica finished top 5 again, and PT had a rough day. It's all over now, time to move to to Texas for this coming weekend and the Bombardier Learjet 550k/341.75m at the Cheesegrader Texas Motor Speedway. I like Texas, but something tells me the drivers fear that track. Hitting the wall there at 210ish can't be very much fun, and it has the reputation for tearing cars apart.

However, let's not forget the positives from Texas, the great side-by-side racing it provides us, the great crowd they pull in, the wide array of winners it produces, and drive through liquor stores.

As for the driver line up, there are a couple shakeups. First of all, PT is out, which seems mutual after AJ was embarrassed by the car he provided PT, and after PT realized he would be a lapped car in the Foyt equipment at Texas. Instead, AJ Foyt Numero 4 will pilot the ABC Supply Co. machine at Texas.

Stanton Barrett has finally stepped out of the car, for now anyways. Jacques Lazier will drive the car in Texas after Greg Beck said his Dallara needed an experienced driver right now. Atleast J-Laz will be up to speed and running with the back half of the field instead of being lapped every 10 laps. Beck did say Barrett will be back in the car at some point this season, just not sure when yet. I guess whenever the car doesn't need an experienced driver?

Conquest hasn't announced their driver yet. It will most likely be Alex Tagliani, Tomas Scheckter, or they won't show up. If you believe the rumor I threw up from the Bartender last week, they just won't show up.

As for the aforementioned Scheckter, he was on Twitter saying he is "looking forward to Texas" which led to rumors he would be driving in Texas obviously. Options are limited, either a second DCR car (please, please, please!), a third DRR car which has been rumored by Indyinformer as the number 43 car, or the open seat at Conquest. Hoping it isn't Conquest as this will raise the car count by one if both Conquest and Scheckter show up seperately.

Milka Duno is back in the number 23 car this weekend after stepping out for T. Scheckter last weekend. Milka will provide ample challenges for the leaders, she will most likely get about as much exposure as a top 5 car will, as she will be on camera about once every 10 laps as the leaders lap her.

By the way, all these shake ups are adding to the suspense of the "The Other Side - Weekly Poll". With Stanton Barrett and PT out, with Milka and Schecks in, the point standings will change a little bit. Make sure you vote, there are only 4 days left.

For now, this is how it has shaken out. I'm sure we'll hear more possibilities as we get closer to qualifying on Friday afternoon/night. Anything changes, I'll let you know about it.

Been a nice month

Well, I haven't been around as much as I have wanted to be to blog away. I have fallen off the pace of some fellow bloggers and am not happy about it. The past few weeks with lacrosse have been pretty hectic, hell, I had to miss the 500 because I was on a bus to the middle of nowhere to play a team we beat 18-1. Whatever, over the last little bit, I've missed lots of things to blog about.

So, I missed the chance to tell everyone how excited I am that I finally get TSN2 up in Canada, so I should be able to watch every race, relatively close to the actual time is it run. That means either more live blogs or some hardcore twitter time which is good news because I'd like to be more interactive on the race days if you guys are interested in it.

I didn't get a chance to talk about Carb Day and Wade Cunningham taking home his second Freedom 100 or Ana Beatriz taking one of the hardest hits I've seen from an IPS car at Indy. I don't like talking about the taxi cabs on here, because this is an anti-taxi cab blog, but, does anyone else think that Ana's crash was a bit like the crash Jeff Gordon had at Vegas in '08 where he hit the angled inner wall at a 90 degree angle? Ana hit a part of the inner wall that was not parallel with the outer wall, which means she hit it a sharper angle, causing higher G-Forces and greater chance for injury. This should be fixed for next year.

I didn't get a chance to talk about PT's extension to do both Canadian races for the KVRT which is good news. The tickets probably sold at a much higher rate in Edmonton for the race then it would had earlier. I bet the tickets at Toronto picked up big time once he was announced. However, over at ChampCarFanatics.com they are probably laughing their asses off that their hero is being sponsored by the engine company they hate the most in Honda.

I missed a crash filled race. I've seen highlights and heard stories about the race, but it seemed like an average 500. Now, mind you, an average 500 is better then a good Kansas or Iowa, simply because it is Indianapolis, and Indianapolis makes everything better because of the history and the show they put on around it. And seeing Helio take the checkered flag is great. No one else deserved it more then him, thought I would had been happy to see just about anyone win, it was still a nice little touch to see Helio climbing the fence (to someone's dissapointment) then to see him in jail. He adds so much to the series outside of his publicity and talent. He is just an all around great guy. I don't like Penske Racing all that much, but I was happy to see him win even when he is in a Penske car.

How about T. Bell? He walks in second week and puts the KVRT #8 Herbalife car in 4th place? Not bad for a one-off. Maybe he will be lucky and talk Herbalife into sponsoring a second car at HVM for next season maybe? That would be sweet. Townsend Bell has, in my mind, with that drive, put himself on the list of drivers we should have in the series. Unfortunately, he seems to have lost William Rast sponsorship and is only hope right now is Herbalife. However, this is one guy who has proven he can go out and make friends with the higher ups which is good for his future.

My boy Tags wins Rookie of the Year at Indy which is nice. This decision might be more about the cheque accompanying the award then the award itself as it is a little extra cash flow for Conquest who is hurting.

Anyways, I doubt you folks want to read through all of this, I was just doing my best to catch up on all the news I haven't been able to blog about. I'll throw something up about the #14 car tonight and my opinions on who should or will get that drive. I'm also stopping by the bar tonight for a chit chat with the bartender. Hopefully he has some news from the weekend.

The Other Side - Poll of the Week

Well, Bump Day has come and gone, and so has the last poll. The amount of cars bumped on Bump Day has always been a hot topic since the split, usually due to the lack of cars being bumped. However, since bimergification the number of cars trying to bump their way into the field has been high enough we have seen some bumping. Drama ensued near the end of the day with drivers pushing to get into the show. When 6:00pm on sunday rolled around, 3 cars were left off the starting grid, including Alex Tagliani, Stanton Barrett, and Buddy Lazier.

Now, this is the first Weekly Poll you folk have gotten right. Congratulations, and go ahead and gives yourselves a pat on the back. Mind you a minority of you chose the correct answer, I'll still give it to you since you picked it more then any other one answer. I think anyone that picked 5+ cars was just hoping a whole lot, though it was possible.

This weeks question is as follows.

"Which stable will the 93rd Indy 500 Champion come from?"

Mind you, for practical reasons, Alex Lloyd's pink sensation car will be lumped in with Target Chip Ganassi for this poll.

Have some fun with it, and let me know who you think will win by voting, then tell me why in the comments section. I'd love to hear your reasons.

Tagliani to Conquest #36

Bye-Bye Bruno. Alex Tagliani is taking your spot in the number 36 car for the I500. It is being confirmed by everyone and their brother almost that the unluckiest guy and maybe stupidest team from bump day will still be running their main man in the big race.

Bruno Junqueira is being replaced by Alex Tagliani in the Conquest #36 car.

I'm not sure which sponsors will be on the car, probably a mix of the #34 and #36 car sponsors, but, I would be mighty pissed if I were All Sport and I were not on a car. Maybe this gives more meaning to the phrase "coming back from the dead" for the King Tut car of Tags?

I'm not sure what to think of this. I personally have grown a bit upset with Bruno the way he treated Dale Coynes men last year, however, I admire that he dug around and found sponsorship, or atleast got into a car when a team found sponsorship. His hardwork made me like him a bit more again. However, I'm happy to see Tags in the 500 now, even after his team screwed up by not getting him in the show in the first place, but I'm sad to see it's happening this way. Not sure how to react to this one as a fan or a Canadian.

Give me your thoughts on this. I want to know how to be cool, so I'll react like you folks do.

Bartender Rumors

Alright, so due to my lack of TSN2 which doesn't allow me to watch many of the IRL races on television, I hopped into my local bar. No, not to drown my sorrows or to cuss out TSN, I went in to find out what it would take to get the bar to show the Versus races on television for all those in attendence to see. Well, apparently, they show every single ICS race in the bar, because, listen to this, the bartender used to work for "a high ranking IRL team". I spoke with the bartender, and he told me he worked for whichever team he is talking about for about 4 years, and has spent another 7 or 8 years working for lesser teams and in different series. He also told me he worked for a CART team in the late 90's for a bit. He says he stopped working for the IRL team in '06.

Anyways, I'm pretty shocked at all this, considering the obvious random events that have just occured, and I'm a beer or two deep. So anyways, we get to talking Indy and Indycars and racing in general.

Finally, I brought up the blog, and he promised he'd check it out. But he brings up the fact that he still talks to alot of the guys at the old shop via email and such. Right about now, I'm about two hours in at the bar just talking to the bartender, and about 4 or 5 beer deep. All of a sudden, he starts tossin' out these, I don't know what to call them, predictions I guess. He keeps telling me these things are going to come true in the future, but he doesn't exactly have a timeline for them all.

By this point, I'm not really sober. Safe to say a cab was on the way, not one of the ones that fly into fencing either. But some of the things he is saying sound actually possible. Anyways, I did the best I could to remember what he was saying, and wrote a couple things down. So here you go, I am not proclaiming these as fact, just passing along what he shared with me regarding all things IRL. He did give me permission to share these with you folks.

• Dale Coyne has 2 cars entered at the I500, but the second car isn't for Bruno like everyone says. He says a young American will fill the seat.
• He says NHL has a third car ready for Seabass at Indy if he ends up losing his ride with STR in F1.
• Atleast one former CCWS team will not compete after Indy if they don't impress the sponsors.
• Keith Wiggins has found someone with deep pockets to invest in HVM Racing with him.
• Tags will be with Conquest at Indy.

So like I said, I don't know if any of this is true, these are just the lines I'm being fed by the server of alcohol. However, everything he was saying seemed to sound about right and he said he is going to bring me some old swag from his racing days if I drop in on a race day.

Anyways, I've decided to make this bar a permanant fixture on my schedule. Not sure where it will fit in, but I know I have to find out when I'm working so I can get some good stories out of this guy about working in the garages and such.

Oh, and let me know what you guys think about the lines he is feeding me.

It's A Big Week

Well, turns out I was right and PT will be announced in on friday. Damn good thing I was right or I would had been in the tire wall and looked stupid while doing it.





This week we just got an announcement from Rubicon and Conquest announcing what had already been announced, that Rubicon Racing would become Rubicon Sports Agency and that they will oversee the commercial side of Conquest Racing. Maybe that means a second car for Conquest with Buddy Rice in the seat, or maybe that means we see some LifeLock sponsorship on Tags car for the rest of the season. Whatever the case, this sounds like the team will be a little more stable, and you can probably pencil in Tags for the remainder of the year at Conquest.

We also just found out today that Tomas Scheckter won't be at Team 3G. Cavin reported this earlier today. Stanton Barrett will drive Team 3G's sole entry at Long Beach. Apparently they are still working towards running Tomas at Kansas and for the remainder of the year, but nothing is done yet. Rumors also have Tomas looking at Coyne with his Rockstar Energy Drink money.

The I500 entry list will be coming out very soon, and will have Paul Tracy at KVRT as one of the entries. I have updated my 93rd Indianapolis 500-Mile Race entry list here. This should add a bit of pizazz to the upcoming Long Beach Grand Prix as it will just us bloggers and the media a bit more to talk about.

Another name that might or might not end up on that list is Helio Castroneves who very well could find out his future this week. Either he'll be wearing wearing a shade of orange, and possibly a nice suit covered in sequins. Hopefully for all involved, he manages to get out of this one and he'll be ready to go by Long Beach. But will Helio be ready to race at Long Beach if he is found innocent? We have heard stories of how mentally drained he is, and if he is found innocent on thursday, would he be ready to race on Sunday? I doubt it.

And to end the week off, we have the first IRL sanctioned event at Long Beach. If last weeks results were any indication, it should be a fun time indeed. Long Beach will probably shake up the order once again as the old CCWS drivers and teams will most likely be more prepared for this track then any ICS team. This will give drivers like Alex Tagliani and Justin Wilson another shot to put one past the big guys, and will give NHL Racing another chance to prove they belong with the Big 3.

Also, expect to see some Z-Lines signage on the Dale Coyne Racing car by Long Beach. If the deal comes together, then this should help them get to two cars from the I5oo on.

It should be an interesting week, and by the way, DanicaFan is already proclaiming Danica Patrick this weekends winner on the streets of Long Beach. I whole heartedly disagree with this. She will be lucky if she finishes ahead of Stanton Barrett in my opinion.

Rahal On Track For Success

Well, unfortunately I missed qualifying to do some work for my lacrosse team helping a young players clinic. What I come back to shocks me.

1. Graham Rahal on Pole
2. Scott Dixon not in the Fast 6
3. Justin Wilson/DCR in second?
4. Tags and Manning 7th and 10th respectibly
5. 3 AGR in the top... I mean bottom 7?

Graham Rahal seems like he is ready to break out this year I think. Last years rain soaked St. Petes GP was more luck then anything. But now it seems like, on the road and street courses, Graham Rahal has shown he is ready to roll this season and I like it. I'm impressed with his ability to put the NHL car on pole ahead of IRL Vets like Franchitti and Kanaan and Briscoe. This is a shot across the bow of the Big-3 and I hope NHL and Graham sink them this weekend.

As for Dixon, I expected him in the top 6 for sure. I know most of his wins came on the ovals but I still expected Dixon to compete for the pole here based on the team he is with and how his teammate did. But maybe it was just a rough session for them, but I think the competition will be gunning for him and will make it tough for him to do well as often as last season.

Anyone else notice that Justin Wilson picked up second place? Is it a typo or did DCR really step it up over the off-season? I know Robin Miller made it seem like Dale Coyne was ready to spend some of his coin to step up the ladder a bit, but this seems a bit far fetched to be competing with the Big 3 at St. Pete's. I doubt they will find this success on the ovals, but it is nice to see them start up front. Hopefully this means Paul Tracy will change his mind on turning down the offer for the second car at DCR.

The 2 last minute replacements did very well considering they finished ahead of most of AGR while Manning also finished in front of his teammate in the qualifying session. Tags best time was actually faster then Will Power's time in the Fast 6. Hopefully this will encourage some sponsors considering taking the plunge to hop on board the Conquest train.

Is it personnel or is it drivers? We all know AGR has all the parts and pieces for their Dallara's available so you have to wonder why they are so far back in the field for qualifying. I don't actually remember the last time an AGR driver aside from TK qualified for the Fast 6 session. Personally, I actually enjoy seeing Danica and Marco in the bottom half of the field because I don't like either of them while I'm null on Mutoh. Atleast Kanaan is near the top as I do enjoy him even though he is driving for AGR. The problem with Danica and Marco in the bottom of the qualifying order is that they are the drivers that the IRL needs to have near the top of the time charts to get the Americans who cheer for Americans back watching the series. It's a good thing one famous racers son has the ability to do that.

Anyways, with the field so spread out talent-wise (the top 19 are less then a second apart), it should make for an interested race. There will be some good battles for position and I'm hoping Versus covers it well. This is their first big test so we'll get to see how it goes.

Tagliani to Conquest at St. Petes

As reported by Conquest via Twitter, Alex Tagliani will be driving the number 34 car in St. Petersburg this weekend with sponsorship from Northlands and the Rexall Edmonton GP.

Other drivers possible for this ride were Jaime Camara and no one so this is not a big surprise, but it is good to know someone will be occupying the seat for the weekend and Tags is my favorite of the two.

Tags ended the season with Conquest subbing for Enrique Bernoldi for the last three races and provided some of Conquests best finishes of the year. Tags is well known for his feedback about the car and will provide the engineers with plenty of information regarding the car for 2009.

Manning and Scheckter

Curt Cavin and Trackside Online are both saying Darren Manning will be driving for D&R at St. Petes this coming weekend.

Manning was let go by the A.J when Vitor Meira became available and is definately an upgrade over Milka Duno and in my opinion, probably a tad bit better then Townsend Bell, the two drivers who occupied that car in '08. D&R has gone through an off-season overhaul picking up Dad's Root Beer to sponsor Mike Conway, while releasing all three drivers from the '08 season.

However, this is still unofficial until the announcement this afternoon.

With a second car from D&R, that makes the entry list for St. Petes 22 cars with the only TBA as Conquest's sole car, who will most likely be Alex Tagliani.

Update: Curt Cavin is reporting via Twitter that Tomas Scheckter says he will start 2009 at Long Beach with Team 3G. No news if that is a 2 car team or if Stanton Barrett is out after St. Petes.

Conquest News

Well, according to TSN in Canada, "The Fireball from Montreal" Alex Tagliani is close to securing a ride with Conquest for atleast 16 of the 17 races this season. The 35 year-old is in Edmonton to promote the start of ticket sales for this years Rexall Edmonton Indy. Apparently included in his trip to Edmonton is a presentation to a potential group of local sponsors both involved and not involved with the race.

Apparently, a deal isn't happening for a few weeks, so St. Pete's is not likely, but he would be full time at Long Beach and beyond if it all came together. St. Pete's isn't out of the equation, but he would be pushing it.

I think Tags would be a welcome addition to the series. He is Canadian, he is a veteran of AOWR, he is a skilled driver who can handle an ICS car well, and his wife is smokin' hot.

And in regards to Conquest, in the same article, TSN states that "Conquest has confirmed Jaime Camara as its lone entry for 2009 but hopes to add Tagliani if enough sponsorship can be found."

Now, maybe I'm in the dark on this one, but I haven't heard anything about the guy who owned Richmond last year confirming his drive with Conquest, or the team confirming they would enter him for the season. Since they seemed to be speaking with Tags for the article, perhaps he told them Camara was a done deal? However, I'm still a bit suspicious about him/Conquest, but hopeful. A team of Camara and Tags at Conquest would be a relatively strong driver lineup. Tags would be a little bit rusty on ovals, but strong on road courses while Camara would be strong on ovals until Tags caught up. Mind you, maybe Tags isn't too rusty since he ran Chicagoland and had a decent race.

On a side note, seems like the Edmonton Indy weekend will be filled up pretty well with the ICS being supported by the Nascab Canadian Tire Series (actually decent racing, considering the sanctioning body) , the Firestone Indy Lights, and the Northern Alberta Sports Car Club. It should be a good weekend for those in attendance.