Romancini to Conquest

It seems Conquest wanted to prove me wrong. I wrote earlier today that we shouldn't expect them for a full season.

Tomorrow, Conquest will make me look bad (although I'm quite happy they will do so) when they announce that Mario Romancini will run the 2010 Izod Indycar Series under the Conquest banner.

Mario competed in Firestone Indy Lights competition last season for RLR/Andersen Racing and grabbed two wins on his way to 6th place in the final standings.

I'm looking forward to seeing if there are any sponsors mentioned tomorrow in the announcement as I'm curious as to who Romancini is bringing with him to the program as they begin testing at Barber on Tuesday.

Now the attention shifts to what else Conquest has up their sleeve. This Romancini deal comes out of nowhere. The Brazilian article breaking the Romancini to Conquest deal also mentioned something about Tomas Scheckter supposedly having a deal with Conquest, but that it has fallen through.

Now your left to wonder who else Conquest can bring in to fill what is rumored to be a second seat they could run full season, or even part season. The names of Bruno Junqueira, Jan Heylan, and Ana Beatriz still come to mind due to past history, the IRL Winter Meetings (Bruno and Jan attended the meetings with Eric Bachelart), as well as rumors that Ana Beatriz will be with an undisclosed team at Barber this coming week.

I can't remember where I saw it, but a credible source even said they could run three full time cars in 2010.

Right now, I'm happy seeing Romancini in 2010 at Conquest as that was a car I doubted we'd see full time.

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.

Junkyard Dog

Well, we can add a 36th car to the field. 16th and Georgetown picked up that WishTV in Indianapolis is saying Bruno Junqueira will be running the #36 Conquest machine tomorrow and attempting to qualify the #36 car for the I500.

Good news indeed, and Bump Day seems to be getting a little bit more exciting. Any more driver announcements will be past last minute, but maybe we can get to 37 or 38 cars if Buddy Rice and/or Jacques Lazier or anyone for that matter come up with anything.

Also rumors Alex Barron will pilot the Team 3G machine if Stanton Barrett can't put it in the show are heating up. Barron was in the Team 3G garage yesterday. If Barron can run some laps in the car, maybe it will convince them to run Barron instead of Stuntcar Stanton, or atleast help SB find some speed. (Just realized I used Sebastien Bourdais' initials for Stanton Barrett, sorry for the confusion, but Stanton Barrett is still nowhere near as fast as Bourdais)

Right now, the qualifiers who are looking risky are Milka Duno, Stanton Barrett, Bruno Junqueira, Nelson Philippe, and Buddy Lazier. You would think 3 of these 5 will be 3 cars attempting to get into the field on bump day, unless there is some unforeseen accident later today.

Does anyone else find it ironic Milka Duno will never be drinking milk at Indy? I sure think it's relatively foooooonnnnny.