Newman-Wachs to Indycar?

Big news coming from Marshall Pruett regarding the future of Newman-Wachs Racing and one of their young american stars, the 2009 Atlantic Series Champion, John Edwards.

In Marshall's latest piece on SpeedTV.com, he more or less puts it out there that NWR will be headed to either the Indycar Series or GP2 in 2010, and his plans include watching John Edwards drive which ever car he enters.

This will most likely deal the final blow to the Atlantic series but will be a huge help for the Indycar Series. The Atlantic series will lose one of it's marquee teams and will add to the troubles that series is seeing right now while the Indycar Series could see the addition of a talented, accomplished, young American in a car no one had thought would be on the entry list in 2010.

Of course, all this depends on Eddie Wachs ability to find the funding, most likely from the Nuclear Energy sector, but in the article, he seems pretty sure he will pull it off, and Mr. Pruett also goes on to add to the article that it isn't beyond Wachs to pull money out of his own pockets to help fund the project.

Before we go any further, for those who don't follow American Open-Wheel talent, or the Atlantics series, this is not the John Edwards that ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008 (and subsequently was found to have cheated on his wife with some party worker).

No, this John Edwards was racing in the Atlantic series at 16 years old for Forsythe Championship Racing. He was racing in FIA sanctioned racing series in Europe at 14 years old. He has won the Star Mazda Championship in 2008, and followed it up by winning the Atlantic Championship in 2009. He is American. He is young. He is more of what the IRL needs.

Of course all this means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Until the 18 year old Edwards straps into a Dallara and does some testing we won't know if he can handle the higher horsepower cars or if he can adapt to the ovals like many before him have. But if he manages to pull it all together, and NWR latches on (at first, to learn) with a good and experienced ICS team, then we can expect big things from the young American.

And the addition of NWR to the IRL, even if at first they are partnered with an existing team would lead to the creation of a strong Indycar Series team down the road.

There's not much bad you can say about this news coming from Mr. Pruett and Mr. Wachs. Hopefully it comes through. The number of Americans in the IRL are dropping and he would help counter that, especially talented Americans.

Time To Make A Stand

It's been a couple of years now since we've seen chassis diversity in the Indycar Series and who knows when we will see it again. During discussions about a new car, Indycar officials stated something along the lines of "Dallara will be the sole provided of the new chassis" when the car comes out in 2011 or 2012.

Well, the IRL has backed down from that, however, we still haven't heard anything official in regards to who would be allowed to build the new chassis' when the new car does come out some time in the next decade. I know some people still believe the IRL will go with one manufacturer because they believe it to be the cheapest, or maybe because, according the Robin Miller, the IRL gets kick backs from every part sold by Dallara.

Either way, most fans of the sport believe we need multiple engine manufacturers and multiple chassis manufacturers to keep the tradition of Indycar racing and Indianapolis alive. Spec racing can be fun, but I believe it has outlived it's welcome with ICS fans.

Throughout the engine summit, rumors have circulated about VW and Porshe and Alfa Romeo joining the series, but none of that has come through as fact. The latest rumor is that no one will join Honda in 2011. Indycar can't really control that, if engine manufacturers don't want to come on board, the IRL can't force their hand to do so.

However, chassis diversification can indeed be helped by Indycar seeing how there are multiple chassis manufacturers interested in the Indycar series. Imagine the step up the series would take if chassis' produced by Dallara competed with Panoz and Lola every week. Three different chassis manufacturers producing different cars that produce different levels of downforce would provide massive amounts of passing opportunities, and would bring in diversity to the sport again. Atleast it would make the fans we have now happier.

But in order to get the IRL to bring in these multiple chassis manufacturers, we the fans have to force their hand the best we can. Being the ones who buy the tickets and support the sponsors and watch the races on television, deserve to have some sort of say in the matter. So, I am hereby introducing the "Bring Chassis Diversity Back To The Indycar Series" Petition.

This petition will allow fans to voice their strong wishes for multiple chassis manufacturers for the new era of Indycar racing. Once we get enough votes, I will send this Petition on to the IRL. In the meantime, let's get as many signatures as we can. Send the link around, get your friends to sign it, any IRL fan you know, hell, any racing fan you know. Get the word out there, as this is our chance to have a say in the future of Indycar Racing in North America.

FIL & ICS Together?

With the weekend off in the Indycar series, I know alot of Indycar fans were searching hard for something fast to watch. I know alot of the bloggers and fans on Twitter were watching the ALMS race at Lime Rock on Sunday, we even had a blogger attend the event who produced some nice news on the ALMS teams to ICS for 2010 in guest writer for MyNameIsIRL, Declan Brennan.

One of the reasons I started this blog was to talk about IRL news and notes, rumors, and to discuss major topics Indycar fans were talking about. And this past weekend, one of the things I saw alot of people discuss on Twitter and some forums was running the Firestone Indy Lights and Indycar Series together during races, a la ALMS. So now, I shall provide my opinion on this subject for you lucky readers.

First of all, this would provide a high level of excitement, just as it does in the ALMS. It would provide plenty of passing between classes, and would add some slower traffic to create dramatic passing opportunities. Watching two prototypes in the ALMS battling for the lead coming up on a couple of GT2 cars adds a little suspense to the race. That could of course translate to excitement and drama in the IRL as well.

On top of all of that, with the decent ICS car count, but a diminishing FIL car count, it would definately fill the track up and put about 40 cars on track. It would give the appearance that the fields are much larger and would give the fans at the track action all the time. That can't be a negative, even if the track gets a little crowded.

Running the FIL cars with the IRL cars would add the sponsorship value for the Lights as they would get a hell of a lot more exposure for the races. Running with the big boys can only help the exposure and bring in more money through sponsorship and butts in the seats.

Of course, this could only work on the road and street courses as the speeds on the ovals would just be too different. I wouldn't want Mario Moraes trying to get three wide with 2 Indy Lights cars at Kentucky Speedway. I love Mario, but I don't trust him to run 2 wide with another IRL car (ask Marco about that) and the rate of closing speed on an oval would be way too high.

Even in the ALMS, some of the prototype drivers complain about the skill level of the GT guys and their ability to get out of the way. They also think the rate of closing is too great even on road courses. Think about it in the IRL. The FIL is a development series for the ICS, where as the GT categories in ALMS are not a development series. The talent gap between FIL and ICS must be much greater then the gap between the prototypes and GT cars. Add to that, the fact that the ALMS runs fenders and closed wheels, if an inexperienced GT driver happens to get into the side of a prototype, it may cost the P1/P2 car a bit of time a bit of damage, but that is it. If you get an inexperienced FIL driver locking wheels with Scott Dixon, you have the potential for an airborn Dallara and a high risk of injury. Sure, racing is dangerous, but, we do the best we can to lower the danger, and FIL with ICS isn't a good idea for safety.

On top of all that, the FIL cars would have to be redesigned to either accept a much larger fuel cell or to accept in-race refueling, which would mean adding a bunch of members to the team, adding salaries which would boost up the budget for a FIL team. That would defeat the purpose of a low cost training grounds for a bunch of young guns trying to move up the ICS. And if you want to do pitstops for the FIL cars, you have to find a hell of a lot more pit boxes.

Take away the FIL race, and you're searching for another support race. We are hurting for support races in the first place at most tracks, and losing the FIL race would hurt the race weekends even more.

Basically, I can't see how this would work. I think it would be very exciting to watch, but, the safety would overrule any positives we could pull out of it. I doubt there is any talk at all from the IRL's perspective of doing this anyway. Just the pure danger of touching wheels and getting airborn is what will shoot this idea down if anyone ever brings it up.

For those who brought it up, on paper it looks good, but once we get to the details, it just doesn't work out. Atleast people are thinking of ways to improve the product though, which we can't stop doing. It's our job to push the IRL to think and try new things which will increase the excitement and fun on race weekends.

Push-to-Pass tested in Kentucky Derby

I'm not sure how many of you saw the Kentucky Derby yesterday, but it turns out 50-to-1 winner, Mine That Bird, had some help.

Danica Patrick at Mid-Ohio and Snoroma in 2007 tested a new steering rack, basically a Power Steering substitute for the ICS Dallara's in race. This aid helped move her towards the front of the pack on those two road courses while she was usually qualifying mid-pack in 2007 on road and street courses.

For those of you who didn't see the race, the clip is provided below.



Well it turns out, now that the race is completed, Mine That Bird and jockey Calvin Borel were secretely testing out a new Push-to-Pass system for horse racing which provided them with the extra horsepower to pull off the upset.

Much like the Champ Car World Series used, and the IRL uses to a lesser extent and in a different manner, when pushed, the horse is able to use a bit of extra horsepower for about 10 to 15 seconds.

"It's basically like taking a Red Bull in the middle of a race for a horse, without the wings" said an anonymous trainer. "They wanted to make things a little more exciting, and well, I think this system needs a little refinement, but once it's all worked out, it will make horse racing a whole lot more exciting."

It is unclear at this point in time if the system will be implemented on all horses for the Blackberry Preakness Stakes or if it will continue to be worked on in a trial basis.

Over at ChampCarFanatics.com, CCWS loyalists are now claiming that Thoroughbred racing has stolen another one of it's ideas, the same way they believe every single element they had was stolen by another series or league somewhere in the world, much the way F1, and now the Indycar Series has copied the Optional Tires.

The IRL is also doing it's best to get Mine That Bird jockey Calvin Borel into Marty Roth's second entry at the Indianapolis 500 saying "If he can get a 50-1 underdog to win the Kentucky Derby, he should be able to help Marty Roth make the field."

The Other Side Poll - 2009 I500 Starters

I posted the question to my loyal yet vote lacking readers. Thanks to those of you who voted. I'd like to try and get some more votes to make these a little more interesting.

How Many Cars Will Attempt To Qualify For The 2009 Indy
500?

Those of you that voted, many of you voted for either 36 or 38 cars to visit on qualifying day. Obviously this poll has as much importance as a tit on a nun, but it is still interesting to see what you guys are thinking. It's odd because 2008 saw 37 cars attempt to run in the only 500 on the schedule. So maybe you are following the post-bimergification trend and going with that number, or your simply pulling a number out of your rear end, but either way, this number sounds about right.

There will be about 23 or 24 cars on the starting grid in 2009 for the average ICS race, with 26 last year the norm. So we could probably say there will be one or two less cars attempt to qualify. Makes sense, but we could also see some more one-car entries with the larger interest post-merger. It's really a gamble on guessing the exact number.

Anyways, I'll guarentee we see more then 33 cars attempt to qualify which is what matters.

Anyways, the question for this week (if you care) is as follows.

Who will be the top non-Big 3 team in 2009?

Hopefully you guys throw up your opinions in the comments section as well as on the actual poll.