Lotus Engines to Indy?

Rumors are swirling that Lotus Group is looking to join the Indycar Series in 2010 as a way to promote the Lotus brand. James Rossiter is supposedly being backed by Lotus in 2010 at KVRT as a Team Lotus USA/KVRT car. James tested at Barber with KVRT and ran around the middle of the pack.

However, this story keeps evolving. Today Autocar is reporting that Lotus has confirmed they will be returning to Indycar racing at the season opening event in Sao Paolo on March 14th.

"Although full details are yet to be confirmed, it is expected a Lotus-branded team will run two cars in the championship under the Team Lotus USA banner. They will be Dallara built and Honda powered."

Now, that right there is a bit of a surprise. We had expected James Rossiter to run at KVRT with Lotus backing, but if the Lotus branded team is to be 2 cars, I'm not sure exactly what that means. Will KVRT be running four cars full time with two cars as KVRT and two cars as Team Lotus USA? Maybe there will be two KVRT/Team Lotus USA cars (Sato and Rossiter) with E.J. Viso competing as KVRT? Or will Team Lotus end up being a completely different entity altogether.

Either way, this is a pretty big development if an additional car comes out of the Lotus deal.

But the bigger development here is that Lotus Group just announced a partnership with Kevin Kalkhoven-owned Cosworth to develop engines for Lotus' road cars as well as all Lotus motorsport projects. Now, this would explain why Lotus Group would approach KVRT to help them run their program.

Considering Lotus Group wants to get involved, and they just recently signed a deal with Cosworth to develop both road and racing engines for them, is it that far fetched to believe that Lotus is looking to make a bid to join Honda in 2012 in the Indycar Series?

"Currently Honda supplies the 3.5-litre V8 powerplants in Indycar, but Lotus is said to be considering a bid to takeover the supply when Honda's contract ends in 2011."

This Team Lotus USA and Lotus Group's involvement in the Izod Indycar Series sounds like it is about to pick up. Watching the developments surrounding Lotus Group will be fun to watch heading into the not-so-distant future.

Honda might have someone to play with after all.

Here Come The Announcements

With the Barber test starting tomorrow, driver announcements are in abundance when it comes to the 2010 Izod Indycar Season.

Let's see what has happened recently. KVRT announced that they signed Takuma Sato to drive one of their Dallara's in 2010. Today, KVRT announced one of the worst kept secrets in the IRL, that they would be running E.J. Viso in 2010 with PDVSA, Herbalife, CANTV and SBA Airlines supporting him.

Today, NHL Racing (and Honda) confirmed that Hideki Mutoh would be running for NHL Racing in 2010 with Formula Dream/Panasonic on the car.

On the Dale Coyne front, I've got some ideas in my head. Milka Duno is getting fitted for a seat for the test at Barber in one of Dale's Dallara's. Try to follow my logic here. Of course, this is all hearsay and hope on my part.

Dale Coyne Racing #19 Boy Scouts America Car will be run by J.R. Hildebrand.
Dale Coyne Racing #18 will be run by Milka Duno on all ovals and a couple of road courses while Jonathan Summerton will fill in on the road courses Milka doesn't run.

How does that sounds? We know J.R. has tested at Coyne, and we know that Jonathan Summerton says he will probably be going to Barber this week to test. Anyone like the sounds of that? Sure, part time for Jonathan wouldn't be as great as full time, but it would be better then no Jonathan!

Alright, back to facts.

Conquest has yet to announce that they signed Mario Romancini for 2010 out of Firestone Indy Lights. He will drive along side another Brazilian who is familiar with the team from 2008, Jaime Camara. Neither of the two drivers have been announced, but Mario should be for the full season, while I'm not sure about Jaime.

As far as I'm concerned, this is two more cars then I previously thought we'd see in 2010 on the grid.

As I was typing, I realized that the entry list for the Barber test this week was posted.

There are 21 cars on the entry list with 3 TBA's (1 from KVRT, Conquest, and HVM each). If you want my opinion, we should assume James Rossiter will be in the KVRT TBA (#32), Mario Romancini in Conquest's machine (#34) and Simona de Silvestro in HVM's only entry (#78). Sarah Fisher and Jay Howard will be sharing the #67 SFR entry.

Absent from the list of entries is Dale Coyne's proposed two cars. I'm not sure if that means they won't attend the test, or if Dale just didn't file the paperwork in time.

I know some teams were considering not attending the tests due to the low ambient and track temperatures predicted at Barber. Supposedly they will be lucky if they hit the 50's in Alabama, which is just about where the Firestone rubber needs to be to function as planned.

So right now, if you assume that each of the cars that attend the Barber test race full or part seasons (SFR is planning two part time efforts), we should see somewhere between 20 to 26 cars at various tracks outside of Indy. You take the 21 cars at Barber, add in two Dale Coyne cars, 1 Conquest, and hopefully one more HVM, and you've got yourself a pretty good lineup.

Oh, and don't forget that Graham Rahal will most likely end up racing somewhere in 2010 in a Dallara.

Tomas Scheckter has some money kickin' around, and Mario Moraes still might have some money kickin' around.

It doesn't look as bad as some are predicting now does it?

EDIT: It was pointed out in a few places that Dan Wheldon and Panther Racing were left off the Barber test entry list. Not sure if they will be attending or not, but please do not start fear mongering that they will not be participating in 2010!

Paul Tracy Officially In at KVRT

Paul Tracy is in at KVRT for Mario Moraes who will not be attending the event due to the passing of his father earlier this week.

Curt Cavin has just confirmed via Twitter that PT is in the number 5 car at KVRT for Mid-Ohio.

Tracy has experience at Mid-Ohio, and he will be in the primary car. He could make some waves this weekend if everything goes according to plan. I wish I was able to watch the race as it turns out it will be a pretty good one with Oriol back at NHL and Doornbos at HVM.

By the way, add another car to the usual car count as both HVM and NHL are running 2 cars this weekend.

Boy, I haven't been this excited about a race since Kentucky!

Let's talk about Bourdais

Alright, Sebastien Bourdais is officially done at the Red Bull baby team of Toro Rosso in F1. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind for all of us IRL fans is, what happens to our favorite whining, snobby, fast, frenchman?

Of course, the top joke is that Sebastien Bourdais and Paul Tracy will both end up at KVRT in 2010, making for a wonderful circus on the Indycar circuit. Call up the camera's and have Versus shoot a reality show following this team around for 2010 and watch the IRL ratings sky rocket.

I've seen a bunch of people asking how long it will take for Newman/Haas/Lanigan to dump Robert Doornbos and replace him with Seabass. I think it's safe to say we can squash that rumor since Doorknobs is paying his own way to run for one of American Open Wheel Racing's most historic team. Unless NHLR finds some funds (which they supposedly had done prior to the season to run Seabass before he re-upped with Toro Rosso), or Bourdais brings some Red Bull money with him as part of being let go, he won't be running in the Indycar's until atleast 2010. Doornbos is here to stay until either his money runs out, or atleast the end of 2009.

Other options or rumors have Bourdais running for AGR in '10 since they have 3 drivers out of contract after 2009. A team of Tony Kanaan and Sebastien Bourdais (if Marco and Hideki move elsewhere) would rival, on paper anyways, Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Throw in a third car at AGR for someone like J.R. Hildebrand or Marco Andretti, and you just think that AGR is much improved over 2009. There are so many open seats at AGR that this is a decent possibility, and a team with all the aero parts needed on ovals, that Bourdais could be a strong competitor right out of the gate.

Other options are Graham Rahal and Bourdais at NHLR in 2010 to reunite the 2008 team that finished 5th and 1st in the final year of the Champ Car World Series. NHLR has a sweet spot for Bourdais after he won them 4 drivers titles in a row, and they worked hard to find him the money to run for them in 2009.

Non-IRL options include driving full time for Peugeot in the Le Mans Series in Europe. His wife enjoys living in Europe and he already has a contract signed with them for the 24 hours of Le Mans. It's a good option for someone who has already made decent money in his career and might want to quiet down with his family. He can also try and hop on with one of the new F1 teams starting in 2010 or look for a seat to open up at the french Renault team. There are atleast 6 seats available for 2010 in F1 and he has experience which could help him land one of the rides.

Yours truly would love to see Bourdais land in the States with Newman/Haas/Lanigan first, and any other IRL team second. But I think seeing Bourdais running in the Indycar series for 2010 is a positive for the depth and talent of the series if someone can run him full time. Problem is, he probably doesn't bring any money which is an issue in these times. Hopefully the economy picks up a tad bit before the end of the year.

We have to wait and see what happens. Rumors will spiral out of control and I'm sure Bourdais to Ferrari will show up, and Bourdais to Penske will show up. For now though, let's watch Bourdais and Wilson running in the rain at Mexico City in '06.

Multiple Notes

Bunch of news broke today. I go out with the lady friend for a few hours and return to see multiple emails and news reports having to do with the IRL. Scrolling through all the blogs, I see a whole bunch of new things and my mind hits IRL-overload. Let's see what I can talk about this time around.

Probably the most important thing is that Vitor Meira will be going home tomorrow. To go along with that, probably the most exciting news is that Paul Tracy will be in Milwaukee running in his place. The 40 year old former CCWS Champion will run this weekend for A.J. Foyt Enterprises in the number 14 car. No news if this will continue until the Canadian events where KVRT have agreed to run him already. As for now, take it as a one race deal. Personally, on a track like Milwaukee, I think Paul Tracy can compete and finish near the front. Aero doesn't matter as much here, and PT get's two extra hours of track time to get back to speed on the Milwaukee Mile. Instead of using that time to get reacclimated to a car, he'll be able to use that time to set his car up, giving him a big advantage over the other veterans. Score one for the guys in the blue masks.

It seems like Conquest is bailing from Milwaukee. They are no where to be seen on the entry list for this weekends race. Maybe this is the team that won't be competing after Indy like the bartender was talking about back in early May. You would have to assume they are atleast guarenteed for the two Canadian races if not more of the road courses.

One of the emails I got was from the Luczo Dragon Racing. Luczo Dragon hasn't won any races yet, and they may never win a race in the IRL for all I know, but damn, they have some sexy lookin' race cars. This weekend they will run the Marines car, and it just looks hot. If you thought the Air Force car was nice, add about 3 Megan Fox's to that and you've got this beautiful Marines livery.

LDR will run the USMC livery at Iowa, Richmond, Watkins Glen, Toronto, Edmonton, Ohio and Infineon on top of the Milwaukee race.

Over at Planet-IRL, Kohl found an article about Duncan Dayton's likely entrance to the IRL with Highcroft in either 2010 or 2011, depending when the new rules come out. He basically says it makes more sense to be in the IRL right now then the ALMS, and then pretty much confirms to the author the article that he'll be in the Indycar Series at some point somehow. I guess Patron and Scott Sharp like it here, either that, or ALMS fans drink more wine and champagne then Tequila. I could get used to Patron if they moved over to the IRL.

I stopped by the Gryphon tonight, spoke to the barkeeper again. I'll have that post up tomorrow morning. He did confirm that PT would be in the car at Milwaukee, but it was so sudden he didn't know about the other races. A couple nice tidbits so make sure you stop by at some point tomorrow folks.

34 Confirmed

Once you count 1 Rahal-Letterman car (Servia) and the third KVRT car (Townsend Bell), we've just hit 34 cars confirmed. So we've basically confirmed bumping, unless someone doesn't make it to qualifying due to crash damage or something along those lines.

With Rookie Orientation finishing tomorrow due to the rain, we should see who is here for the full month tomorrow.

So let's recap the confirmed one offs.

• A.J. Foyt IV - A.J. Foyt Enterprises
• Buddy Lazier - Hemelgarn
• Scott Sharp - Panther
• Paul Tracy - KVRT
• Nelson Philippe - HVM
• John Andretti - D&R
• Davey Hamilton - D&R
• Alex Lloyd - Sam Schmidt
• Townsend Bell - KVRT
• Oriol Servia - RLR
• Will Power - Penske

Sure, I threw Will Power in there as a one-off, simply because the kid is in such a difficult position, and he is basically a one-off unless HCN or the Briscoe gets hurt (knock on wood) at some point during the season.

This has to be the most talented one-off fields since the split. You could make a strong argument for atleast 10 of the 11 to have a full time ride in the ICS, and you could pick 3 winners from this group (Power, Tracy and Sharp) and multiple outside bets (Servia, Lloyd, Foyt IV, and Bell). I'd be willing to bet money (with odds of course) that one of the one-offs will win this years version of the 500.

Whatever happens, this years race is shaping up to be quite a doozy. This much talent + the most historic track in the world = A Dream, and we get to live it.

Edit: Jeff over at MyNameIsIRL has informed me that Stanton Barrett's lack of sponsorship might drop him out of 500 contention.

Paul Tracy/Geico to KVRT for I500

Paul Tracy has been announced by KVRT to run the I500 with Geico sponsorship. He will be driving the number 15 KVRT machine with extensive Geico signage.

Max Papis was on hand at the announcement in Long Beach as a Geico driver. Due to Max' past efforts at Indy, you would have to wonder if Max would jump into PT's T-car if PT makes it on the first weekend of qualifying.

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.

Barber Outlook

March 21st until March 23rd, the IRL will be holding testing for both the ICS and FIL series at Barber Motorsports Park. The FIL cars will be on track on the 21st for 7 hours while the ICS cars will take to the track for 14 hours on the course over the last two days.

The Homestead test in February brought 21 ICS entries to the track for testing. That number seems to be the low end opinion for the car count in 2009. However, I think we'll get a better feeling regarding the car count and the location of each of the free agent drivers once we see who shows up with who at Barber.

Expected cars are all those that tested at the Homestead test plus a second HVM car for Ryan Hunter-Reay. Things look like they are falling into place for RHR to land with his former team back in the CART days.

So, unofficially we are looking at a minimum of 22 entries for the test most likely.

2 Penske
2 TCGR
4 AGR
3 NHLR
2 HVM
1 KVRT
1 Panther
1 D&R
1 Foyt
1 Vision
1 Luczo Dragon
1 Dale Coyne
1 Conquest
1 3G/Beck

Now, this Conquest entry is not a guarentee due to their struggles finding money, but I would put my money on them making the trip with atleast one car. Eric Bachelart has found ways to run cars on shoe string budgets, and usually once all hope dies, he finds a way to make something work.

Now, the fun part about this test is trying to figure out who will show up for the test that wasn't previously around. Rumours are swirling around about 2 cars at various outfits. Let's do a run down of the 1-car teams and who might move to 2 cars for the test and/or the season.

KVRT - Jimmy Vasser has been quoted as saying they hope to have 2 cars from Indy on. So, it seems like they will be at one car to start the season.

Panther - No news regarding a second car to supplement Wheldon. Rumours of a second car over the off-season never came to be, atleast it seems that way.

D&R - Dreyer & Reinbold is much like Conquest where they seem to be able to put deals together to get cars on the track. Nothing has come out in rumors asides from the Wilson to D&R whispers earlier this off-season, but they seem to be quelled now that he is at DCR. They could surprise us with a second car at the test.

Foyt - Don't expect anything more then Meira out of Foyt until the 500, unless they have found some money to run IV but that is unlikely.

Vision - Tony George seems adament he isn't spending the money for a second car. Unfortunately it looks like he isn't going to give in, and will only run one car. IV will not be in the car at Barber.

Luczo Dragon - They are set as a one car team for 2009.

Dale Coyne - Dale Coyne has run 2 cars as far back as I can remember, mind you that isn't all that far back for some reason. But with rumours that he offered a second seat to Paul Tracy in front of Bruno Junqueira, you would think he is planning to run a second car. They could show up at Barber with two cars, without having to worry about heavy crash damage to a car like they did at Homestead.

Conquest - Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like they have found any money between the Homestead test and now. Hopefully they have and kept it on the downlow, but hope for 1 car from them. Eric Bachelart will probably find a way to get there.

3G/Beck - Unless something dramatic happened for the team, they will be a one car team for 2009, and expect Stanton Barrett to continue his ICS training at Barber.

Now, the other possibility we are looking at is Rubicon Racing. They are rumoured to have $6.5 million in sponsorship, and are looking at running Buddy Rice for '09. But the longer they wait to announce something, the longer I doubt they are actually going to make the grid this year. And you'd think they'd want to make it to a test if they are going to run a full season. We also have to look for Tomas Scheckter to land somewhere with his $2-3 million, Vision maybe?

Whatever way you look at it, the field looks deep with atleast 22 cars ready to hit the test at Barber and ready to hit the grid at St. Pete in about 3 weeks. Out of all the cars headed to the test, I expect atleast 21 of them to make the grid, plus atleast one more car to enter the competition. 22 cars in this economy seems like a pretty good number. Especially since the number of cars seems poised to grow after the I500, we seem to be in a good situation for the full season despite what some others are saying.

As a side note, the Sebring 12 hours (ALMS) is running this weekend, and in particular, Franchitti and Dixon are running for Acura with Patron and de Ferran respectively in their LMP1 cars. This leaves me wondering if Ganassi will run 2 cars at the Barber test on the first day, or if they will run 1 car with Alex Lloyd or no cars since the 12 hours ends at 10:30 on Sunday, the first day of the Barber test. Maybe they will use this chance to run Lloyd and another Lights driver to gain the bonus testing miles.

BTW, The Other Side Blog is closing in the next 19 hours, so make sure you drop off your vote for this years biggest storyline.

NHL Top non-Big 3 Team?

Yep, that's what you folks said, well, the majority of the few people who voted anyways.

NHL Racing won hands down, like 80% for them, then the pity votes for everyone else. But really, I don't think this was a hard one. NHL has been a perrenial powerhouse in AOWR, and their resurgence after a year of mediocrity due to a new chassis/little preparation time will not be a surprise at all. Especially with a third car now to draw information from, even if it is Milka Duno, they will be tough to discount on ovals or road courses.

One team I think didn't get enough credit is KVRT. They showed some good speed at the test, surprising many drivers and teams. Their down fall will be the fact they refuse to run 2 cars. That will hurt Moraes shot at race wins in my opinion.

Anyways, check in the poll section (scroll down a bit, to the right) and vote on this weeks question.

It gives me something to talk about...

One KVRT Car, Until 500 Anyways

Well, according to the article on Indycar.com it sounds like KVRT is starting the year with one car.

"He's still young and learning a lot, but we were impressed with him last year,"
said Vasser, who is hopeful that he and co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven will assemble to funding to add a second car to the grid starting with the 93rd Indianapolis 500. "When you can be on par with or quicker than Bruno Junqueira on a road course, that's saying something. And he was really getting racy on the last few ovals and he's still on a steep learning curve. He's doing a great job."

So I guess we can count on one car from them for sure for the first three races, and hope that they get either PT or Servia (or another ride buyer) into the second car from Indy on. Maybe they are hoping their second car wins the 500 so they can use that money to run 2 cars the rest of the year?

I am still in awe of how Kalkhoven can run only one car when he is a friggen billionaire. I guess he and Tony could team up and run a team, then we'd have two rich guys run a car each, and they would still never win.