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!

Day of Truth

Well, today is the last day before the final qualifying days at Indy take place. As of now, we are short on cars, to make bump day exciting anyways, but rumors are flying around about potential drivers and teams and different combinations and such.

The worse offender in all this has been Tomas Scheckter who has been rumored to go to 1 team (Team 3G) about 3 times now in different circumstances, and rumored to be in cars at 3 other teams (Conquest, Dale Coyne, A.J. Foyt Enterprises) for the 500-Mile race. Finally, it seems he has landed at Coynes growing (in performance, not size) operation. He has brought a sponsor to the fold, however, no one really knows who that sponsor is since there has been no mention of it yet.

16th and Georgetown has heard rumors Buddy Rice either has or is close to sponsorship to lock up a ride in the 500 which would boost the car count for qualifying and bump day up a bit more.

On top of Tomas Scheckter, we also have a minimum 3 other guys running 2nd week engine packages. These include, T. Bell, Indy 500 Champ Buddy Lazier, and super-sub Oriol Servia. Servia and Bell jumped into the cars yesterday and ran fast while Lazier is taking a bit longer getting up to speed in the older Hemelgarn ride. Townsend and Oriol both have the luxury of jumping into well prepared cars for teams who have either done well or are doing well in Rahal-Letterman and KVRT.

If we don't see the cars by today, or hear news about someone hopping in a car tomorrow for qualifying day practice or bump day practice, I doubt we will see the cars. Hopefully we get a couple more because right now we are stuck on 13 driver/car combo's trying to qualify for the final 11 spots. Hopefully A.J. Foyt throws Jeff Simmons or someone in his third entry and has them bump Milka out or something like that to up the field.

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.

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.

Shamrock Racing Announces It Two Drivers for the 2009 Season

Thank you very much for being here everyone on such short notice. This announcement came together quickly once this sponsorship deal was put agreed upon. In this tough economic time, we are happy to have Happy Go Lucky Shamrocks on our sidepods for the 2009 season in time to compete with the top teams in the IRL.

Now I'd like to introduce to you our newly formed lineup. Both drivers will be driving our new Honda powered Dallaras.

Please welcome Justin Wilson and Ryan Hunter-Reay to the Shamrock Racing.

Obviously by now, you know this is a fake press release. RHR and JDub would love to see a Shamrock Racing become a reality so they could have a ride in '09. If I had found a sponsor to go racing it would had been done by now. Actually, that might be a story for another time, when I was in discussions to start up a new Champ Car team with a strong backer (now that I think of it, I will probably go take a look to see if I have the paint scheme renderings on the computer downstairs still). Anyways, back to the topic at hand.

This entry is in response to the UOWWB Question of the Week. If you aren't aware of the question, it asks which 2 unemployed IRL drivers would you employ for your raceteam. Since Paul Tracy wasn't included in the list, I chose Justin Wilson and Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Personally, I feel these are two of the most talented drivers without a ride in '09, with maybe only Servia competing for that second spot with RHR. I think between RHR and JW, they would cover both the strengths of the Oval and the Streets and Road Courses of the IRL. RHR would be the team leader on ovals, while Wilson would take control on the twisties.

I also think that both these men are the easiest to sell to sponsors as drivers. RHR is a pure-bred American with a good attitude. He probably brings a little bit of money with him from iZod as well. Justin sold shares of himself to try and get into F1, and after that, CCWS. I'm not sure how many of you got to know him last year, but he has an awesome personality to match his driving skills.

And I think the main reason I'd choose these guys, asides from their talent, is they are some of the hardest workers in AOWR, and they should not be out of a ride in the first place. It's unfortunate the way things went down, but someone has to throw them a rope. Both these guys have been kicked while they were down, and it seems this will happen again if no one steps up and helps them out.

I think these two gentlemen would give Shamrock Racing a fighting chance at podiums and the odd win with their diverse skills on Ovals and right hand turns. They have the skill, the drive, and the speed to drive with the best of them, and they'll put butts in the seats for the IRL.