It's Silly Season Time

Silly Season is kicking it into high gear. Rumors and facts are flying around like crazy and it's hard to tell what is happening, and where it's happening.

This is the season of deciphering bablefish translations from various countries. This is the season of sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to see who will and won't show up. This is the season that makes you go moan and complain. But ultimately, this is simply the precursor to the season that really matters. Once the 2010 Izod Indycar Series season starts, the Silly Season is just a thing of the past.

But until that happens, Silly Season is all we have to go by (asides from a bunch of different designs for 2012). So I figure I'll go through each team and see what is happening driver wise.

Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing

Rumors have been flying around about anything from a 3 car team (Rahal, Lloyd, Mutoh) to a 0 car team. There are problems at the ownership level according to Robin Miller and that is causing problems. Sounds like Lanigan will soon not be part owner of the team.

Right now, Hideki Mutoh has just been confirmed by Autosport and a few other publications as solidifying his ride at NHL Racing in 2010. That guarentees NHL Racing will stay on the grid in 2010 which is a very good thing. I guess it's possible they put together a package for Rahal or Lloyd is able to get his HER Energy sponsorship back in line before the season begins. But as for right now, it seems as though NHL will be a 1 car team in 2010.

Target Chip Ganassi Racing

TCGR seems set with two cars between Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti. Efforts to put Graham Rahal in the third car are probably still on going, but Chip made it sound like it won't happen, mentioning that all sponsorship possibilities were for the 2011 season. Unless something major happens, look for Ganassi to be a two car team in 2010, a very good two car team.

Team Penske/Penske Racing

Roger Penske has set his organization up well with a 3 car effort in 2010. You've got to think that Ryan Briscoe wants to make up for his disappointing ending to 2009, and he has Helio Castroneves and Will Power pushing him. Any three of these guys are 2010 Championship contenders, and expect them to be battling with Ganassi as usual.

HVM Racing

After a tough off-season and questions surrounding the team and who would be driving for it in 2010, I feel like we got some sort of confirmation from Robert Doornbos via Twitter that he will be racing this season with HVM (through E-Factor sponsorship, I believe). Don't take that as confirmation, but I'm thinking it's a distinct possibility.

As for Simona de Silvestro, I'm not sure how that's going to go. I know she tested a FIL car on an oval, and testing one of HVM's Dallara's on a road course with Stargate colors on her car, however, the producers of the Stargate games just went bankrupt, so we'll see what effect that has on her ability to land a 2010 ICS ride with their backing.

So in 2010, expect Robert Doornbos to land on the grid with HVM. Asides from that, Simona de Silvestro has an outside shot at the second seat, if she can find the money to drive that car.

Andretti Autosport

Between Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, and Danica Patrick, Michael Andretti has set himself up well for a good three car squad in 2010. Add to that the potential of Ryan Hunter-Reay running anywhere from 5 events to the full season, you have to think that Andretti Autosport is ready to jump back into competition near the top of the field with Ganassi and Penske. Tony Kanaan now has RHR to share setup information with, which will then be used by Marco and Danica.

Expect AA to run back where they belong, up front with the big boys in 2010 with 3-4 cars depending on where they are and how much money they find.

KVRT

KVRT are the big movers this offseason. In 2009 they ran 1 car for Mario Moraes, and a second car at selected races for Paul Tracy. Now, after struggling all off-season to find sponsorship for Mario Moraes, they seem poised to run 3 cars full time between Takuma Sato (Confirmed), E.J. Viso (Not confirmed, but close enough), and James Rossiter (Not comfirmed, but very rumored). Add Paul Tracy at selected events, that makes 4 cars at KVRT every now and then quite possible.

KVRT also apparently signed Nelson Merlo, a Brazilian, for the opening round of the championship in Sao Paolo.

Then you wonder what happens to Mario Moraes. The kid had problems with funding once his father passed away, but Curt Cavin said he believed Moraes had his finances figured out and would be returning to Indycars this season. So does this mean KVRT will run 4 full time cars in 2010? Or will Moraes have to bring his skills elsewhere?

Panther Racing

This former power house 1 car team seems set to continue in it's ways. Dan Wheldon is back at Panther in 2010, mainly since there were no other openings available. There were rumors that Giorgio Pantano would bring money for a second Panther car, but those rumors have died down substantially.

Expect one National Guard Panther Racing car in 2010.

Luczo Dragon/De Ferran Racing

Luczo Dragon picked up a strong ally in Gil de Ferran this past week. With Raphael Matos returning to his seat full time in 2010, this team looks keen to build on a good rookie season.

In the presser, the team was asked about running a second car, to which they said they were planning on 1 car, but working on some new developments for a second car. Maybe look for Ana Beatriz in the second car, or maybe even Graham Rahal if Gil can pull something out of his rear end.

FAZZT Race Team

This team is set with 1 car for 2010. Sponsorship hasn't really been announced aside from the opening race, but Alex Tagliani will be driving the number 77 Dallara.

Expect a second car from them for Indianapolis and maybe the two Canadian races. Daniel Morad and James Hinchcliffe have been rumored for the second seat at those races.

Conquest Racing

The biggest question surrounding Conquest is whether they will get to the grid or not. Rumors are flowing that they could field anywhere from 1-3 pay drivers are various races throughout the season. Names like Jan Heylan, Bruno Junqueira, and Ana Beatriz have been rumored, with Bruno and Jan attending the winter meetings with Eric Bachelart.

This team always finds a way to put something together, even if it isn't for the full season. Bachelart finds a way to keep his employees employed rather then out on the street.

Look for Conquest to make various starts, but don't really expect a full season.

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing

D&R recently announced their two car team consisting of Mike Conway and Justin Wilson. Seems this will be their first year in a while without a large mix of drivers coming in and out of the team. Reports say they have stepped up their game as well, so 2010 should be a good year for them. Maybe expect an extra car at Indy for John Andretti again?

Dale Coyne Racing

As usual Dale hasn't announced his drivers yet, but he did announce a new partnership with the Boy Scouts of America program and that he planned on running two cars in 2010. J.R. Hildebrand tested for DCR at Sebring recently in one of the teams Dallara's. Coyne has made no secrets that he has tried to sign Graham Rahal to the BSA car, but Robin Miller says the contract is too long term for Graham to spend at DCR. Dale is trying to build a program with continuity, and just as he offered a two year deal to Justin Wilson, you would think he did the same for Graham Rahal.

RM is also reporting that Milka Duno could land in the second DCR seat (shame!).

Sarah Fisher Racing

Sarah Fisher Racing is expanding to two cars for certain events this season. They hired Jay Howard to run 4 races in 2010 with Kingdom Tire backing, alongside Sarah who will be running 9 races backed by Dollar General.

Look for some good things from Sarah on the ovals with her new Dallara this season. Hoping to see her turn some heads now that she will be on track a little more often.

Team 3G

This team is anyones guess. Let's face it, does anyone even know if they still exist?

A.J. Foyt Enterprises

I originally forgot to include them in the silly season report, even after I just read the feature on Vitor Meira at Foyt in 2010. My thanks to Rick who mentioned Foyt in the comment section.

Foyt will be represented by 1 car in 2010 driven by Vitor Meira. Or course, AJ would enter another car if the league needed it I think. Rick did mention Rahal at Foyt as an intriguing idea, but I doubt the thought has crossed Graham's mind.

Expect 1 car from Foyt with maybe 1 or 2 more cars at Indy.



These are all the teams I can think of. I'm sure if I'm missing someone, I'll be reminded of it on the comments section. Hope this silly season update was helpful for you all. I'll try to post a car count idea relatively soon.

Edmonton Rexall Indy 2010

The city of Edmonton has confirmed that it will run the 2010 Rexall Edmonton Indy despite large financial losses in the first two years of the event under IRL sanctioning.

Edmonton City Council has voted unanimously to run the race in 2010 to fulfill it's contractual obligation to the Indy Racing League. Mayor of Edmonton Stephen Mandel has even gone so far as to say that losses are expected to be less then 2009 citing poor sponsorship and luxury box sales that will be remedied in 2010.

"Every councillor realizes that we can't be a city that doesn't honour our commitments," said Coun. Kim Krushell. "Yes, we're moving forward with 2010. Are we happy about losing dollars? No."

Will Power won the 2009 version of the race for Penske Racing, leading from start to finish.

I'm happy to see the race return. Seeing Edmonton pay the fees to cancel the race would leave a blackeye on the IRL and would hurt all the good vibes we have going on right now. On top of that, I think we do not have enough races north of the border (ahem, Montreal or Vancouver, Vancouver would fill in the Northwest nicely).

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.

The Other Side - Poll of the Week

Last weeks poll was a short one, so votes were limited, however, we still had 18 people check a box to pick which team would win the Indy 500. Even though there was a small sample size, I still cannot believe Target Chipsahoy Racing only got 2 votes. For a team that had the previous two Indy 500 winners, I expected them to be right up there with Penske, however, they were behind Penske and AGR, and tied with a team that has limited experience at the Brickyard in Newman/Haas/Lanigan.

This weeks question is a bit of a doozie. You're going to have to use your thinkers for this one as some math and guestimations will have to go into it.

Who will finish the 2009 point standings higher? Milka Duno, Paul Tracy, Stanton
Barrett, Vitor Meira, or Tomas Scheckter?

This one should be fun to see whose logic places who where.

The Other Side - Poll of the Week

Alright, well last week, Poll was all about Will Power and the options Roger Penske had in regards to his signed talent. Well, some of you spoke, and a large group of you thought he would simply run him at Indy while the rest basically though he'd either ship him off to another team or run 3 cars full time.

I guess I was the only one who thought he'd run him until he dropped out of the points race. Oh well, I guess I'm a tad different then the rest of you.

So this weeks question is all about the current 1-off entries. Who will qualify the highest of the current one-offs? Right now we have 8 one-off entries, so scroll down the page a bit and let me know who you think will qualify the highest by voting in the poll, and let me know how high you think they'll qualify in the comments section, I'd like to hear your opinions.

The Other Side - Poll of the Week

Alright, after neglecting my weekly poll function the last few weeks, mostly due to my horrific exam schedule, I've decided to throw up a new question. I'd appreciate it if all you fine folks throw down your opinion. This weeks question is about the affects of Helio's freedom, the affects it has on the media circus called Team Penske. Basically, Ryan Briscoe and HCN are both safe through the end of the year at minimum, but now Will Power could possibly lose his ride, while sitting second in the point standings, the highest placing Penske driver in points.

Now, we know Penske has entered WP in the 500, but he hasn't committed to anything else involving WP. The latest rumors are that Verizon will be coming on board as a sponsor with the IRL, and will stay on with WP for atleast selected events, but this is not confirmed at all.

So basically, I want to know what my readers think. Scroll down the page and find the poll on the right and vote, and if you feel like it, leave a comment about the situation in the comment section. I'm interested into hearing what you guys think will happen.

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.

Singular Effort

What do the three cars above all have in common?

Sure, they are all Dallara's, they all have Honda engine packages and run on Firestone tires. But there is something a little less obvious that is outside of the picture.

These three cars are all poised to be single-car teams this coming season. Hell, they aren't the only ones. If I wanted to include all of the one car teams for this season, I'd need a picture as long as Marty Roth's damage receipt.

• Panther - Wheldon
• A.J. Foyt Enterprises - Meira
• Vision - Carpenter
• Conquest - Camara/Tagliani
• Dreyer & Reinbold - Conway
• Luczo Dragon - Matos
• 3G/Beck - Barrett
• KVRT - Moraes

I didn't throw HVM in there as it is likely RHR will land a ride with them, after getting the testing gig at Barber at the next group test.

And now-a-days, the success of one car teams is minimal. A rare victory for Rahal Letterman at Watkins Glen in '08 was the first win for a one car team since the Delphi Indy 300 at Chicagoland in 2004 by Adrian Fernandez (By the way Mr. Fernandez, Indy is calling you, they would love to have you back in the series).

I'm sure many of the teams listed above would love to see that trend reverse itself for 2009, and who is to say it won't? But in all honesty, many of these teams will be happy with an occasional top-5 performance. It seems that now, to keep up, teams need that second car to 'use' in a way. Information sharing between cars is vital to nailing down the right setup. Team work and cooperation is critical to winning races. The old "2 heads is better then 1" routine comes to mind. Also, 2 cars simply have better odds to win a race for a team then 1 car does.

Then we look at the Big-3 (plus NHL Racing). They are all multi-car efforts, 2 each for Ganassi and Penske, then 3 and 4 for NHL and AGR respectively. Obviously, we all see how strong these teams are compared to the rest of the field, but how easy would it be for some of these one-car teams to make that step up to Big-3 plus 1 status? I mean, does a team like Panther, who competes constantly near the top of the best of the rest find sponsorship for a second car and jump into championship contender status? Possibly.

But here is a real measure of the strength of multi-car efforts. This year, if Dale Coyne is able to run 2 cars (I suspect he will), and he surpasses most of the 1-car efforts, it should prove how much stronger a mediocre 2-car team is compared to many 1-car teams.

I think the point I'm trying to get across to you is this. Maybe the IRL is not dominated by the Big-3 simply because they are stronger and better then everyone else. Maybe the Big-3 dominated because the lowly-7 aren't able to take that step towards the top to join them. If the Big-3 are maxed out, which in a spec chassis world with little development available, is quite possible, maybe the lower teams just need to get close to maxing out themselves, but without a second car, won't be able to do that.

Once this economic recession or depression or concussion dissapears I think you will start to see some of these 1-car teams find the 2-car and 3-car team budgets and join the top ranks to create some more competitiveness. Until that happens, I doubt we'll see a whole lot of teams aside from the Big-3 and NHLR winning races, especially in '09.