2010 Silly Season

[JagtechOhio]

From Viso's webpage, translated from Spanish, apparently six cars ran at Sebring today...although some could have been Indy Lights.

It's safe to assume Hidebrand and Viso were in cars today. Also from Viso's site:


"Viso, who hopes to secure a place in American education for the Launching of the Indycar championship beginning March 14 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, worked during the morning session and the afternoon shoot his place was taken by two pilots are also in negotiations with the formation KV. "

I saw a photo of a guy on street clothes who might have been Taku.

Edit: the photo is on Viso's site, in the gallery if you're interested.

[marcostraz]

The colour of the car of Viso's test is from the car n.5...this means that Moraes is out?

[marcostraz]

Originally Posted by JagtechOhio

I saw a photo of a guy on street clothes who might have been Taku.

I saw...I don't think is Sato...

[JagtechOhio]

Thanks for that marco, and I agree with you. I spent a while looking at photos trying to identify that guy last night, and can't say who it is.

No other word on who might have been in the car though, or anything else about the test day yet.

[Alwaysfirst]

I saw that photo & I was fairly confident that it was Sato. The person was certainly the right kind of height for him & if it wasn't him then what is his doppelganger doing at Sebring!?

[Tim Northcutt]

Luczo Dragon and de Ferran Motorsports have merged operations...de Ferran will manage the racing operation and he will be a co-owner and partner.

However, as of now, it does not add to the car count...Only Matos will be driving thus far. Should make that team more competitive on the track

[JagtechOhio]

Yeah, I remember reading about assembling team owners the day Vision closed to examine such possibilities. Great to see that Penske, Luczo and De Ferran devised an actionable strategy long before.

So if Sato has a check, isn't he just as likely to be talking to De Ferran today as he is to KV?

And Tim, do you not answer my mail anymore?

[Tim Northcutt]

Originally Posted by JagtechOhio

Yeah, I remember reading about assembling team owners the day Vision closed to examine such possibilities. Great to see that Penske, Luczo and De Ferran devised an actionable strategy long before.

So if Sato has a check, isn't he just as likely to be talking to De Ferran today as he is to KV?

And Tim, do you not answer my mail anymore?

I've been in meetings all day and just got into a ton of e-mails...

Got your message and I'll answer you following yet another meeting that I have in about 20 minutes.

[JagtechOhio]

Cheers.

No news out of Hildebrand other than some discussion about his test with Coyne. No Moraes news anywhere, or mention of who else was in a car Monday.

[JagtechOhio]

Well Alwaysfirst, then I can be fairly confident that Sato has a check. He has announced a press conference in Tokyo for the 18th, and Jimmy Vasser tweeted that he's flying to Japan now.

Sounds like a good probability, and that would get him in the seat for the Barber test if they choose.

[Yannick]

It would be a shame if Moraes was out of a drive because he showed so much potential last year. Maybe the team he debuted with, Dale Coyne, has got a drive for him?

[JagtechOhio]

Yannick, completely agreed, Conway showed some good mettle at times too.

I don't think Mario has a check. Right now I'm real curious about Mutoh too, a lot of people are assuming he has a N/H/L set but I'm not buying it yet. I don't think he can, either.

[JagtechOhio]

Mountainstar dropped this warning about two weeks ago here, and I just read this today:

"Marsall Pruett live on 'Midweek Motorsport' IndyCar series likely to lose one major team this week www.radiolemans.com"

Maybe somebody could have a listen. My bet is still N/H/L to not make the gate.

[JagtechOhio]

Hinchcliffe made some noise last night, and I hoped it was going to be about a ride in a second FAZZT Racing entry (they own four cars, one will be piloted by Tags).

This is what happens when reality meets wishful thinking:

"Today it was announced that J. Strous was out of the Team Moore FIL seat, now it's been confirmed that James Hinchcliffe will run it in 2010".

Anither Indy Lights driver, they are somewhere around ten right now but I have not been watching closely.

[JagtechOhio]

Apparently Takumo Sato did a little driving in the KV car, and everyone was satisfied:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81564

I presume that KV will now run two fulltime entries for Sato and E.J. Viso.

Where this leaves Mario Moraes is unknown. Sato's check may have been the one that Mutoh was expecting. Where this leaves him, and N/H/L/ Racing, is unknown.

The good news looks like:

Conway
Wilson
Power
Castroneves
Briscoe
Dixon
Franchitti
Tagliani
Andretti
Patrick
Kanaan
Wheldon
Matos
Viso
Sato
Meira

If you want to count the combined entries of SFR as ONE fulltime addition, fine.

If you want to count RHR's half-season confirmations as a full season ride, fine.

That's 18 by my count to date.

[JagtechOhio]

Ok, I wrote this for fun a little while ago...now Moraes is also on the outside looking in, and his name could be added to it.

So while public discussion swirls around events that will not happen for two years, this is the sort of stuff being said today that we won't be hearing....

View from the Izod marketing office:

#1 "So how'd the new TV spots come out?"

#2 "Great, we flew some drivers to Panama and did the shoot. Helicoters and everything"

#1 "You didn't use the one I wrote, the one with AJ in it?"

#2 "Not yet. We went for the 'trendy hipster' angle. It will rock your world"

#1 "Awesome. So our three "cars and stars" guys are Hunter-Reay, Rahal and Carpenter? What color cars will they be in?"

#2 "Here's the new Izod car for Ryan. Spectacular. Ed's car might be yellow, Graham's car might be...."

#1 "Might be what?"

#2 "Missing".

#1 "Crissake. All the races? But the other two will be there, right? At all the races?"

#2 "Ryan will drive our Izod car at Indy, that was our main goal from day one. He even has a decent shot at winning it. And he has plans to do maybe seven more, but that number could grow"..

#1 "And Ed?"

#2 "Let me get back to you on that one".

#1 "Great. Three million to put our Izod car in half the races, an offshore extravaganza for a commercial, and the media buys for airing it are all signed."

#2 "Yeah, and we're still under budget. Everythin's gonna be awright."

#1 "This deal better sell us a sh*t load of T shirts".

#2 "Oh, one other thing. We lost our driver for the two-seater"

#1 "WHAT ? You know darn sure I better be getting my ride at the Indy 500"

#2 "It's all good. Davey Hamilton will be racing in the 500. Couple other shows too."

#1 "OK, then you didn't misplace him. I like Davey, too bad he wasn't one of our poster boys. Who else we got? To drive the two seater, I mean?"

#2 "There's a few... a lot choices. Let me check with my two sources in Ohio, they know everything. Couple of racing geeks."

"1 "Yeah, right. Two corn farmers, prolly. Just find me a driver for the two-seater, that's all I'm worried about. You have no idea how much that seat is gonna cost me".

#2 "Yeah, I've been hearing that a lot lately."

[marcostraz]

Another rumor says Scheckter and Conquest together...

[luke]

This all reminds me of Champ Car in it's years after CART where good drivers would make it into the series then the next year be looking around for lower end 1 car teams as the teams they were at needed money and had to down-size.

They really need this new car as i've lost pretty much all interest last year apart from when Tracy was racing.

[Stefvh]

http://world.honda.com/news/2010/c10...orts-Overview/

So Mutoh is confirmed at NHLR ?

[JagtechOhio]

Good find, Stef.

That's the first place I've seen in print that N/H/L was going to run a car, and that Mutoh has a seat in one. Let's hope it's true.

[JagtechOhio]

This is fresh news from Robin Miller, and we can all hope it is accurate:

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...gered-species/

If Dunno and Mutoh have full season deals, that would bring the total to 18 and provide a good chance that no less than 20 cars would be on the grid for each race. To me, that's good enough to avert disaster.

Izod pulling their backing would be.

[skells22]

any news of a UK channel showing this as it is only 3 weeks away now

[NaBUru38]

ESPN showed ten races last year in Hispanic America - same five as ABC in the United States plus the final five. They will broadcast the first few 2010 races, although I'm not sure whether they have rights for the full season.

Robin Miller says: "convincing U.S. companies to invest in a series where the majority of the races are on VERSUS is obviously a huge hurdle". That was unnecessary.

[HJJ]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

Robin Miller says: "convincing U.S. companies to invest in a series where the majority of the races are on VERSUS is obviously a huge hurdle". That was unnecessary.

Uh, no it wasn't. When you have a platform (gawd, I hate that word) that is showing your product and your only pulling in a .3 rating or some such low number it is huge hurdle. It just shows how bad management is at "the league" headquarters. The cowboy has his work cutout for him.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by HJJ

Uh, no it wasn't. When you have a platform (gawd, I hate that word) that is showing your product and your only pulling in a .3 rating or some such low number it is huge hurdle. It just shows how bad management is at "the league" headquarters. The cowboy has his work cutout for him.

The rating itself isn't necessarily the problem but rather teams are asking for $4 million for a logo on a car going by at 220 mph and it's one of many cars. If they were asking for $25,000 it might be a different story.