IndyCar Silly Season

[marcus]

This Indian bloke ?

Ive heard alot about him for years but never seen him race , is he any good ?

[Down F0rce]

Oh no, sorry, I was meaning P.J. Chesson.

[marcus]

heard alot about him too but no idea what hes like ?

I well out of the loop and way to drunk to bother at this point in time

[GP Racer]

PJ is a real hot-shoe, but in more ways than one. He's very quick, fearless, and will make passes that others wouldn't. His problem seems to be, from what I've read and seen, is that he's a real X-Games kind of guy, you know, undisciplined, rough around the edges, little respect for the sport or it's history.

Apparently, he threw part of his head rest out of the car to cause a yellow. Mo's wife was really upset by it, and who can blame her, this isn't NASCAR! He also got into an argument with none other than Rick Mears, one of the sports greatest drivers. Not a good thing to do, if you want a future in the sport! So this kid will need to settle himself down, alot!

As for the Indian, all I hear is that he's the fastest Indian driver ever, although he's probably the only Indian driver ever!

He has had a shot at F1 once, but I forget which team.

Cmon marcus, sober up will ya! This is no way for someone in your lofty position to be acting... Shameful I tell ya...

[Down F0rce]

He wouldn't be the same one that drove for Jaguar's British F3 team would he?

[GP Racer]

He was an F3 driver, and Red Bull sponsored, so chances are good it was Jaguar.

[BSchneiderFan]

Karthikeyan did, IIRC, drive for Stewart/Jaguar in F3, and probably tested for them briefly in F1. I've always thought he had promise, though a lot of it often seemed to go unfulfilled.

[JohnSSC]

There was a Prince Bira, I believe, who ran in F1 in the 40's or 50's who was from India also.

Paul Tracy probably read about what PJ did and wondered why he hadn't thought of that himself! Seems up his alley anyway!

[BSchneiderFan]

I think Prince Bira was Thai, actually.

[BootsOntheSide]

Prince Bira and Alex Yoong are I beleive the only two non-Japanese Asian drivers of any description to race in F1. Narain is a good driverr, but not thebest that's been looking to F1 in recent years. He did test for Jordan a couple of years ago as well.

[GP Racer]

As most of you guys know, I havn't been able to get onto the Kelley Racing web-site for about 3 weeks. A Ft. Wayne newspaper site kept coming up instead.

Well, lo and behold, I tried again this morning, and the Kelley site finally came up. Don't know what was going on. I seemed to be the only one with this problem. No real news on the site though.

Just thought I'd let you guys know.

[GP Racer]

It appears that Childress and Robby Gordon have parted ways over in NASCAR, but Robby will be fielding his own cup team next season!

So whatever happened to Robby's IRL team? He made it sound like he was ready to go with it last year, and even said he had hired team members, and had 2 cars.

What gives?

[Down F0rce]

Look for him at Indy, no doubt.

[rustyfan]

Since doing the Indy/Charlotte double will be impossible from 2005 and onwards, I think Robby Gordon running his own Cup team actually increases the chances of him returning to the Brickyard for next year, as opposed to if he had still been driving for Childress, which probably wouldn't have been so keen on letting him sit out the race at Charlotte to race at Indy.

Then again, we won't know for sure until May next year...

[rustyfan]

Originally posted by GP Racer
Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan, 27, just completed his third season of competition in the European World Series by Nissan (Formula Nippon) with Tata RC Motorsport by earning one victory and a second place result. He had his first laps in an Indy car on the fast Phoenix International Raceway mile oval and completed a protracted rookie test before rain scuttled activities.

I only just now realized how little Robin Miller (from whose article GP lifted the above) seems to know about the motorsport world outside the US sometimes.

World Series by Nissan and Formula Nippon is not the same thing, as Formula Nippon is a completely different championship (basically Japan's own Formula 3000 championship).

A bit late, yeah, but I just noticed it and had to react

On a side-note in the interest of trivia, Formula Nippon is where Naoki Hattori returned to after his ill-fated CART stint in 1999 (where he suffered multiple fractures to his lower left leg in the first race at Homestead and missed most of the season).

[Hazza]

Robin Miller's sole purpose in life is to give some solid flame-bait to die hard CART supporters so they can post on forums - "Robin Miller sais cart rocks!".

Me myself, I don't like the talk, I just wanna go racing!

[N I Tram]

Maybe moving the Indy start time was a mistake, if it cuts the NASCAR guys out of the race? Maybe that was part of the plan, as Tony George was worried about bad publicity if an interloper wins the race? Just typing out loud, perhaps he'll try to discourage road-course ringers for the same reason?

[rustyfan]

Originally posted by N I Tram
Maybe moving the Indy start time was a mistake, if it cuts the NASCAR guys out of the race? Maybe that was part of the plan, as Tony George was worried about bad publicity if an interloper wins the race? Just typing out loud, perhaps he'll try to discourage road-course ringers for the same reason?

I don't think Tony George has a problem with 'interlopers' at all (if he did he would have killed off the Double years ago), and as I understand it the major force behind the moved starting time was ABC.

[FIRE]

Originally posted by Tim Northcutt
The Indy Star reported this morning that (their quote) "Playa Del Racing, to be sponsored by DHL Worldwide Express, is expected to have its driver in place Monday when the purchase of Kelley Racing assets is finalized. Team owner Gary Sallee said there might be enough sponsorship for a second car next season, at least for the Indy 500"

According Dutch media Luyendijk Jr and Carpenter are possible drivers.

[stmookeyj033]

I heard from a Mexican Source that Sharp and Delphi are going to Fernandez. Not sure where that puts Matsurra, but the article did mention him.

[N I Tram]

Is Adrian likely to continue into next year? Presumably his recent run of form would make him reconsider the ide of retirement, assuming that he enjoys oval racing.

[Down F0rce]

Last I heard Adrian had no plans for retiring. He said himself that this has been his best season ever, and he really wants a third car. Sharp/Delphi being it makes sense to me.

Perhaps Sharp and Delphi will make thier way to Foyt? Apparantly AJIV is being chased after by a few teams and Foyt hasn't got a main sponsor for next year...?

[Kicking-back]

Originally posted by stmookeyj033
I heard from a Mexican Source that Sharp and Delphi are going to Fernandez. Not sure where that puts Matsurra, but the article did mention him.

Matsurra is confirmed for next year.

[BootsOntheSide]

I suspect Foyt would be a last resort for Delphi - for any driver with ambitions of finishing in contention, in fact. A third Fernandez car would be as good as anything for Scott's ambitions.

[stmookeyj033]

Now Miller reckons that Sharp and Delphi are off to Panther, and that the on-again/off-again Carpentier move changes daily with the article written on an ON day.