'05 Silly Season

[rustyfan]

Originally posted by Uesque
From Autoweek today:

Rocketsports owner Paul Gentilozzi has said he is trying to put together a deal to get veteran Memo Gidley in one of his cars full time next season.

That's great news

I wonder if will it be at the expense of one of his current drivers or if he hopes to expand to three cars though.

[Uesque]

He may be thinking that he'll need to fill the field if Forsythe goes to 2 cars. But it also shows he thinks of Gidley as a good marketing draw for the series. He probably has a folder full of e-mails and letters about Memo that he can show to potential sponsors. Our activism may yet bear fruit. (That wasn't cheerleading, was it?)

[Kicking-back]

Good luck to PG's efforts to get Gidley a full time drive, he deserves it.

[mountainstar]

Gidley at least needs one good season to show his stuff and hopefully for him he'll get his chance.

[macdaddy]

I hope that everything works out, Gidley deserves a full season. I'm confident that he can post the numbers, he's already shown Bruno that he can. This would be great!

I've got my eye on this Guy guy though, and if he proves to be as good as I think he might be, I'd hate for him to lose a solid ride. Time will tell - there's still a few races to go, and then the inevitable Silly Season...

[JohnSSC]

It would be curious to see what Gidley could do with a "proper" full season: certainty of a ride, pre-season testing/planning and the support of a team throughout the year.

He has shown well as a "pinch-hitter" so to speak so with some focus I am thinking he could settle down and really show his stuff.

[N I Tram]

WOuld be fantastic to have Memo get a full seaosn, but if it's in a third Rocketsports car to fill the field, he'd get treated like dirt, just as Pat has been. As it stands there are 17 cars for 2005, assuming the marginal teams like Conquest and Walker continue as they are, so new cars will be needed from somewhere - although PG replacing a car from another Amigo isn't disastrous.

[Heidi]

JohnSSC, agreed.

Gidley could be a championship contender if given a real chance.

[Dov]

Update:

The Bas Leinders Story ?!

Last year, before Walker signed Mario Haberfeld he had Bas Leinders under consideration, but since Bas' ultimate goal is F1 when Minardi offered him a test role he took it. Now, in a latest interview with an Italian "Autosprint" magazine Leinders had said that should he not get a full-time F1 ride in 2005 he'll come to Champ Car and be with Eric Bachelart's Conquest Racing team. Yes, that would be very logical since both of them are Belgian, but the major question here is whether Conquest would become a three car operation next year as Bachelart is dreaming of. Assuming that Bas Leinders will not have enough $$$ (talent he surely has) to land a ride in F1 - that money should be enough for adding another car to Bachelart's stable and having his countryman piloting it.

Here's how the line-up scenario for next year looks like now:

1. NEWMAN/HAAS - #1 - Sebastien Bourdais
2. NEWMAN/HAAS - #2 - Cristiano DaMatta
3. NEWMAN/HAAS - #6 - Bruno Junqueira
4. FORSYTHE - #3 - Paul Tracy
5. FORSYTHE - #7 - Rodolfo Lavin or Rafael Martinez or Luis Diaz or Homero Richards
6. WALKER - #5 - Mario Haberfeld or Brian Sellers
7. WALKER - #15 - Michael Valiante or Jonathan Macri or Andrew Ranger or Rafael Martinez
8. WIGGINS - #4 - Ryan Hunter-Reay
9. WIGGINS - #55 - Mario Dominguez
10. COYNE - #11 - Oriol Servia or Michael Keohane or Tomas Enge
11. COYNE - #19 - Gaston Mazzacane or Jaime Melo or Ralph Firman or Andrew Ranger
12. BACHELART - #14 - Nelson Philippe or Mario Haberfeld or Ricardo Sperafico or Memo Gidley or Bas Leinders
13. BACHELART - #34 - Justin Wilson
14. KALKHOVEN - #12 - Jimmy Vasser or Patrick Carpentier
15. KALKHOVEN - #21 - Roberto Gonzalez or Rafael Martinez or Homero Richards
16. GENTILOZZI - #8 - Alex Tagliani
17. GENTILOZZI - #17 - Guy Smith or Michael Valiante or Andrew Ranger or Memo Gidley
18. RUSSO - #9 - Michel Jourdain
19. RUSSO - #10 - AJ Allmendinger

Possible new entries in 2005:

20. BACHELART - #24 - Bas Leinders or Memo Gidley or Andrew Ranger
21. FITTIPALDI - #20 - Ricardo Sperafico or Mario Haberfeld or Jaime Melo or Ricardo Zonta or JP.DeOliveira or Tiago Monteiro
22. KALKHOVEN - #22 - Christian Murchison or Josh Hunt or David Besnard
23. LEBERLE - #33 - Ralph Firman or Jos Verstappen or Bas Leinders or Tomas Enge

Longshot entries for 2005:

24. MENARD - #18 - Jeff Simmons or Mark Taylor
25. NUNN - #30 - Felipe Giaffone or Alex Barron
26. SIERRA - #26 - Andrew Ranger or Ryan Dalziel
27. GRAJEWSKI - #24 - André Lotterer or Pierre Kaffer
28. JENSEN - #23 - David Sterckx or Eric Jensen
29. PROST - #27 - Jacques Villeneuve or Jonathan Cochet
30. PROST - #28 - Nicolas Prost or Franck Montagny
31. CONDOR - #31 - Jon Fogarty or Townsend Bell
32. CONDOR - #32 - Marc Hynes or Brian Sellers
33. DYSON - #16 - Chris Dyson or Gunnar Jeannette
34. HEMELGARN - #91 - Townsend Bell or Jaime Melo

btw, for an updated picturesque version of the current line-up and the next year's possibilities -> go to www.champcarfan.com and click on the "Line-Up" thingy ?!

[luke]

It's starting to take shape you know!

With an expanded 3 cars at Newman/Hass with an encredibly strong line up and also including the maybe don't now yeat move sanario with Carpetman.

[drewdawg727]

can you imagine having a champ car race with 34 drivers
i think i'd have a heart attack, a stroke, and a bypass.

[cds_uk]

I really hope Prost gets a team together, get Jonathan Cochet in the car and you have next years rookie of the year right there, no doubt in my mind at all, the guy is a major blue chip talent.

[BootsOntheSide]

Conquest won't be running 3 cars - he's unliekly to have the infrastructure,a dn would have to hire a whole new crew. If Leinders joins, it'd be at the expense of one of his current drivers.

And do you honestly think Walker will run 2 cars? How many supposedly monied drivers were linked to him last year?

[Muzza]

Dov,

Cristiano's surname is da Matta. Portuguese surnames - as well as Italian, and Spanish, for that matter - never show agglutination of preposition and noun. French surnames do - sometimes.

Incidentally, prepositions are not considered part of Portuguese (bar extremely rare exceptions) and Spanish surnames (but they are in Italian surnames). Therefore, Édson Arantes do Nascimento is Mr. Nascimento, and not Mr. do Nascimento. Cristiano's family, though, is one of these rare cases, so it is correct to call him Mr. da Matta, but not DaMatta, Da Matta or Damatta.

Cheers,


Muzza

[extreme]

Wow Muzza,

Everything you wanted to know about Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian surnames, but were afraid to ask

[Dov]

Hi Muzza,

I did not know that (very interesting), however, all of the '05 Driver Line Up' is courtesy of, zerO. That being said, I write da Matta the same way zerO does....I'll try to remember to write it like you mentioned above, but I can't promise that I'll always do it that way.

Peace,

Dov

[Muzza]

Originally posted by Dov
Hi Muzza,

I did not know that (very interesting), however, all of the '05 Driver Line Up' is courtesy of, zerO. That being said, I write da Matta the same way zerO does....I'll try to remember to write it like you mentioned above, but I can't promise that I'll always do it that way.

Peace,

Dov

That's alright, Dov - we always learn something from each other (that's the objective of a forum, isn't it?), and please be welcome to "educate me" too (my apologies, I don't find the right English words to express my thoughts, but you know what I mean).

Cheers,


Muzza

[codename_47]

Originally posted by drewdawg727
can you imagine having a champ car race with 34 drivers
i think i'd have a heart attack, a stroke, and a bypass.

And all of them punching the Push to pass button at the green flag??

I don't think we need "The Big one" introduced to Champcar thanks!

Still, it'd be nice to have more cars next year, say, mid twenties in an ideal world.

[rustyfan]

Originally posted by codename_47
I don't think we need "The Big one" introduced to Champcar thanks!

I thought they took care of that at Surfers in 2002?

[BootsOntheSide]

I rememebr you posting that before Muzza - ver useful information, and something I always try to remember. For those who don't know it, Édson Arantes do Nascimento is the real name of football legend Pelé.

[codename_47]

Originally posted by rustyfan
I thought they took care of that at Surfers in 2002?

No, that was a unique Champcar phenomenan (do do dee do do)

"The big wet scary one!"

[rustyfan]

Originally posted by codename_47
No, that was a unique Champcar phenomenan (do do dee do do)

"The big wet scary one!"

Well... what about the 1996 US 500 at Michigan then?

[macdaddy]

What am embarassment that was! Poor Jimmy!

[BootsOntheSide]

Ah, the famous Mulligan 500.

[codename_47]

Originally posted by rustyfan
Well... what about the 1996 US 500 at Michigan then?

Well what can you say, CART thought it'd be a great idea to counter the Indy 500 by staging a demolition Derby!