A.J. Allmendinger

[Lee Janotta]

This guy is really something else!

[Jay]

Erm...wait until the end of the season before declaring anything. He's had one win and one DNF. He had a great race this weekend, but that's no guarantee he'll have a great one next week or the week after. That's the way the Atlantic series is. You need to be consistent to take the Championship.

[Muzza]

He is undoubtedly good. He won the Barber Dodge Championship last year, driving some great races. However, there is a lot of pressure from the media to find the next "Great American Hope" and he may burn out. Let's give the kid room and time to grow up and fully develop as a driver. He will win, he will lose, he will make mistakes - and that is just fine, as far as he wins more than he loses...

One thing that he will also need is coaching. Having witnessed karting and lower formulae both in Brazil and in the United States, this is something that still lacks in North America (attention kart daddies: coaching is not shouting to your kids, or shouting to other kids and their daddies. You need to know what you are talking about, otherwise stay off the pits and leave the job to someone else that does)

It is really nice to see A. J. doing so well, but's let not build unnecessary pressure on him. This is something that definetely played against many good American drivers on CART in the last years. I really believe that, given a different environment, Alex Barron (who is much less experienced than most think, thus he needed time) and, particularly, Memo Gidley would have fared much better.

This endless quest for the "Great American Hope" sometimes fires back badly - to the point that merely average drivers such as Richie Hearn (who, I am sorry, never showed much, from karting to CART) start to be called that.

Let A. J. do his job, support him - this way he has great chances of getting there, to the top of the podium.

[corkholio]

Overrated. He is damn fast but not as good as the media makes him out to be.

[veeten]

Did good enough to take it from flag to flag today, was never challenged at all. A great drive.

[Lee Janotta]

True enough, Muzza. But that's why it's such a benefit to AJ that he's got PT in his corner ready to offer support and advice.

Hey, corkholio, you want some ketchup with your foot?

[bart_jacobs]

The guy is better than average, but I don't think that he is that great. And for the moment he is overrated, maybe if they will give him a couple years time, he will become what the media makes of him... He is on the way up!

[camcartfan]

He is definitely the real deal. I was at the LBGP this weekend and saw how fast he really is.

[BootsOntheSide]

He's got potential, no doubt about it, and appears to be the best guy in Atlantics this year. However, I'm not convinced that he'll be ready for CART by 2004, or that he could hold a candle to some of the guys in the European ladder championships. Atlantics has a very weak field compared even to British F3, let alone F3000, which is why team owners mostly give it a wide berth.