The first 2011 Silly Season driver/team thread

[garyshell]

Slightly off topic, but also great to see da Matta return to racing full time, even if it's not in a series I'll watch.

So where is Shorty racing this year. Please tell me it is not that truck series in South America.

Gary

[Otto-Matic]

where is Shorty racing this year. Please tell me it is not that truck series in South America.

Gary

Da Matta will be racing in the ALMS this year for Paul Gentilozzi's Jaguar team in the GT class. he and Bruno Junqueria will share one of the two cars; i guess PJ Jones and Paul (?) wll be teamates in the 2nd car.
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...tudded-lineup/

[DBell]

No, the way I read it Martin Plowman will drive the BSA car full-time. Bourdais will do all the roadcourses in a second car. I won't be surprised if Bourdais is sponsored by Citgo with their favourite driver doing the ovals.....

My mistake. Didn't read it carefully enough. According to Speed today, no one has been signed yet. Bourdais, Plowman and Alex Loyd are all in the running at this point. Seabass would only be able to do the road courses due to Peugeot commitment. No mention of Duno, though Dale said everything was a possibility at this point. I thought she was off to Arca this year. Hopefully we've seen the last of her in Indycar.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...r-road-courses

[MDS]

I wasn't planning on doing an update until I got to Barber, but so much has happened the last couple of days, here's how the field is shaping up. It looks like a minimum 23 full time cars with a max of 26-27. There could be 30 cars or more at Texas and Vegas, so I'm hoping that Vegas is a 400, 500 mile affair.

de Ferran/Dragon Racing
2 Tony Kannan HP
21 Davy Hamilton HP (Indy, Texas, Loudon, Vegas)

Team Penske
3 Helio Castroneves Shell (Indy and several other races)/AAA of SoCal (Long Beach and Texas)
6 Ryan Brisco Izod
12 Will Power – Verizon Wireless

Panther Racing
4 J.R Hildebrand National Guard (R)

KV Lotus Racing
5- Takuma Sato Lotus
8- E.J. Viso Lotus/PDVSA
15 Katherine Legge?/Mario Moreas?/Dan Wheldon? Lotus
32 James Rossiter Lotus (Could be Rossiter on roads and Wheldon on ovals)

Andretti Autosport
7 Danica Patrick Go Daddy
11 Mike Conway
26 Marco Andretti Venom Energy Drink
37 Ryan Hunter Reay

Target Chip Ganassi
9 Scott Dixon – Target
10 Dario Franchitti – Target
38 Graham Rahal – Service Central brands
83 Charlie Kimball- Novo Nordisk (R)

AJFE
14 Vitor Meria ABC Construction

Dale Coyne
18 Sebasten Bourdais?/Milka Duno?/Katherine Legge?
19 Alex Lloyd/Martin Powman BSA

Dreyer and Reinbold Racing
22 Justin Wilson Z-Line designs
24 Ana Beatrix


Conquest Racing
34 Bertrand Baguette
36 Paul Tracy Motegi Wheels/other sponsors (He's signed a letter of intent with Eric for a full season)

FAZZT Race Team
77 Alex Tagliani B&W Speakers/Hot Wheels of Canada
88 Ho Ping Tung (R) His duties as a test driver for Lotus Renault won’t preclude him from running a full or part time season

HVM Racing
78 Simona De Silvestro Entergy/Nuclear power

Newman Haas Racing
Things are still in flux now but it looks like they’ll have at least one full time car.
02 Oriol Servia
06 James Hinchcliff (R)

Sarah Fisher Raciing
67 Ed Carpenter Dollar General (St. Petersburg, Indy, Milwaukee, Texas, Iowa, Mid-Ohio, NHIS, Baltimore, Kentucky, Las Vegas)

Bryan Herta Autosport
Wants to do Indy and as many as five other races

Free Agents
Oriol Servia
Alex Lloyd
Hideki Mutoh
Dan Wheldon
J.K. Vernay
Martin “Plowy” Plowman
Sebastian Saavedra
Jonathan Summerton
Ana Beatrix
Jonathan Edwards
Sebastien Bourdais (Don’t be surprised if he ends up at a team other than Coyne. Yes they tested together but there are some other teams out there looking to put together a part time drive he could still end up at)

[beachbum]

Is she even capable of making the 105% on an oval at this point??

Say what you will, but Milka was well within 105% at every oval in 2010 (except Iowa where she was in practice, but they sat out qualifying). She often out qualified many drivers who never get blasted for being slow. As for road courses, well that is a different matter.

[EagleEye]

Sorry for the delay, but I have been stuck in Daytona. Called my first 24 hour race, with good results! Congrats to Chip and the boys, who were spot on the entire race. I hope to make it back next year....it was a good time!

Bold is set-

Andretti Autosport
Marco
Danica
RHR
Conway

Soucek's money never materialized. Conway's check did.

Penske Racing/Team Penske Racing
Power
HCN
Briscoe

Target Chip Ganassi
Dixon
Dario

Ganassi II
Rahal
Kimbal

A.J. Foyt Enterprises
Vitor

KVRT
$ato
Vi$o

The joke that is the KV Renta Team-Team continues....

Panther
JR Hildebrand

de Ferran Dragon Racing
TK

HVM
SDS

Conquest
Tracy/TBD

Eric looking to land a big fish, for the entire season. 50-50 on landing PT.

FAZZT
Tagliani

Still working on funding for Tung.

Newman Haas
Hinch
Servia

Still securing funding, but looks set to start the season with this good line up. Things are not coming together as quickly as hoped, but Hinch is a good pilot!!!

D&R
Wilson
TBD/Wheldon
Beatriz (part time)

Weldon wants to pay for oval races, and Conway has enough for the road courses, so they could spilt time in one car. Others with money are looking to share the third car. Beatriz for Brazil, and a few other races...

Sarah Fisher Racing
Carpenter-part time

Money brought in from TG. Might rent the car out for road courses.

Dale Coyne Racing
Ride buyer 1
Ride buyer 2/part time?

Seabass? Seabass? I would say it depends on funding, and who is engineering the car. They lost more than Wilson last year.....

[Hoop-98]

It has been reported that Milka's license was pulled. rh

[TURN3]

I have to tell you EE, it brought a healthy laugh to see $ato and Vi$o. Good one!

[garyshell]

Indy Racing Revolution and AR1 are reporting Viso and Sato confirmed at KV Racing.

http://indyracingrevolution.com/sato...-for-2011.html

Edit: Looks like it is on the KV Racing site, too:
http://kvracingtechnology.homestead.com/

Gary

[EagleEye]

Bold is set-

Andretti Autosport
Marco
Danica
RHR
Conway

Penske Racing/Team Penske Racing
Power
HCN
Briscoe

Target Chip Ganassi
Dixon
Dario

Ganassi II
Rahal
Kimbal

A.J. Foyt Enterprises
Vitor

KVRT
$ato
Vi$o

Panther
JR Hildebrand

de Ferran Dragon Racing
TK

HVM
SDS
TBD

The team is looking to take on a paying driver for the second car. Bags among those in the hunt.

FAZZT
Tagliani

Sarah Fisher Racing
Carpenter-part time

Conquest
TBD/Tracy

The team faces a struggle to make the grid. Depends on who can bring a check. PT's funding not as solid as thought.

Newman Haas
Hinch
Servia

Funding and a crew for one car...working the midnight oil to get more funding!

D&R
Wilson
TBD/Wheldon/Bags/Moraes
Beatriz (part time)

Weldon wants to pay for oval races, Others with money are looking to share the third car. Beatriz for Brazil, and a few other races...

Dale Coyne Racing
SeaBass (part time for road and street races)/Wheldon (ovals)
TBD car 2

Well, they tested Seabass and he was quick and came away impressed. Dale is looking to pay him, and bring in a solid engineer. Lloyd still figures as a part time/full time. Wheldon could take the SB car for ovals, unless gets something done with DR.

Other teams players-

Rahal
Doornbos/TBD

Indy only? I get nervous when a dutch driver posts his actions on his website, ala Jos the Bos, or Door the knob. I think they will be at Indy, but with a solid driver in place.

Team 3G
Tanto
Bly

Team picks up Snapple/Dr. Pepper money and hires Joe Tanto and Jimmy Bly for the season. They will run a third cart for Stanton Barrett at Indy's Fastimes track on the north side...