Who, with whom, and how good will they be.
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Who, with whom, and how good will they be.
Best guess so far. It will probably be Penske leading, with AGR, Ganassi & Rahal fighting for second.Quote:
Originally Posted by jarrambide
14 DARREN MANNING A J FOYT RACING ABC SUPPLY CO
11 TONY KANAAN ANDRETTI / GREEN 7-ELEVEN PEPSI
26 MARCO ANDRETTI ANDRETTI / GREEN NYSE
27 DARIO FRANCHITTI ANDRETTI / GREEN KLEIN TOOLS / CanClb
7 DANICA PATRICK ANDRETTI / GREEN MOTOROLA
10 DAN WHELDON GANASSI TARGET
9 SCOTT DIXON GANASSI TARGET
4 VITOR MEIRA PANTHER REVIVE
55 KOSUKE MATSUURA PANTHER PANASONIC / ARTA
6 SAM HORNISH JR PENSKE RACING MOBIL1
3 HELIO CASTRONEVES PENSKE RACING MOBIL1
8 SCOTT SHARP RAHAL-LETTERMAN PATRON SPIRITS
17 JEFF SIMMONS RAHAL-LETTERMAN ETHANOL
2 TOMAS SCHECKTER VISION RACING VISION RACING
20 ED CARPENTER VISION RACING ROCK & REPUBLIC
No Buddy Rice?
I heard somewhere Delphi was now going to be with Vitor and Panther. Is that true?
Buddy should get a ride, the guy is a 500 winner for crying out loud, but I guess that puts paid to the fact that you are as only as good as your last race...
Rumors around Indy are Rice possibly in a third Vision car.......and that Rahal-Letterman may still run a third if things come together.
I still think it'll be a two team chase (Penske and CGR), but I think we'll see more wins from AGR and maybe a win or two from Rahal and (hopefully) one for Vitor.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jonesi
That's not very far at all from my thinking. In '05 Penske & Ganassi teams were off in power, so they developed the chassis, when AGR didn't need to. I'm sure AGR has plans to catch up and will this off season. RLR had the trama of Dana death, and that takes months if not a whole year to recover.Quote:
Originally Posted by DRC
I think AGR will be in a "rebuilding" state this year. I know they're looking to TK to "mentor" Marco and Danica and DF's health might be a question mark.
If the media frenzy surrounding Danica dies down and the the team is allowed to operate without the constant barrage of non racing media attention, they could contend.
But the teams to beat will be Penske and Gnassi.
Sounds about like the last couple of year, but without the rookies that made such a large impact. Any of those going to get a shot with a good team?
Not IRL news, but hearing Ganassi is rumored to be entering the IPS with a two car team, the only details I have heard is one driver is signed and they are still waiting on the second.
The key teams have to answer the bell and boost the IPS grid.Quote:
Originally Posted by wastegate
You are right. They will suffer the same, like when Ganassi lost Tony Renna in 2003. They had to wait until Watkins 2005 to see Scott Dixon win the first race for the team since Tony's death.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jonesi
RIP Paul Dana
http://www.indycar.com/news/story.php?story_id=7951Quote:
Originally Posted by wastegate
Now it's not a rumor any longer.......
There are now 16 cars. How will the IRL get more permanent cars? How many will there be?
4 AGR
3 Vision
2 Penske
2 TCG
2 Rahal
2 Panther
1 Foyt
I think DRYER & REINBOLD is the only decent team not committed (and may be playing CC off IRL to get the best deal). I think Roth is suppose to attempt the whole series.
At this point I think TG will write as many checks as needed to get to 18 cars then stop, and start working on getting an extra 15 cars for Indy.
Maybe Dryer & Reinbold wont run IRL or CCWS next year. At some point, they have to make up their mind and maybe the lack of money is the key factor.
Engine leases this year are dramatically cheaper this year as well.
Starter, they really must be broke then. They have IRL cars and engine leases are cheaper, so to not have announced something by now says to me not all is well.
Mark, it well could be they've decided what they want to do and are trying to find money. It sure wouldn't be the first time THAT ever happened.
True, Starter, but say a team could get a used Dallara roller for $75-100,000 and an engine lease from Honda comparable to Cosworth compared to $300,000 for a NEW car with CC to go racing, when you talk about backups and the like, there's a difference in cost this year to go racing.
Agree, but it's probably a half-million dollar item-plus for a couple cars and spares. For a smaller team, that's pretty good-sized dollars.
I suspect unless they get a driver who brings a sponsor, they don't have the dough to even start the season in theory. Yet another victim of the open wheeled wars....
My guess
Penske: Hornish, Castroneves
Ganassi: Wheldon, Dixon
AGR: Kanaan, Andretti, Franchitti, Patrick
Panther: Matsuura, Meira
Rahal: Sharp, Simmons
Foyt: Manning
Vision: Scheckter, Carpenter, Foyt
Cahill: Mitrisin, Duno
D&R: Fisher? Rice? Camara?
Fernandez: Chesson?
Is there any truth to the rumor that Rice stopped by R-L and picked up his old seat and dropped it off at D&R?Quote:
Originally Posted by Quetch
I thought for 2007, the Honda lease alone was almost $900,000. Have they gotten it down lower than that for the coming season?Quote:
Originally Posted by indycool
If that's in the ballpark, the CCWS lease (chassis, engine and tires) for $1 million, would seem to be a pretty cost effective way to go.
My guess is the IRL will begin announcing a lease deal soon. There are already apparently some "lease" deals in in the IRL. But my guess is, they'll make them more formal (and public) fairly soon.
Jag, I think there were lease deals in the IRL at the start back in the '90s with the new cars and I think there are probably lease deals plus "you-break-it-you-fix-it" deals between regular series teams and one-offs for Indy, in addition to whatever the engine lease might be (that was reported to drop dramatically for Indy one-offs last year).
An IRL deal for a used roller being less, the engine lease being a little more and tires probably the same might make the deals pretty comparable. I hadn't heard the $900,000 figure from Honda before. Only thing I'd heard was "less than a million," so I don't know any more about that.
Spares have always been a bigger part of the budget, especially on ovals. You can lose three corners quickly. Without ovals, CC has put itself in a much better operating cost position. In a new chassis year that is very important, it will mean less shortages of critical parts, even cheap ones that were initially overlooked.Quote:
Originally Posted by Starter
weefly, they don't knock corners off at concrete canyons?
Sounds like they will scrape the 18 together - maybe even 20 overall if Cahill is for real.
Besides running much slower, concrete canyons have a lot of tire walls and run-offs to minimize damage or did you conveniently forget.Quote:
Originally Posted by indycool
A knocked-off corner is a knocked-off corner and there are VERY few runoffs at concrete canyons, they are extremely tight so any wheel-to-wheel contact on an attempted pass is likely to wall one car, the other or both and just how many full-course cautions do you see on a street course because they crash in dangerous areas?
I can't remember the last time an accident got all FOUR corners...in either series.
Brack and Briscoe? Legge at Road America last year.
Okay, good points, weefly......wasn't thinking of flips, just of general wallpoppers, but you're right......
Hey, I figure tubs get cracked beyond repair hitting things at 180 to 220 mph.....no one gets that kind of speed up on a street race and hits much....
and Clay Regazzoni at Long Beach in '80.Quote:
Originally Posted by Starter
No, but for every Krosnoff and Regga, how many serious injuries or death's are there on ovals? My point was/is that tubs get a lot more stress in accidents on ovals. No one needs to remind me of the horror of Krosnoff's wreck, I was there!
I do NOT appreciate people insinuating I don't know what I am talking about. Hell boys, it is an opinion factory, not a court of law. It is MY opinion that tubs on ovals are more likely to be written off than crashes on street tracks. For every wreck like Krosnoff's, there are 100 where the corners are damaged a little. Smacking a wall at 160 or better which is better than half of the IRL accidents is going to tear up more than one corner, sometimes all four and crack tubs...you disagree? Fine....that is your right, but common sense dictates otherwise. I watch the IRL, I just don't talk about it....just as I watch CCWS street races, and if they don't wreck more tubs on the IRL, then those Dallara's are tougher than an old steak....
I'd say your opinion is pretty much fact.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa
Yes, Mark, I agree about TUBS being written off with high-speed crashes. My point was that there are a lot of small one-corner-knocked-off crashes on street courses than ovals. If you knock a corner off, it's $50-100,000. So, 3-6 corners equals one tub or total. There are MANY more of those corners than tubs on concrete canyons.