Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Ranger gives up on Champ Car

With the 2007 Champ Car season set to begin only hours from now, sadly another promising Champ Car driver has thrown in the towel on the possibility of landing a ride for the upcoming season.

Canadian ex-Ice racer Andrew Ranger has given up hopes of returning to Champ Car this season and has signed to compete in CASCAR “Lite,” the newly acquired Canadian racing series now owned by “RASSCAR.”

It also appears that Nelson Philippe, Jan “Van Haggar” Heylen and Oriol Servfia won’t be back this year either, with the drivers still unannounced for Dale Coyne Racing.

I particularly liked Robin Miller’s nickname he stated on last week’s The Speed Report, for the new paying driver at PKV Racing. You know, “Christian Comedy.”

And as Miller snorted towards where would Katherine Legge land at? Most likely Dale Coyne, but HELL! Why make ANY announcements since there’s ONLY six days to go…

Meanwhile the struggling Conquest Racing. Team just confirmed the driver of its single entry only three days before the engines roar to life. “Kiwi” Matt Halliday will pilot the #34 with sponsorship backing from 42 Below. Yet curiously both Halliday’s and Mario Dominguez’s deals are firm for the first three races only.

The worst part about Ranger’s lost ride is who will Rick “Insert $ponsor’s name here” Benjamin talk about now? I mean last year the Benjamin sweepstakes award went to Ranger’s #27 WALLMART du Canada/Tide, as Benjamin would say this at least 7 times per broadcast…

Guess Mr. Benjamin will have to do his FREE shopping somewhere else now? Then again with WALLMART du Canada and Proctor & Gamble set to also sponsor Tagliani, we may get an earful of the #8 car, eh?