Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Open Wheel chatter

I’d have to say that the San Jose race was far more entertaining to watch vs. Road America. Although I hugely prefer the Elkhart Lake venue over the concrete canyons of Silicon Valley.

Nevertheless, Bad Bobby D utilized a Sand Dune Tracy race strategy after giving Jan “Van Hagar” Heylan the Chrome Horn at the beginning of the race. Vaulting from 15th to take the chequered flag first. This was after Dan “Speedy-Dry” Clarke punted pole sitter Justin Wilson from the lead at the beginning of the race…

Yet the Hamburgular celebrated his announcement of going to Formula 1 next season by capturing the Road America pole by over 1.5 seconds. Then cruised to a fairly sedate race win while both Robert Doornbos and Will Power suffered major points hits to their fleeting championship hopes…

And I found it very awkward to be rooting for Bruno “Whiney Bags” Junqueira as it was Dale Coyne’s 500th start in Champ Car. And Junky got an excellent start, vaulting into third place. In fact it was so good that the in-car camera showed him jumping the start…

As the Forsythe team continues to struggle, it was noted that Mo Nunn had joined the team as a Consultant for the weekend, in hopes that he’d be able to sort out some of the teams troubles. And if memory serves me right? I think that Nunn was engineering Oriel Servia at Patrick Racing when the team ran Visteon sponsorship. Many may recall that Mo Nunn was the engineer for three of Chip Ganassi’s four CART titles…

And although it’s a slightly old rumour that I heard Robin Miller comment on awhile ago. There are now multiple reports of Justin Wilson being in the catbird seat to take over the departing Bourdais’s seat at Newman Haas Lanigan in 2008.

And I’ll be interested to see where this year’s Atlantics Champion Raphael Matos lands next year in Champ Car. As Matos goes shopping for a seat with his $2.0 million winner’s check.

Quickest guess is he’ll take Wilson’s vacated seat at RSports. Since co-owner Paul Gentilozzi was rumoured to be putting together a Team Brazil last year. Of course I’d prefer to see Matos simply move up with his team Sierra Sierra, but that would require them running a two car effort?

Meanwhile the IRL’s Brian Barnhart put the entire field of drivers on probation after the Michigan crash fest, where 12 drivers took themselves out of action after various melees. So did it work? Not really as both Helio Castroneves and Dario “Double Half Gainer” Franchitti were both summoned to Barnhart’s trailer after the Spartan, KY event. With both drivers most likely to receive $25,000 fines for race incidents.

And speaking of the flying Scotsman. I had to go see what all the buzz was about another supermodel possibly joining the RASSCAR pit lanes. It seems that Franchitti who’s friends with Richard Childress is being linked to a possible fourth car entry at RCR in 2008?

Yet it seems to me that perhaps Dario may want to contact his ‘old sparrin’ partner PT and ask him how that “Bomber” tryout went? Y’all recall Tracy’s not so excellent attempt to transition over to Tin Tops with the aforementioned Childress.

Also there’s been reports that Scott “Nose” Speed is coming to America on a fact finding mission to investigate possible racing options in either Open Wheel Racing or Nexxtell Cup. With Speed stating that Red Bull owner “Deeter Majestic” thinks he’d make a good fit in the Cup carzs… Perhaps Speed will want to put AJ Almendinger on his speed dial? As the latter has now failed to qualify in his last 9 attempts. Did I mention that AJ is driving the Red Bull #8? Err #883 since that other number used to be Ironhead Jr’s…

SHEISA!!! I’m talkin’ RASSCAR… But it is sad to note that all of the American drivers hunker to hang their crash buckets there. Could it be something to do with the influx of dinero? By the way how’s reigning Indy Car champion Sam Hornish Jr doin’ with his Tin Top education?

And speaking of CRAP! What in the HELL is up with Champ Cars big foray to Europe. As the series returns across the pond for the first time in four years with two races in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Now I know that Champ Car is paying a hefty fee to be on the Dizney Shopping Networks… And it was funny to hear Katherine Legge saying she’s worried about her reputation being tattered in Europe. But who in the BLOODY HELL has ESPN Classic? Which is where you’ll find this weekend’s telecast. Talk about being in the Netherlands…