Monday, February 18, 2008

Open Wheel participants

This is just a quick listing of what I could decipher for car counts of the Family Fued occurring in OWR and by NO means 100% accurate, as I’ve never before pursued making an Indy Racing League team score card.

And while things may be bleak on the CCWS’s side of the roster, it’s not all peaches ‘N cream on the IRL’s side either, as there’s at least three teams (Dreyer & Reinbold, Panther and Rahal Letterman Racing) who’ve all dropped a car for their 2008 efforts.

Meanwhile it appears that Tony George himself has given two of his three drivers their walking papers, (AJ Foyt IV & Tomas Scheckter) while son-in-law Ed Carpenter’s ride is still in limbo. Two other teams programs remain unknown; As I know nothing about Danny B’s favourite Milka Duno, while Sarah Fisher is busy trying to put together funding for her own team.

Yet, perhaps the most entertaining tidbit towards the future consolidation plans concerning CCWS’s plight is the latest press release from their official website promoting the upcoming golfing ad created for Bridgestone tires which is set to debut shortly on the Golf channel. Can you say FOUR!

2008 CCWS Teams
(Possible total Car Count = 17)

Conquest Racing
R-Frank Perera, TBA

Dale Coyne Racing
Bruno Junqueira, TBA

Forsythe Pettit Racing
Paul Tracy, TBA

Newman Haas Lanigan Racing
Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal

Pacific Coast Motorsports
Alex Figge, TBA

PKV Racing
Oriel Servia, TBA

Rocketsports Racing
R-Enrique Bernoldi

Team Australia
Will Power, TBA

Team Minardi USA
TBA/TBA


2008 IRL Teams
(Possible total Car Count = 17)

AJ Foyt Enterprises
Darren Manning

Andretti Green Racing
Marco Andretti
Tony Kanaan
R-Hideki Mutoh
Danica Patrick

Dreyer & Reinbold
Buddy Rice

Sarah Fisher Racing*
Sarah Fisher

Luczo Dragon Racing
Tomas Scheckter#

Panther Racing
Vitor Meira

Team Penske
Helio Castroneves
Ryan Briscoe

Rahal Letterman Racing
Ryan Hunter Reay

Roth Racing
Marty Roth
R-Jay Howard

Citgo SAMAX Racing*
Milka Duno

Target Chip Ganassi Racing
Scott Dixon
Dan Wheldon
+ R-Alex Lloyd#

Vision Racing*
Ed Carpenter

(* = Sarah Fisher Racing, SAMAX Racing and Vision Racing yet to confirm programs. # = LDR to run limited race schedule)