Atlantics Championship Team to IRL?

I spotted this very intriguing tidbit upon The Other Side initially, which claims that according to SPEED’s Marshall Pruett, the 2009 Atlantics Championship winning Newman Wachs Racing Team could potentially be either jumping to the Indy Car Series or GP2 in 2010 with star driver John Edwards…

Although Team Owner Eddie Wachs goes onto say he’d like to possibly join an already established IRL outfit, to (hopefully) minimize the “Growing Pains” of building an operation from the Ground-up, if he makes the leap to the “Big boyz.”

So in true “CAM-WOW” (Matt Chamois) fashion, I’ve attempted to take a crack at the 2010 Indy Car landscape minus the “Big 3” establishments (Mikey Andretti Racing, Penske and TCGR) along with SRF (Sarah Fisher Racing) and Newman Haas Lanigan Racing which seemingly are the only outfits to be fairly stable at this moment in regards to their 2010 plans.

(NOT to say that ANY of the below Teams aren’t… As after all I can only GUESS, Eh?)

Personally I’d like to see NWR merge operations with Dale Coyne, as I think this would be a really good nucleus to build from, as they’ve got an excellent driver, while I suppose the Team’s only shortcoming is their Oval Track program, in which then you’d wanna possibly go with Panther Racing, eh?

Then again another good Team would be HVM, while Meesh’s favourite Team Owner “Boobie RAY-Xes” (Bobby Rahal) RLR Organization could always be resuscitated and Oriel Servia would be a great team leader… While of course the Up ‘N Comer of these potential merger candidates has to be (LCR) Luczo Dragon Racing, not to mention KV Racing Technology.

Meanwhile I’d guess that Dreyer & Reinbold would be a Dark horse selection since they seemingly already have their cadre of drivers in place, while I don’t know what Eric Bachelart’s (Conquest Racing) plans are for next year, while Team 3G seems to be a bit of a stretch.

And I never thought I’d say this… But I’d like to see Tony G. integrate his woeful vision Racing Team with Super Tex’s operation in order to build a sustainable 2010 two car entity… YIKES! (CANNOT believe I said that…) As it seems only logical that there will certainly be more consolidation in the future, while we await to see if Gil De Ferran can get his hoped for ICS team off ‘N running next year… Which I certainly hope will occur!

And then again there’s always an unlikely tie-up with AFS or Sam Schmidt; so who will it be? Will it happen? We’ll See, eh?

Pantano wins GP2 Championship

While writing about the good fortunes of Italian motorsports the past weekend, while history was made during the Italian Grand Prix, along with The Doctor’s good fortunes at the Speedway, I forgot to mention that Italian Georgio Pantano finally got the monkey off his back, by capturing this year’s GP2 Championship also at Monza, Italy... As I hadn’t watched the race yet!

But the elder statesman of GP2, at the tender age of 29, having contested 75 GP2 events, did indeed clinch his very first title and now aspires to join the Formula 1 ranks, although this seems unlikely, largely due to his age, as youngsters like Bruno Senna, series runner-up to Pantano, Sebastian Boomi, (6th overall) Lucas Di Grassi, who finished an amazing 3rd overall, driving only a partial season and reigning GP2 Asia Champion Romain Grosjean, who finished 4th overall, all clamour for F1 seats in the near future.

And don’t forget about Karun Chandhok, (10th overall) who was just handed the series "best driving style" award, as I’m certain that Vijay Malia (Not to mention Emperor Bernardo!) would most likely wish to see Chandhok in F1 just-in-time for the impending 2010 Indian Grand Prix... As I wonder if Giancarlo Fisichella is simply keeping the Force India seat warm for him?

Yet, further implications towards this quintet of “Young Lion’s” potential superstardom vs. Pantano, is the fact that they all have a major advantage over the Italian, as Boomi and Chandhok are both sponsored by Red Bull, along with Boomi being Red Bull Racing’s F1 test and reserve driver, while Di Grassi and Grosjean are both Renault F1 test drivers and Di Grassi seems to have overshadowed GP2 pre-season favourite Grosjean.

And let’s not forget series runner-up Bruno Senna, whose name alone is a sizzling commodity in regards to a future Formula 1 career, as rumours suggest that either a drive with Scuderia Toro Rosso or McLaren as Lewis Hamilton’s teammate abound...

Good Luck Georgio!

Georgio Pantano interview

Senna to F1?

Currently (And thankfully, as I’m still woefully behind on my F1 coverage, Ja Volt!) the Formula 1 circus is on a much deserved three week summer Holiday break, set to resume action at the brand new Valencia Street Circuit...

Yet, whilst in the middle of this break, , there appears to be some fodder sprouting about over the possibility of Bruno Senna, nephew of the late triple World Champion Ayrton... Who’s currently lying second in this year’s GP2 Championship, a mere nine points behind series “Greybeard” Georgio Pantano... Of potentially being hired as Sebastian Vettel’s replacement at Scuderia Toro Rosso next year, when the German graduates to Red Bull Racing as David Coulthard’s replacement.

Of course this speculation is stirred in large part due to the fact that STR Co-owner Gerhard Berger has been mentoring the young Brazilian’s career as a family favour for his late friend Ayrton.

Yet, at least Berger has publicly said the right thing, by commenting while he thinks Bruno is ready for Formula 1, so to are Romain Grosjean (Renault F1 test driver) and Sebastien Buemi, (Red Bull test driver) whose also currently under Red Bull sponsorship. (Yet Berger may wish to rethink the Grosjean statement after his horrible outing during the “Hunga-boring” weekend...)

But perhaps Bruno will win out, especially since Emperor Bernardo would be ecstatic to see the Senna name once again gracing his ‘lil racing troupe...

Is GP2 better than F1?

Now don’t get me wrong, as Formula 1 will always be my undisputed Number One Heavyweight in terms of motor racing series, but I find it a bit odd that lately I’ve seemed more intrigued by the first few rounds of this year’s GP2 series vs. F1, (Minus the Canadian GP) to which I’ve been adding to my regimen of auto race viewing recently.

Perhaps this possible interest is spurned by what I found so attractive towards CART/Champ Car, as there were always a dozen plus potential winners on any given weekend, as the IRL tends to be somewhat similar to F1 at the moment. You know that the Big Three; Andretti Green, Ganassi and Penske have won the last 43 of 44 events, (Post Iowa) while Formula 1 routinely seems to be a “Dust-up” between Ferrari and McLaren, albeit Renault stepped into the breach momentarily with some Spaniard named Fredrico Suave… Yet the “Reggie” hasn’t been in the winners (Whiners?) circle since the heartbreaking Japanese Grand Prix; (Oct. 8, 2006) when Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari lump inexplicably went “KABLAMOE!” Most definitely costing him a potential 8th World Championship…

There are currently 17 Nations participating in GP2, which now begins its fourth season, with all three prior GP2 Champions having taken up residency in F1: Nico Rosberg, 2005; Lewis Hamilton, 2006 and Timo Glock, 2007, with other former GP2 competitors Heikki Kovalainen, Nelson Piquet Jr. and Kazuki Nakajima also having graduated to the big league of Formula 1.

This year’s crop of GP2 contestants features several F1 test drivers from Renault: Lucas Di Grassi, Sakon Yamamoto and Romain Grosjean, who was also the winner of the inaugural GP2 Asia series championship this winter; Red Bull: Sebastien Buemi and Toyota: Kamui Kobayashi.

Currently Georgio Pantano and Adam Carroll are the only two drivers to have contested the inaugural GP2 event in 2005 left on the grid, as David Hobbs quips: It’s a development series, which means you’re supposed to move up.

While Carroll has been recently competing in the A1 GP series, at age 29, the Italian Pantano is the oldest driver in the field, who’s made a living in the International F3000 series from 2001-03, which was the forbearer to GP2, as Pantano has been in these stepping stone series for six seasons and has 60 GP2 starts alone to his credit. Pantano has also competed in the Champ Car and Indy Racing League series after making what Bob Varsha noted was a coffee cup stop in F1… Having raced briefly for the faltering Jordan Grand Prix team in 2004 before his sponsorship checks dried-up.

In this year’s season opener at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Portuguese GP2 debutant Alvaro Parente stormed away from the field to win his maiden GP2 victory ahead of Bruno Senna and Andreas Zuber.

In Sunday’s Sprint race, Kamui Kobayashi became the first Japanese driver to win a GP2 event after leader Romain Grosjean was penalized for blocking in the later stages of the event. Having overtaken pole sitter Kobayashi earlier, Grosjean was given a stop-go penalty for his evasive maneuvers after the field had been bunched-up by a safety car.

Kobayashi began the Sprint race from the pole since GP2 inverts the top eight finishing positions from the day’s previous Feature race and having slipped to second in the race was pressuring Grosjean for the lead when the penalty was assessed. Kobayashi has now won a total of three GP2 events, with his first two wins coming during this year’s inaugural GP2 Asia championship.

Round 2 was held in Turkey at the Istanbul Autodrome, where the aforementioned Pantano put on a driving clinic during the Feature race, as Bob Varsha said; Pantano’s taking off like a Scalded Dog!” As I’m now convinced that this was scripted as the following day’s Sprint race would see the bizarre accident of Bruno Senna killing an errant Pooch running about the circuit.

The win was the Italian’s 12th overall, tying him with the legendary Jochen Rindt, who scored all 12 of his victories in F2; prior to becoming the only driver awarded the Formula 1 Championship posthumously. (1970)

In Sunday’s Sprint race, while driver’s Mike Conway and Bruno Senna were busy trying to avoid run-away animals, Romain Grosjean finally made good on his promise, as some pundits have picked him to become the 2008 GP2 Champion, when he won the shorter Sprint Race 2 and thus collected his first GP2 victory.

This year at Monaco saw the GP2 circus host two races for the very first time in the Principality, as Bruno Senna stormed away from the front row and led virtually wire to wire, including a major pile-up by fellow competitors in the downhill chicane. The win was even more special as it comes on the 15th Anniversary of his late uncle’s (Ayrton Senna) final Formula 1 victory in Monte Carlo and David Hobbs claims the young Brazilian not only looks like Ayrton but sounds like him also…

The following day’s sprint race saw Mike Conway run away from pole and hide all the way to the finish to take some solace in a victory after having been punted out of third place during the previous feature race.

While the F1 circus made a brief stop on the Il Notre Dam, GP2 took a brief holiday before resuming competition as part of the French GP weekend, which saw Bruno Senna claim his first pole of the season for the Feature race, while SPEED had an entertaining segment on elder statesman Pantano, who was making his unheard of 100th start in GP2/F3000 competition, with 65 starts alone in GP2…

And while Senna led handily until being forced to retire with gearbox issues, I’m assuming the French crowd was quite enthralled to see countryman Grosjean take over the lead… Until the unthinkable happened and he too was forced to retire with you guessed it! Gearbox troubles, which meant that Messer Pantano was left to take over the lead and cruise home to his 13th victory, tying Mike Thackwell for all time career F2/F3000/GP2 victories according to David Hobbs…

The following days Sprint race was quite a different story as the race was held in varying weather conditions, with drivers starting off on rain tyres and then having to decide when to switch over to slicks for a supposedly drying track which saw Pantano and Grosjean once again finish well outside of the points, upon retiring, while Sebastien Buemi took his first GP2 victory with Senna hanging on to finish fifth, while Pantano holds onto his championship lead over Senna due to his Feature race victory. Pantano leads Senna 35-28, with Buemi vaulting to third with 20 points and Grosjean lies fourth with 19 points.

And there you have it! Eight races and seven different winners… Can GP2 elder statesman Giorgio Pantano do the unthinkable and win the title? Or will somebody else like Grosjean, Senna, Buemi, Zuber or Parente spoil his party…

Dog Day Afternoon

Ever think you’re having “Juan ‘O ‘dem” Dog Day Afternoons?” As the following story was sent to me by AZ Bureau Chief Mary Jane…

Driver Forced Out After Killing Stray Dog
By PAUL LOGOTHETIS, AP
Posted: 2008-05-11 13:14:46

ISTANBUL, Turkey (May 11) - Bruno Senna was furious after having to abandon the GP2 race on Sunday with car troubles.

As Bruno Senna was involved in one of the most bizarre accidents ever witnessed at a motor-racing circuit. The Brazilian driver hits and kills a stray dog at the Istanbul Park track during a GP2 Series race that was part of Turkish Grand Prix weekend.
The problem?The front-right section of his car was mangled after he hit a dog that had made its way on to the Istanbul Speed Park circuit."It's unreal that something like this can happen at a Formula One event," said Senna, who is the nephew of three-time world F1 champion Ayrton Senna. "You expect an accident or retirement to take you out. Not this."Mike Conway of Super Nova just clipped the canine before Senna killed it on impact with 12 laps to go after working his way up to sixth from a 15th-place start.A second stray dog managed to get off the track during the race and escape through an exit.

And having just finished watching the tape of the Turkish GP2 race weekend, I can tell you that none of the SPEED TV announcers were very impressed by this unnecessary incident, with Professor Matchett being the most critical, saying that chief FIA delegate Charlie Whiting will be more than likely to bring it to the attention of the Race organizers that stray animals shouldn’t be wandering about the racing circuit! As this immediately makes me flash back to Cristiano Da Matta’s horrific incident when striking an errant Deer at Road America.

NO Dogs were injured, maimed or killed in the making of this story…

Update
Fore more on the various animals that have caused unintentional chaos with racing carssee; its Not just a Dogs life

GP2’s Five year plan

The GP2 series has announced that the current 13 entrants will contest the series for the next five years. (2008-12) Left out of the announcement was the purchasing of GP2 by CVC Capital Partners,Which currently owns Formula 1. This takeover solidifies the formal linking between GP2 and F1.

Although GP2 was originally designed as a cost savings series, it’s rumoured that the series is twice as expensive as F3000, the series it replaced.

And with A1 GP’s new link between Ferrari, its unknown if the GP2 Asia series will now be needed? As speculation suggests the series is having a hard time finding potential teams due to the projected high costs of competing in GP2 Asia.

Although the series is scheduled to debut in 2008 with Emperor Bernardo’s Super Car series, as well as being a support series for two upcoming Grand Prix’s. Will this simply become part of an extended GP2 season while going head to head with the upcoming A2 GP series?