2004 lineup

[Jordi]

OK, so who will drive the cars next year?

Forsythe Racing (only need to announce sponsor)
-Paul Tracy
-Patrick Carpentier

Newman-Haas Racing
-Bruno Junqueira (if Haas doesn't go to the IRL)
-Sebastien Bourdais

Herdez Competition Team
-Mario Dominguez
-and sure another car, but who?

Walker Racing
-Rodolfo Lavin
-Michael Valiante (supposedly)

Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing
-Tiago Monteiro
-de Oliveira maybe if second car happens

Team Rahal
-Michel Jourdain Jr.
-Fogarty, Lotterer maybe if 2nd car happens

American Spirit Team Johansson
-Ryan Hunter-Reay
-Jimmy Vasser?

Dale Coyne Racing
-two cars, to whoever has more money

Patrick Racing
-Oriol Servia (hopefully!!!)
-2nd car possible. Wirdheim has tested.

PK Racing
-Mika Salo likely
-Anyone, Papis, Jacques, Herta...

Rocketsports Racing
-Alex Tagliani
-Dario maybe?

MiJack-Conquest Racing
-Mario Haberfeld (Not heard anything on them honestly)

Fernandez Racing
-Adrian Fernandez
-possibly a second car?


Edit 1: Manning off to Ganassi

[Trebor]

Guy Smith will probably testing for PK Racing in the near future.
Pedro Lamy is in the running for the second Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing seat and maybe there will be a new CART team from teamowner Wayne Taylor (former Cadillac worksdriver).
Drivers in the running for the Taylor team are Ralph Firman, Antonio Pizzonia and Anthony Davidson.

[Duffacus]

Id like to see Jacques in the other PK Racing entry, that would be a great spectacle, what would you say on the chances of it happening?

[Jordi]

I've read about Taylor's team, but since it wasn't too sure yet, I chose not to put it there yet.

About Jacques, Pollock convinced him to join BAR, but will he convince him to join PK? Or does he just need a break from all the s*** he's been getting from F1?

[evo]

RuSport?

[jjspierx]

Ah yes, Rusport hasn't made any announcements, but they DO have AJ Almindinger under contract, so we know wherever Rusport goes AJ will be there. Also, we can assume that Rusport won't leave AJ in Toyo Atlantics(although they may keep a team in Atlantics anyways). The two obvious choices would be IRL or CART, and AJ has stated that he does not know Rusports plans, but that he backs them in whatever they decide to do. So hopefully Rusport will come to CART with AJ and maybe another driver. Maybe Justus?

[camcartfan]

Since Carl Russo (owner of RuSport) is going to be part owner in OWRS, I doubt you'll see him put a team in the IRL.

[Jordi]

I'll put it if the teams are officially announced, I prefer to put only the sure ones for now.

[cos]

How's the Wayne Taylor thing going... I read something on grandprix.com a few days ago but it's all been pretty quiet apart from that... any news?

[Liz]

Stefan Ortelli is trying to get Jacques to race with him in sports cars -- there was an article in the paper yesterday about it (National Post "Drivers Edge" section.)

[f1manoz]

Rocketsports, Fittipaldi-Dingman, PK, Patrick, Rahal and Fernandez have all stated they would love to add a second car if money is found. When the new ownership eventually takes over, hopefully sponsors will once again be lining up.

Bruno and Haas will be in CART. They have vehemently denied they ever intend to do IRL full-time, they only want to do the IRL 499.

Expect another young Mexican at Herdez. Diaz perhaps?

[jjspierx]

Originally posted by camcartfan
Since Carl Russo (owner of RuSport) is going to be part owner in OWRS, I doubt you'll see him put a team in the IRL.

I maybe wrong, but I thought Russo was no longer involved in OWRS, and he hasn't been for over a month now. Unless I'm missing something.

[Aus.CARTfan]

Just an update on driver movings.
When i was at the drivers breakfast at indy on the gold coast i had a conversation with roberto moreno and he told me straight out that he will not be driving for herdez competition next year. Also Jimmy Vasser told me that if American sprit can get a good package for next year then he will stay if not he will be looking for another team!!!

[Liz]

I'm guessing Roberto GOnzalez might be in the Herdez 2Car; he did very well at Mexico City, where Diaz has not completed a race distance in either of his tries.

From what I have heard, there are no teams who do not plan or at least hope to be back next year, and except for Moreno, no drivers who have said or hinted that they are deserting.

[Aus.CARTfan]

well it looks as though Jimmy could be looking for another team if American Sprit dont come good in the off season. Put Jimmy Vasser in the N/H cars and watch him win races. (I think i am dreaming about the N/H bit sorry!!)

[BootsOntheSide]

Conquest's bank balance is rumoured not to be too healthy though, and American Spirit's current backing seemingl yonly allows for 1 car next year. Still no word on whether Rahal or Fernandez will continue with split schedules, Brack's big IRL crash might make Bobby rethink his plans.

I think the grids for both championships will be much the same, with msot drivers retaining their seats and only a few new teams-drivers entering.

[Archer]

FORTYTHE RACING 2 Tracy Carpontier
NEWMAN HAAS 2 Juqueria Bourdais
TEAM RAHAL 1 Jourdain Jr
FERNANDEZ 1 Fernandez
HERDEZ COMP 2 Dominguez TBA
ROCKETSPORTS 1 Tagliani
PATRICK RACING 1 Servia
AMERICAN SPIRIT 2 Vasser Hunter-Reay
WALKER RACING 2 Manning TBA
FITTIPALDI DINGMAN 2 Monterio Fittipaldi?
PK RACING 2 Salo TBA
CONQUEST 1 Haberfeld
DALE COYNE 2 TBA TBA

Any other rumors, confirmations or suggestions?

[BootsOntheSide]

Assuming that his sponsorship is still intact, and I beleive it is, Lavin will remain. Valiente could get a third car, but it's not inconcievable that Manning could lose out.

A second PK seems the most likely additional car, RuSport and Taylor may enter but I can't see any other new teams coming in.

I'll stick my neck out a bit:
2nd Rocketsports - likelihood 7/10
2nd Fitipaldi-Dingman - 6/10
2nd Rahal - 5/10
2nd ASTJ - 7/10
3rd Walker - 7/10
2nd Patrick - 3/10
2nd Ferndandez - 2/10

[evo]

This is just idle speculation, but if Darren Manning loses his ride at Walker to Valiante, could we see Manning join Allmendinger in a 2-car effort from RuSport?

[sgw2]

Honestly there wont be more than 12-15 cars at St. Petersburg. Few of the owners cited have any intention of going broke personally to race in CART.

Pook-fare in the form of TAP ($33M) and ESP ($14.5M) pumped money directly into team budgets. Derrick Walker was one large benificiary, with $7.3M of his $11M budget coming from CART. Like Walker's team, Conquest, ASTJ, and Dale Coyne raced on little else. It seems laughable to suggest that with the discontinuation of TAP and greatly reduced level of ESP that all these teams will be back or at the same level.

Even "stable" teams relied to a significant extent upon these programs. The 2nd Herdez car for Moreno was largely funded with CART-aid; Gigante-Rahal rounded its budget with it; Adrian Fernandez had closer to half his budget from such CART support.

Just as the IRL saw the fields diminish this year when the IMS largely discontinued the Tony support program, so too CART wil see a significant decline in entries. Thus, looking at 2004 from a budgetary standpoint it looks more like this:

Wayne Taylor: 0 cars, chose ISC Grand-Am instead
Conquest: 0 cars, Bachelart will close shop
Coyne: 1 car MAYBE, if funded drivers can be found
Patrick: 1 car, but Servia is gone
Fittipaldi-Dingman: 1 car, Montiero gone
Johansson: 1 car if RHR daddy money stays, else team folds
Walker: 1 car, Corona plus gambling $ enough; Manning to Ganassi IRL
** maybe a 2nd Walker at 2-3 Mexican centric races for Diaz
Newman-Haas: 2 cars, status quo, some belt tightening
Rahal: 1 car, status quo, no engineering budget for Jourdain
Rocketsports: 1 car, status quo, Tags kept his job
Herdez: 1 full budget car for Dominguez; no 2nd car
Pollock-Kalkhoven: 1 car for Salo, 2nd car better than 50-50
Forsythe: 1 car for Tracy certain, 2nd car better than 50-50
Fernandez: 1 car badly underfunded, or perhaps partial season

Well I got pounded on the IRL forums for telling them they'd have only 19-22 cars due to the ending of subsidies last year, and I expect to get pounded here for saying the same thing about CART now.

[macdaddy]

Why would you link Manning to Ganassi? I think that's even less likely than Frentzen signing with Cheever!

[Liz]

I'm not going to pound you, just tell you that you are spouting arrant nonsense which IMO is an invitation to flame. You have no more information than we do, and at least half your speculation is false (e.g. Monteiro being gone from FDR; he has a signed contract; and Forsythe will be announcing new sponsorship within the month.)

[sgw2]

Liz,

Forsythe I list 1 car as 100% and the second as better than 50% (being conservative) based on Tracy and Forsythe's comments. Whether there is a sponsor or not changes this picture not one bit. Perhaps you'd have objected less if I said 75% on the second car? Whatever, I expect two cars here.

As for Montiero, yes that is my guess; the team is looking at other drivers (e.g., Lamy, Christian F.), but not hiring mechanics. I doubt Tiago's salary is a significant factor. This looks pure and simple like a driver replacment search to me, not a second car.

Wayne Taylor's Grand-Am announcement is available on the 7G rumor page.

ASTJ layoff of all but a few of Ryan's mechanics, and it is on the web, as you know Liz. (Check out the team members page on the ASTJ website today.) So it doesn't take much imagination to see Ryan perhaps taking his daddy's money to a more stable team.

Darren Manning leaving Walker for Ganassi IRL was reported by Robin Miller, as you also know. Walker's budget info for 2003 is publicly available to anyone who cares to search the CART SEC filings (you'll find his team budget and $5.9M TAP, but you'll have to do some math to get the $1.4M ESP).

Liz, I think you are the one being arrogant. Assuming that without subsidies the field will grow. Silly season always produces dreams and vapor teams. But budget constraints grind that back down to reality. Last year Pook opened the piggy bank and made up the shortfall. IMHO unless the OWRS trioka opens up their checkbooks sevral teams will vanish, and others will run less than a full season. The IRL 2003 is the model.

[BootsOntheSide]

But didn't the IRL teams which folded, ran one-offs only or went to CART mainly find themselves unable to afford the new chassis and engine package? Such is the advantage of a rule freeze.

Conquest being in trouble appears to be the case, and it's not inconcievable that Manning will switch across. It'd be a brave mvoe from Ganassi to sign a guy who's only done 2 oval races though, when your theory puts guys like Servia and Vasser out of rides.

This time last year 15 cars looked optimistic, and they got 19. Don't be surprised if a similar thing happens. Some minor support from OWRS seems likely, and Walker will nto be likely to run less than 1 Reynard.

[Jordi]

Why Servia is gone, sgw?