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2006 race winner Nelson Philippe has tested with Conquest over the winter, but like many other Champ Car veteran drivers he's stuck in the waiting game at present. (LAT photo) ยป More Photos
In the land of earthquakes, they were announcements that could only be described as a seven on the Richter scale.
Zsolt Baumgartner named test and reserve driver for Minardi Team USA.
Tristan Gommendy named the second driver for PKV Racing.
Mazda named the official vehicle.
Matt Halliday is testing the Conquest entry.
Holmatro Rescue Tools named title sponsor of the safety team.
Pacific Coast Motorsports unveiled its paint scheme.
Hostess Twinkies named the official pastry.
OK, that last one was a joke but, for the most part, so was Thursday's Champ Car's Media Day at Laguna Seca. With the promise of some blockbuster announcements from series co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven, the slim media contingent instead received the nebulous news above.
Make no mistake, a month before the season opener at Las Vegas it was good to have Alex Tagliani (Rocketsports) and Gommendy confirmed as drivers to put the official number at 10.
It was also good for Paul Newman and Carl Haas to welcome Mike Lanigan as a partner and now it's Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, which hopefully is going to officially announce Graham Rahal as the second shoe before he turns 21 (for the record, he's 18).
But, in terms of newsworthiness, it was hardly "stop the presses" material.
Gommandy evidently got the nod at PKV over veteran Oriol Servia because he's bringing $2 million from a yet-to-be-named foreign sponsor.
Baumgartner, who once drove for Minardi owner Paul Stoddart in Formula 1, appears to be in line to drive the Minardi two-seat F1 machine at this year's Champ Car events. That's about all the seat time he'll get since testing is very limited by the rules.
Mazda, owned by Ford which had been a presenting sponsor and partner of Champ Car, will supply pace cars and some courtesy vehicles.
And having a title sponsor for the safety team is nice but there's still no title sponsor for a series that's desperately in need of money for its teams.
To be honest, the real news here wasn't the feel-good kind.
Katherine Legge politely declined to participate in Media Day because she says she still doesn't have a firm deal with any team.
Justin Wilson, last year's runner-up and Bourdais' top challenger, arrived at the track to learn his RuSPORT team had entered into a "technical" partnership with Rocketsports and there's been serious talk of moving the Colorado-based team to Lansing, Mich.
Three-time series runner-up Bruno Junqueira is spending one day in Dale Coyne's car here, as is Canadian Andrew Ranger, but neither has a seat for the season.
Mexico's Mario Dominguez showed up to look for work while Nelson Philippe, who scored his initial win last year, is a no-show because his family is not writing any more checks and claims if he can't be paid to drive, he'll be a spectator.
Dan Clarke, a rookie in 2006, is pounding the pavement but has nothing yet.
Servia, a loyal veteran of Champ Car since 2000, is also walking around with his helmet but no place to put it.
For the record, that's a total of seven full-timers from '06 who are in limbo and, with RuSPORT definitely cutting back to one car, Rocketsports only fielding one and Gerry Forsythe still sticking to his guns about not running a second car without funding, there's less opportunity than ever before in a series that's been around since 1979.
Right now, unless some things change drastically in the next couple weeks, it's looking like 16 starters in the opener at Las Vegas on April 8.
But the best news for Champ Car is that nobody noticed, because Media Day didn't get a lot of national play. No USA Today. No L.A. Times. No Indianapolis Star. No Las Vegas papers. Not even new broadcast and marketing "partner" ESPN bothered to send anybody.
It was just a quaint little group. Tristan, Zsolt, a few Internet sites, one racing weekly and SPEED. We came, we saw and we shook our heads.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SpeedTV.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED Channel
Robin Miller covers open wheel racing for SPEEDtv.com, SPEED Report and WIND TUNNEL. A lifelong resident of Indianapolis, an 18-year-old Miller stooged for his hero Jim Hurtubise at the Indianapolis 500 in 1968 and began covering motorsports for The Indianapolis Star in 1969. Besides working on Indy pit crews from 1968-78, Miller also competed on the USAC midget circuit from 1975-83. During the past 35 years he's also been a contributor for Autoweek, Autosport, Car & Driver, ESPN The Magazine and several publications that folded and still owe him money. He is single, a degenerate gambler and despises the NASCAR phrase, "We had a Top 20 car today."
Robin Miller is not affiliated with RACER magazine and his views should not be considered representative of RACER or of Haymarket Worldwide Inc.
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