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Written by:
Robin Miller
09/23/2008 - 06:42 PM
Indianapolis, Ind.
Hello open wheel types and thanks for all your questions. I intend to answer your questions every week during the season, so just e-mail them to openwheelmailbag@gmail.com. Don’t feel left out if I didn’t directly respond. I appreciate your interest and passion.
~Robin Miller
Q: With A.J. Allmendinger out of his #84 RBR seat and likely headed to Chip Ganassi’s Cup team, can you please set up a 1-on-1 between him and Dario Franchitti? I think he needs to know all there is to know about driving for the Ganassi Cup team. What I wouldn’t give to see AJA back in an open wheel car. Why can’t Red Bull venture back into the ICS (sans Cheever, PLEASE) and put AJ in a car alongside Jon Fogarty or Jonathan Bomarito? When will things ever be right in the world of AOW?
John Wertz
RM: I would think A.J. has a pretty good grasp of the NASCAR landscape and, hopefully, understands that as long as open wheel drivers come to stock cars in mid-field teams, they will continue to struggle. Getting Allmendinger back in open wheel would be fabulous for him and for IndyCar. I’ve love to see Chip run a third car for him but I’m not holding out much hope. I do know that if I win the Power Ball ($175 million), I will field a 3-car team with Paul Tracy, Bomarito and Allmendinger, then run five cars at Indy with Tracy Hines and Dave Darland. Unless Jonatham Summerton wanted to pursue IndyCar instead of Formula 1, then I’d run four and six, respectively. That would make things closer to right in open wheel.
Q: Any word on whether Vitor Meira will have a ride in 2009? I had heard Jay Penske’s team was trying to put a full season together. Any help from dad putting that together? It frustrates me to no end to see a guy who has overachieved in mid-level equipment at best and is great for the sport not have a ride due to funding. Let’s not forget he finished 2nd in the 500 and that’s because his team couldn’t keep him in front during final pit stops after Vitor made one of the best passes for the lead I had ever seen. Welcome to TG’s “vision” of open-wheel racing. What a waste of 12 years to accomplish nothing!
Jeff Conner, West Lafayette, Ind.
RM: The rumor is that Meira will replace Scheckter at Luczo/Dragon and they will run the full season. Don’t forget Vitor was also the fastest car at Kentucky and lost the top spot in the pits. Ryan Hunter-Reay was treated the same way in Champ Car but thankfully got a second chance with Rahal Letterman.
Q: What news if any can be reported about the size of the 2009 Indy car field? Any growth, getting smaller or will we have the same teams as this year? I know that KVR is on the edge waiting to hear if there are going to be any future races in Australia. That being a factor of sponsorship money from the Australian wineries, no race, no money. But what about the rest of the field? Any word of Paul Stoddart coming back to the U.S. and giving IndyCar a shot?? What about Team Marty Roth – will they keep the doors open and continue? If so, will we see Marty behind the wheel or Jay Howard?
Tony Piergallini
RM: About six weeks ago a lot of use were wondering if the car count would be closer to 20 than 30 next season, but lately it seems a lot more positive with
Conquest and HVM (Keith Wiggins) landing some support and a new team out of Indy ready to make an announcement this weekend. KV would be the big question mark, along with Dreyer & Reinbold I imagine, but things appear to be looking better. Don’t think you’ll see Stoddart but Robert Doornbos is talking like he’ll be here in 2009. Roth has plenty of money and he’s paying Howard not to drive right now, which is insane. I would hope we’d see more of Howard and less of Mad Dog in 2009 but don’t count on it.
Q: Any chance the IRL would adopt an engine program in which you were required to cycle through different engines assuming multiple manufacturers return to Indy car racing? Example: Ganassi starts the season with Honda at St Pete, uses a Ford for Homestead and then a Mercedes for Long Beach and begins to repeat the process until the end of the season. This would give all teams an equal opportunity without the boredom of a spec series and a sure way to prove the best racer isn’t always in the fastest car. I’m just worried that even if other engine makers come to play, Honda is gonna go with Ganassi, Penske and Andretti while the rest of the teams are left in the dust.
Lucas Wurfel, Hinton, Alberta, Canada
RM: I’m sure that if there are suddenly two or three engine manufacturers, the IRL will be smart enough to conduct a draft or seed the teams and make sure there’s a balance of power, so to speak. Not sure they could market a plan like the one you suggested but I would be in favor of one- or two-year deals, where each team has to rotate. The CART era saw Honda and Toyota buying up all the best teams, running Mercedes out and keeping Ford a weak sister. Ditto for the IRL, when Honda and Toyota sent Nissan and General Motors packing before Toyota threw in the towel. You won’t be able to prevent Honda from using its engineering smarts and money but at least you can keep them from getting all the best teams.
Q: I hope that you plan on continuing the Open-Wheel Mailbag thru the LONG off season. I just read two excellent books by Brock Yates, "Against Death and Time: One Fatal Season in Racing’s Glory Years" and "Sunday Driver". Both books provided a real feel for the myriad of personalities, cars, and tracks of the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. I was wondering if you might be able to list any other books of that exciting time period for some of us young bucks who missed those glory years.
Tony, Edgewood, New Mexico
RM: First off, yes, we will have the Mailbag either weekly or bi-weekly through the fall and winter months. Brock’s books are always entertaining and informative, especially the first one you mentioned, it was such a good read on such a deadly era. John Zimmerman’s book on Dan Gurney (Eagle Racing Cars) provides a detailed look at one of Indy’s great innovators and Terry Reed’s “Indy: Race & Ritual” gives some historic perspective. Tium Considine’s “American Grand Prix Racing” is a keepsake of all the Americans who tried F1 and Dick Wallen has a series of books on the golden years of the ‘50s, ‘60,s ‘70s and ‘80s in Indy car with some awesome photos. Ditto for the Autocourse History of the Indianapolis 500 written by Donald Davidson and Rick Shaffer. There’s also a great read called Fast Company, which was written by Jerry Miller almost 40 years ago.
~Robin Miller
Allmendinger's departure from Red Bull isn't likely to bring him back to open wheel. (LAT photo) ยป More Photos
Q: With A.J. Allmendinger out of his #84 RBR seat and likely headed to Chip Ganassi’s Cup team, can you please set up a 1-on-1 between him and Dario Franchitti? I think he needs to know all there is to know about driving for the Ganassi Cup team. What I wouldn’t give to see AJA back in an open wheel car. Why can’t Red Bull venture back into the ICS (sans Cheever, PLEASE) and put AJ in a car alongside Jon Fogarty or Jonathan Bomarito? When will things ever be right in the world of AOW?
John Wertz
RM: I would think A.J. has a pretty good grasp of the NASCAR landscape and, hopefully, understands that as long as open wheel drivers come to stock cars in mid-field teams, they will continue to struggle. Getting Allmendinger back in open wheel would be fabulous for him and for IndyCar. I’ve love to see Chip run a third car for him but I’m not holding out much hope. I do know that if I win the Power Ball ($175 million), I will field a 3-car team with Paul Tracy, Bomarito and Allmendinger, then run five cars at Indy with Tracy Hines and Dave Darland. Unless Jonatham Summerton wanted to pursue IndyCar instead of Formula 1, then I’d run four and six, respectively. That would make things closer to right in open wheel.
Q: Any word on whether Vitor Meira will have a ride in 2009? I had heard Jay Penske’s team was trying to put a full season together. Any help from dad putting that together? It frustrates me to no end to see a guy who has overachieved in mid-level equipment at best and is great for the sport not have a ride due to funding. Let’s not forget he finished 2nd in the 500 and that’s because his team couldn’t keep him in front during final pit stops after Vitor made one of the best passes for the lead I had ever seen. Welcome to TG’s “vision” of open-wheel racing. What a waste of 12 years to accomplish nothing!
Jeff Conner, West Lafayette, Ind.
RM: The rumor is that Meira will replace Scheckter at Luczo/Dragon and they will run the full season. Don’t forget Vitor was also the fastest car at Kentucky and lost the top spot in the pits. Ryan Hunter-Reay was treated the same way in Champ Car but thankfully got a second chance with Rahal Letterman.
Q: What news if any can be reported about the size of the 2009 Indy car field? Any growth, getting smaller or will we have the same teams as this year? I know that KVR is on the edge waiting to hear if there are going to be any future races in Australia. That being a factor of sponsorship money from the Australian wineries, no race, no money. But what about the rest of the field? Any word of Paul Stoddart coming back to the U.S. and giving IndyCar a shot?? What about Team Marty Roth – will they keep the doors open and continue? If so, will we see Marty behind the wheel or Jay Howard?
Tony Piergallini
RM: About six weeks ago a lot of use were wondering if the car count would be closer to 20 than 30 next season, but lately it seems a lot more positive with
Q: Any chance the IRL would adopt an engine program in which you were required to cycle through different engines assuming multiple manufacturers return to Indy car racing? Example: Ganassi starts the season with Honda at St Pete, uses a Ford for Homestead and then a Mercedes for Long Beach and begins to repeat the process until the end of the season. This would give all teams an equal opportunity without the boredom of a spec series and a sure way to prove the best racer isn’t always in the fastest car. I’m just worried that even if other engine makers come to play, Honda is gonna go with Ganassi, Penske and Andretti while the rest of the teams are left in the dust.
Lucas Wurfel, Hinton, Alberta, Canada
RM: I’m sure that if there are suddenly two or three engine manufacturers, the IRL will be smart enough to conduct a draft or seed the teams and make sure there’s a balance of power, so to speak. Not sure they could market a plan like the one you suggested but I would be in favor of one- or two-year deals, where each team has to rotate. The CART era saw Honda and Toyota buying up all the best teams, running Mercedes out and keeping Ford a weak sister. Ditto for the IRL, when Honda and Toyota sent Nissan and General Motors packing before Toyota threw in the towel. You won’t be able to prevent Honda from using its engineering smarts and money but at least you can keep them from getting all the best teams.
Q: I hope that you plan on continuing the Open-Wheel Mailbag thru the LONG off season. I just read two excellent books by Brock Yates, "Against Death and Time: One Fatal Season in Racing’s Glory Years" and "Sunday Driver". Both books provided a real feel for the myriad of personalities, cars, and tracks of the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. I was wondering if you might be able to list any other books of that exciting time period for some of us young bucks who missed those glory years.
Tony, Edgewood, New Mexico
RM: First off, yes, we will have the Mailbag either weekly or bi-weekly through the fall and winter months. Brock’s books are always entertaining and informative, especially the first one you mentioned, it was such a good read on such a deadly era. John Zimmerman’s book on Dan Gurney (Eagle Racing Cars) provides a detailed look at one of Indy’s great innovators and Terry Reed’s “Indy: Race & Ritual” gives some historic perspective. Tium Considine’s “American Grand Prix Racing” is a keepsake of all the Americans who tried F1 and Dick Wallen has a series of books on the golden years of the ‘50s, ‘60,s ‘70s and ‘80s in Indy car with some awesome photos. Ditto for the Autocourse History of the Indianapolis 500 written by Donald Davidson and Rick Shaffer. There’s also a great read called Fast Company, which was written by Jerry Miller almost 40 years ago.
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