WRC: Classified ads for Petter

I understand Mr. Solberg is searching high and low for a car for his home rally next month. I hope this link helps him; the ’05 spec Focus would be my pick, and it’s already in Finland so he and Phil could probably pick it up and drive it home by next week!

IRL: Oh come on!

These team owners are killing me.

Moraes? Yeah, he’ll pack the seats in Richmond.

And next, Will Power?

Look, I’ve got nothing against either of these guys, they’re probably good people with more driving talent than I could ever have… but there is too much MARKETABLE TALENT currently out of work for team owners to be hiring drivers so utterly invisible to the public. Don’t sponsors want someone who can sell their product?

Oh, that’s right, the team owners spent the last 20 YEARS getting too damned lazy to drum up their own sponsors and have been living off pay drivers ever since.

And TWO aussies at Penske? Does Roger have some sort of deep-seated antipathy towards the northern hemisphere?

Here’s my REAL gripe, though. Attention Australia: Get your own series!

I am absolutely dead serious here, the numbers of refugee drivers from Australia and New Zealand lately has become nothing short of batshit insane. That is a LOT of talent who are driving in front of people who frankly don’t care very much who they are. Australia is a large, prosperous country: you’re telling me they can’t support their own open-wheel series?

Indycar as a brand has tried and failed miserably to go global. Here’s an alternative idea: Franchising. Separate series with common rules between them, sharing costs and suppliers. The North American series can run as normal, and the Aussies/Kiwis (or, alternately, a South American series as I’ve previously suggested) can run during our winter/their summer. More races, more seats available, more exposure, more markets to tap.

CLEARLY these winter series have commercial potential: Both A1GP and Speedcar attract interest beyond what their bizarre racing formats probably should. Keeping down costs seems to be the most important part, and an Indycar franchise model accomplishes this by sharing the exact same equipment with the North American series.

UOWWB Question

If Ryan Hunter-Reay or Justin Wilson were offered a full-time seat at the newly rumored Pacific Coast Motorsports/Rubicon racing team, should they take the ride or hold out and hope for a ride with Rahal, N/H/L, or Penske?

For the love of all that’s sacred, yes! It doesn’t matter if you’re driving for Big Earl’s Race Team & Bait Shop! We’re in an economic crisis, the sport is teetering on a precipice… YES! TAKE THE RIDE! TAKE ANY RIDE! IF YOU’RE A RACER, YOU NEED TO RACE!!!

A tip of the hat to Sarah Fisher, doing what she needs to stay in the sport, come hell or high water.

The rest of you: swallow your egos, suck it up, and DRIVE THE $#&*ING CAR!!!!!!!

Holiday wishes…

Lewis -
English weather on Sundays.

Spiderman and the Captain -
A jury of IMS season ticket holders.

Australia and New Zealand -
Your own open wheel series, so that we might have something to watch over the winter, and Scott Dixon wouldn’t be here spoiling everyone’s fun by being so damn fast.

Mad Max -
New high-heeled leather boots and German lessons.

Luca -
Boxing gloves and lots of liquor.

Kermit -
Cheese.

To the Best Driver in the World -
Fast cars in the IRC.

Scott and Dr. Don -
A P1 Mazda effort.

PT -
A good fiscal year for Subway.

Bernard -
Enough caviar to choke on. And a nice hot place to spend a long time.

IRL, ALMS: Uh huh…

Sorry about the Detroit race guys.

Uhm, y’know, there’s this place not too far away with a little airport that used to host a race right about the same time of the year. Seems to me it used to be pretty interesting to watch. I don’t think they’re gonna be doing a whole lot that weekend, and the local economy stinks, so you’d hardly notice the difference from Detroit.

I’ll be over at the mayor’s office holding your spot in line, ‘kay?

Hat tip to Pressdog for a great post.

WRC: Balls.

In the space of 48 hours, that’s two factory entries gone from WRC. Suzuki I can understand; GM just cashed out their stake in the company, and Suzuki needs to close the barn doors before the other horses bolt. It’s not like they were getting much good press from their involvement anyhow.

But Subaru? Effing SUBARU?! This is their ONE SPORT. Rally=Subaru. Subaru=Rally. Their WRC presence is their DEFINING TRAIT. This is the equivalent of Nike no longer endorsing athletes to wear their shoes; without it, they’re just another brand of particularly quirky cars.

Un-be-lievable.

Well, I’d wager that Prodrive-to-F1 deal is pretty much just a matter of squeezing a bit more support out of Honda at this point. And at least there’ll be privateer Imprezas next year.

This is where the Mosley FIA (admittedly it’s not just the one organization, but they do have a leadership role… plus I like picking on that rotten Nazi spawn) is just such an abysmal failure: they’ve built these series up to the point where only manufacturers can play. And manufacturers are fickle, and there are only so many of them. Finding sponsors in Indycar year-to-year may be a massive headache, but you haven’t seen the top entries jumping ship left and right with this economic meltdown, have you?

Racing IS NOT a business, inasmuch as businesses are about maximizing profit. If you want to do that, it’s the wrong sector to be in. No, it’s about making a hobby financially sustainable. Realize that and we’ll all have a lot more fun.

…

Of course, Max WON’T realize that and will reduce the WRC to an S2000-class joke where it’s still a manufacturer ballgame, just somewhat cheaper, and not interesting to anyone. But that’s another rant.

UOWWBA: IRL Talent Scout

“You have just been appointed to be the new “talent scout” for the IRL. Your first mission is to bring 5 drivers to the series. These can be former drivers from Indycar or from any other series. Which 5 would you pick and why?”

I’m counting Paul Tracy as an unemployed IRL driver, so here are my 5.

TONY STEWART
Smoke becomes a team owner with the new year. An open-wheel rebel in an increasingly corporate NASCAR, it would be the perfect time for him to jump back. He’s one of the most engaging personalities in the sport, and a top-line driver no matter the machine.

A.J. ALLMENDINGER
As a fan, I took A.J.’s moneychasing ship jump to NASCAR from a winning Champcar seat as a painful betrayal and haven’t paid much attention to him since. But he’s an excellent road course driver and seems to have matured on ovals. He had some great scraps in his short tenure at Forsythe, and belongs in the Indycar paddock.

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA
I don’t think I even need to make a case for Juan. He’s a stunning driver with a first-rate resume, and love him or hate him, he’s never boring. Having him in NASCAR is absolutely shameful for open-wheel racing.

SAM HORNISH JR.
Like Montoya, I hardly feel the need to make a case. Seeing the Ohio-born Indy 500 winner in NASCAR is a constant embarrassment to open-wheel fans. He’s wasting his time and talent there, flying under the radar and running behind the pace.

RUBENS BARRICHELLO
Is there a better place for a high-profile Brazilian F1 refugee? Rubinho still has some good seasons in him, and will bring important publicity and international press with him.

Not on the list…

JACQUES VILLENEUVE
Lose the massively dickish ego and accompanying price tag and we’ll talk. Apology for going from F1 to trucks is optional.

FBMW: America’s next F1 driver

California’s Alexander Rossi will get a test run with BMW Sauber after besting a worldwide field of Formula BMW champions in Mexico City.

I say, congrats!

F1: Richards’ revenge?

Could Prodrive swoop in and save Honda’s F1 operation? There’s the suggestion that Honda would be willing to sell the team for practically nothing just to cut their losses.

Still, even if the deal goes off, they’d be in a terrible scramble to arrange an engine supply for next year; with KERS, it might even be impossible. That’s unless Honda agrees to stay on in an unofficial capacity through a convenient third party…

SPEEDCAR: Liuzzi dominates, bodywork is ruined.

Well, an unexpected winner to be sure, but the former Toro Rosso driver seems to have taken to stock cars very quickly. The rest of the field seems to have spent the race figuring out how their new fenders work.