Turkey Day Special: Exploring the Rookies for 2012

Yesterday I confirmed that Josef Newgarden might have a full time ride, maybe even Simon Pagenaud. Giorgio Pantano looks all but confirmed at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in Justin Wilson’s former ride. Maybe Wilson’s brother Stefan gets into the series. Andretti Autosport tested IndyLights veteran James Davison a few weeks ago. You could still consider Wade Cunningham a rookie. Pippa Mann might get the second ride at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Ho Pin Tung maybe in a second car at HVM (not yet confirmed).  Now what I’m going to do is breakdown every driver I just listed. I will state if they belong in the IndyCar Series or not.

Josef Newgarden: The 2011 Firestone Indy Lights Champion is searching for an IndyCar Series ride. He is rumored to go to Sam Schmidt Motorsports, the same team that he won IndyLights with. He would be teammates with another so called rookie Simon Pagenaud. Newgarden would be a good fit for Sam Schmidt Motorsports because he knows the team and we need Americans in IndyCar.

Simon Pagenaud: For Simon this is easy. He was a fill in driver last year and performed excellently. He has experience with Sports Cars and Prototypes so with his driving ability, I expect him to be a front runner every week on the road and street courses. When he had to fill in for Ana Beatriz at Barber this year he finished 8th! Simon was Champ Car’s rookie of the year in 2007.

Stefan Wilson: Stefan Wilson drove the 2011 Indy Lights season with Andretti Autosport, he won a race at Toronto. He could be moving up with the team in their fourth car but it seems that is highly unlikely. I would love to see Stefan in a car. He’s got a bright future ahead of him but he should stay in Lights for another year.

James Davison: James recently tested with Andretti Autosport at Palm Beach International Raceway in effort to land a spot with the team. It looks like he will be a full time driver in 2012 with Andretti Autosport. Odds are he will take Ryan Hunter-Reay’s old ride and Hunter-Reay moves into the GODADDY car. Davison is a perfect fit for the IndyCar Series.

Wade Cunningham: Wade made a few starts in 2011 with AFS Racing and Sam Schmidt Motorsports. When Wade raced he was very impressive. Wade would be a perfect fit with AFS Racing or Sarah Fisher Racing in a ovals only program. Wade is a Indy Lights champion that needs to be in the series.

Giorgio Pantano: The 2008 GP2 Champion had filled in for an injured Justin Wilson at Infineon, Baltimore and Motegi. He had his best run at Infineon where he should have finished sixth! If he gets this ride with DRR expect him to be strong on the road and street course section of the schedule.

Ho Pin Tung: Ho made a few starts in 2011 with Dragon racing. It was mostly crashing so we don’t really know what he has yet. If last year repeats it could be a disaster. He doesn’t belong in IndyCar if thats going to be the story of his career.

Pippa Mann: Pippa made three starts last year with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Those three starts were about expected from her. The other start came at Indy were she finished in the bottom but still proved that she could race. I believe that Pippa will be even stronger if she gets a full time ride next season.

Overall I think the rookie of the year race for 2012 could be a tight one. It could be a four way battle between Newgarden, Pagenaud, Davison, and Cunningham. If I had to pick a winner out of those four I would have to go with Pagenaud just because of his ChampCar experience and with the road and street courses.

Next up in this series is exploring the new teams/returning teams for 2012.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My China Rant and News and Notes of the Week

When I saw the IndyCar China race announcement last week I said a ton of bad things. The first thing I did was tell my mom (who isn’t the average IndyCar fan even though she watches with me sometimes) ” I’m never watching IndyCar again,” She said “Knowing you, you still will.”  Then she asked why was I mad. I said that “IndyCar announced another 3am parade how frickin great. Her response was “Kent, you are a late night person thats no problem for you.” After that I said ” Mom, you don’t understand, After Dan Wheldon’s death all they want to do is dump the ovals and go to stupid street courses.” Then the conversation got dropped. After the conversation hit the dead end, I went into my room and read the announcement. I was excited that it was a long street circuit but thats all I was excited about. I thought to myself, racing in China isn’t bad but go to Macau, Zuhai or any other road course in China not this stupid street circuit. IndyCar is going be up to 11 road and street circuits for 2012. I would like to see 5: St Pete, Toronto, Long Beach, Sao Paulo, and Cleveland. Thats it! Not, Baltimore, Las Vegas (probable), Fort Lauderdale, and Houston. Not Barber, Mid Ohio, or Infineon either. When IndyCar raced at the Twin Ring Motegi road course I wasn’t excited about it at all but yet it created more passing than the other 3 natural terrain road courses on the schedule.

So with that said it got me thinking. Where should the China race be held instead of the Quingdao street course? As I listed earlier there are a few choices I would like to see: most especially Macau.

Macau is a 3.8 mile track with a few long straights.

Overall I would love to see IndyCar race there.

In other news;  Austin Dillon clinched his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series title in the #3 Bass Pro Shops Chevy with Richard Childress Racing aka his grandpa. The race got rained out with 15 laps to go. Jonny Sauter ended up so called winning.

Lotus announced three team/engine deals on Thursday at the Los Angeles Auto Show. HVM Racing will be anchor team. HVM Racing will carry a Lotus livery in 2012 with driver Simona de Silvestro. They also announced that Dreyer & Reinbold Racing will be a co-anchor team. The DRR team hasn’t confirmed any drivers for 2012. I do know this Justin Wilson is out and Ana Beatriz is close to re-signing. It looks like Townsend Bell or Giorgio Pantano will be in the 24 car for 2012. The last team announced on Thursday was Bryan Herta Autosport. This is huge for them because it looks like they will be running a full time car in 2012 with Alex Tagliani as driver probably. Lotus won’t be strong next year I don’t think but I think that they will get stronger and stronger as the year goes. Part of that has to deal with the delay of signing teams to engine contracts.

Novo Nordisk retained its sponsorship with Charlie Kimball and Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing.

Panther Racing picked up driver J.R. Hildebrand’s option for 2012 and 2013. Team owner John Barnes is still optimistic about fielding a second full time car for 2012 with driver Buddy Rice behind the wheel. He has confirmed there will be a second car for sure at Indianapolis.

Infineon Raceway will get a redesign for 2012 for IndyCar ONLY. This is a big sign for the track because there is a lack of passing there. Marshall Pruett has more on that topic here.

IndyCar announced today that they are working with teams and race engineers on the 1.5 mile oval solution. Robin Miller has more on this topic on speedtv.com.

Sarah Fisher was named Team Principal of the Year on Thursday. The team won the Kentucky race with then driver Ed Carpenter.

Star Mazda Champion Tristan Vautier signed with Sam Schmidt Motorsports in Firestone Indy Lights. He will run the number 77.

Bryan Clauson clinched another USAC Championship and IndyCar Schloarship last week.

Honda wants to go back to Formula One racing with McLaren. When McLaren ran Honda they won four consectutive constructor championships.

The Young Driver Test took place in Abu Dhabi this week. Jean Eric Vegrne of Red Bull topped the sessions.

Renault driver Vitaly Petrov slammed the team this week saying he wants a different ride but yet he said I over reacted and acted stupid.

Renault’s team boss has admitted to conversations with 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen about a seat with the team. I will have more on the Renault saga at a different time.

Lastly Jimmie Johnson announced that he will skip out of the 24 Hours of Daytona next season.

 

In blog news: The Brazil Preview will be up Wednesday or Friday (got it done but still undecided for when I want to post it)  Expect to see only 1-3 posts a week until the regular season of racing kicks up again. I am super busy with school and work but over the Holidays I will post a lot hopefully (time permitting) I do want to state this I’m not quitting the blog for no means at all.