LVGP Car Count

Six days from now the first transporter will pull into the paddock in downtown Las Vegas, the big question is just how many more will follow!

Here's the confirmed List of cars and drivers:

Forsythe - Paul Tracy & Mario Dominguez
Newman/Haas/Lanigan - Sebastien Bourdais & Graham Rahal
Pacific Coast - Ryan Dalziel & Alex Figge
PKV - Neel Jani & Tristan Gommendy
Rocketsports - Alex Tagliani
RuSPORT - Justin Wilson
Team Australia - Will Power & Simon Pagenaud
Minardi - Robert Doornbos & Dan Clarke

By my count that is 14!

Conquest, as we know, is a one car effort and if Coyne shows up with 2 that makes 17.

My guess is that will be the grand total for the weekend.

If they're truely all off of welfare and have lettering on the side pods perhaps it will be the first evidence of better times to come!

We shall see!

Champcar - Going Well or Well Gone

First let me say that it is a common business practice, in fact it is necessary to the survival of a business, to do planning. It doesn’t matter how far into the future that planning extends but most importantly it matters that you have done it.

Champcar, KK, told us that champ car has a five year plan and many have referred to it on occasion. The problem that I see most frequently is that the plan is misunderstood. It often appears that the average Joe thinks that we are in the fourth year of the five year plan.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Good business planning generally happens annually and that said it should be recognized that Champ car is in the first year of the latest revision of a five year plan.

You wouldn’t wait four years to correct something that didn’t work which was implemented in the first year of the plan would you?

So, as we enter the fourth year of the new Champ car I can’t help but wonder if the expected results for this time frame are according to plan.

Were the actions of Bridgestone and Ford sudden and unexpected or planned?

Is the discontinuance of welfare to the participating teams on schedule and according to plan? I have seen much criticism in the press proclaiming that the Tres Amigos should continue to prop up the series with personal money making the series “look better”!

Was the end of welfare really meant to light a fire under the teams to get their own sponsorship? Is it really true that some teams don’t even have a marketing guru and are instead expecting welfare?

The limited grid has turned out to be 16 not 24 as proposed by KK last year. I can’t help but wonder if this is part of the plan or something needing revision!

With spring training now over many, except a few diehards, are ready to call the undertaker after seeing a dearth driver confirmations and cars at the test.

Even the multitude of announcements that were promised for spring training failed to appease the average fan.

But KK says he expects some cars to be added to the grid before Vegas and continues to insist that Forsythe will be one of those. Again is this part of the plan?

Many went into this off season convinced that next year was going to be the breakout year for Champcar with the new chassis and all and now most feel it is a broken year instead.

As for me I need more time to see what really happening in this private enterprise that has no reason to let me in on their secrets!

After I return from Las Vegas and Long Beach I’ll have a better feel for the state of
CCWS.

Pressed for an opinion now though I would have say that the unwatched pot appeared to boil while KK was fondling the penguins.

But hey, plans change, let’s see what happens!

Zoom Zoom

Now we know!

Out with the Stangs in with the Zoom Zooms!

The Champ car World Series today entered an agreement with Mazda North American Operations that will see the famed manufacturer become The Official Vehicle of the Champ Car World Series for 2007. Mazda will be able to showcase its performance cars as part of the Champ Car Pace Car Program, and will have its trucks, SUVs and crossover vehicles featured as part of the world-renowned Holmatro Safety Team, Champ Car’s fast-response safety squads.