TBK-Light.com

More cars is nice, but you wouldn't need more full-time cars to solve the problem of the larger ovals looking empty. On a full-time basis, there would also be money issues - one of the responses in the Mailbag ths week suggested that there wasn't much more room to accomodate any extra Leaders' Circle qualifiers, which the smaller teams rely on to make ends meet.

Besides, I have a feeling there's a little more money sloshing around from the driver's side this year which could end up in extra cars. Hinch will doubtless take his Honda Canada cheque and deposit it with someone else (Shank, Rahal, Harding...). If Tetra-Pak still think Ericsson is worth it then he will have a budget to take somewhere (probably Carlin). The Chair Force is obviously keen on Daly. Askew will have a cheque that gets him as far as Indy. Van Kalmthout will have some yellow Jumbo stickers to slap on someone's car, and his backer is the sort who prefers being involved in motorsport over needing a return on the sponsorship.

EDIT: Hinch is staying put.

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

I had a feeling shit was about to get wild when there was light rumors of Helio to Foyt

Lost in all the Mclaren news today was that Pagenaud resigned with penske. (Side question: Why is it that with most other american sports they practically glorify the massive amount of money and years a contract is but, in racing, the details of a contract are hardly made know unless some weird legal issue comes up?)
https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/m ... 547229001/

Also Daly will be back with Andretti for Laguna Seca.
https://www.autosport.com/indycar/news/ ... son-finale

I thought they would at least place Alonso in one of the cars for the season

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

All the good news regarding exposure, interest etc aside, I have to say I'm disappointed in McLaren. They (Brown) wanted to do IndyCar full time but realized after Indy it would be hard on their own, so rather than take the hard route a la Carlin or Dragonspeed, they basically bought into an already proved team. Pretty selfish. I wonder how much Sam Schimdt had a say in this and how much Arrow threatened to pull the plug, or something similar.

Happy Hinch is staying put, but I wished they would've fielded two extra cars, and some new drivers, with a fully funded, competitive team.

Well, maybe I bitch to much.

same reason why purse amounts are rarely publicized in the big leagues of American motorsport, because they are so low in comparison to the NFL, MLB & NBA.

The only places that regularly promote their race purses here is short track racing, on the dirt side especially ($150k to win Knoxville Nationals, $175k to win Kings Royal, Dirt Million and the many $25k to $50k to win races)

Dragonspeed did it the hard way, whereas Carlin took 50% of Ganassi and have done a pretty piss poor job of what they have.

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

Haven't McLaren kicked him to the curb?

Alonso's still with McLaren. He's just made it clear he doesn't want to do IndyCar outside of the Indy 500.

he doesn't know what he's missing. must be loads of fun to drive that car at Road America and Laguna Seca

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

According to this, Alonso and McLaren parted ways back in June - https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/news ... 00-debacle

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

That ended up not being true. This article from Racer from yesterday says: “The door’s always open for Fernando,” McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown told RACER. “He’s part of the family, he’s a contracted McLaren driver and for the first time in a long time he doesn’t have a full racing calendar ahead of him."

I feel if McLaren do end up entering WEC with a Hypercar he'll be a part of that programme

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"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

How cool is this!

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"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

Miller on Silly Season now it has properly begun;

https://racer.com/2019/08/12/miller-how ... ly-season/

The tl;dr -

-Hinch is not guaranteed to stay at ASPMR next year despite the warm words in the aftermath of that deal.
-'(Herta) will be an Andretti driver until he is no longer carded at bars.'
-Ericsson does want to stay at ASPMR but his management are looking around just in case.
-Daly has some money but not enough to buy a seat by itself...yet.
-Ferrucci is hot property and could well be moving.
-Pigot is likely safe but Jones needs money.
-TK's future is in doubt, both on Foyt's end and his own.
-Leist is probably leaving Foyt as well.
-Apparently there is chatter about Floyd running a third car again with Askew in the frame if he wins the ILS cheque.
-Van Kalmthout is an attractive proposition for Carpenter and his wallet even more so.
-Both Nasr and Latifi are high on ASPMR's list should vacancies arise.
-And some wishful thinking about O'Ward and Alonso.

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

someone shot the Road America race with a Super 8 camera and made a great film

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Follow me on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/135625678@N06/

See a few posts above

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"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

I see now

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Follow me on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/135625678@N06/

What is with the Foyt team? They have really struggled this year, which is a damn shame. Regardless of how Foyt does, TK's career is pretty much done; or rather, was done a few years ago.