Arciero-Wells Update
Arciero-Wells is now known as MCI Racing and has signed Max Papis for 1997. Papis took over this ride after Jeff Krosnoff was tragically killed at Toronto. Like Jeff, Max has done remarkably well in a seriously underpowered Reynard/Toyota machine.

I expect this team to strike hard in 1997 after the winter's testing and the improvements that Toyota will be making after their huge learning curve in 1996.

Looking for a Kool Driver
Team Green is still looking for a driver for their heavily financed effort by Kool in 1997. Robby Gordon was all but signed when he dumped the news that he would be switching to NASCAR in 1997 and Barry Green was none too happy about that!

Overheard at Laguna Seca was that the Team is still talking to Scott Pruett, who reportedly has signed for another year with Patrick Racing. The biggest rumor of the weekend from a source with the Kool Team is that NASCAR driver, Jeff Gordon, will be doing some testing in the near future.

SpeedCenter will stay very close to that story!

Buddy Lazier, who has been seen cruising and schmoozing around at various IndyCar races is said to be on Green's short-list and even Danny Sullivan said, "No comment," when questioned if he was up for the ride.

There could be some very interesting developments in the next couple of weeks regarding the big question of who will drive for Team Kool Green in 1997. One key-note to keep in mind is that Kool is demanding an American driver.

PacWest Defects to Mercedes/Firestone
Announced at a news conference at Laguna Seca, PacWest racing will be running Reynard/Mercedes/Firestone for Mark Blundell and Mauricio Gugelmin in 1997. The team had run Reynard/Ford/Goodyear in 1996 with the Ford-Cosworth powerplant being a terrible weak link for them as well as many other teams.

This Bud's for Who?
Another rumor circulating the quaint town of Monterey was that the Budweiser sponsorship would be moving to Patrick Racing in 1997. That is assuming that Scott Pruett is not purchased by Kool for Team Green.

Scott Pruett was the Budweiser poster-boy when he drove for Truesports in the late 80's and early 90's, and Budweiser was not too thrilled to be sponsoring a non-American driver, but was reportedly happy with Christian Fittipaldi representing their company in his Newman-Haas owned car.

Budweiser was very unhappy in the Truesports days when they had a hell of a time to secure the winning Ilmor/Chevrolet powerplant that was bolted to a awful Truesports-built chassis. With Newman-Haas switching to the new, untested Swift chassis in 1997, maybe they feel it's time to bail out and stick with a proven package.