©1997 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc.
By Peter Burke
So Mansell is going to test for Patrick to possibly return to CART.The question I have is "did McGee tell Mansell that Dennis Vitolo hasalready confirmed support from Smith-Kline Beecham to run all 19races next season?"
Will Franchitti return to the Mercedes hall of fame after beingdeleted from all history records a few weeks ago in Orwellianfashion? The rumor is that if Green doesn't run a second car, hewill need a different engine for '98, because Honda will stick withParker.
Robby Gordon out at Sabco - that was to be expected. He's aiming at areturn to CART, and his crash-free run at Fontana should be a decentintroduction to the bargaining table. He did give Hogan the bestfinish of the season, but he's not on best terms with some enginemanufacturers after his '96 open criticism of Ford. Among the fans,he still has strong support, and sponsors like that. Will Hogan finda sponsor to help pay for Robby's salary? Hogan may be looking forRobby's experience after seeing a number of possible good finishesevaporate in '97 due to rookie-driver mistakes.
Tasman is going all Brazilian it seems - Ribeiro and Kanaan are torun for Steve Horne, with Brahma money coloring Kanaan's (Swift?) carorange and red.
Fernandez may be without a new home yet, but he has several jokers inhis hand - Tecate and Quaker State. The latter is a problem withPatrick who has Pennzoil coming on board for Pruett and still toyswith the idea to sign Mansell. But a team like Hogan may just be theplace for Adrian - given that Hogan didn't have a significantsponsor beyond an engine deal that came with Franchitti. If Mercedesmoves to Green and welcomes Dario back to the family, Carl Hogan maystill end up with a few Tecate girls in his hospitality area nextseason.
Everyone wants 2 cars now. With the number of teams rumored to beinterested in a 2 car expansion next season, the field may grow to 34entries per race. If that many cars really attempt to run on alltracks there would be a real fight at the end of the field to makethe sometimes limited starting grid - many tracks have only 28 pitsavailable. Maybe this is good for the competition, but financiallythis is going to hurt some teams more than others. Sending 6 carshome is not good. We'll have to wait and see. Somehow it's hard toimagine that teams will find the sponsor support needed to add 6 carsto the series that ran a few cars with considerable blank ad spacethroughout the '97 season.
Emmo is not coming back as a racer. After his second brush withparalysis, he announced this week that he will play golf from now on.Will we see a Fittipaldi golf driver set real soon? Or will heactually become involved in CART as a owner or co-owner? The latestrumors connect him with Davis Racing (if they go for a second car).
Swifts - lots of Swifts. At least the numbers we got second handindicate that Swift is ramping up to build about 30-40 chassis for'98, while Reynard is building at least 45. Few teams have confirmedchassis choices for '98, but one can assume that few Reynard teamswill drop the make and their experience gained for a wild bet onSwift. Actually - if all these cars were built, even with 34 driversattempting to qualify in '98, there would be more than one spare for eachof them. And the above numbers don't even include the Penskes. Bottomline: somebody leaked the wrong Swift numbers or some people areoverconfident regarding their chassis sales.
Another rumor is that SpeedCenter may shut down this fall. It'spossible. After 3 years of trying to make things happen on the web(and building up to 8000+ html documents, 1500 photos, 300+MB oftotal content), few options remain to continue this service throughthe next season. SpeedCenter is at the limit as to what one personcan do in his spare time and with 'disposable' income. Unless somefunding source for '98 can be found, a conversion to a staticportfolio site is the only logical path. This winter will be aperiod dedicated to proposals, while the regular content here willhopefully not come to a total standstill. '98 is still possible, butonly if Speedcenter can gain significiant support, or win $50k in the lottery.