Hi everyone:
Champ Car today announced the rules changes that have been done over the winter. Have a look!
"In an ongoing effort to provide the best racing and most entertainment for Champ Car fans, as well as the best competitive environment for the teams and drivers of the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford, the series has implemented a number of rule changes that will go into effect for the 2005 season.
The rule changes address issues both on the track and in the paddock and are designed to allow teams to invoke a wide variety of strategies in their pursuit of the checkered flag. Other changes were designed to increase activity throughout the weekend in order to give the multitudes of Champ Car fans more on-track action to watch when they come to an event.
Pit intervals and mandatory pit stops have been abolished this season, meaning that teams no longer have any directives on when they must pit and what they must do during that stop. The previous rules forced teams to pit at specified intervals and forced teams to change four tires during that stop.
“The goal is to take it out of the hands of the officials and put the onus back on the teams,” said Champ Car Vice-President of Operations Tony Cotman. “There’s definitely more than one way to win a race, and we want to leave it up to our teams to find the best way for them to get to the front.”
Rules regarding full-course caution periods have been addressed, with the pits being automatically closed during full-course yellow flag conditions. The pace car will slow the field as soon as possible once the caution flag waves, allowing the Champ Car Safety Team to address the situation. When conditions warrant, Race Control will open the pits so that all cars may pit at their discretion.
“One main point here is, once we have a full-course caution, all racing ceases,” Cotman explained. “We want to give the Safety Team every opportunity to do their job safely.”
The Friday and Saturday morning practice sessions will be shortened by 15 minutes, a move that is expected to lead to more on-track activity as teams will spend more of their morning hour on the track working on their machines. The process of determining where they sit on Pit Lane has been changed as well, with pit selection order set by the previous event’s results instead of qualifying order as it had been in the past.
“Any team can have a good day at any given time and we want to reward them when they do have a good event,” said Cotman. “Anything can happen in a race whether it be good or bad, and we want a team to get something out of it for their efforts when they do well.”
The rules concerning a wet track have been abolished as well for 2005. Previously, teams would have an unlimited number of qualifying laps if Race Control called a wet track prior to the session. Now, teams will only have 15 laps to use (for each qualifying session) regardless of track conditions. "
JHS
Monday, February 14, 2005
Friday, February 11, 2005
TONY COTMAN SPEAKS
http://www.champcarworldseries.com/News/Article.asp?ID=8687
Tony Cotman, Champ Car's new VP of Operations, was recently interviewed on the CCWS website, and I'd like to make it mandatory reading for all of you, if you haven't already. Tony and I had a long chat last week, as he did with the other members of Race Control, past and present.
What he says about communications filters down directly to you, when it comes to either making or helping us make decisions out there. The more you are informed about where, when, how and why we make calls, the better and more integrated you all will be in the process! Please have a look at the URL above. I have a really good feeling about Tony and where he is coming from...
In related news, we have filled John Anderson's vacated Director of Operations post with another Kiwi, long time member of the Champ Car family Paul "Ziggy" Harcus. He will be in charge of Tech inspection and pit lane officiating. I have known Ziggy since he was a member of the Galles-Kraco team back in the early 90's and he also spent time at PacWest with their Champ and Lights teams, as well as Carl Russo's Atlantic Team. He was recently with Kelley Racing in the IRL until they closed up shop over the winter. Through it all, he has been nothing but a pleasure to work with, and I'm thrilled to have another outstanding, honest and fair-minded ex-competitior on our side of the wall!
See you at the track!
JHS
Tony Cotman, Champ Car's new VP of Operations, was recently interviewed on the CCWS website, and I'd like to make it mandatory reading for all of you, if you haven't already. Tony and I had a long chat last week, as he did with the other members of Race Control, past and present.
What he says about communications filters down directly to you, when it comes to either making or helping us make decisions out there. The more you are informed about where, when, how and why we make calls, the better and more integrated you all will be in the process! Please have a look at the URL above. I have a really good feeling about Tony and where he is coming from...
In related news, we have filled John Anderson's vacated Director of Operations post with another Kiwi, long time member of the Champ Car family Paul "Ziggy" Harcus. He will be in charge of Tech inspection and pit lane officiating. I have known Ziggy since he was a member of the Galles-Kraco team back in the early 90's and he also spent time at PacWest with their Champ and Lights teams, as well as Carl Russo's Atlantic Team. He was recently with Kelley Racing in the IRL until they closed up shop over the winter. Through it all, he has been nothing but a pleasure to work with, and I'm thrilled to have another outstanding, honest and fair-minded ex-competitior on our side of the wall!
See you at the track!
JHS
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
THE REST OF WHAT I KNOW ABOUT 2005…
...is now a bit more than the last blog I posted! Maybe worth waiting for?
RACE CONTROL
As we got into December, the Champ Car office experienced another RIF – a “reduction in force.” Race Director Chris Kneifel , Steward Derek Higgins, and Technical Director Lee Dykstra were let go. Chris had been on the hot seat for a while (as the Race Director/Chief Steward normally is) and so had Lee, but the definition of an “RIF” comes with no detail other than it is a cost-cutting measure. Just remember, all three were employees of the company, not “contractors,” and our series owners are still GENEROUSLY footing a major part of our racing bill these days. All departments within Champ Car were subject to the RIF and a half dozen or so others were affected.
I will always be indebted to Chris for looking out for me after I was moved from the start stand. Frankly, I’m enjoying this position much better than Starter. And I will miss Derek’s knack for anticipating driver complaints, issues and questions (being a fresh former driver - he actually competed against a few of the guys in our field in 2004.) He was instrumental during racing incidents, having learned quickly how to handle and analyze race control’s replay equipment. We will continue to see Chris at our road course events as he will be kept on as our circuit construction consultant, so most of you will see him in the very same places you did last year.
Right after the new year, VP of Operations, John Lopes left his position to return to the IRL as Vice President of Andretti Green Racing. Last week, Director of Operations and Steward John Anderson also moved to Andretti Green Racing, linking back up with his former teammates when they raced in CART as Team Kool Green. Yeah sure, I know what this looks like - the nay-sayers will quickly point out that these guys have lost confidence in us and our product and are “jumping ship.” But, knowing these two personally, I know that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Just trust me on it. I certainly can’t go into any details in a forum like this, and to do so would be to violate theirs and Champ Car’s privacy which I simply won’t do.
As further evidence, A former Andretti Green employee is now with us. Tony Cotman has been named VP of Operations and will handle a good portion of the duties that both of the above did. He had been team manager with Team Green and AGR for a long time and although I have never officially met him, I hear good things. Our Operations Communicator, Paul Leyton, speaking from his experiences in pit lane says: “I can be confident in saying that he always was one of the true gentlemen out there, even in a competitive moment. He understands the side of the competition that we take care of. He always showed a great deal of respect to all of the officials prior to and during events. I think he will bring a very interesting perspective to this job.”
So the dice tumble for the third straight winter. I should be talking to Tony Cotman soon about all of you and our plans for 2005. He doesn’t have a “reinvent the wheel” approach, and I anticipate Steward Beaux Barfield, Ops Com Paul Leyton, Safety Com Joanne Jensen, Data Analyst Tara Sillert, Starter JD Wilbur and myself will stay put and be ready to go, come Long Beach. Don’t know anything about a new race director yet…
TV PACKAGE
Also since I last posted, our 2005 TV Package has been finalized. Long Beach, Monterrey, and Montreal will be on NBC. Milwaukee, Portland, Cleveland and Toronto will be on CBS. The balance of the events will be back on Speed TV, where they were in 2003. The TV production company will be none other than our good friends to the north Molson Entertainment, and THEY know how to cover auto racing, although I will get my first joke out of the way now, and say that in deference to them, we are abandoning all our current starting procedures and all events next year will begin from a face-off! Also our international coverage is much improved from last season and our events will once again be live in Europe which means more European drivers (AND THEIR FUNDING!) will be interested in coming over to race with us!
SPEAKING OF DRIVERS…
Today, we got another one back!! As I assured some of you toward the end of last season, 2002 Champ Cristiano da Matta is returning to the fold from F1, and has signed with PKV Racing. This news has finally given me the itch to get back to racing again, and it’s welcome. The following is a round-up of what I know, what I’ve heard, and some of the internet rumours going around about who will be driving for who in 2005:
NEWMAN/HAAS is set with Bourdais and Junqueira. If funding can be secured, they might run another car.
PKV RACING is also in with two cars for Vasser and da Matta. Rumor has it that possibly Emerson Fittipaldi may run a third car out of the shop (as he did with Conquest in 2003) with a TBD driver.
RuSPORT is set with Allmendinger and Wilson. Jourdain has gone to the NASCAR Busch series – they will race in Mexico this year…
HERDEZ is now called HVM Racing. Dominguez will drive one car in ‘05, but could be working on a deal to head to F1 with a new team in ‘06. Look for a second car with possibly another Mexican driver.
ROCKETSPORTS: Tagliani is expected to be back with a second car TBD.
COYNE RACING has signed Gaston Mazzacane back and could field a second car again for Servia.
FORSYTHE is set with Tracy and Lavin returning. Carpentier has gone to the IRL. A host of other drivers are rumoured for the vacated third seat, including Hunter-Reay, Jarek Janis (who ran with Coyne in Australia) Mathias Lauda (yes, Niki’s son) and former F1 driver Jos Verstappen. Some people have even thought they might run 4 cars if funding can be found!
MI-JACK CONQUEST most likely will run a car for Nelson Phillipe and a possible 2nd car for a driver TBD. Names that have been linked in rumours are Dutchman Bas Leinders, Ricardo Sperafico (cousin of Alex who drove for the team last year) and Matt Halliday, a Kiwi that drove for the team in Indy Lights.
WALKER RACING has tested a number of drivers this winter. We could see a return of Haberfeld and those who have tested are Valiante (who drove in Mexico City – damned well,) Andrew Ranger and Bryan Sellers from Atlantic, and Nicky Pastorelli from F3000.
OTHER DRIVERS rumoured to be working on deals are Atlantic runner-up Ryan Dalziel, David Rutledge, Timo Glock, Richard Lyons, Tarso Marques, and F3000’s Bjorn Wirdheim. We WILL have at least 18 cars on the grid for LB, my guess with the TV package we now have we will see more than that… time will tell.
"SPRING TRAINING"
Ain't gonna happen this year, at least not as on on-track activity. From what I understand, it came pretty close to happening in Las Vegas, but no dice. There will be a press and fan-related activity in Indianapolis, similar to the one that happened last year in Long Beach with all drivers in attendance. Keep an eye on www.champcarworldseries.com
* * *
THE DA MATTA ANNOUNCEMENT is yet another big boost. We are experiencing Santa Ana winds this week in Southern California, the hot dry winds that blow out of the east from the desert. Just a reminder for me of another long, hot summer heating up for all of us. I will be again joining those in white this weekend at California Speedway for a Cal Club Regional/National. Hope I don’t screw up on Comm…
JHS
RACE CONTROL
As we got into December, the Champ Car office experienced another RIF – a “reduction in force.” Race Director Chris Kneifel , Steward Derek Higgins, and Technical Director Lee Dykstra were let go. Chris had been on the hot seat for a while (as the Race Director/Chief Steward normally is) and so had Lee, but the definition of an “RIF” comes with no detail other than it is a cost-cutting measure. Just remember, all three were employees of the company, not “contractors,” and our series owners are still GENEROUSLY footing a major part of our racing bill these days. All departments within Champ Car were subject to the RIF and a half dozen or so others were affected.
I will always be indebted to Chris for looking out for me after I was moved from the start stand. Frankly, I’m enjoying this position much better than Starter. And I will miss Derek’s knack for anticipating driver complaints, issues and questions (being a fresh former driver - he actually competed against a few of the guys in our field in 2004.) He was instrumental during racing incidents, having learned quickly how to handle and analyze race control’s replay equipment. We will continue to see Chris at our road course events as he will be kept on as our circuit construction consultant, so most of you will see him in the very same places you did last year.
Right after the new year, VP of Operations, John Lopes left his position to return to the IRL as Vice President of Andretti Green Racing. Last week, Director of Operations and Steward John Anderson also moved to Andretti Green Racing, linking back up with his former teammates when they raced in CART as Team Kool Green. Yeah sure, I know what this looks like - the nay-sayers will quickly point out that these guys have lost confidence in us and our product and are “jumping ship.” But, knowing these two personally, I know that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Just trust me on it. I certainly can’t go into any details in a forum like this, and to do so would be to violate theirs and Champ Car’s privacy which I simply won’t do.
As further evidence, A former Andretti Green employee is now with us. Tony Cotman has been named VP of Operations and will handle a good portion of the duties that both of the above did. He had been team manager with Team Green and AGR for a long time and although I have never officially met him, I hear good things. Our Operations Communicator, Paul Leyton, speaking from his experiences in pit lane says: “I can be confident in saying that he always was one of the true gentlemen out there, even in a competitive moment. He understands the side of the competition that we take care of. He always showed a great deal of respect to all of the officials prior to and during events. I think he will bring a very interesting perspective to this job.”
So the dice tumble for the third straight winter. I should be talking to Tony Cotman soon about all of you and our plans for 2005. He doesn’t have a “reinvent the wheel” approach, and I anticipate Steward Beaux Barfield, Ops Com Paul Leyton, Safety Com Joanne Jensen, Data Analyst Tara Sillert, Starter JD Wilbur and myself will stay put and be ready to go, come Long Beach. Don’t know anything about a new race director yet…
TV PACKAGE
Also since I last posted, our 2005 TV Package has been finalized. Long Beach, Monterrey, and Montreal will be on NBC. Milwaukee, Portland, Cleveland and Toronto will be on CBS. The balance of the events will be back on Speed TV, where they were in 2003. The TV production company will be none other than our good friends to the north Molson Entertainment, and THEY know how to cover auto racing, although I will get my first joke out of the way now, and say that in deference to them, we are abandoning all our current starting procedures and all events next year will begin from a face-off! Also our international coverage is much improved from last season and our events will once again be live in Europe which means more European drivers (AND THEIR FUNDING!) will be interested in coming over to race with us!
SPEAKING OF DRIVERS…
Today, we got another one back!! As I assured some of you toward the end of last season, 2002 Champ Cristiano da Matta is returning to the fold from F1, and has signed with PKV Racing. This news has finally given me the itch to get back to racing again, and it’s welcome. The following is a round-up of what I know, what I’ve heard, and some of the internet rumours going around about who will be driving for who in 2005:
NEWMAN/HAAS is set with Bourdais and Junqueira. If funding can be secured, they might run another car.
PKV RACING is also in with two cars for Vasser and da Matta. Rumor has it that possibly Emerson Fittipaldi may run a third car out of the shop (as he did with Conquest in 2003) with a TBD driver.
RuSPORT is set with Allmendinger and Wilson. Jourdain has gone to the NASCAR Busch series – they will race in Mexico this year…
HERDEZ is now called HVM Racing. Dominguez will drive one car in ‘05, but could be working on a deal to head to F1 with a new team in ‘06. Look for a second car with possibly another Mexican driver.
ROCKETSPORTS: Tagliani is expected to be back with a second car TBD.
COYNE RACING has signed Gaston Mazzacane back and could field a second car again for Servia.
FORSYTHE is set with Tracy and Lavin returning. Carpentier has gone to the IRL. A host of other drivers are rumoured for the vacated third seat, including Hunter-Reay, Jarek Janis (who ran with Coyne in Australia) Mathias Lauda (yes, Niki’s son) and former F1 driver Jos Verstappen. Some people have even thought they might run 4 cars if funding can be found!
MI-JACK CONQUEST most likely will run a car for Nelson Phillipe and a possible 2nd car for a driver TBD. Names that have been linked in rumours are Dutchman Bas Leinders, Ricardo Sperafico (cousin of Alex who drove for the team last year) and Matt Halliday, a Kiwi that drove for the team in Indy Lights.
WALKER RACING has tested a number of drivers this winter. We could see a return of Haberfeld and those who have tested are Valiante (who drove in Mexico City – damned well,) Andrew Ranger and Bryan Sellers from Atlantic, and Nicky Pastorelli from F3000.
OTHER DRIVERS rumoured to be working on deals are Atlantic runner-up Ryan Dalziel, David Rutledge, Timo Glock, Richard Lyons, Tarso Marques, and F3000’s Bjorn Wirdheim. We WILL have at least 18 cars on the grid for LB, my guess with the TV package we now have we will see more than that… time will tell.
"SPRING TRAINING"
Ain't gonna happen this year, at least not as on on-track activity. From what I understand, it came pretty close to happening in Las Vegas, but no dice. There will be a press and fan-related activity in Indianapolis, similar to the one that happened last year in Long Beach with all drivers in attendance. Keep an eye on www.champcarworldseries.com
* * *
THE DA MATTA ANNOUNCEMENT is yet another big boost. We are experiencing Santa Ana winds this week in Southern California, the hot dry winds that blow out of the east from the desert. Just a reminder for me of another long, hot summer heating up for all of us. I will be again joining those in white this weekend at California Speedway for a Cal Club Regional/National. Hope I don’t screw up on Comm…
JHS
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