2008 Silly Season Kick-Off ?!
August 17, 2007

Ok, it's this time of year to start the "2008 Silly Season"... so far we have heard many rumors/ideas from Kevin Kalkhoven and Steve Johnson... and the concensus is that the Champ Car HQ doesn't expect more than one new team joining the ranks next year... BUT we might see expansion on the grid take a different form - and we might see 20+ cars come next year ?!

Let's take a look at what is "cooking":

NEWMAN/HAAS/LANIGAN = Graham Rahal is returning and now that Sebastien Bourdais is leaving the series NHLR is in the proccess of signing Justin Wilson to take his place... and we might see a third car for Marco Andretti when all ends meet...

FORSYTHE = sponsorship woes still persistient but FCR will field a two car team next year - Paul Tracy in his regular car #3 and the second car will go to either Oriol Servia or David Martinez, or some other "winner" who will plop in with a bag full of money...

WALKER/GORE = "Team Australia" are not planning on any changes exept the possibility of running a third car for Karl Reindler or some other Aussie driver...

STODDART/WIGGINS = Daniel Clarke stays, Robert Doornbos stays as well - unless he lucks out and gets a ride in F1 (very doubtful), and plan is to have a third car - most likely courtesy of Trust who are thinking of buying in...

COYNE = we will see a two car team again - with Bruno Junqueira leading the team - but whether Kathy Legge will return is yet to be seen...

BACHELART/MOWER = Jan Heylen is locked, the second car will be either the infamous 42below thingy with Matt Halliday or something completely new - could be with Andreas Wirth behind the wheel...

PKVR = the line-up will most likely stay the same... unless Red Bull will decide to stick Scott Speed in here - which is very unlikely (he's slated for NASCAB)... and if PoleStar can't start their own team then we'll see a third car here (since PoleStar is KK's "baby")...

RSports = this one is an enigma -> with Wilson/CDW gone to NHLR there is only one car left and Dan Pettit is looking for someone to take over his burden... odds are that this team will somehow survive - maybe even change its name back to "RocketSports" - but who will drive alongside Alex Tagliani is anybody's guess...

PCM = will stay the same...

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New drivers we might see in the series:

a/ Raphael Matos
b/ Franck Perera
c/ Renger van der Zande
d/ Alx Danielsson
e/ Scott Speed
f/ Marco Andretti

And there are plenty others with Champ Car aspirations, btw....

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And the final question we all have is WHO might be the NEW team entering the serises ???

Here is a list of possible candidates:

1. POLESTAR = they are Kalkhoven's "pet project" in Atlantics and have almost half the neccessary funds - most likely KK will help them get in...

2. HYLTON = sponsorship-wise they are halfway there - it's possible they will succeed and start their gig...

3. AVN = doubt Champ Car will allow this team on the grid, but stranger things have happenned before...

4. BROOKS = they have planned to enter CC in 2008 with a Chinese driver, but that concept went out the window, maybe they'll have enough funds to do a different idea...

5. SIERRA SIERRA = they have said that 2008 is not the year for them to move up...

6. EUROINTERNATIONAL = still thinking about moving up but it doesn't seem that they have enough $$$ outside of Formula BMW and WSR...

7. JOHANSSON = still tinkering with the concept of coming back to CC but it surely doesn't seem very likely to happen next year...

8. RAHAL = yeah, he could, but will he ????

9. DeFERRAN = rumor is that Gil De Ferran is getting together with Emerson Fittipaldi and trying this dream come to fruition -> thing is that we have heard those Emmo rumors one time too many...

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Sooooooo, to sum it up, no matter what the rumors are at this moment - we should not expect more than 20 cars on the grid come next year - wherever they will come from...

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