Overheard at Indy
05/17/09 Hearing that Tracy may announce a sponsor this week for more than just the two Canada races this summer….could it be GEICO?
05/11/09 We hear that Paul Tracy is close to announcing a big sponsor for his IndyCar effort………Also hearing that the Scott Sharp accident was bad enough that the car was a near write-off. The tub had to go to a local carbon shop, Aerodine, to be repaired. More or less the whole right-hand side of the car has been replaced; the gearbox too. The engine actually survived………We have seen Jeff Simmons, Oriol Servia, Buddy Lazier, Bruno Junqueira, Roger Yasukawa, PJ Jones, and Tomas Scheckter looking for rides to qualify the 2nd weekend. We hear that Honda must know by this Thursday at the very latest in order to have an engine ready for a driver to attempt to qualify…..The Bombardier sign is mysteriously missing from the Pagoda leaving us to think they are no longer a sponsor of the Indy 500, or have reduced their effort. Corporate jet sales are way off so we would not be surprised if they backed out……We spotted Gil de Ferran and Takumo Sato a number of times this weekend and rumor is rife that de Ferran Motorsports will add an IndyCar effort before long……If Mike Conway cannot return because of his lung injury, word is that Darren Manning may take over his ride. "I'm kind of always looking for a ride. But whether one comes available that suits my situation is another matter. It's not like it's going to be my first speedway or anything, so what I'm looking for is different than a rookie, for example. There's no point in me going out in something just bumping into the field and pounding around in the back of the field. Mid- to mid-front pack cars are all full, so I'm just trying to work on my relationship with Dreyer and Reinbold Racing seeing as I've done a couple of races with them this year. There may be an opportunity to do some more this year. It was a bit of unfortunate situation this morning with Mike (Conway). I got the call to kind of be on standby, and I'm fortunate that they've got all my seats and everything and I'm available for it, but I don't think that's going to be needed. I think Mike's going to be absolutely fine. I think we'll see him back out next week, so I'll just concentrate on my deal."