Forsythe lining up sponsorship, drivers
With regards to sponsors, there will be some announcements in the coming weeks, but nothing that we're at liberty to announce at this moment," said Micklewright.
As for the Champ Car team, the driver lineup is not finalized yet but he hopes to announce that in the next 3 to 4 weeks.
"There's no specific plans in place right now, but I do anticipate in the next few weeks being able to make the announcement after it's finalized," said Micklewright.
We also learned that the team has option years on all four of their Atlantic drivers – Maia, Philippe, Wirth and Hinchcliffe and are confident one of the four can win the $2 million to the champion. Then it will be up to the team to help find the driver a competitive Champ Car ride in 2007. The team has hired 17 new crewmembers for the four cars and need about three more.
There's that $2 million pot of gold sitting out there at the end of the year for somebody to take. A four-car super team, your odds of winning that are pretty good I would say. Have you thought about what — I'm not sure exactly who gets the money, whether it's the driver who gets the money, but he has to use it to get the Champ Car ride if I understand correctly. Have you thought about if one of your drivers were to win, using that money and put that person into driving the Champ Car?
"Well, it's an interesting question," said Micklewright. "I think that the $2 million accrues to the driver that wins the championship and is there and needs to be spent on a Champ Car ride. We have options on all these young men going toward the future, so hopefully depending on how things work out, we could consider in the future running a third car in Champ Car. Who knows what the future brings. But certainly we've got them on board now because we think that they're the wave of the future, and whichever one of them wins the championship and the money that goes with it, then certainly we'll bend over backwards to make sure that they get a top quality ride with somebody in Champ Car."