Monteiro eyes Champ Car return

In this Hot News item Portuguese F1 driver Tiago Monteiro was quoted as saying that he will look for a race seat outside of F1 in 2007. Meanwhile the IRL's Brian Barnhart recently said that the IRL is looking at possibly adding a race in Portugal, which came out of left field and it was assumed Monteiro must have been tied to those negotiations. Why else would the IRL race in Portugal?

However, AutoRacing1.com has since leaned that the former Portuguese Champ Car driver is talking to Conquest Racing, Team Minardi USA and Forsythe Racing about a possible Champ Car ride in 2007 as he feels Champ Car is his best possibility for a return to F1 someday. At Conquest he is up against Belgian Jan Heylen for the seat as Heylen might have the backing of the Belgian Champ Car race promoter and team owner Eric Bachelart is also Belgian. Over at Minardi he is rumored to be up against Mario Dominguez, Dan Clarke and Nelson Philippe.

Having said all that, recall our assumption in the Jos Verstappen rumor that when Jos alluded to another driver bidding to get the coveted second Forsythe seat that it was not Robert Doornbos as most assumed, but in fact it was Tiago Monteiro, which we now hear is indeed the case.

Recall how well Monteiro did in Champ Car back in 2003 when he was in a lowly Reynard (pictured right in the Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing Reynard at Laguna Seca) up against a field full of Lolas. Now with the entire field having the same Panoz DP01 don't be surprised if Monteiro makes quite an impact.

Recall also back then our rumors (see February 11, 2003 rumor on this rumor archive page) that Monteiro and his backers were trying to convince Champ Car to race at Estoril outside of Lisbon, Portugal. In fact it was so close to happening this CART.com article said it was likely to be added as a third race on the then CART European swing in 2003 and then President Chris Pook made a number of trips to Europe regarding this. At the time Emerson Fittipaldi said in no uncertain terms, "for sure, we are looking to race at Estoril in Portugal next year. I'm sure it's going to happen and it's one of the reasons why there's interest from Portugal in Champ Cars." The Portuguese government (who owns the track) and the bureau of tourism were both interested in a CART race in 2003. Estoril motorsport director Marc Piedade (pictured left) was quoted as saying he is trying hard to land a CART race on May 18th of that year. We discussed this a number of times that year with Piedade.

Which takes up back to the Brian Barnhart statement about possibly racing in Portugal. While this makes absolutely no sense for the IRL (The IRLers say their American sponsors only want them racing in the USA), in fact it does make sense for Champ Car to add it as a third race in September of this year to help plug the huge gap in the schedule caused when the Zolder race gets moved from September 9th to August 26th (rumored). Since losing its F1 event Estoril has tried to reestablish itself with another big-time event. If Monteiro lands a Champ Car seat, don't be surprised if Estoril again tries to land a Champ Car race.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the next two weeks because by the time Champ Car goes to Laguna Seca for its final preseason test, any driver who is not in a seat by then will be firmly behind the 8-ball when the Las Vegas season opener rolls around.