Overheard in Long Beach – Tracy
05/20/09 The part of this rumor about Paul Tracy driving in the two Canadian IRL races in Toronto and Edmonton for KV Racing Technology is upgraded to 'fact' with today's announcement.
05/03/09 Hearing that the 2nd Dale Coyne Car at Indy may not be for Bruno Junqueira like everyone thinks, but for a young American driver instead.
04/17/09 The part of this rumor that Bomarito will drive for the Genoa Racing Indy Lights team this weekend is 'fact' with this announcement. We expect the Paul Tracy driving for KV Racing piece to be upgraded to 'fact' later today.
04/17/09 It's also anticipated that Paul Tracy, who calls Las Vegas home, will drive in the two Canadian Indy Racing League stops this summer in Toronto and Edmonton.
"Part of Paul's lack of activity in the IndyCar ranks is partly his own engineering,'' said another ex-IndyCar driver, Tomas Scheckter.
"He wants to drive but he doesn't need to drive – he's fine financially, as far as I can tell – and that means he can be very selective on the teams he wants to drive for. He doesn't need to get in the lower echelons (of teams) that aren't going to compete with the top guys."
"It's like any other sport,'' Tomas said, referring to 40ish athletes.
"If an owner wants a driver for his team, he'd rather bring someone in from Indy Lights or Atlantics who's on the early side of his 20s rather than somebody in their 40s. But Paul is a guy who, unlike that 20-year-old, is extremely colorful and marketable."
04/16/09 Forgot to mention that American Jonathan Bomarito, who lost his Atlantic ride in the 11th hour when his team pulled out, will do a one-off in Indy Lights with Genoa Racing this weekend.
04/16/09
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| Upgraded pit road suites |
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| Cholula Hot Sauce Bridge |
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| Justin Wilson No. 18 Z-Line Car |
| Gail Miller/AR1.com |
Word is that KV Racing will hold a press conference Friday to announce their 2009 Indy 500 plans. Rumor has it they may be running Paul Tracy in a 2nd car alongside Moraes.
Justin Wilson will be in the No. 18 Z-Line Dale Coyne Racing car this weekend in Long Beach. He drove the No. 19 Coyne machine to a 3rd place finish in St. Petersburg two weeks ago……..Still hearing that Dale Coyne is confident the team will expand to a 2nd car starting at Indy.
The Long Beach track has added back a grandstand along Shoreline Drive that they removed during the down Champ Car years. The grandstands are also taller, meaning they added back about 10 rows to each grandstand that were removed in recent years……We hear all 25 pit road hospitality suites are sold out. In addition they are all upgraded to include an air-conditioned back section for food and drink and the front section for watching the race action, just like you see at all the permanent race facilities. Later we caught up with Long Beach GP boss Jim Michaelian who confirmed the upgrades and added, "We took a gamble this year and added the extra seating. Some told us that given the economy this might not be the year to upgrade, but we think it will work out. We did not raise our prices from last year, so if revenue is up this year it will because we attracted more fans."
Cholula Hot Sauce now sponsors the first bridge after the hairpin. Mark C. reporting from Long Beach