19 replies to this topic

[tiburon]

Quote

Marco Andretti will drive the No. 26 ArcaEx Honda-powered Dallara for Andretti Green Racing, the team announced at its Indianapolis facility. He will join 2004 series champion Tony Kanaan and recently-signed Dario Franchitti and Bryan Herta in the 14-race campaign that begins March 26 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Michael Andretti, 43, who retired after the 2003 Indianapolis 500, said he will attempt to qualify for his 15th 500-Mile Race in a fifth Andretti Green Racing car with Vonage/Jim Beam sponsorship. The orange and black car will sport No. 1 and Tony Cicale will be his race engineer.

www.indyracing.com

YES!!!! Need I say more.

F1 beware, Marco is coming to you...

Edited by tiburon, 21 December 2005 - 12:44 PM.

[monza gorilla]

Is he any good, or is that a stupid question?

[tiburon]

monza gorilla, on Dec 21 2005, 01:47 PM, said:

Is he any good, or is that a stupid question?

To be totally objective, I would say he is promising. Sure, without his name he wouldn`t have made to IRL this soon (after all his is signed by his dad team), but if you look at these records you can see that he has won almost everything he could have so far...






2006
• Competing in IRL Indy Car Series for Andretti Green Racing

2005
• Finished 5th in Star Mazda Series

• Competed in select Indy Racing League Infiniti Pro Series events with 3 wins and numerous pole positions

2004
• Captured Skip Barber National Series championship
· Captured Skip Barber's Formula Dodge Southern Series Championship
• Captured Formula TR Series championship

2003 (first year in cars)
• Captured Skip Barber's Formula Dodge Eastern Series Championship
• 8 First Place finishes: Virginia 4/26/2003; Lime Rock 5/16/2003; Lime Rock 5/17/2003; Mont Tremblant 8/3/2003; Lime Rock 8/15/2003; Lime Rock 8/16/2003; Road America 9/14/2003; Lime Rock Park 10/3/2003;
• Skip Barber's Formula Dodge Eastern Series "Rookie of the Year"
• Set Track Records at Virginia International Raceway; Lime Rock Park, CT ; Moroso Motorsports Park, FL ; & Road Atlanta

2002 (first year in karting nationally)
• Won Stars of Tomorrow National Championship for Oakland Valley
• Backwards Series Co-Champion for Oakland Valley
• Captured 1st and 2nd for Junior Regional Super Nationals Oakland Valley
• Secured five World Karting Association Podiums and two fast laps
• Had a Stars of Tomorrow National Win in Nevada

2001 ( Oakland Valley )
• Backward Series Champion
• Track Champion
• Back to School Series Co-Champion

2000 ( Oakland Valley )
• Track Champion
• Pro Shifter Series Champion
• Back to School Series Champion

1999
• First Race in Oakland Valley Race Park
• Challenge Series Win

1997
• First Kart Race ( Flemmington , New Jersey ) – 2nd Place
• Two Wins and Six Podium Finishes – Flemmington

Taken from www.marcoandretti.com

[pumpdoc]

It's the gIRL 'nuff said

[tiburon]

pumpdoc, on Dec 21 2005, 03:51 PM, said:

It's the gIRL 'nuff said

True. But its still better than champ cars...

[ecapdeville]

tiburon, on Dec 21 2005, 11:40 AM, said:

True. But its still better than champ cars...

I dont agree with you...Cham cars are getting better now...I wish gIRL dissappear...ugly cars.

[AutoRacer5]

I liked how the cars looked in 1998 and such, maybe this will give my dad an incentive to go next year.

This is when Al Unser Jr. calls Penske and asks if they are interested for the 2006 race. Sure, he retired, but think about it, just like old times.

[tiburon]

ecapdeville, on Dec 21 2005, 06:47 PM, said:

I dont agree with you...Cham cars are getting better now...I wish gIRL dissappear...ugly cars.

I like the concept of the champ car series more. Its more diverse (though they only have one oval left in their schedule) and the cars are getting better, but I feel that IRL have better drivers and teams than champ car series. Not sure which series attracts more money but I would say IRL. However both series` are still way behind than CART was before the split...

[pumpdoc]

No offence Tiburon but the IRL is a crap series proped up by King Tony and now that Honda will no longer subsidise teams Tony is going to have to pony up a lot more money to even have enough teams to even make a meger field. The sooner the IRL goes up in flames the better................

[tiburon]

pumpdoc, on Dec 22 2005, 02:41 AM, said:

No offence Tiburon but the IRL is a crap series proped up by King Tony and now that Honda will no longer subsidise teams Tony is going to have to pony up a lot more money to even have enough teams to even make a meger field. The sooner the IRL goes up in flames the better................

IRL might be crap, but is champ car series really better? They both have taken deep dive since the split but  most of the top teams jumped to IRL and champ car series was even close to die few years ago. Now, I`m not sure what has happened after that.... But nothing that radical I assume...

Edited by tiburon, 22 December 2005 - 06:51 PM.

[pumpdoc]

tiburon, on Dec 22 2005, 10:43 AM, said:

IRL might be crap, but is champ car series really better? They both have taken deep dive since the split but  most of the top teams jumped to IRL and champ car series was even close to die few years ago. Now, I`m not sure what has happened after that.... But nothing that radical I assume...

Champ car under the helm of K. Kalkohvian is getting stronger by the day while IRL was crap from the start, the only reason the former top teams jumped to IRL was because the sponsors want the exposure of the INDY 500, now they get their just due as Honda will no longer give the teams money to run their engines, and now many top teams are finding it hard to come up the money to run this year.........

[monza gorilla]

Indy cars are ugly. Champ cars are trucks, but the lesser of 2 evils.

[pumpdoc]

monza gorilla, on Dec 22 2005, 03:28 PM, said:

Champ cars are trucks

Very strong trucks, just look at San Jose and the rail "jump"

[AutoRacer5]

That was fun to watch on SPEED News

[nojvnof1]

those jumps made me cringe, so I could only imagine what those drivers went through.

Quote

IRL might be crap, but is champ car series really better?

I believe it is. As pumpdoc says, the management now is extremely competent and is gaining back alot of credibility. Alot of the drivers are of a high calibre and the tracks are fantastic and unique. Whilst the grid will probably remain at 19 next year, I expect some Formula Atlantic teams to join in '07 when the Panoz chassis is brought in.

[tiburon]

nojvnof1, on Dec 23 2005, 09:57 AM, said:

those jumps made me cringe, so I could only imagine what those drivers went through.
I believe it is. As pumpdoc says, the management now is extremely competent and is gaining back alot of credibility. Alot of the drivers are of a high calibre and the tracks are fantastic and unique. Whilst the grid will probably remain at 19 next year, I expect some Formula Atlantic teams to join in '07 when the Panoz chassis is brought in.

Ok. I didn`t know what goes on behind the scenes of champ car series. You might be right, its getting stronger. I certainly hope so. It would be nice to have only one top formula/mononposto series in US.

Tracks is one of the things I have always admired in Champ car/CART series. They are so diverce and so raw. Like San Jose circuit. Now that is something I miss in F1. The tracks are becoming more and more sterile which makes it boring... Fortunately in games like Grand Prix Legends one can experience how the tracks used to be...(sorry, off topic)

[ecapdeville]

I like Champ Cars!

I took this picture last race in mexico city...



do you like it?

[AutoRacer5]

show the ones of the babes.

[nojvnof1]

Quote

It would be nice to have only one top formula/mononposto series in US.

I hope that happens soon.

[tiburon]

nojvnof1, on Dec 24 2005, 07:28 AM, said:

I hope that happens soon.

Me too. And I hope that Indy500 is part of that series....