MVN - Most Valuable Network

Is open-wheel merger imminent?

The Indianapolis Star’s Curt Cavin reported this morning that IRL competitions division president Brian Barnhart is now on orders from league founder Tony George to find out which IndyCar Series teams have spare cars and equipment for possible new squads coming over from the Champ Car World Series. As of now, Walker Racing appears to be the only Champ Car team with an IRL chassis in its possession — bought, borrowed or otherwise.

Barnhart went on to tell Cavin that new teams wouldn’t be jipped out of preseason testing due to time constraints. Cavin writes:

“The IRL is scheduled to test at [Homestead-Miami Speedway] next week. Barnhart said a later test is being arranged for Champ Car teams that make the switch to the IRL.”

Meanwhile,  SPEED Channel’s Robin Miller is now reporting that a unification deal between the IRL and Champ Car is finally done. However, George would not confirm that an agreement had been reached.

But that didn’t stop Miller from saying that most Champ Car teams have been given orders to quit messing with their Panoz machines or quoting Champ Car star Paul Tracy about a seat fitting later this week. Said the Canadian racing hero to the notorious journalist:

“We don’t have any experience with those Dallaras and we’re going to need all the practice we can get, but this is definitely the best thing that can happen for open-wheel racing.”

Again, I’d wait for official confirmation from at least either side of the two groups’ ownership before popping champagne bottles. But it looks like business has definitely picked up in the last 24 hours. Keep watching this blog for updates…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 12:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.