Speculation on Grand-Am 2008

Well now that the 2007 season is over, Waddle decided to try and come up with what he could, to try to figure out what will happen in the 2008 season. Now it looks like Chip Ganassi Racing is going to stay for now, and Waddle doesn't think that many teams if any will jump ship to the ALMS. The real big news is that there could be at least two new chassis in the Gran-Am series. One would be a Lola, and the other a Dallara. There are probably going to be some new engines next year, like the rumored Porsche V8, and maybe another. With these new chassis and engines next year, some teams will probably be moving around to a different manufacturer. Waddle doesn't know that names of these teams yet, but some high level teams may be on the move so they can be the number one of their manufacturer. Waddle has seen some evidence that Suntrust could be one of those team, but he does not know for sure. Murphy the Bear thinks that since the Gran-Am series will have a few support races for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, that some big NASCAR teams may want to start a Grand-Am team. There is a possibility of this since the Pontiac engine can also be badger as a Chevrolet, and Ford has some engines already in the Gran-Am and has been reportedly been working a lot more on them. And since Roush-Yates engine shop does practically all the Ford engines, including the Gran-Am spec engines, there could be a real possibility of a Roush or Yates team in the Grand-Am series. Also if Chevy paid RCR or Hendrick enough they would start a Grand-Am team. So it looks like Grand-Am will probably survive for a while longer, but at the cost of becoming more, and more a stock car racing series.

Waddle Goes to the Fair and Learns Something that he is not Supposed to While he is There

Like the title proclaimed our little friend Waddle did go to the fair, and he did learn something that he wasn't supposed to while he was there. Despit how much fun the fair is, the pull of all things automotive was too strong for Waddle to resist, and he started his quest to find something automotive. He was orriginally hoping to find some kind of dirt-track racers, but alas no he did not find anything of that sort. But in his desperation he came upon a large Toyota Tundra setup and since his hatred for Toyota he had to go over and do his thing. After looking at all the trucks that they had there, he decided to talk with a salesman to see how much he knew. Waddle was hoping to talk to one of the official-looking people with the nice polo shirts, but he had to settle with the cowboy looking guy with a rub-on tatoo on his arm. Waddle decided to get strait to the point and asked the salesman about one of the comercials that was playing on an anoyingly loud, high-def, big screen TV. Waddle already knew that the comercial was rigged, and the wording had to be very specific in order to be true. Waddle then changed the wording, to the wrong that most people understood it as, and asked the salesman about it. The salesman completely skirted around the question, and used a bunch of random facts to make it seem like he had an answer, even though he didn't. Waddle understood all that he was saying even to the point of hearing the contradictions that he spurted out. Waddle then figured that he can't get a strait answer on any of the many flaws of the Tundra, so he moved on to what was probably more important questions. Waddle then asked him about the rumored heavy-duty versions of the Tundra that Toyota has been trying to hide. To his suprise the salesman went strait to the point and told Waddle that Toyota had told him that they are going to make the heavy-duty versions of the Tundra. After discovering how lose lipped he was Waddle decided to get some specifics of the heavy-duty trucks. Waddle learned that Toyota will make a 1ton diesel version, but no 3/4 ton version. The 3/4 ton will be made up for by a factory or dealer installed supercharger for the horsepower and torque increase. The salesman was so confident in the fact that Toyota would be doing all this that he was telling people to go to their local dealership and reserve theirs today. So even though there was no motorsport related stuff, Waddle did have a good time uncovering what he could, and he is already thinking of what he can get from some unsuspecting salesman next year.

Chip Ganassi Racing to the ALMS? Update 2

After losing the championship on Saturday in the Grand-Am series, it now appears that Chip Ganassi racing will be back in the Grand-Am series for 2008. So now if they go to the ALMS it looks like it will be a 2009 GT2, probably based off the Toyota sports car that the rumors are getting stronger for every month. Unless they are getting enough money to run a complete schedule both, or run part-time in both it looks like they will be just doing the Grand-Am series for 2008.

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Name Change

By some time next week our little author Waddle will change thew name of his blog from www.zacbauer.blogspt.com to www.thepenguinwaddle.blogspot.com. Zac Bauer is the loving and caring owner of Waddle, and he has decided to let him name his blog after himself. Thanks for your cooperation.
The Management

Speculation on News From Silverstone

This is Waddle's speculation on what will happen after the announcements made at Silverstone today. The LMP2 form Embassy Racing, he expects it to do well, the Radical has done well without the best of everything, but he does not think that it will be quite on pace with the other top runners in the grid, unless it has as much development time and money as the Porsche RS Spyder has. It seems like Embassy is intending to sell their cars to other teams, but for next year we will probably just see it in the LMS with at most, four cars. The really big one is the new alliance between Courage and Oreca. They said at the press conference today that they are developing a new LMP1 prototype together. It will probably be a coupe, possibly with a road car manufacturer's name plate on it. If it does have the road car manufacturer's name plate on it Waddle is guessing that it will be Honda/Acura, or some French manufacturer like Renault or Citroen , because both Courage and Oreca are French. The prototype will be ready in either 2008 or 2009, but with the way manufacturers operate it may do some races at the end of 2008, but we probably won't see it until after the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This means that Oreca will probably keep the Saleens for a short while longer. This is what Waddle thinks will happen with these new cars as next season looks very promising for fans of all the Le Mans racing series.

News From Silverstone

Today at Silverstone, there were two big announcements that will probably have a greater impact on sports car racing than the race there, the Silverstone 1000k. First Embassy Racing made their big announcement about what they will do for next season after they made the very bold remark about them competing for the win each time. They will build their very own prototype, though it will not be started from scratch. It will be a continuation of the Radical SR-9, which is the car that they race now. The head designer from the SR-9 project was also the chief designer and engineer for this new prototype. It will be called the WF-01, and use a Zytek engine. The second big announcement was that Oreca the team that has done so well with their Saleen S-7Rs has bought out Courage Competition. It is unclear they will operate together if Oreca continues to use the Saleens. Speculation from Waddle on what will become of these situations is soon to come.

Chip Ganassi Racing to the ALMS? Update 1

Well our little friend has been searching all over the place for information, and it seems like he may have found something. It now seems like the outcome of the last race in the Grand-Am series this Saturday will play a big role in what Chip Ganassi decides to do next year. If the #01 car wins the race, they will win the championship then there is a good chance that they will leave for the ALMS in 2008. If they do not win the championship then they will probably decide to stay in the Grand-Am series for at least another year so they can try again to win the championship. This is what Waddle has learned so far, but it may not be for a few months that he has another update.

Chip Ganassi Racing to the ALMS?

One thing that has been bothering our fair little penguin is the possibility of Chip Ganassi leaving Grand-Am for the ALMS. Contrary to many others beliefs on this topic, Waddle believes that this will happen. The big question is will it be a venture with Toyota, probably with the Lexus nameplate, or with some other manufacturer. The program would probably take place in either 2008 or 2009 with the later more likely. If it was 2008 it would probably be a LMP2 prototype. This way Toyota can compete with Acura and Porsche. Acura is a big rival to Lexus, and with their supposed high performance cars that they will be coming out with soon Lexus hopes to be considered a rival of Porsche. If it is 2009 it will probably be a GT2 car, the car will probably be based on the IS-F coupe that is supposed to compete with the BMW M3 which is going to return to GT2 that year. This is probably what will happen if they do decide to go with Toyota. An indicator of Ganassi's relationship with Toyota is whether or not he will sign with Toyota when his current contract with Dodge is up in NASCAR. If he does not go with Toyota, I think that he will race a Radical SR-9 in 2008, although the engine manufacture might be a new one that he gets a contract with. This is all that the Penguin knows knows now, but he will keep you updated on what he knows on this very potent situation.

If you have any thoughts, concerns, or the hebetebejebies on this topic please feel free to leave a coment.