IndyCar News

For its first full season in the Champ Car Atlantic Championship, PR1 Motorsports will rely on two drivers that have a history of success with the team.

Yet another new team has been added to the list of 2006 Champ Car Atlantic Series competitors in the form of California based outfit NCDL Tech. With the new team also comes a new and highly rated American driver in the form of Ryan Spencer-Smith.

Officials at the Milwaukee Mile have confirmed that they plan to add the increasingly popular SAFER Barrier to the entire length of its one-mile oval this spring.

Paul Dana will get a second bite at the IRL IndyCar Series cherry in 2006 with Rahal-Letterman Racing thanks to his partnership with Ethanol and is looking forward to having a better time of it than he did during his injury shortened rookie season.

Rahal Letterman Racing has announced a season long partnership with Meijer and Coca-Cola Enterprises as associate sponsors of Danica Patrick for the 2006 Indy Racing League IndyCar Series.

PKV Racing completed its third round of driver evaluations last week at Sebring with British sensation Katherine Legge joined by Renault's Formula One test driver Franck Montagny.

In line with speculation over the Christmas break, Rahal Letterman Racing has signed a multi-year deal with Team Ethanol that will see Paul Dana pilot the third RLR entry in this year's Indy Racing League.

Well, that's Christmas and New Year done and dusted - although I am still waiting for the present I wanted most this year.

While worries over securing a full 33-car starting field may occupy the minds of many a race fan during the build-up to the traditional 'Month of May,' Indianapolis Motor Speedway is intent on celebrating the spectacle of one of the greatest races in the world during this, its 90th year.

Veteran Champ Car World Series team co-owner Derrick Walker and teamed up with one of his former drivers in Mario Haberfeld to create a new three-car team in the North American Formula BMW Championship.

IRL IndyCar Series front-runners Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan will be two of the star attractions in Brazil's most high profile endurance event this weekend as they take part in the 50th Anniversary Mil Milhas event at Interlagos on Saturday.

Two-time IndyCar champion Sam Hornish Jr and rival Scott Sharp have again been picked to represent that Indy Racing League in the annual International Race of Champions [IROC] series, but Indy 500 and 2005 IRL kingpin Dan Wheldon will be missing from a largely American-dominated line-up.

Geoff Dodge, the Knoxville Nationals "Fast Track to Indy" Rookie of the Year who will compete in at least six Indy Pro Series races for Brian Stewart Racing in 2006, moved into a home a block away from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on January 7.

Add Vitor Meira to the growing list of IRL IndyCar Series drivers and owners planning to compete in the Rolex 24 At Daytona.

The American equivalent to Britain's AA or RAC service, the American Automobile Association is one of the countries oldest motoring organisations, one that is older than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway itself.

As expected, Dario Franchitti is to switch to the Klein Tools/Jim Beam team for the 2006 Indy Racing League season as he enters his third year of competition with the Andretti Green Racing squad.

The lure of winning the Indianapolis 500 continues to exert a strong pull on Michael Andretti but, not content with fielding son Marco in an attempt to get the famous family name on the Borg-Warner Trophy, Andretti Sr also intends to make his Indycar Series comeback at the race next season.

Maury Kraines, former boss of the distinctive Kraco backed Champ Car efforts of the 1980's and early 1990's, died last week aged 84. Kraines, who was the winning car owner in the classic 1992 Indianapolis 500, suffered a heart failure at his California home.

This year's IRL IndyCar Series sensation Danica Patrick is currently leading the voting for the USA Today backed Female Athlete of the Year.

Champ Car's newest team owner, Cedric the Entertainer introduced his business partners and acquaintances from the entertainment world to his latest venture when he and the team held a CTE Racing cocktail party at the luxurious Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills last weekend.

The future of one of the IRL's longest serving teams could be in doubt according to a report on the website of U.S. based cable channel Speed TV.

The newly formed GTI Atlantic team will rely on some gifted racing engineering experience and a promising young British driver eager to make a strong comeback when it joins the Champ Car Atlantic Championship in 2006.

Drivers are getting younger every day. That certainly seems to be the case in the realm of the Bridgestone presents the Champ Car World Series powered by Ford as the Mi-Jack Conquest Racing team strapped in 15-year old Richard Phillippe to have a play this past week.

No sooner did he take the Vanderbilt Cup for winning his second Bridgestone presents the Champ Car World Series powered by Ford than champion Sebastian Bordais was off to take part in an IROC race. Now the Champ Car season's over he's off Baja racing.