Dario Franchitti, Hideki Mutoh, Tony Kanaan, Danica Patrick, Marco Andretti, Andretti Green Racing, Ryan Briscoe, Helio Castroneves, Team Penske, Jay Howard, Roth Racing, TEAM, Alex Lloyd, Indy Pro Series, Chip Ganassi, Target Chip Ganassi Racing
News
BRISCOE, MUTOH
AND HOWARD
SLATED FOR FULL-
TIME RIDES IN 2008
he new season brings new faces in
new places, as at least three IndyCar
T Series teams will have someone new
behind the wheel.
With Dario Franchitti (the reigning series
champion and Indy 500 winner) off to
NASCAR, Andretti Green Racing has decided to
take a chance on promising young Indy Pro
Series standout Hideki Mutoh of Japan. The
25-year-old finished second to Alex Lloyd in
the 2007 Indy Pro Series championship, and
scored an impressive eighth-place finish in his
IndyCar Series debut at Chicagoland in
September while driving with Panther.
“It’s very exciting,” he says. “The team’s
record is very impressive and I am hopeful that
I can contribute to its future success.”
And with teammates like 2004 series
champion Tony Kanaan, 2005 Rookie of the
Year Danica Patrick and 2006 Rookie of the
Year Marco Andretti to help him learn the
ropes, Mutoh is eagerly anticipating his first full
season. “I hope to gain a lot of experience from
my teammates,” he says.
Another Indy Pro Series graduate looking to
make a name for himself in the big cars is Jay
Howard. Despite starting only the first three
races of 2007 after winning the series
championship with Sam Schmidt Motorsports
the previous year, owner/driver Marty Roth was
Alex Lloyd speaks
with Chip Ganassi
at Infineon last
August. Guess
they must have
got on well…
6 IndyCarSeries 2007 winterspecial
ith two of his Indy Pro Series
cohorts racing in the IndyCar Series
W in 2008, Alex Lloyd is set to join
them – although probably not right away.
Lloyd, who won a record eight races in
2007, has signed on to Target Chip Ganassi
Racing as part of the team’s Driver
HI, MY
NAME IS…
Hideki Mutoh
prepares to try his
new ride, the
Andretti Green
Racing No. 27
vacated by Dario
Franchitti
convinced the 26-year-old was the right person
to drive his new second car. Roth decided to
expand his stable to take advantage of the
new-for-‘o8 TEAM program (see page 10).
“Everyone is just pushing forward,” says
Howard. “I couldn’t have asked to walk into a
better situation. Marty definitely is a man of his
word and he definitely is 110 percent into this.”
Finally, there’s Team Penske, whose new
partner for Helio Castroneves isn’t new to the
IndyCar Series or the Penske organization: The
first chapter of Ryan Briscoe’s IndyCar Series
career was written with Target Chip Ganassi
Racing in 2005, but a terrifying crash at
ON TARGET
GANASSI GIVES INDY PRO SERIES
CHAMP LLOYD A DEVELOPMENT DEAL
Development Program. His 2008 racing
season will likely consist of a combination of
Rolex Grand-Am Series events, IndyCar Series
races and testing.
“I wanted to make sure I’m in a place
where I can have good prospects for the future
and not just in 2008, and I felt that by joining
this team I have the opportunity to do well
and, if I perform well, to be there for a long
time,” says Lloyd.
He joins two IndyCar Series champions on
the team, Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon, with
whom he will partner at the Rolex 24 at
Daytona in one of Ganassi’s Daytona Prototypes
along with Salvador Duran. He may also benefit
from some of the other drivers in Ganassi’s
stable, including Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario
Chicagoland ended his season and his tenure
with the team. The now-26-year-old
Australian made a handful of starts in 2006,
and had a strong one-off appearance at the
2007 Indy 500, but he’s spent most of the
past two racing seasons driving Roger Penske’s
factory-backed Porsche RS Spyders in the
American Le Mans Series.
“It really is amazing,” Briscoe says. “It’s sort
of a dream position for a driver, and to get the
chance to come back full-time in the IndyCar
Series, I’m extremely excited. I hope I can live
up to the expectations, do a great job, and I
can’t wait to get it all started.”
Franchitti and Scott Pruett. Lloyd tested with
Ganassi at Sebring in August and a few days
later drove in the Grand-Am event at
Infineon Raceway, the same weekend he
clinched the Indy Pro Series title.
“He is a talented driver and a perfect
candidate for our development program,”
Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull
says. “In the span of 10 days, he took the
wheel of two very different race cars for the
first time. He showed at Sebring that he is
ready to race [in the IndyCar Series], and
then at Infineon Raceway for the Grand-Am
event, proved under race conditions that his
skills were immediately equal to the best
drivers in the very competitive highhorsepower
Daytona Protoypes.”
Dave Lewandowski
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