The mid-late 2000s Generation?

[sejarzo]

I've seen Tonis Kasemets run random races, think I saw him running F2000 a year or two ago and doing pretty well.

Yeah, I believe he drove in the event held at Autobahn Country Club close to Chicagoland Speedway. I recall that either here or on another forum, that generated some...well, maybe ridicule is too strong a term..."less than positivity" as he had driven a ChampCar in 5 events in 2006.

[sejarzo]

Wade "The Blade" Cunningham ran the Fontana 500 last Summer for Foyt and went the distance in a very servicable drive. He's a good shoe. So is Jay Howard. A choice of either is acceptable for a small team looking for a properly trained, seasoned driver to simply go out and run the car. If I needed a budget driver for the RC race at Indy next May, I would be comfortable with either. Alas, their ships may have sailed unless they aggressively seek a ride for 2014 in Indy Cars, somewhere, at least once.

A curiosity for me is Enrique Bernoldi. I will add his name to the "Where Are They Now?" list of relatively recent combatants.

Wade is pretty much done. Never stated explicitly, but I sense that after he worked for so long to develop backing and it never materialized, he's now enjoying restoration of vintage bikes enough to let someone come looking for him for a one-off if they need him.

[castronevesfan3]

Pablo Donoso races Indycars regularly on iRacing and is usually surprisingly off the pace. Maybe he doesn't have a very good PC.

WHAHAHAHAHA!!

[Danny Noonan]

It's a real shame Cunningham really never had much of a chance. I have absolutely no doubt he would have done well. Summerton is another in the line of the lost generation of American drivers.

[sejarzo]

It's a real shame Cunningham really never had much of a chance. I have absolutely no doubt he would have done well. Summerton is another in the line of the lost generation of American drivers.

World champ in karts in 2003 and Lights champ in 2005...fast learner. He actually told me that he's a bit miffed that folks think of him as an oval specialist. He's had more success on ovals, but certainly not exclusively on ovals.

[Nigel Red5]

WTH is that? Is some dork actually documenting a fictionalized 2013 ChampCar series?

That's a bigger waste of time than those dorks that learn to speak Klingon.

He's continued on with fictional events since the merger.

[Count Tracula]

World champ in karts in 2003 and Lights champ in 2005...fast learner. He actually told me that he's a bit miffed that folks think of him as an oval specialist. He's had more success on ovals, but certainly not exclusively on ovals.

If I had a two-car team to compete with, I wouldn't think twice about picking up Cunningham and Howard and setting forth.

[lotuspoweredbyford]

I've seen Tonis Kasemets run random races, think I saw him running F2000 a year or two ago and doing pretty well.

I think Tonis ran Grand Am this year.

[Count Tracula]

He's continued on with fictional events since the merger.

That's ok, I believe there is a guy living up in Reno, leading the points by just 5 over Bobby Olivero and Philippe Gache in the 2013 USAC National Championship Citicorp Cup. He almost won at Trenton last week, but Jeff MacPherson got him by a length. But I think he'll nail it down next week when they go to Sacramento.

[FTHurley]

He's continued on with fictional events since the merger.

Everybody's got to have a hobby, I guess.

[Anwin]

I heard next month they'll induct Pedro Diniz into the Hall of Fame.

[rodneyh]

WTH is that? Is some dork actually documenting a fictionalized 2013 ChampCar series?

The sad thing is, the series is STILL using the DP-01

[Count Tracula]

The sad thing is, the series is STILL using the DP-01

That's ok. In 2013 USAC National Championship Citicorp Cup, they are still using McLaren's matched to Offenhauser's. But they do have a Goodyear versus Firestone war going on.

[indywulf]

"Alex Lloyd won't be back" - Is he upto something else? I thought he was still trying. I know it has been two years since his last drive, but I hoped he would have got something.

Also shame Adam Carroll didn't come off with some more backing.

[Happy Camber]

The sad thing is, the series is STILL using the DP-01

To this day I still wonder what might have been had the IRL/CCWS merger talks been successful and we saw the DP-01s compete head to head against the Dallaras in 2008. What a terrible waste of money and opportunity that was, and a financial calamity for so many CCWS teams, considering Panoz designed the DP-01 to be fully compliant with IRL rules, precisely with a merger in mind. Last I heard a few DP-01s were being raced in some classic series that allows older F1 chassis as well, but most of them have become expensive paperweights as far as I can tell.

Whatever technical inequities might have existed I'm sure could have been worked out in the rules. If there had been a merger instead of the complete collapse of CCWS, just imagine how much larger and more interesting the fields would have been those first couple of years. If only.