Agree with the rest of your post. Hinchcliffe and Servià would be a team for the future. And with potential.

I didn’t know that anyone gave you flack for appreciating Servia’s talent and racing skills. Was it his fault that he was a ‘journeyman’ like other racers I love? No; he was a financial victim of ‘The Split.’ When N-H let Servia substitute for Junqueira, we saw what Oriol could do in a competitive car – win and place second in the championship!

Redd, I agree with you: “Hinch needs a ride and the series needs young drivers like Hinch. He’s a good driver with a great personality. He seems to work hard to market himself. I had hoped some Canadian company might see the value in him and he could bring some bucks to Newman-Haas.”

My thoughts also!

“As far as the team, I’d imagine that Paul Newman’s name and fame brought in the money previously.”
Yeah; I believed that Haas & Newman’s successes with mario, Nigel, and Michael then Shorty plus Newman’s ‘star power’ brought that $pon$orship. Then some odd deal between Newman’s Own foods and McDonald’s resulted in McD agreeing to sponsor Bourdais’ team — which then won many races & 4 championships.
Adequate sponsorship breeds success, which brings more sponsorship, … so I wish that Rahal & Wilson had been adequately sponsored by big American corporations!

I’ll guess that the taking U.S. economy & sponsoring NASCRAP meant that N-H didn’t pull in enough sponsorship lately…

Just a quick note: Newman/Haas won the CART championship with Michael Andretti in 1991. In 1992, Bobby Rahal won it (the last time an owner/driver won the championship)

Keep up the great work. Hope the New Year treats you and your family well!

Justin

As far as the team, I’d imagine that Paul Newman’s name and fame brought in the money previously. Like you, I’d like to know who’s running the show there. I wish them luck.

The Sebring test was all about showing Hincliffe’s potential Canadian sponsors “This is what it could be like” a preview for what their dollars could support. Like a number of remaining teams, NHR is probably just waiting for the Jury to come back with a verdict. I would love to see sponsorship come through and this be the line up for a year or two then snatch a Baguette or Vernay to pair with Hinch in the longer term.

I’ll throw this out there but really it is based on nothing. Karl Haas owns the distribution rights to Lola cars in North America. As much as people have speculated about who builds the Lotus Badged engines, We all assume it is Cosworth, but I have seen reports that the work is being farmed out to a small engine shop in Brittain. But that still leaves the issue of who builds the Lotus badged Aero Package. With how the chassis decision came down, I can’t see Lola slapping their name on an aero kit, but if the money is right, I could see Lola private labelling an aero kit for Lotus. If that were to occur, the skim from parts distribution that is owned by Karl Haas could partially finance the team in 2012 and beyond. Just a random postulation…