Full Throttle

Mike Skinner captured the pole for tonight’s Built Ford Tough 225 at the Kentucky Speedway. The #5 Bill Davis Racing Toyota driver rounded the 1.5-mile speedway in 31.487 seconds (171.499 m.p.h.).

The pole victory was Skinner’s third of the season and 46th of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career.

“Our truck just really wasn’t good enough to get the pole today,” Skinner said. “I don’t know how many of these things we’ve gotten because I was just dumb enough to hold it wide open and the thing didn’t hit the fence…The truck is very, very fast. We just got to get our racing program a little bit better and get this thing back to victory lane.”

Skinner won a series-high five races in 2007, but has yet to score a victory so far this season. His most recent win came last October in Martinsville, VA.

Starting on the front row with Skinner will be Kyle Busch who posted a time of 31.539 seconds.

Busch, NASCAR’s hottest driver, returns to the Truck Series for the first time since June at Michigan. Busch will attempt to win his third different national series race in consecutive starts after posting victories in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide events this past weekend at Chicagoland. He has two truck victories this year.

Colin Braun (31.565) and Johnny Benson (31.582) will make up row two.

With the series now approaching the half-way mark of the season, the top-five drivers are all within 74 points of each other. Defending series champion Ron Hornaday, Jr. currently holds a 27-point lead over second-place Matt Crafton and a 54-point advantage of third-place Todd Bodine. Benson is just two markers behind Bodine. Rick Crawford occupies the fifth spot.

Sixth-place Skinner (-113) is the defending race winner at Kentucky. He won last year’s race in dominating fashion, leading 135 of 150 laps. He crossed the finish line more than five seconds ahead of Travis Kvapil.

Willie Allen will start 20th (Rascal Flatts Chevrolet) in NFL All-Pro receiver Randy Moss’ debut as a NASCAR team owner. Allen, the rookie of the year in the series last year, is driving the No.81 Chevrolet for Randy Moss Motorsports at Kentucky.

Moss, who set the NFL single-season touchdown reception record during his first year with the New England Patriots in 2007, has been a NASCAR fan for several years. He is attending his first, and likely only, race of the year before departing for the Patriots’ training camp.

Chrissy Wallace, driving the GEICO/Germain Toyota Tundra rolls off from the 11th starting position and Jennifer Cobb in the Annexus Group Dodge starts 35th.

Technorati Tags: Mike Skinner, NCTS, Randy Moss, Bill Davis Racing

Red Bull Racing driver Scott Speed earned his second ARCA RE/MAX Series win of the season and first at Kentucky Speedway by 0.561 of a second over Sean Caisse tonight in the “Kentucky 150.”

The converted Formula One star drove to the pits on Lap 19 to take on fuel in his No. 2 Red Bull machine during the third caution period of the race and proceeded to masterfully manage his fuel mileage through a maze of seven caution periods that followed.

The Manteca, Calif., driver placed a punctuation mark on the win by holding off Caisse and his No. 01 Aisin AW ride during a last-lap restart that began on Lap 104 of the event originally scheduled for 100 circuits.

Speed, who lost the series’ May 10 Kentucky race on the final restart after a gear failed in his car, earns a bit Kentucky poetic justice with tonight’s victory.

“It was the second time we won this race on the proper lap and almost lost it. It was cool to win a race like that. Me and the 01 had a great battle the last 30 laps or so and I’m glad I could pull this off for my guys.

“We went back-and-forth on each other a lot on the restarts. It was two good drivers racing really hard and really clean. It was definitely real exciting for me,” Speed said.

Caisse earned his first top-five series finish of the season in his third start.

“We had issues with 20 to go with the throttle sticking. It would get stuck when I’d go full throttle and pull out. It would get stuck at half throttle. So, trying to shift and not being able to come out of the gas all the way, it was getting jammed up in the gearbox. That kind of was making my restarts slow. He (Speed) got a good jump on me. He went to the outside and the 16 followed. I was able to get the 16 back.

“It took me about five or six laps to run the same kind of speed. Then, five laps later it would be a tenth or two better. We were just a better long-run car and this just wasn’t a long-run race,” Caisse said of the event which matched the series track record for caution periods at 10.

Justin Allgaier placed third in the No. 16 AG Tech / Hoosier Tire Chevrolet; four-time Kentucky Speedway series race winner Frank Kimmel closed out the race fourth in the No. 44 Comfort Systems USA/Ford Drive One Ford; and race pole sitter Brian Scott delivered a fifth-place finish in his No. 25 Albertsons Chevrolet.

For me the race boiled down to three “A’s” and a “G.”

The race was the first time to my knowledge four females were in an ARCA RE/MAX starting field, Alli Owens (see interview on preceding entry), Angela Cope, Amber Cope and Gabi DiCarlo.

Owens and DiCarlo finished 15th and 17th respectively on the lead lap. Angela Cope finished 29th from her 8th starting position 4 laps down to the leader and twin sister Amber crashed out on lap 21 finished 38th.

Technorati Tags: ARCA RE/MAX Series, Scott Speed, Amber Cope, Angela Cope, Gabi DiCarlo

NOTE: What follows is the first of what I hope will be a long series of interviews conducted with various females that are just below NASCAR’s radar. They are for the most part underfunded, but dedicated to making it to the top rung of the stock car ladder.

My roots being in the Mid-West, and specifically ARCA’s brand of racing, the selection of Alli Owens as the first in the series was an easy one and affirmed by her consistent level of performance during her rookie year at the ARCA level.

Alexandra “Alli” Owens background:

A Daytona Beach native she started racing the boys at age 8 when she entered a BMX bicycle race and was quickly signed as a factory rider for Dan’s Competition/Huffy Bikes. After numerous victories and winning the President’s Cup she gave up two wheels for four.

A short encounter with quarter midgets led to the Dirt Pure Stock Division on ½ mile clay oval at Volusia Speedway Park at age 13. That first year she scored two wins, six top five, eight top‑10 finishes and ended the 2003 season sixth out of twenty seven cars in the championship standings.

The following year of 2004 Alli competed in the Mini Stock division at New Smyrna Speedway claiming Rookie-of-the-Year honors along with a third in the final standings. 2005 saw the same success in the Late Model division at New Smyrna, ending the season third in the championship standings and her second consecutive Rookie‑of‑the‑Year award.

Prior to the 2007 season the National Labor Management Cooperation Committee (NLMCC), a joint entity of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), signed on to be Alli’s primary sponsor. She went on to compete in the NASCAR Whelen All‑American Series at Hickory Motor Speedway and in the Late Model division at Tri‑County Speedway.

That brings you up to the current season where Alli is competing on a ten event ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule with the assistance of Mario Gosselin’s DGM Racing with sponsorship from ElectrifyingCareers.

FT: The 2007 season saw you commute from your Daytona Beach home to compete at Hickory Motor Speedway and Tri-county Motor Speedway with great success. Has that part of your career been put on hold or do you have plans to resume racing at either track during breaks in the ARCA schedule this year?

Alli: “Hickory and Tri-County are among a few of the short tracks that I feel in love with. I would most definitely go back there and toss it around again with the boys, but unfortunately it is just too hard to make that trip this year. So no Hickory or Tri-county for me this race season.”

FT: Alli, you’re currently slated to compete in 10 ARCA RE/REMAX Series events with the Kentucky 150 on July 18th the start of the second half of your ARCA season. You have been limited to only those ARCA events broadcast live on Speed. Was that a requirement of your primary sponsor ElectrifyingCareers.com and do they have plans to increase sponsorship based on your performance?

Alli: “Well first of all racing is something totally new to them. Before we started they couldn’t even tell you what a lug nut is, but now they are all pretty much into the racing and can hold race related conversations. So when we decided to move up from Late Models to ARCA, that was a big jump for both myself and sponsors. We chose to take it slow and do a limited schedule and see how things progressed, Needless to say both parties are extremely happy how things are going and who knows what will happen next year.”

FT: The ARCA Series has a great mix of young drivers such as yourself and veterans like eight-time ARCA champion Frank Kimmel and the legendary James Hylton, have any of the vets taken you aside and become a mentor as you progress through the first season at the ARCA level?

Alli: Frank Kimmel is awesome! He has been great with me and all us “young bucks.” He has helped me learn to relax and just be myself and he is always there when someone needs advice. James Hylton is a wonderful man also.

“I remember he came up to me in Iowa and said he was impressed with how I’m progressing. That meant a lot coming from someone like him who has been around the sport longer than I have been alive. I try to watch and talk to the veterans because you can never learn too much?”

FT: Tell us about your ARCA crew, are they made up of members of the Mario Gosselin owned DGM Racing crew or have some migrated from your own Owens Racing team?

Alli: “The main crew that is always with us is more like family. They all come from the DGM Racing garage. Mario Gosselin (Poppa Goose) has been awesome and without him my transition to ARCA would have been a lot harder. The second man in charge is Bill Davis (Heerow) my Car Chief. He is really cool and we get along like brother and sister and that means a lot because he helps us communicate.”

“Then we have my tire guys, Kevon and Brian. They are fun to around and they do great work. There are more but these are the ones that stick oit the most. Last but not least my over the wall pit guys are all from Richard Childress Racing and they are super. Really funny guys and they believe in my which makes us all work together!”

FT: Talladega looms on the horizon later in the season with the ARCA RE/MAX 250 in October. Your DGM Racing team tested there on two occasions in preps for the the ARCA eventheld during Daytona Speed Weeks. What was learned that can be used in October?

Alli: “That “Dega” is smooth… cruise control smooth! On a more serious note, I learned a lot about aero. We tested a lot of things and gained speed and increased our performance so I really excited to go there hopefully in October.”

FT: Living up in the shadow of Daytona International Speedway has given you a chance to work with local city officials on the Motorsports Daytona Beach Council as a member of their Think Tank. What are your duties as a member of the council?

Alli: “To think!!! Ha-Ha! Actually I’m being serious. They brain storm ideas about events or structures that would bring motorsports back into the area. We have done things like parades and festivals. My duties are to give them the view of someone inside the industry. I enjoy it and really like being a part of it.”

FT: This past week you had a chance to test a new Daytona 500 Experience attraction (See Alli at the “controls” here), the ARCA Driver Development Program simulator, what was that like? You scored the top time right? And when can we expect one to be installed in your home recreation room?

Alli: “I had a blast! I got to race against all the media people and put two of them in the wall because they were blocking me! Ha-Ha!

I’m really happy they put that attraction in there because it is the same program all of us drivers really use to brush up on our skills. Yeah, I had the top score, but I ran out of there after they posted it because my little brother was in line and I wasn’t about to watch him knock me off the charts! Ha-Ha!”

FT: One of your aspirations is to own a development team for females who desire a career in racing, have you had any contact with Lynn St. James for guidance or looked into the possibility of a working relationship her? And secondly, have you joined her Project Podium program?

Alli: “Lyn St. James and I have been close friends since 2004 when I attended her driving development program in Arizona. She has had a lot of input in my career and most likely will for the rest of our lives. She is such a giving person and I learn from her program as far as as how to stay focused and achieve goals. I’m currently not involved with Project Podium as much as I would like to be, but I’m sure we will be doing a lot of talking on July 24th at the Woman’s in Winners Circle luncheon in Indy.”

Alli if you don’t mind I have a couple “fantasy” questions:

FT: I understand one of your favorite modes of personal transportation is a motorcycle, if you were given the chance to have the Teutul’s of Orange County Choppers build you one of their fantastic theme bikes what would the theme be?

Alli: Just to watch Pauly and Paul Sr. test drive a bike with my “Alli Owens Pick Heart” (I sign my name with a pink heart over the ‘I’ in Alli and the heart is also on my car and website) on it would be enough. Ha-Ha!

FT: If your choice was between racing the Daytona 500, the Le Mans 24 hours or the Dakar Rally which would you prefer?

Alli: “Easy question!! I’m a backwoods girl born in a single wide trailer in corn fields. I grew up playing in the mud and being rough and rowdy. Stock car racing was generated from backwood boys runnin’ shine while being chased by the law. NASCAR is based on grass roots racers and working class people who support it.’

“Banging fenders and slinging dirt in the 1/2 mile track in the back yard of Daytona Int’l Speedway is where my career took off. I dreamed day and night about taking the green flag at the Daytona 500 and that is definitely what I would want to do. So without any second thoughts Daytona 500 all the way!!”

NOTE: I’d like to thank Alli for her cooperation with the Half-Vast Staff™ (of one) of Full Throttle for taking timeout from a very busy racing and testing schedule and also her representative Craig Bailey of sportsmediaevents.com for facilitating this interview.

I also encourage all of you to stop be Alli Owens ARCA Nation page to say “hey” and also herteam website.

And finally, here is an excellent video of Alli put together I assume by her current ARCA sponsor.

Technorati Tags: Alli Owens, ARCA RE/MAX Series

Michael Phelps and his No. 45 Bowen Family Homes Dodge emerged from a two-hour Kentucky Speedway practice session atop the ARCA RE/MAX Series speed chart after turning a quick 175.006-mph (30.856 seconds) lap.

The Suwanee, Ga., driver successfully built on an effort that began July 1 when he was fastest in a 20-car Kentucky test session with a 176.010-mph (30.680 seconds) lap.

“The track was a lot like it was a couple of weeks ago. The car is really good; it has a lot of the same feeling in it. We came out here this morning knowing we had a good car. It sticks really well and we ended up busting off some fast times today,” Phelps said.

Phelps will attempt to make his 10th series start of the season tonight at 8:00 p.m., in the “Kentucky 150.”

He will enter the race 18th in the series standings after earning his lone top-10 finish of the season with a ninth-place performance at Pocono Raceway June 7.

He plans to improve upon his May 10 38th-place Kentucky showing attributed to a blown engine on Lap 11.

“We have some thing to prove today. We can show we’re a powerhouse and we can run with these guys. We had some minor problems here in May, but I think we’ve got it together now. These guys have been working hard these past few weeks. We have some good cars and we’re going to go out and show them what we’re made of,” Phelps said.

Four-time Kentucky Speedway ARCA RE/MAX Series winner Frank Kimmel was second on the practice chart with a quick 174.109-mph (31.015 seconds) lap in the No. 44 Comfort Systems USA / Ford Drive One Ford; Robb Brent was third on the speed chart after turning a 173.695-mph (31.089 seconds) lap in the No. 00 Orchard Chrysler Dodge Jeep Chevrolet.

Brian Scott was fourth quickest in the session with a 173.633-mph (31.100 seconds) lap in the No. 25 Albertsons Chevrolet and Matt Hawkins was fifth fastest with a 173.544-mph (31.116 seconds) circuit in the No. 39 Jani-King / Racing Radios Dodge.

Qualifying for tonight’s “Kentucky 150″ commences at 4:30 p.m., when speedway gates open. NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series practice is up next and will be followed by NCTS rookie practice. Fans can view practice from the designated area outside the Turn 3 Fan Center for free.

Michael Phelps ARCA Race Results.

Technorati Tags: Michael Phelps, Frank Kimmel, ARCA RE/MAX Series, Kentucky Motor Speedway

It appears Jacques Villeneuve is returning to the Montreal racetrack named after his father.

The star driver from Iberville, Que., will meet with the media at his trendy downtown restaurant today to unveil the details of his participation in the Nationwide Series NASCAR event Aug. 2-3 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

The announcement comes five months after Villeneuve lost his NASCAR Sprint Cup ride with Bill Davis Racing after failing to qualify for the season opening Daytona 500. The 37-year-old raced in the Craftsman Truck series last year before making his Cup debut in the UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in October. He finished 21st.

In preparation for next month’s race, Villeneuve will test at the Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw next Wednesday. It is the same track where Canadian Patrick Carpentier tested prior to last year’s inaugural NAPA Auto Parts 200 in Montreal.

Villeneuve attempted to get into field last year but could not put together the sponsorship needed to make the field. Sources close to the driver said that race promoter Normand Legault had a hand in arranging backing for the driver this year.

Villeneuve is one of the best known drivers in motor racing and has titles from every series he has entered. But he hasn’t done much winning, to put it mildly, since leaving the powerful Williams F-1 team to join the start-up BAR team in 1999.

Villeneuve’s team will include key people that helped Patrick Carpentier drive to his podium finish last year,. His crew chief will be Todd Lohse, who help Busch score his win in Charlotte.

The former F1 star has plenty of experience on the 13-turn, 4.361-kilometre circuit named after his father, racing there 10 times in the Canadian Grand Prix. His best result was a second in 1996 while driving for Williams.

UPDATE: Braun Racing has confirmed signing Villeneuve for a one race deal.

Braun Racing team owner, Todd Braun, feels that the addition of Villeneuve to his team’s efforts in Montreal will give them an extra advantage from a competitive standpoint.

“Jacques has had an incredible career,” said Braun. “The type of experience he can bring to our entire organization and road course program is invaluable. We look forward to working with him and to taking advantage of the experience and knowledge he brings with him.”

For Villeneuve’s part, he looks forward to aligning himself with a team as competitive as Braun Racing.

‘’It’s always fun to have the opportunity to race for such a competitive team as Braun Racing with great people that show confidence in you. It also adds to my pleasure to be in a car that hosted great pilots such as Kyle Bush and Denny Hamlin.”

As yet there’s is no confirmation whether Jacques’ ride will carry the Dollar General livery as depicted above.

Technorati Tags: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Jacques Villeneuve, Patrick Carpentier

With NASCAR’s premier division enjoying one of the few off-weeks in its hectic schedule news has been somewhat slow.

Between that and my blog software having an upgrade released this week that has thrown asunder my site redesign plans for some unspecified time I offer the following, it won’t make the list of Classic Short Story writers, but its something.

What that something is, you judge for yourself.

In an update to a earlier story despite the best efforts of Kyle Busch - aided by the “noise” provided by his “official band” - Busch couldn’t pull off a win Tuesday night at Slinger Super Speedway. That honor went to home town hero Matt Kenseth who won the 29th Annual Miller Late Nationals, his fourth career win in the prestigious Late Model event.

Want proof some NASCAR fans people are dumber than a sack one-celled protozoa on crack?

I give you Joe Morrison of Pasadena, Calif. (note the hometown it explains a lot) who offered this gem for Jerry Bonkowski’s weekly column in response to a King Richard tribute Jerry wrote last week:

“I consider myself a pretty big sports fan, so I’m wondering how a guy I’ve never heard of (Richard Petty) can be an ‘icon.’ Mickey Mantle is an ‘icon.’ You may feel he’s underappreciated [sic] and would like to shed some light on his accomplishments, but “icon”? NASCAR isn’t relevant enough to produce such a thing”.

To which I’ll add, other than the Rose Parade and little old ladies selling a one-of-a-kind pristine driven-only-on-Sunday used cars just how is Pasadena “relevant enough” to produce anything?

In my many years of NASCAR fandom I’ve seen more than a few references to the sport and it’s multitude of fans attending each week referred to as a modern day Circus Maximus. Well, modern day NASCAR, meet Rome’s modern day Circus Maximus complete with chariot racing tentatively scheduled for three days starting on Oct. 17, 2009.

If I were Brian France I’d be worried, very worried, about competition coming from Rome. (say, is that Kyle Busch’s #18 I spy with the spikes protruding from his wheels as he passes the #88?)

Other than being part of the Roush-Fenway Mongol Hoard what do Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards and David Ragan all have in common?

They all got their start in a Roush owned NCTS entry that will eclipse Spears Motorsports as the team with the most series starts (314) this weekend at Kentucky. Since the teams series entry in 1995 Roush has had 28 different drivers 10 of which have at least one win in the series.

A new feature has been added to NASCAR’s online Superstore, shoppers can now use a customization tool to “tailor the products they select” with special images, such as the car number, signature and sponsor logos.

Great news for Kasey Kahne fans, they can replace that Bud logo on a ridiculously over-priced T-shirt with one for InBev.

In more important news to IndyCar and Sarah Fisher fans, she has picked up a primary sponsor for the Meijer 300 at the Kentucky Speedway on Aug. 9 and the Chicagoland 300 on Sept. 7. Dollar General has come onboard to sponsor her self-owned IRL entry.

“It’s great to return to Kentucky with my own team,” she said. “I’ve done well there in the past, and I believe I can do just as well or better with my own team behind me.”

That is all, now back to the redesign wars.

UPDATE: Finally, someone has stepped up and sponsored the best unsponsored driver in Sprint Cup. I wonder if the xenophobes with get bunched panties over it being a Japanese company?

Technorati Tags: Roush-Fenway, NCTS, IndyCar, Sarah Fisher

The just announced marriage of convenience between Brad Daugherty and JTG Racing has spawned dreams of grandeur in Charleston, West Virginia’s Kanawha Valley.

Charleston councilman David Higgins, noting Daugherty’s racing connections along with hometown football hero Randy Moss, thinks the two should persuade the powers that be to build “a large speedway on a Wal-Mart site” near the area’s Riverside High School.

Higgins - who has been pushing the proposed Quincy track for years - also claims a track “would draw multitudes of race fans to this region, bringing a flood of tourist dollars.”

Report of this flight of fancy comes courtesy of the West Virginia Gazette in the form of an editorial.

I won’t argue with the last point, a track of considerable size will bring cash into the area.

Just as obviously, they are caught up in a dream of grandeur of their own making, with nary clue one about NASCAR’s over stuffed schedule. Not to mention others on what amount to a waiting list of present tracks or soon-to-be tracks looking for NASCAR dates.

It’s good they are thinkin’ big and maybe they can sweet-talk Bruton Smith into looking in their direction, but I highly doubt it.

In the mean-time I’ve found a couple buyers of some stuff I wanna unload.

Like a trans-Pacific bridge, a nuclear powered hand drill, some excess (fools) gold and a pig-in-a-poke.

Tasmania’s favorite son Marcos Ambrose, the Devil Racer, will become a full-time Sprint Cup driver next season, thanks to a new partnership former NBA player Brad Daugherty has with JTG Racing.

Daugherty, who choose to wear Richard Petty’s number – 43 – throughout his NBA career has bought a financial stake in JTG Racing.

The new team, renamed JTG Daugherty Racing, will continue to field two Nationwide Series entries, but add a full-time Sprint Cup entry next year with Ambrose at the wheel. Little Debbie snack cakes will continue to sponsor the car which will use # 47.

“I have a tremendous passion for racing,” Daugherty said Tuesday. “This gives me another avenue to be involved in the sport. It’s a big stake to do this at he Cup level, and I hope it opens doors in the sport for other minorities and women.”

“I can’t think of a better partner to be involved with this team than Brad,” Ambrose said. “He’s a real racer. I hope I can deliver the results for him. We have a lot of hard work to do to get ready for 2009, but time is on our side. I’m just really excited to get started.”

While continuing to play pro hoops, Daugherty supported and mentored several up-and-coming drivers as an owner of Liberty Racing in the Nationwide Series and NCTS, explaining that he wanted to nurture their talents and see their careers grow.

Drivers included the late Kenny Irwin Jr., Wayne Anderson and Kevin Harvick. Irwin won two Craftsman Truck Series races driving for Daugherty in 1997, the first at Homestead-Miami Speedway in March and the second at Texas Motor Speedway in June.

Daugherty and NASCAR chief executive Brian France co-founded NASCAR’s Diversity Council several years ago.

Technorati Tags: Brad Daugherty, Marcos Ambrose, JTG Daugherty Racing, JTG Racing

Fans, and non-fans of Kyle Busch would probably agree the Gibbs Racing driver has become the “official” Bad Boy of NASCAR.

But did you know Kyle has an official band?

The Last Vegas (pictured left), named by Spin Magazine as “Best New Discovery,” is his official band. A quick spin through the interwebs to Kyle’s website and you can sample of their latest musical release.

In related news Kyle is at Wisconsin’s Slinger Super Speedway along with the band this evening. The band is giving a live concert, while Busch should be taking the green flag as I write this in the 29th Annual Miller Lite Nationals 200 lap event.

Joining Busch in the line-up are NASCAR stars Matt Kenseth (former race champion), Erik Darnell, Johnny Sauter, Scott Wimmer, Kelly Bires, David Stremme and a long list of former race winners that includes many NASCAR drivers and Mid-West short track stars.

Technorati Tags: Kyle Busch, Slinger Super Speedway, Matt Kenseth, Erik Darnell, Johnny Sauter

Former Champ Car Champion Paul Tracy looks almost certain to return to competitive action with Walker Racing in the forthcoming IndyCar Series outing at Edmonton – his ‘home’ race – and he is hopeful it could lead to a full-time comeback in the category.

The Canadian – for years one of Champ Car’s biggest stars and crowd-pullers – was left out of work following the demise of the series and merger with the Indy Racing League back at the start of 2008. Since then he has competed on just a sole occasion, finishing a delayed eleventh for Forsythe/Pettit Racing in Champ Car’s final hurrah – the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach – after clipping the wall early on.

Despite having expressed his keen interest in switching across to the IndyCar Series following Champ Car’s collapse, Tracy’s insistence on only wanting to race with one of the leading teams after Forsythe shut its doors contrived to work against him. Now, however, it seems he may have got his wish.

“I’ll be back in action in the next couple of weeks,” the 39-year-old confirmed, speaking exclusively to Crash.net Radio at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, as he confessed that part of him misses racing and part of him doesn’t. “We’ve got a deal coming together with Derrick Walker to race in Edmonton, and hopefully that will then expand for the rest of the season from there.”

Indy Racing League CEO Tony George has of late made no secret of his desire to get Tracy back into a car again, with suggestions initially that the 2003 Champ Car king was being lined up for a return at both Edmonton and Infineon Raceway weeks later, with George’s own Vision Racing operation.

As to his personal thoughts on the unification of North American open-wheeled racing, the 31-time Champ Car race-winner was confident that it was the right direction for the sport to be heading in – or it will eventually prove to be, at least.

“I think it’s good,” he underlined. “Obviously it all kind of came together at the last minute and has left a lot of casualties – a lot of drivers without rides and teams without an opportunity to go racing – but I think in the long term the series being back together is the way it should be.”

In the meantime, though, Tracy was happy to amuse himself at Goodwood, where he found himself reunited with an old friend – his Penske Racing PC26-97 from eleven years back, a car with which he triumphed on three consecutive occasions early on in the campaign.

“It’s been great!” he enthused of his Goodwood appearance. “I’m having a good time; I’m driving one of the cars I had a lot of success with in 1997, so it’s very exciting.

“The hill is very narrow and I only got up it once on Friday, but again we don’t have road course wings on it like some of the Formula 1 cars here do. It’s really just for demonstration.”

Technorati Tags: Vision Racing, Paul Tracy, IRL, IndyCar, Derrick Walker