So far the drivers are all male. KATHERINE LEGGE of England, last year's only female driver, hasn't yet signed but has tested with Dale Coyne Racing, and remains hopeful. Other drivers who have tested but remain unsigned are: BRUNO JUNQUEIRA of Brazil-Dale Coyne Racing; Rookie MATT HALLIDAY of New Zealand-Conquest Racing; NELSON PHILIPPE of France-Minardi and Conquest Racing; and ANDREW RANGER of Canada-Dale Coyne. Seen at the Laguna test were ORIOL SEVIA of Spain and CHARLES ZWOLSMAN of The Netherlands. No sign of JAN HEYLEN of Belgium; TONIS KASEMETS of Estonia; or NICKY PASTORELLI of The Netherlands.
To while away the time and keep driving skills honed, some drivers are racing in other venues. MICHEL JOURDAIN of Mexico has all but given up on Champ Car, ran the Rolex 24, and now is running full time in the WTCC in Europe. Servia raced in the Rolex 24 at
Daytona, with PKV team co-owner JIMMY VASSER and IRL driver, BUDDY RICE. Legge also drove in the Rolex, as did Tracy. Junqueira and Halliday have raced in A1 GP, with Team Brazil and New Zealand, respectively. Popular Champ Car driver, CRISTIANO da MATTA is continuing his recuperation and rehabilitation at home in Brazil after his horrific crash with a deer at Road America last summer.
Minardi will make its sponsorship announcements at next weekend's season opener race in the streets of Las Vegas. Team Co-Owner, PAUL STODDART of Australia, will also be launching the teams’ two-seater programme, which will run at ten of the North American Champ Car races. At each of those races Stoddart will have five such cars - four to run and one spare. And if that isn't enough cars to keep track of, Stoddart isn't discounting the possibility of running a third race car in Europe. After all, the team does have ZSOLT BAUMGARTNER of Hungary as an official Test/Reserve Driver.
