Junior Open Wheel Talent

This is a bit dated now, but still worthy of mention.... Formula 3 Euro Series driver Stefano Coletti will replace Davide Valsecchi at Durango for the GP2 Round at Valencia.

Coletti, who is a former Red Bull Junior, has been running in the F3 Euro Series for the last two seasons. He made one start in the World Series by Renault earlier this year (at Monte Carlo--where he finished 10th). In the F3 Euro Series, he has had a decent year. He is currently ninth in the championship with 6 top-tens, 1 win, and 2 podiums. Obviously, GP2 will be a huge jump for him, but not an impossible transition.

Davide Valsecchi will be moving into the GP2 seat at Barwa Addax vacated by Romain Grosjean. Grosjean will be moving to Formula 1 as a replacement for Nelson Piquet at Renault.

Valsecchi was really strong in GP2 Asia while driving for Durango but failed to really carry that success over (on a consistent basis) to the GP2 Championship this spring. His best finish is 3rd, which came at Istanbul in early June. He started 10th in that race. His average finish in GP2 this season has been 13.5 (which includes 2-DNF's). It will be interesting to see how he performs at Barwa Addax. Obviously, it should prove to be a beneficial move as he will now be part of the Renault Driver Development program.

(photo: www.stefanocoletti.com)

Greg Mansell has parted ways with Ultimate Racing in the World Series by Renault. It is currently being reported that he will join Comtec Racing for the final two events at the Nurburgring and Motorland Aragon. That said, there hasn't been any official confirmation of the move to Comtec.

The motivation for the departure isn't clear, but there is quite a bit of speculation going on among fans of the World Series by Renault.

Ultimate boss Barry Walsh said:

"It if of course with regret that we announce that Greg is leaving us.

"He was a popular team member who showed that he has a clear talent and progressed from race to race. We wish him all the best in his racing career."

If I had to speculate, I would say that Greg is unhappy with his results this season. I'm not sure where Barry Walsh is getting the "he has progressed from race to race" statement. Greg's average finish in the first six races was 12.2, his average finish in the last six races (including two DNF's) has been 16.7. His teammate Miguel Molina has had much more success with the team, finishing inside the top-ten in 76.9% of his race starts. Perhaps Greg felt that Miguel was getting too much attention?

Dani Clos will be driving for Epsilon Euskadi this weekend at Le Mans. The team hasn't made an official announcement, but, the rumor is that Clos will be replacing Chris van der Drift. Chris has been struggling to find the necessary funding all year, so it wouldn't be a huge surprise to see him replaced. That said, it would be really disappointing to see him out of the car as he has shown so much promise. Another possibility, which is also quite likely, is that we will see Spaniard Adrian Valles out of the car at Epsilon for the Superleague Formula race at Belgium. Valles is currently leading the Superleague Formula championship in the Liverpool FC car.

Edoardo Mortara will join Tech 1 Racing this weekend as Brendon Hartley focuses on the F3 Euro Series race at Zandvoort.

John Martin will be running Superleague Formula this weekend, which opens up a seat at Comtec. Earlier today, the team announced that Cristiano Morgado will replace Martin for the Formula Renault 3.5 race at Le Mans. Morgado has been racing in the South Africa Formula Volkswagen series, where he is currently third in the championship.

Former Indy Car/ Indy Lights competitor Franck Perera will be back in a race car this weekend for the GP2 event at the Nurburgring. He will be replacing Italian Giacomo Ricci in the DPR seat. As of right now, this is a one-off opportunity.

It will be interesting to see what kind of results Perera is able to post after being out of the car for so long.

Jonathan Summerton has had a busy summer driving in both the Indy Lights series and the Atlantic Championship. Both drives were on a race-by-race basis as the 21-year-old Florida resident struggled to find the necessary funding. It was announced today that he will be able to put all his focus on the Atlantic Championship for the remainder of 2009.

After a few weeks of rumors regarding the departure of Markus Niemela from Newman-Wachs Racing.... it was announced today that Niemela is out with Jonathan Summerton taking over the duties for the remainder of 2009. Summerton will partner fellow American John Edwards under the team tent.

Summerton spent the first part of the 2009 Atlantic Championship with Genoa Racing. With Summerton's departure from Genoa, the team will have an open seat heading into the Lime Rock Park race. I was planning on starting a rumor about who will fill the seat, but decided against it, stay tuned for future announcements.

As far as Markus Niemela's situation goes, I'm still waiting on some information from a few inside sources. I will post an update, when the information becomes available.

**update** According to inside sources, Markus Niemela's departure from NWR is funding related... as speculated. He will join Jensen Motorsport for the remainder of the 2009 season.

After making what many assumed was a one-off debut with Kolles & Heinz Union in last weekend's Formula 3 Euro Series event at Norisring, Nick Tandy has signed a contract with the team to compete in the remaining 2009 F3ES events. The catch is, he will be dropping his British F3 efforts with JTR. Tandy was currently in third place in the British F3-International Class after 8 Rounds. He claimed his first BF3 win just over a month ago at Rockingham.

JTR has announced that they plan to continue their 2009 British F3 campaign and are actively looking for a replacement driver. Many are wondering if American Josef Newgarden, who drives a JTR entry in the British Formula Ford series, will step-in and fill the seat.

American Star Mazda driver, Joel Miller has left JDC Motorsports and will join Andersen Racing for the remainder of the 2009 SM season. He tested with the team yesterday at Autobahn in Joliet, Illinois.

The move may have something to do with Andersen Racing's recent success in the Indy Lights series. Miller has made it quite clear that he hopes to run in the IndyCar feeder series for 2010. His latest press release indicates that we may even see him in a Andersen FIL car later this year...

Just as a point of interest, Miller did test an Indy Lights car with Andersen Racing at Sebring last November.

The 2006 F2000 Championship 'Champion', Matt McDonough, will be competing in this weekend's F2000 race at Watkins Glen International Raceway. The former champ will be filling a seat vacated by Jesse Yorio.

The F2000 Championship will be racing alongside the IRL this weekend at Watkins Glen. You can read the series' preview here>>.

Spanish driver Jaime Alguersuari (World Series by Renault) will replace Brendon Hartley (F3 Euro Series, World Series by Renault) as the Red Bull Formula One reserve driver for the German Grand Prix.

It's not really a surprising move by Red Bull as Hartley hasn't been producing the results that many had hoped for. The lackluster performances are quite likely due to the diversified focus between being a F3 Euro Series driver, World Series by Renault driver, and the all encompassing Formula One reserve driver position. Alguersuari, on the other hand, has been able to focus exclusively on the World Series by Renault and has finished inside the top-ten in 71.4% of his 2009 race starts. It's likely that Alguersuari will finish out the season as the Red Bull test driver, which should prove beneficial to Hartley's results.

Junior Strous, who was currently fourth in the Indy Lights championship, has decided to race at Zandvoort this weekend in the Dutch GT4 championship rather than in his Indy Lights car at the Milwaukee Mile. There are a couple different rumors circulating in regards to his decision. The most probable, per a comment on planetlemans.com, is that his Dutch sponsors wanted him to run at home. I'm sure Strous and everyone involved in his racing this season are disappointed in his recent Indy Lights results, after such a promising start to the year---where he swept the opening rounds at St. Petersburg. That said, it would be odd to see them drop Indy Lights so early in the season. Hopefully, his GT4 stop is a one-off and we will see him back in the #18 Lights car soon.

At Zandvoort, he took the pole positions in Q1 and claimed Q3 for Race 2. You can follow his results this weekend: here.

Barrie, Ontario resident Kyle Marcelli has signed with AIM Autosport for this weekend's Star Mazda race at Road Atlanta. Marcelli spent 2008 as a development year in the F2000 Championship; finishing 3rd in the final points tally against a highly competitive field. It's nice to see Marcelli continuing to develop and take that next step towards 2009 and beyond. He will most likely spend the off-season working on putting together a full Star Mazda program for 2009. The eighteen year old driver will be competing alongside Star Mazda standout John Michael Edwards this weekend in Braselton, Georgia.

Drivers from different junior formula series across the globe have gathered in Le Castellet for a two day GP2 test at Paul Ricard. All drivers in attendance are focused on one thing, a future Formula One ride. In order to have a legitimate shot at that dream, they must make the right impression with the GP2 teams they are testing for. Several drivers have elected to test for more than one team, due to a lack of funded drivers in attendance. Teams were slow to announce their drivers as many of the deals were arranged last minute, in fact, a few teams are yet to announce their drivers for Day #2. The teams are focused on signing their drivers for the GP2 Asia Series (Shanghai is less than three weeks away) and finalize their 2009 contracts.

Here is a list I was able to put together of drivers trying out for GP2/GP2 Asia. The list contains current GP2 pilots hoping to remain on the circuit as well as several rookie drivers trying to attain a spot at the final stop on the motorsports ladder to F1.

Arden: Renger Van der Zande (Day 1), Kodai Tsukakoshi (Both Days), Mika Maki (Day 2)

ART: Oliver Turvey (Day 1), Paul Di Resta (Day 1), Nelson Phillippe (Day 2), Diego Nunes (Day 2)

BCN: Fabio Onidi (Day 1), Bertrand Baguette (Day 1), Dani Clos (Both Days)

Campos: Vitaly Petrov (Day 1), Sergio Perez (Day 1), Ho Pin Tung (Day 2), Jerome D’ Ambrosio (Day 2)

Dams: Sam Bird (Day 1), Kamui Kobayashi (Both Days), James Jakes (Day 2)

DPR: Michael Herck (Both Days), Will Bratt (Day 1), Luca Filippi (Day 2)

Durango: Davide Valsecchi (Both Days), Carlos Iaconelli (Both Days)

FMSI: Andreas Zuber (Both Days), Fabrizio Crestani (Both Days)

iSport: Nelson Phillippe (Day 1), Diego Nunes (Day 1), Marcus Ericsson (Day 2), Oliver Turvey (Day 2)

Piquet: Alberto Valerio (Day 1), Roldan Rodriguez (Day 1), Milos Pavlovic (Day 2), Fabio Onidi (Day 2)

Racing Engineering: Luiz Razia (Both Days), Christian Ebbesvik (Day 1), Markus Niemela (Day 2)

Super Nova: Vladimir Arabadzhiev (Both Days), James Jakes (Day 1), Alberto Valerio (Day 2)

Trident: Chris Van der Drift (Both Days), Narain Karthikeyan (Both Days)

Day 1: Morning Test Results
Day 1: Afternoon Test Results

Day 2: Morning Test Results

It was announced today that Portugese A1GP driver Filipe Albuquerque will be replacing Mario Romancini under the Team Epsilon tent for the two remaining WSR events for 2008. Romancini ran out of money and the team wanted to put someone familiar in the drivers seat to campaign the final two events. Romancini didn't seem to gel with Epsilon the same way Filipe did and struggled this season in comparison to his efforts in the Brazilian Formula Renault 2.0 and Sudamericano F3 Championships. Filipe had quite a bit of success last year driving for Team Epsilon in the World Series by Renault, claiming a victory at the Hungaroring. It will be interesting to see how he does in the new car.

English driver Martin Plowman has left the F3 Euro Series after signing with Panther Racing to contest the 2009 Indy Lights series. Martin will be moving to Indianapolis within the next few months to prepare for the 2009 season and adapt to life in the States.

The move isn't a huge surprise for most, Plowman struggled this season as he dedicated 2008 to the development of the Volkswagen Formula 3 program in the F3 Euro Series driving for RC Motorsport. Both the team and the drivers struggled this year and I think Plowman was just ready for a change. This will be a rather large jump for the 20 year old, but it should be a solid career move.

According to the F3 Euro Series Starting Grid; there are several changes to announce.

Stephane Richelmi will be making his F3 Euro Series debut driving for Team Epsilon Sport; also making their series debut. Both Epsilon and Richelmi have experience with the Renault 2.0 cars. Look for the duo to make their first appearance at Barcelona with a Dallara chassis/Mercedes powerplant.

Daniel Ricciardo will be making a guest appearance, driving for SG Formula, courtesy of Red Bull.

Peter Elkmann will be replacing Martin Plowman at RC Motorsport. The 27 year old brings a ton of experience to RC Motorsport, so it will be good to see him back in a race car. It will be interesting to see if he can help RC sort out some of their gremlins. He won an F3 Euro Series race in 2006, driving for Jo Zellar.... Unfortunately, funding issues caused him to sit out most of the season and focus on his karting efforts in the European Superkart Championship.

Brendon Hartley, British F3 hotshoe, will make his return to the F3 Euro series. Hartely will be pitted under a familiar tent in the paddock; Carlin Racing.

Richard Phillipe will replace Tom Dillmann, driving for SG Formula. Dillmann had been running for Jo Zeller Racing.

This has been an interesting week for Indy Lights drivers and teams. I have several tidbits to provide...

The biggest surprise is Dillon Battistini's move from Panther Racing to Team Moore Racing. Dillon had a very good start to the season, claiming one pole position and four victories...all with Panther Racing. Dillon's relationship with Panther seemed to be quite good as the team even put him in an Indy Car at Kentucky for a day of testing and evaluation. Although neither Panther Racing or Dillon will comment on the situation, it may be safe to assume that the departure has something to do with Battistini's Indy Car hopes for 2009.

Michael Crawford Motorsports has decided to shut their doors after this weekend, reportedly due to several drivers leaving the team without paying their bills. Tom Dyer is driving for MCM this weekend at Chicagoland, making his second Indy Lights start. MCM has worked hard on their program and it's a shame to see it disappear. Michael Crawford doesn't seem to be affected much as a new opportunity awaits.... Just today he was announced as the new manager of HVM's Indy Lights effort for 2009. (more to follow) It appears that Keith Wiggins of HVM just bought out MCM's Indy Lights Program.

HVM Racing, largely known for their years in the Champ Car World Series, has announced their interest in a Indy Lights Program for 2009. Team owner Keith Wiggins is looking to expand on his new Indy Car program by adding a two car effort in the Indy Lights series for 2009, as stated above; Michael Crawford will serve as the general manager for the team. Wiggins is looking for a way to help driver's pursuing an Indy Car ride, while closely monitoring the talent first hand.

Bobby Wilson will drive for Panther Racing this weekend. He spent 2008 driving for Team E, in their series debut. According to inside sources, Team E elected to skip both Infineon and Chicagoland in an effort to save money for their 2009 assault fielding two cars. Wilson also skipped Infineon, most likely due to funding issues, so it's good to see him back in a car this weekend.

Wade Cunningham has signed with Integra Motorsports for the weekend and Pablo Donoso will join Mo's Gold this weekend. With all the team changes, it appears several drivers are evaluating their options for 2009....should they return for another season of Indy Lights racing.

The Indy Lights season finale will be televised live tomorrow on ESPN 2.

The much anticipated championship battle between Rafa Matos and Richard Antinucci looks to be dimming slightly. Matos came out today with an incredible qualifying effort, picking up the pole position and adding a point to his championship lead (now up to only four points). I will say that I could visibly see Rafa's fire during qualifying as he attacked the 1.5 mile oval. Antinucci qualified a decent ninth, but failed to make much improvement after this morning's practice sessions. We all know that a solid qualifying effort doesn't necessarily mean you have the best race car (in traffic), so tomorrow's SunRichGourmet.com 100 will be an interesting race. Make sure to watch all the live coverage on ESPN 2.

Here is your starting line-up.

Sergei Afanasiev of Russia has signed with KTR to drive alongside Siso Cunill in the World Series by Renault. Afanasiev has been running in the International Formula Master Series this year and has produced one victory, one pole position and two podiums driving for JD Motorsport. The 20 year old has shown improvements this season, most recently by finishing fifth in Germany after starting at the back of the grid. He had quite a bit of success in a Formula Renault 2.0 car (Switzerland Series) in 2006, claiming 2nd in the overall championship. It will be interesting to see if Cunill and Afanasiev can work together, aiding KTR's development of the new car.

Paolo Maria Nocera has been chosen by RC Motorsport to join Claudio Cantelli under the team tent for the remainder of the World Series by Renault season. Paolo moved up to the GP2 series earlier this season but only completed one race before being released by BCN Competition (replaced by Adrian Valles). The Roman driver hasn’t had a ton of success, with the exception of his efforts in the F3 Italian Series driving for Lucidi Motors, where he claimed the 2007 Championship. He seemed to really gel with Lucidi Motors.

GP2 might have been a bit of a jump for the 23 year old pilot, despite spending the last 5 seasons in cars. The move to RC Motorsport and the World Series by Renault should be a good opportunity for him to show his speed and stay sharp. It will be interesting to see what 2009 holds for this determined driver.

In disappointing news, British driver Duncan Tappy has resigned his ride in the World Series by Renault with RC Motorsport. His resignation appears to be due to funding issues, which is truly unfortunate for such a talented driver. This is the type of announcement we all dread, and it isn't the first time we've heard it this year from a solid driver.

Tappy has been very impressive,... in 2007 he won the UK Formula Renault 2.0 Championship with 9 wins, 7 pole positions, and a massive 16 podiums. This season saw him try out sports car racing prior to signing with RC Motorsport to run the WSR. Despite a rather large jump, Tappy ran well with RC Motorsport and finished as high as 6th at Hungary.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the 24 year old make a return to sports car racing in the near future. Time will tell...

In GP2 news, there is a rumor that Brazilian driver Alberto Valerio will be replaced by Ben Hanley at Durango. I will say the substitution wouldn't be a huge surprise as Valerio hasn't had the season he expected and really hasn't turned too many heads since his days in the Formula 3 Sudamericana Championship. Hanley on the other hand has a pretty decent resume under his belt, with recent wins in the World Series by Renault and the Formula Renault 2.0 (Italy) series.

Giving the rumor even more strength... Hanley drove for Durango earlier this year in the GP2 series replacing the injured Davide Valsecchi.