Today RuSPORT announced that their 2005 Champ Car World Series lineup will consist of AJ Allmendinger and Justin Wilson, each of which finished 1 and 2 respectively in the 2004 Roshfrans Rookie of the Year Standings.

“After having a strong first year, finishing sixth in the overall standings, and winning the Rookie of the Year title, I’m even more excited to get in the car and build on what we as a team have accomplished this year,” said the Autosport Rookie of the Year nominee. “I’m truly living my dream and I know winning pole positions and races is right around the corner. We came into this year knowing we had a lot to learn; now I’m confident we can contend for the championship.”

“I’m obviously very excited to be joining RuSPORT,” said the former F1 pilot and Formula 3000 champion. “The atmosphere within in the team is great and there is such a high level of drive and professionalism. I think it’s the best place to be to win races and championships. I’m also really looking forward to having A.J. as a teammate because we see things similarly. We get on well even though every weekend we were battling head to head.”

“I am proud of what we accomplished in 2004; however, I know that I speak for all of RuSPORT when I say we are eager get to the front,” said Carl Russo team owner. “I believe we have what it takes to get there. A.J. and Justin are two young champions who know how to go for it. This is going to be fun!”

I liked AJ from his Toyota Atlantic days, and enjoyed Justin’s racing performances this year, so call me an official RuSPORT backer for 2005!

You can read the official release here.

Today is the 5th Anniversary of Greg Moore’s death at the 1999 CART Season Finale at Fontana, California.

Here’s some links to pages / videos about Greg:

Videos:

Greg Moore Tribute Movie

Greg Moore TSN Tribute

Links:
Greg Moore Foundation

Greg Moore Biography

SLAM Motorsports Greg Moore Area

ESPN Article about Dario Franchitti and Greg Moore

Greg was a great rising star that left before his time. We miss you Greg.

John Canzano had a chance to ride in one of the two seat ChampCars recently and wrote his experience here. It’s definitely an interesting and entertaining read, especially because the author previously thought motorsports weren’t sport at all and thought that anyone could race a car without any physical training.

With the passing of SeventhGear, I’ve found a good successor in OffCamber.net. These ChampCar oriented forums have a lot of the big posters from 7G as members / posters on OffCamber. They have discussion forums for ChampCar, Formula 1, Ladder Series, Other Racing, Gatherings, and a Community forum as well. They even have a chat room, but I’ll probably still be sticking around on #7thgear on irc.xworld.org for raceday and general chat.

SeventhGear.com was sold to Crash.net and they officially made the transition final, squashing 7G’s forums forever. Being more of a forum “lurker” than a poster in the forums over there, I think that anyone who attended an “At the Track” event will miss 7G just for that level of interaction and involvement between members of the forum, as well as some acknowledgement around the paddock of what 7G members did as fans of the sport.

The #7thgear chatroom on the XWorld IRC network is the only item left of what was THE premier place to go for CART news / gossip / banter / and interaction that can only dream of being filled by one entity.

I know that I’ll be hanging out in #7thgear during raceday, but I plan on making OffCamber.net my new racing home. After looking around at the alternatives, this looks like the place I think that has the mindset and moderators to keep things sane and view bashing to a foam pugil stick instead of a sharp mace.

Here’s to the passing of a good friend, and the beginning of a great future at OffCamber.net.

Raceline Radio, a Canadian based racing radio show, has switched nights and networks. They’re now on on Sunday nights. You can listen to them online at Mojo Radio AM640 here.

Mario Andretti was on SpeedFreaks discussing his successful efforts bringing back the CART Road America race for the 2003 and 2004 season. It’s about 24 minutes into the radio broadcast. Definitely a great interview and a great race back in the mix. Thanks Mario! : )

Today is first day practice for the season opener of the 2003 ChampCar season in sunny Tampa. I know that Anita, Bruce, and the rest of the 7G gang is going to have a wonderful time while I’m here in frosty PA fighting the perpetual fire that is I.T. Brad over at SeventhGear has a preview article about the race.

With the 2003 ChampCar season upon us, SeventhGear is shifting around some responsibilities, and my good friend Anita Swirsky is now the Managing Editor! With the great job she’s done with the forums, the chat room, and the At-The-Track meets at SeventhGear in the past, and her wonderful enthusiasm, I’m sure she’ll do an excellent job making SeventhGear even better. Congrats Anita!