Racing season is knocking on our door as the first major race of the 2013 motorsports season, the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona is this weekend.
IndyCar at the Rolex 24
30 drivers entered for this week's 24 Hours of Daytona have or have had some involvement in IndyCar. Active drivers within the IndyCar umbrella taking part include Scott Dixon, Charlie Kimball, Dario Franchitti, Sébastien Bourdais, Jorge Goncalvez, Gustavo Yacamán, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Simon Pagenaud, Justin Wilson, Tony Kanaan, Spencer Pigot, Tristan Vautier and James Hinchcliffe.
Dixon and Kimball are teamed with Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Juan Pablo Montoya and the #01 Ganassi pairing won pole earlier today. The #02 Ganassi of Dixon, Franchitti, Joey Hand, Jamie McMurray and Pruett will start second. Simon Pagenaud, Wayne Nonnamaker and Dane Cameron will start from third position. Defending champions the #60 Michael Shank entry of AJ Allmendinger, Marcos Ambrose, Oswaldo Negri, John Pew and Justin Wilson will start from sixth position. Bourdais and the Starworks entry will start in seventh position.
Other IndyCar related entries and their starting positions: Hunter-Reay 12th (Wayne Taylor Racing, DP), Tony Kanaan 42nd (Dener Motorsports, GT) and Hinchcliffe 55th (SpeedSource, GX).
The 24 Hours of Daytona begins 3:30pm on Saturday and coverage can be found on Speed.
The Diversifying DTM Grid
Alex Zanardi may have said no, but Timo Glock and Robert Kubica are testing the DTM waters as well. Glock will be testing for BMW after losing his Marussia F1 seat to what appears to be a ride buyer yet to be named. Kubica has been trying to comeback to motorsports after a rally crash severely injured the Polish driver in the beginning of 2011. Kubica did compete in a few rallies towards the end of 2012 but his test with Mercedes was the first time on a closed circuit since the accident.
Others who have tested a DTM car over this winter include Bruno Senna, Mike Conway and Jérôme d'Ambrosio.
IndyCar Silly Season
With what appears to be 21 cars set for 2013, the scramble has already begun to find a ride. Rumored remaining vacant seats that could be filled are a fourth Ganassi, third Penske, fourth Andretti, second Coyne, third Dragon, second Schmidt, second RLLR, second Foyt, Shank and HVM. Free agents on the outside looking for rides are Ryan Briscoe, Tristan Vautier, EJ Viso, James Jakes, Ana Beatriz, Sebastián Saavedra, Alex Lloyd, Wade Cunningham, Bertrand Baguette, Narain Karthkeyan, Esteban Guerrieri and probably a few others looking to make their way into IndyCar.
Only the third Penske and second Coyne have each applied for one of the twenty Leader Circle spots available, which would guarantee the teams just over one million dollars in funding.
Most recent rumors have a possible second full-time Foyt seat, however it looks as that will become another Indianapolis 500 only entry joining Takuma Sato and American Chase Austin. That additional Foyt entry is rumored to by filled be either Alex Lloyd, Bertrand Baguette or Conor Daly.
Other recent rumors have included EJ Viso going to Andretti Autosport, however that has since been denied. The return of HVM has been mentioned as the landing spot for Viso or possibly be a partnership with Dragon Racing, with Katherine Legge being loaned to the once Lotus manufacture and the second Dragon seat being filled by a new driver.
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