LITTLE SILLINESS YET.(Competition)(motorsports news)

Silly season in the Champ Car World Series is well short of hurricane strength, but the wind is starting to pick up. More than a few things are set, starting at the top.

The Newman-Haas Racing driver lineup is more or less settled. Bruno Junqueira will be back in 2005, and so will Sebastien Bourdais, despite some rumblings in August that he was seeking opportunities in Formula One. The question is whether NHR will add a third car for 2002 CART champ Cristiano da Matta, who is free to get back in a car after his contract with the Toyota F1 team expires this season.

At Forsythe Racing both sides have said Paul Tracy is close to signing a new, long-term deal, and Rodolfo Lavin should be back with his Corona sponsorship. But unless the team finds a new, real sponsor beyond Indeck (team owner Gerald Forsythe's international electricity-generating/power-plant-building enterprise), Patrick Carpentier isn't likely to return for an eighth season at Forsythe. The probability is that Carpentier will be off to the IRL, giving that series its first marquee draw in Canada.

Mario Dominguez and Ryan Hunter-Reay, the drivers at Keith Wiggins' Herdez Competition, look solid for 2005, assuming the team's funding holds. The same applies for A.J. Allmendinger and Michel Jourdain Jr. at the first-year Rusport Team. Beyond that, it gets murky.

Jimmy Vasser is now a minority owner at Kevin Kalkhoven's PKV Racing, and he has a seat as long as he wants to drive. Yet Vasser turns 39 in November, and he has observed on several occasions that the time to retire from open-wheel cars is approaching.

Rocketsports owner Paul Gentilozzi has said he is trying to put together a deal to get veteran Memo Gidley in one of his cars full time next season. Christian Fittipaldi, back road-racing in Grand-Am this season, might be back on the Champ Car radar screen, and was in discussions to return earlier this year before the deal fell through. Oriol Servia has driven more than well enough to keep his job with Dale Coyne, while Mario Haberfeld and rookie Justin Wilson have both proven their mettle. Yet all three have seats that could be tied to funding, and a driver with the right deal could send any of them packing.

Ralf not ready