Villeneuve might only run the first 5 races of the season

Although he was scheduled to run for the 2008 Raybestos Rookie of the Year award, reports now say that Jacques Villeneuve might only run the first 5 races of the season. The same articles states those 5 races are locked-in but that they will reevaluate the situation afterward.

Villeneuve said last week that they have yet to sign a sponsorship deal so some rumors have started their run about Villeneuve paying from his pockets the first races in hopes to find the sponsors to run the whole thing.

Stay tuned!

Villeneuve shows speed on first day of testing at Daytona

NASCAR drivers were testing for the first time this year at Daytona International Speedway and Jacques Villeneuve begun his rookie season with a strong performance. First, in the morning session, Villeneuve tested 2 cars which he placed 4th and 15th out of 42 entered with a best lap of 49.092 seconds averaging 183.329 mph.

In the afternoon, Villeneuve then placed 6th and 20th, shaving about 2 tenths of a second off his times.

Ranger to run in the Daytona 24 hours

It was announced yesterday that Andrew Ranger would join the already long list of French Canadians to run in the Daytona 24 hours. Ranger was offered a ride from AIM Motorsport's Ian Willis to drive their car in the DP class, along with Mark Wilkins, Brian Friselle and Colin Braun.

Ranger previously ran for AIM Motorsport when he made his debut in the Fran-Am series before stepping up to the Formula Atlantic

Ranger 16th at Daytona

According to an article in the Journal de Montréal, young Andrew Ranger ran the 16th fastest time out of 64 entries this saturday at Daytona International Speedway. These tests were run in preparation for the first race of the ARCA season to be run at the same location.

Also at the speedway was another French Canadian, Mario Gosselin, who completed the saturday afternoon session in 12th place

Shiplett named as Carpentier crew chief

Gillet Evernham Motorsport announced this week that Mike Shiplett will act as crew chief for Patrick Carpentier's 2008 Sprint Cup campaign. Shiplett spent the 2007 season as crew chief for Kasey Kahne in the Busch series, where they obtained 2 victories together. Shiplett also spent the last 2 races of the 2007 campaign as crew chief on the #10 Valvoline Dodge in the Nextel Cup series.

Ranger testing at Daytona

Andrew Ranger will make his first laps at Daytona International Speedway this week-end as he will drive the DGM Racing entry for the ARCA tests. Ranger will have on his side another French Canadian as Mario Gosselin will be on site to coach him.

If all goes well, Ranger might try to qualify for the ARCA / Remax 200 on the same track on February 9th 2008.

Tagliani looking for a ride

Despite the hard season Alex Tagliani just lived in the Champcar World Series, he is now actively looking for a ride for next year.

In an interview given to Geneviève Trudeau Senécal, Tagliani stated he's in some serious talks for a seat which could be a major turnover in his career.

Alex said in the interview he is still confident in his talent after the 2007 campaign debut with Justin Wilson as a teammate (which later split when Rocketsports and RuSport unjoined their forces) and that he'd like to keep the same car number, crew and livery for a couple of years, implying that stability is the key to success in such a competitive series.

He also said sponsorship deals in Champcar are somewhat problematic now as the latest move to the Panoz chassis reduced dramatically the costs to run as season, so the teams are asking for a lot less money to become a major sponsor on a car (around 500 000$ instead of a few millions like in the past) but sponsors given such low figures think the series is loosing in value.

If nothing materializes for him in Champcar, Alex still has an ace up his sleeve as he has almost a done deal to run 5 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series races in 2008 (the 3 Champcar races plus Trois-Rivieres and Montreal)