Thru Noggles Goggles .::. October 31st

Thru Noggles Goggles — 31 October 2012

The memorial service for Pam Jenkins was a fitting tribute to the wife of long-time TV broadcaster Bob Jenkins. A crowd of at least 200+ people attended her visitation service at Carmel, IN last night. RaceFanNetwork’s Charlie Brown and I traveled together to the northern Indianapolis suburb on a cold, rainy, and windy night for her service.

Regardless of the turmoil going on in the racing world, the racing fraternity banded together to pay their last respects to the wife of one of their own. Seen in the crowd were Jeff Belskus, Donald Davidson, Josie George, John Fugate, Bill Donnella and USAC Chaplain Tim Spillman. Former drivers Eldon Rasmussen and Scott Goodyear (now a TV announcer) attended as did fellow broadcasters Jon Beekhuis, Vince Welch, and Paul Page.

With Bob’s love for music, prior to Pam’s service, the house sound system played a series of their favorites including “I Want to be Bobby’s Girl” (Marcie Blane/1962), “Chapel of Love” (Dixie Cups/1964), and “I Have a Dream”, also known as “I Believe in Angels” (Abba/1980’s). A guitarist friend played the emotional Garth Brooks song “Lookin’ Back”. IndyCar Series Chaplain Bob Hills gave opening remarks and led in prayer. Several friends and family then took turns sharing their special memories of the eastern Indiana girl who so affected their lives. Bob did not speak but he made himself available to those who came for Pam.

Pamela J. Jenkins was only 65 years young.

Please remember Bob in the coming days as he copes with her absence.

***************************************************************************************************

The “National Speed Sport News” reports that the POWRi Midget Series has gone global:

Brad Kuhn, Tyler Thomas and Rich Camfield battle during a Lucas Oil POWRi National Midget Series event at Jacksonville (Ill.) Speedway earlier this year. (Mark Funderburk Photo)

The POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series has entered into a multi-year agreement to sanction the POWRi Lucas Oil Australian Speedcar Super Series and the POWRi Lucas Oil New Zealand Midget Super Series. The three series will operate under the same technical regulations and procedures. It establishes a platform for a Midget World Championship, which POWRi expects to organize for the 2013-14 season.

“Our goal is to grow midget racing internationally and increase its prestige, purses and participation across the board,” POWRi co-founder Kenny Brown said. “With our opposite seasons, we can race year round. We hope to foster increased international competition, with American drivers going to New Zealand and Australia and New Zealand and Australian drivers coming to America. We have already seen some of that the past two years with Michael Pickens and Nathan Smee racing in POWRi and other premier events. “We are working on a plan for a series of races in Australia, New Zealand and the United States that would form a world championship series with the winner becoming world champion.”

Kiwi Pickens, a five-time New Zealand champion, won four straight POWRi National Midget features over the past two years and also has wins in 2005 and 2007. Australian Nathan Smee finished seventh at Springfield, Mo., in one of his two events this season. New Zealand’s Leyton Kendall drove in four POWRi National events in 2011 with a top finish of 14th in the feature at Spoon River Speedway in Canton, Ill.

Reigning POWRi National Midget champion Andrew Felker of Carl Junction, Mo.,drove in the opening two events of the POWRi Australian championship. He was a 17th/DNF in the feature at Supercheap Auto Archerfield Speedway in Brisbane on Oct. 20 and 15th/DNF at Charlton Raceway in Toowoomba on Oct. 27. Alex Bright of Collegeville, Pa., won at Charlton and was 18th at Archerfield Speedway. He was the only other American in the field.

*******************************************************************************************************************************

Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.<br />
KV Racing Technology said Tuesday it had signed 24-year-old Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro and will have a two-car operation with Tony Kanaan.

[KV Racing Technology said Tuesday it had signed 24-year-old Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro and will have a two-car operation with Tony Kanaan. / Star file photo]

Simona de Silvestro may get a chance to find out what she can accomplish in a race car with better equipment. KV Racing Technology said Tuesday it had signed the 24-year-old Swiss driver and will have a two-car operation with Tony Kanaan It will be the first time de Silvestro will have a teammate in IndyCar, where she has spent the last three seasons driving for single-car team HVM Racing. “I think it’s going to be great having Tony as a teammate,” she said. “It’s never easy to make a change like this, but I’m confident that it’s the right move for me going forward.” She will drive the No. 78 next season with sponsorship from the Nuclear Clean Air Energy campaign, and got her first laps in the car Monday during a test at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama.

Her move to KV Racing gives de Silvestro a Chevrolet engine next season after she labored through 2012 with an underpowered Lotus driving for Keith Wiggins at HVM. The engine situation handcuffed the team all season, and de Silvestro only completed 45 percent of the laps. “I do want to thank Keith and HVM Racing for helping me gain a ton of experience these last three years,” she said. “Even though we struggled last year with our engine, I learned a lot. Now it’s time to move on and look forward to next season.”

KV Racing also announced that Imran Safiulla had joined as a team principal. Safiulla has supported de Silvestro’s racing since 2006, and joins an ownership group that includes Kevin Kalkhoven and former champion Jimmy Vasser. “We are delighted to announce Simona to KV,” said Vasser. “She has shown a lot of determination and to now be able to work with someone as experienced as Kanaan will be a huge asset for her.” KV expects to test with de Silvestro at Texas and Sebring before the end of the year. The team is trying to rebound from a disappointing 2012 in which it failed to live up to expectations after signing former Formula One star Rubens Barrichello during the offseason.

Kanaan had three podium finishes all season, although one was a third-place finish in the Indianapolis 500, and Barrichello had a season-high finish of fourth at Sonoma. Neither Barrichello or E.J. Viso are returning to the team next season, and there had been speculation that KV Racing would be a one-car organization in 2013.

***********************************************************************************************************************************

Curt Cavin, racing scribe for the Indianapolis Star, wraps up today’s report:

Tony George offered to buy the IndyCar Series from Hulman & Co. for $5 million, with proof his group, ICS Acquisition, had another $25 million in reserve to operate the Indianapolis-based company, a copy of the five-page proposal acquired by the Associated Press said. George was only listed as a member of the board of a group that would assume management of IndyCar. The owners of ICS Acquisition were not listed in the Oct. 5 proposal. Hulman & Co. did not consider the offer, company CEO Jeff Belskus told The Star. The offer expired Oct 15.

George wanted to make Zak Brown, the founder and CEO of Zionsville-based Just Marketing International, the CEO and commissioner of the series with Mike O’Driscoll, the chairman of Jaguar Heritage and a non-executive director of the Williams F1 team, the president and chief operating officer. O’Driscoll would handle day-to-day operations of the series. Brown and O’Driscoll, along with Terry Angstadt, the former president of IndyCar’s commercial division, Claire Roberts, the CEO of ArbiterSports, an NCAA-owned sports technology group, and George would comprise the management team.

There was no apparent position for Randy Bernard, who was asked to resign Sunday evening by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway board of directors. The deal hinged on a sanctioning agreement with the Indianapolis 500. George started the Indy Racing League in 1996. He resigned from his IndyCar CEO position in 2009 following his ousting as IMS president and CEO by a board then comprised of his three sisters and their mother, Mari Hulman George.