By Andrew Cutler
January 5 2008

There is no one "big" story out there right now in the world of IRL racing, but there are alot of odds 'n ends that are worthy of quick note. So here they are: sponsorship deals - or not, retirements, drivers up for awards & racing family patriarchs speaking out.

1) -  No news is (probably) not good news

During the Oct 2 press conference when the IndyCar TEAM payment structure was laid out for everyone, Terry Angstadt (the IRL's marketing director) announced that the league would be making a major new series sponsorship "category" announcement on January 1st. As of yet - the wee hours of Jan. 5th - nothing has been heard from the IRL (A Google search turned up nothing either). One can only assume  that problems with the deal have arisen. I'll keep you updated if I hear anything further.

2) - A change at Honda Performance Developement

Robert Clarke, the man who has run Honda's CART/IRL engine program since it's inception in 1993, is stepping aside. He will be "promoted" to an advisery role for the next few moths while his successor, Erik Berkman, gets used to his new role, then he will retire. Robert guided Honda's program from being just an engine rebuild shop to it's current status as a fully self-suficient motorsports R&D facility. 

Praise for the job that Clarke has done at HPD is well deserved. As IRL president of competition remarked; "The performance and reliability of the Honda engine is unparalleled, and that's much to Robert's credit. The fact that we've run the last two Indy 500s without an engine failure, and it's the only two Indy 500s ever without an engine failure, speaks much to this."

3) - Dixon up for New Zealand sports award.

Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon has been nominated for the 2007 Wespac Halberg Awards, which recognizes outstanding achievements by athletes from New Zealand. Dixon finished second in the 2007 IRL season championship standings, winning four races along the way. The winners will be announced on February 19th.

4) Mario Andretti wants grandson Marco to actively pursue F1 dreams

Andretti family patriach - and the last American to win the F1 driver's title - Mario Andretti has recently come out publicly to state that its time for his grandson, Marco, to get serious about pursuing a future in F1. While the soon to be 21 year-old has stated a desire to try his hand at F1 at some point, he is contracted to run for his father's IRL team during the 2008 season. “He needs to be in F1,” Andretti told Autoweek magazine. “He has the talent. Marco needs to step up and let people know what are his desires. I know that’s where he wants to be, and I know he can do it.”

Marco has had two tests with the Honda F1 team, but has not recieved any further testing offers to this point. Mario did not make it clear wether or not he thought that Marco should look into driving in the GP2 series first as an option.