Mutoh gets an IndyCar (in September)

Posted by Iannucci | 7/21/2007 | 3 comments »
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The big Panther Racing news was not that Kosuke Matsuura was given a pink slip (wrong again SpeedTV), but was as TrackSide Online had predicted in that IPS driver Hideki Mutoh will drive a third Panther Racing car.

However, since Mutoh is currently attempting to chase down Alex Lloyd for first place in the IPS that IndyCar ride (#60, in case you were wondering) will not happen until the season finale at Chicagoland. No matter - in his debut season in the IPS Mutoh has been nothing short of incredible.

Speaking of Lloyd, since he has the IPS pretty much locked up he will likely get a free ride offered by Marty Roth to race in Chicago as well. I'm not sure Lloyd will be looking to see if he can use that experience to try to work his way to something a little faster than Roth's typical entry but work is work.

Regardless, it's nice to FINALLY see some Indy Pro drivers getting the opportunity to move up to the IndyCar series. So far the only bona fide IPS graduates to get any serious looks have been Ed Carpenter and Jeff Simmons, and it would seem owners in the ICS are judging the other Indy Pro drivers by the lack of success those two drivers have had.

3 comments

  1. Anonymous // July 22, 2007 6:06 AM  

    good for Mutoh. good for me. I'll be at Chicagoland for that one.

  2. Anonymous // July 22, 2007 3:02 PM  

    By the way, Marco did a year in the IPS....

  3. Iannucci // July 22, 2007 3:11 PM  

    Marco ran 6 races, so technically not exactly not a year. He won half of those, but I don't think anyone seriously considers him as an IPS "veteran" and I don't think anyone thinks he honed his skills in that league.