Manning out, Meira in

Posted by Iannucci | 9/25/2008 | 8 comments »
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At times like this your humble wishes he had one of those BREAKING NEWS graphics to spew all over the front page fo this site.

Vitor Meira and A.J. Foyt have had a mutual admiration for their competitiveness and driving styles. Now they'll be working together to produce victories in the IndyCar Series.

Meira has signed to drive the No. 14 ABC Supply Co. Honda-powered Dallara for A.J. Foyt Racing in 2009 with an option for 2010. He'll get a jump-start on the season by competing in the non-points Nikon Indy 300 on the streets of Surfer's Paradise, Australia, on Oct. 26.

(MORE from IndyCar.com)
Good for Vitor to find work within the series, although the prospects of IndyCar employement for Danger Mouse sound a touch on the bleak side.

"There's no hard feelings," said Manning, of North Yorkshire, England. "We had a good couple of years of improvements. Getting me on board was part of making his team better and I think we did that. I wish him well. We had a good relationship and I expect that to continue no matter what I end up doing."
This is purely conjecture, but you gotta think what Manning ends up doing isn’t relating to racing in the IndyCar series where at times over the last two years he has admitted to “getting knackered”. The guy can drive, sure, but you can’t substitute training in a gym with 12-ounce curls at the pub.

Then again, maybe Manning would rather just hang out on Food Network.

UPDATE: I had too many complaints about the auto-start video so I'm reducing it to a link. Click here to see Manning's culinary festival.

8 comments

  1. pressdog // September 25, 2008 8:41 AM  

    WTF? If Darren leaves, the humor factor for the league DIVES. Sure, chuck the funny guy. Admits to being Knackered and he's gone. Vitor is in for a treat running the Foyt Pig.

  2. Anonymous // September 25, 2008 9:17 AM  

    I already spoke my piece on my blog, but jeez, Vitor... giving up on winning already?

  3. Anonymous // September 25, 2008 10:00 AM  

    I don't have a great personal affinity for Vitor (never met him), but I have pulled for him as a real hotshoe underdog who needs teamwork to put him up one step on the podiums. So I would've liked to see him go to a two-car team which shares engineering data and driver's notes!
    Even RLR would've been better. Bobby certainly knows Vitor, but likely doesn't see Vitor as a winner and doesn't have sponsorship for another car.
    I suppose A.J. still has ABC sponsorship for a car, so he's substituting one very fast near-winner for another non-winner. I would've liked to see Vitor in a team that's won recently -and a multi-car operation. Hey- glad he has a seat!

  4. Anonymous // September 25, 2008 10:01 AM  

    yaumb,

    I find your lack of faith in Mr. Foyt disturbing.

    sincerely,

    Darth Vader.

    =)

  5. Pat W // September 25, 2008 12:41 PM  

    Manning to sportscars then?
    I can't imagine flying to Europe to do some of the LMS races helped his IRL career.

  6. Anonymous // September 25, 2008 3:32 PM  

    Okay so Franchitti > Wheldon > Meira > Manning. The question is is Manning good enough to unseat someone else?

  7. Jennifer Coomer // September 25, 2008 5:30 PM  

    i'm just unsure of how to feel about this.

  8. Carrie // September 25, 2008 6:45 PM  

    *whines*

    Man, I was only just getting over that whole season and a half without Darren after Ganassi threw him under the bus despite the whole entire team being tanked at that point in time.

    I can trace all my favorite racing drivers troubles back to Chip Ganassi. He's like Satan or something.