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Old 06-09-2006
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Allmendinger is fired, da Matta hired!

Wow! Carl Russo has let go AJ and replaced him with Cristiana da Matta effective immediately. Here is the article and link: articlehttp://www.autonet.ca/Motorsports/St...623118-ap.html

Da Matta replaces Allmendinger at RuSport

By Associated Press
LOVELAND, Colo. (AP) - The RuSport team has fired driver A.J. Allmendinger and replaced him for the remainder of the 2006 Champ Car World Series season with former champion Cristiano da Matta.

"A.J. has been with us since we created RuSport late in 2002," team owner Carl Russo said Friday. "During that time, we won the 2003 Formula Atlantic Championship and the 2004 Champ Car rookie of the year together.

"However, as RuSport and A.J. have progressed, we believe a different environment will help A.J. to grow even faster, and so we have made this very difficult decision."

Da Matta, who won the Champ Car title in 2002 before leaving the series for Formula One, returned to the American open-wheel series last year and was driving for the underfinanced Dale Coyne Racing team this season. He sought and got his immediate release from Coyne and will be in the No. 10 RuSport entry for the June 18 race at Portland, Ore., where he won last year while racing for the PKV Racing team.

The 32-year-old Brazilian has 12 Champ Car victories, while Allmendinger, a 24-year-old American in his third season in the series, was considered a rising star even though he's still looking for his first win.

At RuSport, Da Matta will team with Englishman Justin Wilson, who is second to Sebastien Bourdais of France in the season points race. Bourdais, who drives for Newman/Haas Racing, has won all four races this season and leads Wilson by 31 points.

"To say this is a great opportunity would be an understatement," da Matta said. "This is my sixth season in Champ Car. Only in two of the previous five seasons have I felt like I could fight for a race victory every time I went to the track. Now, I can say I have that opportunity again with RuSport."

Last edited by sydude; 06-09-2006 at 05:51 PM.
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Old 06-09-2006
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Re: Allmendinger is fired, da Matta hired!

Tough to believe. I really hope AJ lands on his feet and gets a competitive ride in ChampCar.
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Old 06-09-2006
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Re: Allmendinger is fired, da Matta hired!

I wonder if this means he will move to NASCAR with the Red Bull Toyota team.
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Old 06-09-2006
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Re: Allmendinger is fired, da Matta hired!

No word in any of these reports from A.J. himself. I heard he was in Toronto this week visiting with his girl. But that's all I know ATM.

The other thing I wondered right away wasn't about NASCAR, but about either Toro Rosso or Red Bull in F1... he is after all a Red Bull driver. Is this possible? I don't honestly know. I asked him in an interview for Inside SimCar if he thought about F1 and he said he wanted to stay in ChampCar for now (that was back in the winter). The other thing of course is he could jump back into sports cars for the rest of the season... maybe back to GrandAM?

Ideas?

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Old 06-09-2006
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Re: Allmendinger is fired, da Matta hired!

Red Bull has more drivers in Europe than it has seats for as it is, so I wouldn't hold my breath to see AJ in a STR or RB F1 car.
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Old 06-09-2006
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Re: Allmendinger is fired, da Matta hired!

What a surprise! Well, anything but nascar.. It would be a waste of talent, let alone losing me as a fan - . With his ability though, I doubt he'd end up without a ride, and I think he'll be in a champ car - if not this year, definetly next.
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Old 06-10-2006
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Re: Allmendinger is fired, da Matta hired!

WHAT !!!!! WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED ????? Whose corn flakes did he piss on ? It's not like he was some slow back marker. He was a front runner. Sorry to hear that about AJ. I hope he lands in a competitive champ car ride.
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Old 06-10-2006
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Re: Allmendinger is fired, da Matta hired!

Allmendinger to drive for another team UPDATE #2 Now hearing that AJ Allmendinger might move over to Forsythe Racing. Mario Dominguez, who has fallen out of favor a bit after taking out Paul Tracy twice this year already, may be offered the vacant Dale Coyne seat.
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Old 06-11-2006
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Re: Allmendinger is fired, da Matta hired!

There's a combination made in hell. AJ and PT have been the best of enemies thus far this season, notwithstanding that PT was one of AJ's original mentors.
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Old 06-11-2006
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Re: Allmendinger is fired, da Matta hired!

Dr. Mike,

I have no official info on the subject but I was thinking the same thing.

No way PT and Team will put up with MD taking Tracy out... so maybe AJ and his teacher will ride together.
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Old 06-11-2006
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Re: Allmendinger is fired, da Matta hired!

My information is off the website "autoracing1.com".
It makes sense to me. I can't believe that Mario D is as quick as AJ, but perhaps. He certainly is not having the best year with the "A" driver PT. Just hope AJ gets the most competitive ride alhough any ride would probably be acceptable.
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Old 06-11-2006
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Re: Allmendinger is fired, da Matta hired!

AJ will be team mates with PT, Mario is going to Dale Coyne. So Robin Miller says.
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Old 06-11-2006
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Re: Allmendinger is fired, da Matta hired!

Reading RuSport's announcement carefully, it seems to me that they wated to bring in someone who could help them develop the car to close the gap to Newman-Haas. Given that da Matta won a championship with Newman-Haas, albiet a few years back, perhaps RuSport felt there was some competitive skinny to be gained by the switch.

I also recall Divy commenting one time that AJ won the Skip Barber National without making a single setup change to the car the entire year. Makes you wonder if AJ fits the Ronnie Peterson mold. Peterson was an unbelievably talented '70s F1 driver who supposedly adjusted to car set-up problems so unconciously that he really wasn't much help to a team that was trying to develop a chassis.

This being said, I hope you guys are right about AJ landing a ride with Forsyth. Despite his dismisal at RuSport, he's still unquestionably a major talent, and it would be a shame to see him relegated to an uncompetitive team, or worse yet (shudder) NASCAR.
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Old 06-12-2006
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Re: Allmendinger is fired, da Matta hired!

Here's more from Autosport-Atlas today:

Forsythe and Dominguez split

By David Malsher Monday, June 12th 2006, 09:14 GMT


Mario Dominguez and Forsythe Championship Racing have parted company with immediate effect.

The news follows hot on the heels of RuSPORT and AJ Allmendinger splitting up, and it is now thought to be only a matter of time before the American is confirmed as Dominguez's replacement at Forsythe.

In the official team press release, Dominguez stated: "My management and I have decided that it is in the best interest of my career to part ways with Forsythe Championship Racing.

"I was in a position where playing number two in the team was not what I wanted to do this early in the championship, so I believe what's best for my career is to go somewhere where I can be a leader.

"I will pursue other opportunities in another team in Champ Car, Formula One, NASCAR or the IRL. And I will always be grateful to Mr Forsythe for having given me the chance to drive for his team."

Neil Micklewright, VP of Team Operations at Forsythe stated: "Even though we are always a strong contender at every event that we go to, we know that we still have a lot of work to do to be able to beat the other leading contenders.

"We've been struggling with the development of our cars and our setups for some time because of very different driver setup references. We believe that this restructuring of the team will be beneficial for us and will help put us back in the hunt for the Championship."

Dominguez finished ninth in the championship last year, and currently lies joint fourth in the title race, ironically tied with Allmendinger.

This is despite being penalised the seven points he scored at Milwaukee, following Champ Car Race Control's examination of an incident in which a mistake by Dominguez sent both Bruno Junqueira (Newman/Haas) and Forsythe teammate Paul Tracy into the wall.

That was the second race in the first four rounds in which Dominguez had wiped out Tracy (and others), while at Houston, after scoring his first pole position of his Champ Car career, Mario missed his braking point while leading the race, handing victory to Sebastien Bourdais of Newman/Haas.

It is thought that Micklewright and team owner Jerry Forsythe had lost patience with him.

Dominguez would be an obvious candidate for Dale Coyne Racing, who are without a number one driver, following Cristiano da Matta taking over Allmendinger's seat at RuSPORT. But Ronnie Bremer is thought to be in the frame too, following his excellent performances for the squad last season.
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Old 06-12-2006
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Re: Allmendinger is fired, da Matta hired!

cool, now PT might be able to actually finish some races.....

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Old 06-12-2006
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Re: Allmendinger is fired, da Matta hired!

Allmendinger to drive for another team UPDATE #3 We can now report that AJ Allmendinger is signed to drive for Forsythe Racing, replacing Mario Dominguez. Expect an announcement in a day or so. As we understand it, Dominguez has been offered the vacant Coyne seat but is balking at it.
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