In what many deemed a slow off-season in regards to driver announcements and sponsorship deals, the tires began to spin furiously on Thursday when Champ Car announced multiple deals in preparation for their spring training event at Laguna Seca. source: paddocktalk.com - Brad Gerhart While the series is busy lining up partners for their version of March Madness, a number of veteran drivers are looking for a ticket to the Big Dance. Currently on the outside looking in, are two former series runner-ups - Oriol Servia and Bruno Junqueira. Each have tested for different teams thus far in '07 - Servia with PKV and Junqueira with Coyne. But since PKV named their second driver yesterday, former GP2 driver Tristan Gommendy, Servia's going to be looking for a ride with his fourth team in three seasons unless PKV goes to three cars for selected race events. It has been said that Coyne Racing has sufficient sponsorship for the upcoming season, and it has been said that Junqueira may race for the team in 2007. However, in an interesting turn of fate, Andrew Ranger will be behind the wheel during today's test session, leaving Bruno with a Saturday drive. Ranger could throw a wrench in the works for Junqueira since he brings four-races worth of sponsorship from Wal-Mart and Proctor & Gamble to challenge in the Canadian rounds and Vegas. The resulting effect could be to create a shoot-out for the first Coyne seat. Alan Labrosse, Ranger's agent stated he's trying to secure a deal for the first three races and then use the six week layoff ahead of the fourth race to put together a sponsorship package for the remainder of the season. While open seats are a tough find in Champ Car this season, a young talented Canadian driver such as Ranger hopefully will be able to secure a seat for the entire season, if not with Coyne then elsewhere.
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