THEQuagraine

Yesterday I covered the silly season as far as cars are concerned. Today I figured I would cover the 3 US tyre brands. The big boys are playing musical chairs it seems.

ProLine

I have seen this before. You know how PL won 4 or 5 WC in a row? Yes they have a great product, but they also sponsor anyone they can, with a chance of making the main in a worlds year. It happens every time. Then after the worlds, they kick the majority of them off. Or if not kick them off, significantly reduce their deals, and they end up leaving. I remember in 2008 after the Worlds they reduced the team to something like 5 drivers worldwide, from 17 million. And incredibly I was one of those 5, for which I will be forever thankful. Unfortunately we parted ways later, as I was developing THECar, and I was a privateer for a couple of years, opting to run whatever I wanted.

Anyway, I have heard that Tebo and Phend may be out, both being linked to AKA. But the part of them being out of PL was the more probable part of what I heard. Haven’t really heard anything about European drivers and PL. Even if Tebo and Phend did leave, they still have a ton of great drivers, like Boots, Drake, King, Cragg, Aigoin, Berton and Tessmann. I would not be surprised to see more drivers out though.

AKA

“David Ronnefalk just saved AKA from bankruptcy” – Heard at the Las Vegas Worlds.

I don’t think it’s quite that bad, but I’m sure AKA’s market share has been smaller now than in past years. In Europe there have been very little AKA compared to before in my opinion, and not seen as many AKA’s in America either, so winning the Worlds must have been an AMAZING feeling for everyone at AKA. David Ronnefalk has been with AKA pretty much since the beginning, so it was a fitting end. Yes I said end, and I don’t know any of the reasons behind this, but I do believe David is leaving AKA! Will be interesting to find out the reasons for that move! I also heard that Cavalieri is looking to leave, and if that is true, then maybe my eyes were not deceiving me, and the market share really has been down. Maybe some cuts had to be made. Then again, with the rumours of Tebo and Phend going to AKA, it just makes this whole scenario not make any sense. Haven’t heard anything about Lutz, staying put I believe.

JConcepts

JC have Maifield, Rivkin, Ogden, Savoya, they are good right? Well about to get a whole lot better. I have heard that David Ronnefalk to JC is a done deal, and Ryan Cavalieri is possible. What in the world is going on? Now if JC could just narrow down their compounds to, say 4-5 from the 78 they have, I think they could increase their market share significantly with that presence. I haven’t heard of anyone leaving JC, only joining, so I guess they must have had some good years recently. I think it was the “bro-code” tyre that turned that ship around.

The least likely, but still possible rumours I have heard are that McBride may be out from PL also, and possibly heading to JC, and that Robert Battle might actually split from Modelix, and run different tyres and maybe even engine. I don’t see that happening and he basically laughed, most likely thinking I am an idiot when I asked him. But just throwing that out there.

Sorry for not making it funny, I’m tired. That’s my excuse. Just the facts today!