I had the opportunity to attend the last A1GP race of the 2007/2008 season at Brands Hatch, where I continued my fact finding mission on the series. I have said before, we have a great deal of interest in the series, and this second event that I attended was very informative.

A1GP has a new Ferrari car coming into the series for the 2008/2009 season, which is powered by a 430 production based Ferrari engine. I think this will elevate the series to a different level and will attract more drivers, franchise owners, and sponsors to the series going forward. Along with Ferrari, a possible major tire manufacturer and oil company might also join A1GP, so three great marquee corporations will be entering into the series as well.

The series itself is very well organized in many respects when you look at all of the assets that it has. One can't help to lament as to how Champ Car in the last few year was never able to get to that level. This may appear to be a somewhat odd statement, but when you look at their television production, hospitality management for their VIP guests, the format of the racing and, needless to say, the cost, they have done a lot of things right in a very short space of three years since their inception.

A1GP is broken up into two entities. First and foremost is the franchise owner, who in most cases is a businessman, who probably knows very little about racing and knows a lot more about money and business. Secondly is the team service provider, which is someone like me who has a race team, equipment and expertise. A1GP tries to marry those entities together and provide 12 events, transportation, and racing equipment for the teams, ultimately providing a level playing field, which I think they do a very good job at doing.

The off-season for A1GP is a very short one. They just finished their last race and around the July/ August time frame, they will be assembling these Ferrari A1GP cars at Silverstone in the UK, and then they will have an initial test session before their official racing season starts in September.

Walker Racing's objective going forward is to try to break into the rather cliquey club of mostly Brits and service the team franchises and to become a service provider to one or two team franchises.

Hopefully, we can break into the A1GP club and be competing before the end of the year, which will be fun to do something different. The racing itself is very competitive and I think with the advent of the Ferrari, it will be ever more so. I would expect to see more marquee drivers take a serious look at A1GP. We will keep you posted. You never know, we may be lucky and get a program for the new season.