Mid-Ohio: Friday Notebook 1

It's a nice day for racing here at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the middle of Ohio, just outside the town of Lexington. Pulling in this morning the place was packed for a Friday. The paddock is wall-to-wall transporters and tents to support the IndyCar, Indy Lights, ALMS, IMSA GT3 and SCCA Speed World Challenge teams. And the pits are even worse. The ALMS and IndyCar teams are tripping over one another with equipment packed on top and beside one another. The extra IndyCars this year is not helping matters……….We spoke to Tyler Tadevic, owner of the struggling PCM team. He told us he hopes they will only miss one more race this year, Kentucky, and possibly Australia where they are the first alternate team to go. "We are hoping the IRL lets us test at before the Chicago race because we really need the track time on the ovals. I am more positive now than at any time this year. I am just blown away by Tony George, Brian Barnhart and Terry Angstadt who have been very good to us and helped us through this difficult period. I have raced in ALMS, Champ Car, Atlantics and now the IRL and I can tell you that the IRL is the best series I have ever worked in. As for next year we will definitely be back with one car and maybe even a 2nd car if sponsorship materializes. We will have some good announcements in the early off-season……..We spotted ALMS driver Mika Salo wearing a cool suit and when asked why, he told us that when the air conditioning in his Risi Ferrari fails, it gets to 165 degrees in the cockpit and it has happened at least twice already this year……..Did you know that the muffler now on the Honda IndyCar engine was designed by Honda Performance Development. It at least makes the hideous sounding engine now tolerable. They also designed one for their ALMS cars………Spotted former Atlantics and CART team owner Steve Horne in the pits catching up with a lot of old friends…….Business is up at The Mid-Ohio Racing School where enrollments to date have already exceeded all of 2007 says school honcho Steve Bidlack……Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing crew member Tim Coffeen was treated for minor injuries Friday after being struck by the wing of team driver Justin Wilson's car on the very tight Mid-Ohio pit road. Mark C. reporting from Mid-Ohio.