Woods Racing certainly aren't giving in and pulling out of the fight to stay in the top 8 and to stay afloat next year. To this extent the team revealed yet another change of driver.
"Chris Goodley will be returning for the last 2 Grands Prix of the season," announced Ollie Woods today. "For Suzuka he'll take the place of Phil Perkins (who is still close to signing for 2005) after a pair of DNFs, and we'll see what happens for Interlagos. It's great to see Chris back - we've had way too many problems this season with drivers coming and going and not finishing, so hopefully in the last two we'll keep at it."
But can they actually stay in the top 8 teams? That's their goal, but with others (namely JTM and Simsoa) getting scarily near to them with two to go, the team need some more points, and some more luck. We asked Woods what he thought:
"Well, as far as I see it, it's going to be touch and go, but I'm confident with Chris on board and with an influx of new people above us we have a chance of either scoring or holding the others off. But it's going to be hard." And what about 2005? "Well unless someone decides to be cruel and demote us, we're looking to stay with Toyota and Michelin next year. We have a driver lined up we hope, and others interested, but we're still too far down the grid to be getting any decent reputation, so it could be interesting."
Woods Racing Press
F1VWC News Comment - Teams lower down the grid are feeling the pressure of the worldwide economy making sponsorship harder to come by. But new teams are entering the fold of the F1VWC, with some aiming for the main league and maybe the F2VWC (if such a thing starts in 2005). It could depend on teams commitment in 2004 as to whether or not they could be replaced.
"This is pure speculation, and I have no further comment on the matter" said F1VWC Chief Admin Andy Graydon as he prepared his team for Japanese GP Qualifying.
