Q: A.J. Foyt Racing — I love this team! They suck, but I love them! OK, Larry Foyt has to hire Charlie Kimball because he has sponsorship. Same deal as Marco Andretti. But Charlie won’t win a race. Seabass is infringing! Would like to see him full time, for sure in 2021! Having three drivers for the No. 14 will be weird. Will that car out-point Charlie?

I love the little guy! Why are there fewer Chevy teams than Honda teams? Will we ever see another Ford/Cosworth XB?

Dan, Lima, Ohio

RM: I think Seb could be the best thing to happen to Foyt’s team in a long time and I hope they find him a car for Indy as well. A lot of guys won’t win a race so don’t pick on Charlie. If Chevy only had one team it would be fine by them as long as it was Penske. Hopefully we’ll see another Ford IndyCar engine.

Robin reckons Bourdais “could be the best thing to happen to Foyt’s team in a long time.” Will that be enough? Image by Phillip Abbott/LAT

Q: Having just read the RACER article on Chilton running the No. 59 on road and street courses, any idea who is going to be in that car on the ovals? What about the No. 23? Gotta figure RC Enerson is a good pick for that car, though there are other drivers who I’m sure we’d all love to see drive there. Also, any chance Daly gets the No. 59 for the ovals he won’t get to do at ECR? I gotta figure no, since jumping between teams after Ed gave him a real good chance would not be the smartest move, but I’d love to see Conor run the full season.

Max Camposano, Bethlehem, PA

RM: Well we can now assume that Felipe Nasr and Sergio Sette Camara will be in the No. 31 car for many of the races but Daly isn’t going to stray away from ECR because that’s his future.

Q: Do you feel that after this upcoming season, with the new aeroscreens and recent improvements to cockpit/chassis safety, more European drivers will consider IndyCar as a career option? We know from the past, and a few recent examples such as Conway and Chilton, the danger of ovals are a concern for some drivers. Side note: I love Edd Straw’s work and I’m very excited to see he is contributing to RACER. And how about some more tough guy videos?

An appreciative fan from Miami/Detroit

RM: I think the lack of F1 rides and insane expense make IndyCar very appealing to Euro drivers but the safety improvements likely gave even more guys pause for thought. Max is going to drive Indy, he just doesn’t like the banked ovals. Not sure how much Edd is going to do but I worked with him at Autosport and he’s very good. I’ve got a couple tough guy videos on the back burner.

Q: I know the dual race weekends are not popular with the owners, but St. Pete has the great weather and the spring break attendance to support both a Saturday and Sunday schedule. Being it’s the season opener after a long winter break I think everyone would welcome an action-filled weekend of IndyCar racing. I realize there are other Road to Indy series races being run that weekend, but would a two-hour race on Saturday really disrupt the schedule? I would love to see more than 17 races per year and I think most IndyCar fans would too. The fans are already there on Saturday and are hungry for their favorite series to start racing.

BTW I understand Mr. Penske reads the mailbag. Please consider installing handrails in the Vista sections at IMS.

Ray Little

RM: Can’t see it, Ray. I’m amazed Detroit remains a doubleheader because it’s really a grind for the teams (especially coming off May) but because it’s got IMSA it seems to draw pretty good both days. And both races are on NBC so that makes it attractive as well. I just sent Greg Penske your request about handrails.

Q: Enjoyed your feature on Willy T. Ribbs and the Netflix movie. In the article you mentioned that Bernie Ecclestone tried to get him an F1 ride, but the team wanted an Italian driver. Who was the driver that eventually got that particular car?

On another note, I’m glad Willie did not the racism and hate prevent him from chasing his dream. I fell in love with auto racing back in 1973 when I was a second grader and my buddy and his family took me to qualifications at IMS. I was instantly hooked. May became my favorite time of the year. Being a black kid interested in a predominantly white sport caused me to experience questions of why, ridicule and even became the victim of racist acts. However, I never let that discourage me from being a diehard fan. To this day during the month of May, I spend as much time at the track as I possibly can.

Doug from Indianapolis

RM: Italy’s Stefano Modena got that ride and made 70 starts and scored two podiums in his five years of F1. Willy was very strong mentally and that obviously helped him all the way through his career. Glad to hear you’re a die-hard IndyCar fan, please stop me and say hello this May.

Q: Fascinating story on Willy T. I was living in England at the time and had just finished a season running Danny Sullivan in F3 for Modus Cars. I had followed Willy’s success in Formula Ford and he had certainly dominated FF — much to my amusement, as I was an American. At any rate, Willy either visited us or telephoned me and asked about a drive is F3. Unfortunately, I had no choice but to give him a stock answer, the cost would be £X thousand. We had no sponsors ourselves, so black or white, Yank or Anglo, the cost was the same.

I followed his time in Formula Atlantic and marveled that the various wealthy folks who sponsored him at Long Beach never gave him a proper drive. God, what a waste! Coming from Minnesota, I really had no racial feelings and felt that any company could parlay their support and get a multi-fold return on their investment. Of course, maybe Jim Truman didn’t need black folks in Red Roof Inns. I couldn’t then, nor now, get a handle on the depth of racism that exists in this country.

John Peterson, Plymouth, MN

RM: Very cool story about Sully — I sent it to him. Trueman was a big fan of Willy and, as he said in the documentary, really rescued him from the depths of depression. I recall doing a phone interview with Willy T. and he was living at a Red Roof Inns (free) while trying to figure out his next move. CART and IMS both dropped the ball and should have tried to get Willy the best of everything — especially when Bill Cosby got involved — but nobody was looking at the big picture.