Where in the world is Conor Daly?

Daly will balance a full season of GP3 (above) with
selected events in the Firestone Indy Lights Series 

Think your 2011 is shaping up to be a busy one? Let’s see how your itinerary stacks up against my man Conor Daly’s.

Competing in both a full season of GP3, plus selected events in the Firestone Indy Lights Series, to say Conor will be racking up the frequent-flyer miles is an understatement.

Here it is in a nutshell: 21 races (GP3 holds two per weekend) and the potential to run on 12 test days scattered across 10 countries, 4 states, and only 6 months.

Check out the full list of events, below, then stop back over the course of the 2011 racing season to see where in the world is Conor Daly.

Date                   Series     Race/Test         Venue

March 3-4          GP3         Test                     Paul Ricard, France

March 27            FILS         Race                   St. Petersburg, FL

March 29-31      GP3         Test                     Silverstone, GB

April 10               FILS        Race                    Birmingham, AL

April 12-14         GP3        Test                      Barcelona, Spain

April 17               FILS        Race                    Long Beach, CA

May 7-8              GP3         Race                    Istanbul, Turkey

May 21-22         GP3         Race                    Barcelona, Spain

June TBD          GP3         Test                      TBD

June 16-17        GP3         Test                      Valencia, Spain

June 25-26        GP3         Race                    Valencia, Spain

July 9-10            GP3         Race                    Silverstone, GB

July 23-24          GP3         Race                    Nurburgring, Germany

July 30-31          GP3         Race                    Budapest, Hungary

August 7             FILS        Race                    Trois Rivieres, Quebec

August 27-28     GP3        Race                    Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium

Sept. 4                FILS       Race                     Baltimore, MD

Sept. 10-11        GP3       Race                     Monza, Italy

—JM

P.S. Hey, CD... better print this and strap it to your wrist like an NFL QB, you’re going to need it.

A Backstage Conversation from the “State of IndyCar” Address

FILS Dude #1: [casually] “So, you called Conor’s rep, right?”

FILS Dude #2: “Uh... no, I thought you called him?”

FILS Dude #1: [agitated] “No. I didn’t call him. I’m on confetti, remember?”

FILS Dude #2: [confused] “I thought I was on confetti.”

FILS Dude #1: [angry] “No. DUDE. You are NOT on confetti. And if you didn’t call his rep and I didn’t call him that means they have no fu**ing clue about what is... [stops abruptly]

LOOK. Forget it. He’s about to make the announcement, and we’re completely fu**ed. Get back! I’m doing the confetti.”

[Moments later (in a biblical downpour of diced paper) Roger Bailey, Executive Director of the Firestone Indy Lights Series, announces that 2010 Star Mazda Champ, Conor Daly, will be stepping up to FIL, sharing driving duties for next season with USAC scholarship winner, Bryan Clauson—participating in the road/street races that Clauson does not take part in.]

[Daly’s thought bubble] “WTF?!?”

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Okay. So the conversation may be something I conjured up, but the announcement of Daly’s ride, and the fact that he didn’t know a thing about it, was NOT [insert favorite farcically-induced acronym here; ROFLMAO]. Here’s the proof:

Now, you might think this would be stellar news for Conor but, ruh-roh, PROBLEM. It’s no secret that Daly has his eyes set on Formula One, which means the next logical step for him is Europe’s GP3 Series.

Did Conor already have a GP3 deal done when the announcement came? Was he set to do some FILS races with a team other than the one associated with Clauson’s scholarship? Who knows... since the above tweet, Conor’s been pretty quiet on the subject, so we’ll have to see how this one plays out.

Regardless, this is one wickedly funny episode in the life of a race car driver.

Stay tuned...

—JM