Full Throttle

First, let us review:

Mika Salo, Formula Three and Japanese racing.

Formula One: 1994–1998 Lotus, Tyrrell and Arrows; 1999: British American Racing and Ferrari; 2000–2002 Sauber and Toyota.

2003 12 Hours of Sebring, driving an Audi R8, raced in four CART races for PK Racing the same year, his best finish being third in Miami.

Since then he has raced in various sports car events around the world and this year in American Le Mans for Risi Competizione and winning the GT2 class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, coming in 18th overall.

See anything there related to American type tin-tops or oval racing?

Me neither.

But apparently that hasn’t stopped him from wanting to broaden his horizons so to speak. He’s at Lowes this weekend, and talking to Autosport Magazine.

“I have a little interest, yeah, so just having a look to see if there’s any opportunity or anything for me to at least try the thing and know if I like it,” Salo told autosport.com while visting the Sprint Cup garage. “I’ve driven everything else in the world, not NASCAR, so that’s why I want to try it.”

According to the mag Mika has been in “talks with a number teams” trying to get a test.

“I’ve been in contact with a few teams and yeah, there’s serious contact,” Salo said. “But I’d like to try the car first before I sort of go any further. Just trying to work on a test day for now and see then.

“I haven’t signed anything for next year yet but I will probably next week. Then I’m stuck but maybe next year I can try one.”

Say it ain’t so Mika! Stick with what you know, and be happy in the fact your greatest claim to fame is being known as an F1 Super-Sub at BAR and Ferrari.