DEAR DC

Enough reader mail having accumulated, it’s time for another installment of “Dear DC”

DEAR DC: You referenced a book in one of your recent ramblings; what book?

Answer: Exactly!

DEAR DC: Is it true you (a couple of weeks ago) flew across the country just to eat dinner with California’s best, Scott Pruett?

Answer: It defies reason, doesn’t it? Goes to show how Daytona can drive one to madness at this time of the year.

Besides fine wine originating from the Pruett winery, it was an intimate five-course dinner shared with Pruett, spouse Judy Pruett – who Scott long ago endearingly nicknamed “My Wife” – and 55-or-so of their closest friends.

It was Ol’ DC’s first hardcore exposure to Californian haute cuisine, which appears to be the reason many are so thin on The Left Coast, dispelling his original belief that the state’s many taxes left little to fill a taxpayer’s cupboards.

(The thought just occurred that California’s relaxed marijuana “attitude” may well have given additional meaning to “haute cuisine.”)

Actually, Ol’ DC, well understanding of Pruett’s introverted nature (shown just about everywhere other than at a race), wished to witness the driver’s rare public appearance so as to allow Ol’ DC some guidance that he might someday replicate.

DEAR DC: What’d you learn?

Answer: California’s BMW clubs are very loyal to fellow BMW types; and, “stay in the cocoon” – which I’m still doing to the greatest possible extent.

DEAR DC: Who’s the new gray-haired type atop the Action Express Racing war wagon at this year’s Rolex 24 and Homestead Miami races?

Answer: Inasmuch as Bob Johnson was a gray-hair long before becoming AER team owner, Dear DC presumes Iain (yes, correct) Watt to be the person in question.

Having briefly joined the team in 2010 for two races beginning at Montreal, Watt came from Robby Gordon Motorsports after coming from Gillett Evernham Motorsports (GEM) after coming from Eddie Cheever Racing after coming from . . . well, Watt’s been around for awhile.

During a Rolex Series stint in 2007 (with fewer gray hairs), Watt had smartly changed the FABCAR-turned-Coyote from outmoded to competitive battler (Christian Fittipaldi, who really is “The Most Interesting Guy In The World,” Harrison Brix and Antonio Garcia, shared the Coyote wheel at the time) when NASCAR Sprint Cup’s GEM came calling.

Watt likewise produced competitive cars there just before the outfit started imploding (ultimately folding in 2010), leaving him to make like a steam engine and chug along, bouncing around for a short period of time before again finding a home in the Rolex Series.

Longtime paddock roamers across many series often use superlative terms such as “brilliant” and “genius” to describe the otherwise low-keyed, unassuming Scotsman.

Thus far the team has produced consistent results that have produced a top-three in points or better for both its driving teams, with David Donohue and Darren Law (third in points) most recently finishing second in their No. 5 Porsche-Riley at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

DEAR DC: Is it true Grand-Am’s 2012 rules have yet to be published?

Answer: Yes, it’s true. So, too, are the ALMS and ACO’s 2012 rules. Does such rise to portending a 2012 apocalypse?You decide.

DEAR DC: Word on the street says Kevin Doran is a machine-gun freak in his spare time.

Answer: Doran is so into shooting ‘em up that his team’s Columbus-area shop has hung lurid calendars of M61 Vulcan and Thompson Machine guns where others would display Farah Fawcett and Bambi Morgan pinups (ask your father’s father).

Like auto racing, machine-gunning is another one of those sports into which one can “pour” almost incalculable sums of money.

And I thought skeet and trap were expensive.

(Note To G-A: Thanks to golf, Kevin’s chilled considerably in recent years; no worries. Um, then again, he was pretty upset after driver Henri Richard was involved in a second race-ending wreck in as many driving stints. Further, though, that Kevin didn’t, well, you know, after getting all mad and all should be evidence enough that he, well, you know, won’t. But, still, there’s the time . . . )

DEAR DC: Has up-and-coming driver Dion Von Moltke really jumped from Grand-Am to ALMS GT3 Cup racing?

Answer: Yes. Or is it GTC? Whatever it may be the move was cited as necessary for the talented young South African to efficiently gain driving experience.

Methinks, however, Von Moltke’s move to a relatively slower GT3 Cup car among that series’ four classes will tend toward providing him more of a rearview-mirror defensive driving school education instead of polishing his apex-finding skills, commencing with this weekend’s Mobil1’s 12 Hours du ‘Bring, um, “of Sebring.”

DEAR DC: We heard tires were a problem at Miami.

Answer: Tires wore thin at the wrong time for some teams but such is always true at every racetrack when someone, whether driver, engineer or wrench-turner misses a set up. If you really want to “talk” tire problems, check last week’s Daytona 200.

DEAR DC: Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix (y José) Sabates’ TELMEX crew looked different at the last race.

Answer: Well, not entirely different; a couple of veteran TELMEX guys remain from a pit-crew shuffle after a doubling this year of the Indy Car Series’ side at the team’s Indianapolis Target CGR headquarters – where the sportscar and open-wheel teams are separated by about three paces. Still, according to Ol DC’s memory, the shop might need an expansion because the assembly space is getting tighter, unless one counts the broom closet.

DEAR DC: Did Troy Flis of Spirit of Daytona Racing (No. 90 Chevrolet Coyote; Antonio Garcia and Paul Edwards) after the Homestead race really say, “I want my money and I want my money now!”?

Answer: No. Flis’ post-race comments were more akin to Howard Beale (Peter Finch) and 55-or-so of his closest friends in the 1976 movie “Network,” yelling, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not taking it anymore!”

First, a little background: Flis, as a “Chevrolet” team owner and manager, has collected a few bona fide, national-level sportscar racing trophies.

Prior to 2011, SDR developed the Coyote chassis and the Porsche Cayenne V8 engine, which formerly pushed the SDR No. 90 and which now resides in the No. 5 and No. 9 Action Express Racing Riley chassis engine bays.

Despite an uphill battle and many skeptics along the path, Flis has stayed true to his belief that the team would be in the thick of the 2011 championship fight and toward that end in the off season switched to Chevrolet – a manufacturer with whom Flis has had considerable success but which recently had some financial problems.

(Hopefully the reader is aware of that carmaker’s money hassles and that, as a United States citizen, he presently has a stake in Chevrolet parent General Motors. No, one mustn’t pay U.S. income taxes to be a citizen and thus hold a fractional share of GM. Indeed, only about 10-percent of the citizenry actually pays income taxes and therefore arising from which is one of civilization’s greater dilemmas: Should only the supposedly brighter people who earn income decide its disposition or should others, presumably less bright and who haven’t at all earned any income, have an equal say? On the one hand, though more efficient, “minority rule” isn’t particularly and shouldn’t be appetizing to any part of the citizenry as a whole. On the other, presumably not so smart is allowing non-earners - as would children in a household - to wholly dictate income earners - such as parents’ - expenditures. Next week: Why we’re actually a republic and not the democracy as most think.)

Now, back to what’s really important:

At Homestead-Miami Speedway’s 2.3-mile, 11-turn course the SDR No. 90 Chevrolet-Coyote was a contender. It was fast out of the box, led a practice session (No 2), qualified third-fastest overall (Paul Edwards qualified 0.050 behind Memo Rojas’ No. 01 Telmex BMW-Riley) but finished 11th in DP after a Lap-28, front-of-the-pack cruncher between Garcia and Michael Shank Racing’s No. 60 Crown Royal Ford-Riley, at the time driven by Ozz Negri (with John Pew in during the other times).

Sent for a drive-through penalty after being apportioned blame in the matter, Negri was bummed, especially inasmuch as he claims to have long ago learned the contrary in the aftermath of a 2005 Phoenix penalty and subsequent suspension (see Negri’s in-car HMS video ) not to drive aggressively.

However, whether the blame, suffering the greatest “penalty” of all was the 90 team, whose otherwise promising race ended on Lap 28 and after which Flis was wondering aloud , among other things, as to why he should remain “a nice guy” (which he and his family truly are).

DEAR DC: Did Grand-Am institute a new (in-race) policy of some sort or just try to throw the Homestead-Miami race? It seemed the race had more penalties than usual.

Answer: Evidently! Though Ol’ DC doesn’t know of any information which even suggests G-A meddled in the race’s outcome it nevertheless apportioned a record 11 (sprint) race penalties at HMS. Oh, for the “good ol’ days,” when men were men, DP doors flew and sheep were scared.

DEAR DC: What’s with the SunTrust No. 10 Chevrolet-Dallara and the No. 99 GAINSCO Chevrolet-Riley? Neither seem to be making much noise this year.

Answer: You, like, are using the same schedule as everyone else, no? The series being two whole races into (17-percent) 2011’s 12-race schedule and all, right?

I’ll admit SunTrust’s Max Angelelli no longer seems like the mean, bruschetta-selling Italian of old. Such baffles: One doesn’t know whether it is original Mr. Nice Guy Ricky Taylor’s undue influence on Angelelli or Angelelli is mellowing with age – especially after this year finally flying over his sons from Monaco and showing them that their father really isn’t just a mechanic (true).

After finishing second in 2010 driving points the pair hasn’t moved much, presently in a five-person, two-way logjam for second (with Action Express Racing’s Terry Borcheller, Joao Barbosa and JC France).

However, after respectively finishing 12th and eighth in class after the 2011 season’s first two races, way down in ninth place (!) is the No. 99’s Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney – 2007 and 2009 Daytona Prototype driving champions – and thus may be producing telltale signs of trouble within the team.

Maybe it’s just lethargy holding over from a period during which they were the only Chevrolet-powered DP in the paddock and believed itself tied to an underpowered engine.

Though El Diablo Rosa scored the HMS pole (Fogarty), the SunTrust team’s end-of-race results would tend to belie a lack of power given that it, too, is a Chevrolet-powered car that at Homestead also led the most laps (Ricky Taylor, 27) – the second race in as many which a Chevrolet-powered car has finished in the top-five.

Furthermore, though a car can be fast and hold its otherwise hard-used tires for a qualifying session’s 15-minute period, such isn’t the same as a full fuel and tire run, which to some degree at both races has hampered the No. 99 thus far in 2011.

The team, or certain key members, could just be bored with racing as a whole or bored with the series in particular. While such is a human characteristic, true champions go over, under or around such a wall.

The regular crew – Terry Wilbert, Kyle Brannan, Link Smith, Andy Greer, Glenn Feather and Eric Crowder – are broadly experienced and each have many times celebrated in Victory Lane.

Bob Stallings hisownself has said GAINSCO’s sponsorship is in place through 2012. (By the way, GAINSCO’s new South Florida HQ is clearly visible from Florida’s Sunshine State Parkway; cool to see the red GAINSCO blazing on the building’s side in the dark of night.)

Though Fogarty was seen casually hanging in the HMS paddock, seemingly without a care in the world, the team doesn’t seem to be firing on all cylinders.

That, alone, troubles a soul.

DEAR DC: Why does ALMS get on ABC while Grand-Am only gets SPEED?

Answer: Here, you figure it out:

“The ALMS’ next event is the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in Sebring, Fla., on Saturday, March 19. The season-opening 12-hour race will be shown live on ESPN3.com and americanlemans.com starting at 10 a.m. ET. ABC will televise race highlights from 12:30 to 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 20.

Okay boys and girls, it’s time to get out your RolexDC decoder rings for this month’s secret QnA.

DEAR DC: Raphael Matos?

Answer: Yep.

Later,

DC