ON THE TRACK AGAIN

Colin Braun, the 2006 Rolex Series Daytona Prototype-driving-champ-who-wasn't-because-a-lawyer-didn't-understand-age-isn’t-always-all-defining was at Barber Motorsports Park last week for a two-day test with Starworks Motorsport.

Team principal Peter Baron before the test said Braun's 2012 seat with the team "is his to lose."

No word, as yet, if Braun did so, but such idea is difficult to fathom when involving such a talented racer.

(Be forewarned, it's at this point wherein arising is a treasure trove of bar-bet material produced by the 2006 Rolex Sports Car Series season, mostly connected to Braun.)

At Krohn Racing in 2006, when “allowed” to compete Braun was teamed with Jörg Bergmeister in one (No. 76) of two (No. 75, the other) Ford-powered Riley Daytona Prototypes throughout the season, the latter being teamed three times with drivers other than Braun (altogether excluding those who were a part of the first-of-year, multi-driver Rolex 24 team).

Bergmeister’s spare-driver rotation included: Max Papis at HMS; Boris Said at WGI’s (Sahlen’s 6 Hours at The Glen); Niclas Jönsson, team-owner Tracy Krohn and, again, Said at Sonoma. Should the reader be a tad confused about all those drivers at Sonoma: yes, Herr Bergmeister drove two different cars. (An Ol' DC maxim: "Rules rule at the time they are, or are not rules." Rules, laws, regulations, ordinances, statutes and kindred edicts can change or even be nonexistent at one time or another. Desirous of an example? Compare the quantity of Federal Statutes as of the close of the First Congress and that of the most recent).

Despite being altogether absent for three of that season's 17 points-paying races (it was a busy year) Braun nevertheless finished fourth in the 2006 championship fight.

Just in case someone thinks Braun, or Bergmeister for that matter was taking a veritable "cruise" lacking competition: In 2006, nearly 38 drivers completed at least 82-percent of that season's 17 races. As a whole, 21 drivers would meet rules definitions for having competed in every Daytona Prototype race among the 51 drivers who appeared at no fewer than half of that season’s 14 venues. Keep in mind that every Rolex Series driver must compete, or “drive” to at least some minimal, defined extent so as to score points ("complete" a race) but wherein attempting, more than one driver has found himself on the short end of the stick – no track time at all – when a preceding driver did not complete a car’s handoff to a teammate whether the result of mechanical failure, wreck or dumbheadedness. (Krohn Racing No. 76, right, in 2006 Sahlen’s 6 Hours At The Glen Victory Lane).

Together Braun and Bergmeister (below, left and right, respectively, with thanks to Krohn Racing for images) together produced two wins; eight top-fives and thirteen top-10's – only once finishing out of the top 10 (a 12th at Mazda raceway Laguna Seca, Race 1).

Braun's three in-absentia races wasn't the design of anyone from Krohn Racing or the Rolex Series.

Instead, some lawyer/s, lacking the ability to think outside of a particular legal box, used the term "under 18 years of age" to define a “minor” class of people who were excluded from what may well have been established, ordinary and gainful professional practices coincidentally conducted at a racing venue having engaged contracts between the Indy Racing League and Philip Morris USA.

Um, er, wasn't Krohn Racing a sportscar team? Yep, still is a sportscar team, in fact.

The Rolex series just happened to schedule a race the same weekend (Saturday) as the IRL (Sunday).

"So, Williams, you're saying Braun couldn't 'legally' race because of a contractual agreement that didn't directly involve the Rolex Series, Krohn Racing or Braun? And they didn’t even race on the same day!?"

Yep.

A misstep typical of those who haven't stood on a particular fence side (and we've all been there; or not there), some arguing of late that the same has befallen IndyCar Series' CEO Randy Bernard, who clearly has accomplished what his employers sought – "out-of-box thinking" – but who in so doing, some claim, lacks perspective unique to motorsports and, particularly, open-wheel racing. Indeed, the absence of intimate knowledge of one racing style as compared to another, say, stock car versus sportscar, can lead to miscues, too. Woe inevitably visits those who conjure answers when a question’s full grasp eludes.

The whole Smoking Braun deal was still weirder in a number of ways, such as Braun could've raced on Monday (which because of the legal squabbling nearly occurred), but we in the United States have in recent times "gotten off" on telling others not only where to go, but what to do and how to do it along the way. So let's just stay focused on Braun's racing or, perhaps, lack thereof.

So, as a result of smoking, a nonsmoking Braun in 2006 didn't race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (HMS), Watkins Glen International (WGI) or Infineon Raceway (Sonoma) – at all of which the race card included the IRL – where Bergmeister (at right, credit Grand-Am) respectively finished 8th, 1st and 9th, ultimately besting (who else?) Scott Pruett and Luis Diaz ("Memo Rojas" before a name change) by 16 points for the championship crown . . . well, er, Rolex "watch." Okay, okay: "timepiece."

Perhaps more surprisingly, having been “exposed,” Braun still didn’t partake of any tobacco product, even though he daily remained at The Glen during the race weekend. Amazing, that. 

On 2007, Braun finished fifth in the championship, hampered again by an undesired and forced race absence again at Sonoma, only this time it was at the hands of Rolex Series competition director Mark Raffauf, who insisted, "Colin Braun is one of the brightest talents the racing world has seen in the last few years," just before exacting a 16-day suspension period, within which was a race date at Sonoma.

Raffauf claimed (as did also claim a few team owners and drivers) Braun earlier that year breached the peace at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Barber Motorsports Park and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

Again driving for Krohn Racing (it's a "Texan" thing) in the season's third of three 2007-season visits to Watkins Glen International, Braun was reportedly handed a pre-race "aggressive driving" warning ticket by Raffauf but nonetheless, while fighting for second-place in the race's final laps, committed the egregious act of contacting the No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac-Riley and driver Max Angelelli, who has been known to, um, rub fenders, too.

"However, like other emerging stars before him, occasionally these young drivers need to be refocused," Raffauf was quoted in the suspension announcement.

"I have no doubt that Colin will emerge from this suspension as an even better driver."

After Sonoma, Braun returned for the season's final race and proceeded to finish fifth in the championship, one spot better than when he was suspended. Funky, that.

Other than in a few one-off rides since the close of the 2007, Braun's been doing just that, becoming an "even better driver" while under the wing of Roush Fenway Racing.

After three years, a win and a personal best fifth-place NASCAR Truck Series championship finish in 2009, Braun's ride fell prey to a sponsorship plague which has yet to be defeated at Roush Fenway Racing (as well as others).

Released by Roush in Dec. 2010, after taking a year off Braun's apparently returned to sportscar racing and there's little doubt he's a "better driver," too, maturity's process being what it is.

Unsure at present who exactly will land in what car and with whom as Starworks owners Baron, Alex Popow and Enzo Potolicchio (who also moonlight as fairly good drivers) are working toward fielding three cars for the 2012 season. (Dalziel, Baron, Potolicchio, at right)

Just a few weeks ago at the end of the 2011 season, Potolicchio and longtime Baron driver Ryan Dalziel won the 2011 season's final race at Mid-Ohio, overcoming an otherwise season-long winless drought for Ford (Roush Yates Engines).

Also in Starworks’ Barber Motorsports Park test pits was Canadian Mark Wilkins, who isn’t likely to return to Woodbridge (Toronto) based AIM Autosport in 2012, especially since his Riley DP No. 001 is being restored to its black and gold livery – the colors worn for 2008-season race wins at Montreal (at left) and Watkins Glen International (race No. 2) – in preparation for its soon-to-be delivery and display at a Canadian motor sports museum.

"We're on good terms," Wilkins insisted of his relationship with his former team, soon without the Daytona Prototype in with which Wilkins and 2008 co-driver Brian Frisselle scored three podium finishes and finished fifth in the Rolex Series championship.

"I wish Ian (Willis) and AIM all the best but now is a good time for each of us to take new directions."

It was was in a Starworks Porsche-Riley (in a sole Porsche flat-six DP) that Wilkins led seven laps at Mid-Ohio in mid-September, one of the six drivers to lead the race, giving way to Starworks’ sister car and eventual winning-driver Dalziel (at below right, credit Grand-Am) after Wilkins’ tires went away toward race end.

A battle to be Starworks' engine supplier has since emerged, with Ford and Porsche the apparent leading contenders.

One only can wonder if Ford will beat Porsche at Starworks, just as it may have prophetically done at Mid-Ohio, or whether the team will run the flat-six – an engine even Porsche says has likely already traveled the full length of its developmental spectrum (yet, when Alwin Springer is involved, one wonders what magic he might still perform).

Whatever the power, Starworks appears set for a heckuva strong 2012 driving team.

Later,

DC