WATKINS GLEN (10 Aug., 2012) – Noting that "odd" Northeastern weather of the last day or so has confused airline schedules and left hundreds of erstwhile passengers hoping to again fly to desired destinations, it also rained heavily overnight in southern "upstate" New York.
Nevertheless, now laying down new rubber washed from the 2.4-mile Watkins Glen International course are Rolex Sports Car Series competitors readying for Saturday's "Continental Tires 200 Presented By Dunn Tire" that hasn't a thing to do with the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge -- absent from competition until the Sept. 07-09 meet at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca which, of course, uses a “Continental Tire Sports Car Festival”
LOOKING FORWARD
Considering the waves created, the Bob Stallings/GAINSCO/Indy Brickyard Grand Prix/Grand-Am/Officiating/Mid-Race Withdrawal deal will likely be the subject of at least one more ColdPit rumination: this one.
In a Saturday morning meeting of one mind with Stallings (his was the mind; this blogger's wasn't) the owner of the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Corvette DP expressed optimism for both the future of the series and his participation in it.
"(Grand-Am) president Ed Bennett is a businessman who has been successful in just about every endeavor handed him by NASCAR and I don't see any reason why he won't be successful over here (in Grand-Am's Rolex Sports Car Series)," Stallings said.
The gist of the conversation is that Stallings has the intention, now and for a "foreseeable" future, of staying in the series. Of course, the “future” is always realized.
"Obviously, there's still the problem of inconsistent officiating" Stallings insisted.
"Ed Bennett's been making personnel changes that I think is for the better but there still is room for still other changes in that area."
Well, perhaps this won't be the last ColdPit mention, either . . . and for some time to come.
RESEARCH
One of the processes escaping the attention of many journalism wannabes (the numbers of which having exploded with The Web) is the necessity of accurate, substantiated research.
It's not at all unusual for this correspondent to spend hours in search of only a few words used in but one sentence or a sentence's worth of words used in a paragraph.
It's an effort to minimize errors that nevertheless can and still will happen, we being human and all.
Those errors, though, can have tremendous although unintended negative impact on others -- however "small" their number.
Learning new information or, even, learning information anew (the human mind has been shown to be clearly imperfect in memory) can be interesting, if not plain fun.
Recently referencing amateur and professional driver combinations in an earlier blog contribution, your intrepid correspondent spent a couple of hours undertaking a year-by-year distillation of data beginning with the 2003 season. Herewith are some additional informational nuggets:
For 2003's second Watkins Glen 2.4-mile "short" track race, Tommy Riggins put Dave Machavern's Heritage Motorsports Ford Mustang on the Rolex Series' pole with a fast lap of 1:11.245 at 123.198 mph.
After Simon Gregg (Peter and Debbie Gregg's son) and Justin Bell's (he, too, having a famous father, just . . . can't . . . remember . . .) Derhaag Corvette was fastest in season-opening Rolex 24 qualifying, Machavern's car would be the final such GT. Period.
Excluding 2012's stats, in the "most wins by an amateur/professional in a DP" category, the Forest Barber/Terry Borcheller combination produced the most, five wins, in sheer numbers but the accomplishment occurred in the Daytona Prototypes first season (2003) and such would not be seen again, even over all the seasons since.
But leading the list, since, with three wins, each, are J.C. France and the woman racer too many folks love to hate, Milka Duno.
(Listen here: armchair quarterbacks like to talk of Duno being "too slow" and, resultantly, a "roadblock," "dangerous" and etc. Duno isn't a Dario Franchitti, that is for sure, but she's also gone faster and for greater periods of time than the vast majority of her race-car-driver wannabe detractors. At the very least, Duno had the nerve to try something that left many a pilgrim having pissed their pants after only a ride-along.)
In second with two wins apiece are Mark Patterson, Jim Matthews and, with 2012's Rolex 24 victory, John Pew.
Just three other amateurs have accomplished a DP-class win (with the help of a "friend"): Matthew Alhadeff (with Bill Auberlen, HMS, 2007); Tracy Krohn (with Nic Jönsson, WGI-6, 2005); and, Enzo Potolicchio (Ryan Dalziel, Mid-O, 2011).
If an incomplete 2012 season is again included, Alex Popow scored a win at Indy with Sebastien Bourdais (the latter having cranked out a top fast lap in practice earlier today at The Glen).
The team owner with whom an amateur/professional driving combo is most likely to score a win is Mike Shank, whose Michael Shank Racing pro/am combinations have scored four wins (including 2012, so far).
The most successful professional driver still participating in the Rolex Series who has assisted more than one amateur in scoring one or more wins is Terry Borcheller, who has driven in wins with Forest Barber (5) and J.C. France (1). France also has had the distinction of winning with Hurley Haywood (2), though the latter is largely out of the game, now (supposedly).
If 2012 is included, following closely in Borcheller's tracks with three "helps" is Oswaldo Negri Jr., who has helped both Mark Patterson (2) and John Pew (1) find the way to Victory Lane (Ian James was the "other" pro who aided Pew.)
Later,
DC
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