WHAT FUTURE MAY COME

 

Well boys and girls, reports of your correspondent's demise have been greatly exaggerated - though such will at some point be indisputably factual.

Inasmuch as this scribe is absolutely certain the Grim Reaper will someday pay a visit, the former only asks that before finally checking out he be granted time to wade through and possibly answer the 1,016 legitimate, no-spam emails which filled his "In Box" over the last couple of months.

Then again, if the mail hasn't been answered, who'll really care?

For now, though, it's back to writing about things that go 'round and, sometimes, "bump" in the night.

THERE'S NO "I" IN "CHAMPEEN"

Discombobulating at least a few types, particularly those who believe themselves keepers of the mythical "true racing" flame, Jimmie Johnson was named the Associated Press' Athlete of the Year - the first race car driver in the poll's 78-year history (yep, JJ even whupped Michael Schumacher).

According to a few AP ballot casters, at least some gave the nod to Johnson's versatility, especially noting that when he's not in Hendrick Motorsports' No. 48 Lowe's Home Improvement Chevrolet, the four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champ also competes in the GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing No. 99 (now) Chevrolet-Riley Daytona Prototype - whose fulltime drivers, Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty, in 2009 themselves captured a NASCAR driving championship.

Add Mr. Consistency, Jimmy Vasser (hisownself an open-wheel champion), and once again Bob Stallings has gathered sufficient in-car talent to capture the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The biggest challenge for the El Diablo Rojo team is for each of the team's members - not just the driving talent - to fire on all cylinders for a single, season-opening race that alone in time and distance will roughly equal nine "regular" sprint races.

Remember, while there isn't an "I" or "U (you)" in "team," with minimal effort one can find "me."

THERE AIN'T NO "58," EITHER

The 2010 Rolex Sports Car Series will seriously dip its toes in 2010's competitive waters later this week (Friday through Sunday) when the "Roar Before The Rolex 24" commences upon Daytona International Speedway's 3.56-mile road course.

Defending champion Brumos Racing - which at the end of the 2009 Rolex 24 At Daytona spoke for two of the three top Daytona Prototype podium finishers - has pared its 2010 rostrum to one entry, the No. 59 Porsche-Riley.

It's at this point when things may get a tad confusing - who's gone where and why. Yet, what else is new when at the start of a new season? Hang in there, don the Ol' Thinking Cap, kick back for awhile and we'll plow through most of it.

First, let's note the real 2009 Rolex 24-winning No. 58 Brumos Racing Porsche-Riley is no longer with us at least in number (carefully preserve those photographs and paraphernalia, folks).

Ironically, Brumos Racing's No. 58 (first competing as a Porsche-FABCAR) wasn't supposed to last beyond the DP-class' introductory race - the 2003 Rolex 24 (prevailing at the end of which was The Little Porsche That Would - the famed No. 66 TRG Porsche GT of Kevin Buckler, Michael Schrom, Jörg "Don't Call me George" Bergmeister and Timo Bernhard).

For the No. 58 first race David Donohue (right) teamed with Mike Borkowski, Chris Bye and Randy Pobst.

Donohue, first with "Bork" in 2003 and then Darren Law (below), since, firmly helped steer the "Red Bull" (as it at one point came to be singularly known) into sportscar history in the wake of serious door-banging, do-or-die racing - especially at Phoenix International in 2003.

Still, all good things must end sometime. May the No. 58 - all of 'em - hereafter peacefully rest.

Superficially shifting in 2010 to Brumos' Porsche-powered 3.9 liter flat-six No. 59 - which won the season-closing 2009 Grand Prix of Miami - are 2009 Rolex 24 winning drivers Donohue and Law.

Reportedly, Law is not closely related to actor Jude Law (though it can be said, owed to at least one supercomputer run, that the two hunks are no further removed than 51st-cousins).

Joining Donohue and Law for 2010 Rolex 24 driving chores are Raphael Matos (below, atop car, Mike Shank at right) and Butch Leitzinger.

From when he in 2008 helped Ian James and John Pew co-drive a Michael Shank Racing Ford-Riley, blindfolded, to a 2008 Miller Motorsports Park win, Matos has transitioned from hardly known to a favorite of racing fans, drivers and owners, alike.

Leitzinger, one of the, most approachable drivers in the sport, knows what it's like to win a Rolex 24 ('94, Cunningham Nissan 300 ZX; '97 & '99, Dyson Riley & Scott Ford) but also knows the agony of finishing elsewhere, like his second-place in 2004 with Elliott Forbes-Robinson and that aforementioned Johnson fella in David Brule and Rick Howard's black-on-red Crawford-Pontiac DP03.

Disbanded for 2010 is the second-place driving team who drove the Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix (y José) Sabates No. 01 TELMEX/Target Riley to a closest-in-history 2009 Rolex 24 race finish, although past Rolex Series driving champs Scott Pruett ('04, '08) and Memo Rojas ('08) remain.

Joining them in the now BMW-powered TELMEX Riley are Marino Franchitti and Justin Wilson (Wilson finished 2nd in 2006 in an MSR Ford-Riley).

Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon and surprise co-driver Jamie McMurray, who for his 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ride joins Juan Pablo at Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing after stints with Roush Fenway Racing (2006-2009) and Chip Ganassi Racing (2002-2005).

However, Mr. Ganassi has been known to at the last minute change driving arrangements, so the above is hardly chiseled in stone.

At the heart of bringing the CGRw/F(yJ)S team to a rare, early December DIS test was the team's desire to accumulate as much knowledge as possible about the team's new-to-it BMW engine, which the team chose after concluding a six-season, two-championship run (2004, 2008) with Toyota Racing Development.

According to both TRD and CGR representatives, the bottom line on TRD's end-of-season 2009 departure (though the engine remains available through longtime Toyota race-engine tuner Don Miller) was economic: only one team, TELMEX, ran the engine in 2009.

"I believe TRD was a victim of our success," Ganassi right-hand man Mike Hull recently said between off-season golf games.

As other engine manufacturers built better engines and behind-the-scenes support programs, Hull contends the TRD engines (first branded as Toyota and later as Lexus) alternatively suffered in development due to the initial 2004 success of Pruett and Max Papis, who combined to win that year's Rolex Series' driving championship, and again with Pruett teaming to do the same in 2008 with Rojas.

"We're concerned it'll happen again with the BMW engine," Hull said. "We're concerned that Steve (Dinan) will get the short end of the stick because of Ganassi Racing's success on the track. We're accustomed to winning and while an engine certainly plays an important role, it's not the sole reason behind winning."

One might additionally note: over the last couple of decades the Ganassi organization has been victorious on a number of tracks in various forms of racing.

Indeed, GRAND-AM competition chief David Spitzer reportedly has been studying off-season engine dynamometer data that, some observers believe, will result in issuance of post-Roar BMW engine and/or transaxle restrictions not unlike multiple rules adjustments endured by three Porsche flat-six teams early in 2009; reversed by season's end.

First exacting anonymity so as to spare possible reprisal, one former team principal pretty well summed more than a few others' expressed thoughts on the subject, garnished during the offseason.

"So many ($#*@&!) bulletins were issued in 2009 that I set my browser to open the ($#*@&!) page every time I logged onto the 'Net because you didn't know what the ($#*@&!) was coming next. It would've been ($#*@&!) comical if it hadn't hit my pocketbook so ($#*@&!) much," he calmly said.

Monday: FACING THE MUSIC

Later,

DC

So, What Do Racers Do Between Seasons?

 

Race.

Kinda, sorta, anyway.

Bottom line ... they still go faster than most of us wannabes.

Terry Borcheller's carrying an almost nonstop ear-to-ear grin that emerged a few days after the Oct. 12 Rolex Sports Car Series' awards banquet at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla. (the city once claimed it was the first "Hollywood." One wonders what became of that tussle between it and the "other" Hollywood on the Left Coast).

In 2010 Borcheller will be co-driving with Jaoa Barbosa in the No. 59 Brumos Porsche Racing Riley, joining as a fulltime Brumos team member to No. 58 Brumos drivers David Donohue and Darren Law - though the two cars alternately will either look or sound significantly different from 2009.

A No. 59 Porsche-Riley, with Law sharing duties with Borcheller, tested earlier this week at VIRginia International Raceway (get your ticket now and save) where 2003 Daytona Prototype champion Borcheller said the car - with a new, "throaty" power plant - performed beyond expectations.

"I just have a really good feeling about this," Borcheller said of his fulltime pairing with Portugal's Barbosa that now goes beyond the former running only as the team's Rolex 24 At Daytona odd-man-out who earlier this year helped drive the team to a third-place podium finish but was shortly thereafter cooling his heels insofar as a top-tier driving job is concerned. 

Borcheller's at DIS this weekend with longtime friend and onetime DP car owner Forest Barber, who brought his championship-winning No. 54 Chevrolet Doran JE4 to the HSR gathering, which includes a wide variety of sportscars, new and old. Original car constructor Kevin Doran and Doran Racing members are wrenching the car, as they did a year ago when the chassis officially qualified as "historic."

(Barber likely would've shared the 2003 DP driving title with Borcheller had Barber not been unexpectedly called home from that year's Glen Sahlen's Six-Hour when one of his two daughters was injured after being tossed from her mount.)

Also at this weekend's HSR DIS Continental meet-and-greet is Elliott Forbes-Robinson, who on Halloween - as he does each Halloween, actually - celebrated yet another birthday. EFR doesn't look a day over 66.

"Hey, I'm at the age where I'm glad I managed to have another birthday," he clowned. "The best news is that last year I hit the the insurance lottery and that means I don't need to charge nearly as much to drive."

EFR is looking longingly toward the next few years or so, when he'll officially enter his seventh decade and hopes to have a chance or two to score another major race-series win - which'll only give him at least one win in each of his many decades of professional race driving.

"I haven't reached the point where I'm interested in just driving around," EFR said. "I still want to win, you know," further wondering aloud if Greg Pickett, who as a driver won a 1978 Trans-Am title (though Bob Tullius that year won Trans-Am's "top-shelf" championship), will give EFR a chance to run Pickett's Trans-Am car when commitments allow, also adding he'd like to score a competitive  Rolex 24 at Daytona DP ride so as to add another win to the three he's already collected (two overall victories in 1997 and 1999).

As he's always been, EFR easily is among the nicest of race cars drivers when shooting the breeze; an absolute give-nor-take-no-quarter driver while on track.

At the Continental, too, is Rolex 24 At Daytona 2009 winning GT driver R.J. Valentine (far left with a Rolex 24 assist, from left-to-right, Jorge Bergmeister, Patrick Long, Justin Marks, Andy Lally).

This weekend Valentine is teamed with John McMullen in the No. 71 Porsche GT3.

Beyond being the chief bill-payer of the Rolex 24 race-winning No. 67 TRG Porsche, Valentine's a Boston-based entrepreneur who has his financial fingers in a host of businesses, not the least of which in Valentine's mind is F1 Boston which has formula kart (translated "haul butt") facilities in Boston, New Jersey Motorsports Park and, soon, on New York's Long Island. (Valentine was this writer’s co-driver when the two's 2008 NJMP F1 Kart race strategy had, like, totally won - until David Donohue protested a rule that didn't exist until turning blue while holding his breath.)

Sure, Valentine's been around awhile and some like to rag on the guy despite his simply loving a sport in which he's participated since the mid-1970's (he first competed at Daytona in its 1978 24-Hour). Proud that he's a "Sportsman," Valentine's made it possible for more than a few professional drivers to pay their bills while honing skills, winning races and championships.

Valentine figures over the years he's seen close to 10,000 "kids from 5 to 19" go through his F1 Boston karting programs.

"That's what I really enjoy, helping future stars realize their dreams in a country that's historically been big on that," Valentine said. "If I can in some small way help a youngster reach for the stars and catch one, well, that's pretty important to me."

With better than 100 entries on hand - including Travis Engen's Audi R8; Rick DeMan's Riley DP; Lilo Zerion's Lola T-70 - this one on the best turnouts seen for Historic Sportscar Racing's annual DIS Continental in recent memory. They're gathering through Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.

RUMORS AND OTHER OLD MAN'S TALES

Having secured more big sponsors for 2010 than ever before, Michael Shank Racing appears to have at least two Daytona Prototypes nailed down for 2010 - maybe, just maybe, three. John Pew (right) is the one name that'll return. Who and with whom other drivers will race is presently up in the air as Shank looks to bail 'em  down - but only after he and spouse Mary Beth return from a well-earned vacation in the Ukraine.

Mark Patterson will be back at Shank's place ... for the Rolex 24 and, maybe, the Sahlen's Six-hours Of The Glen, but that's about it. (Dammit. Patterson truly is one of those rare types with whom one is privileged or, maybe, crazy to hang for at least awhile.)

Wayne Taylor Racing is working on two Dallara teams for 2010, one roller having recently, well, rolled over to that team's Indianapolis shop from Cincinnati. (Man, wouldn't that have been fun; driving a DP westbound on I-74?)

Believe it: Rick Taylor (far left) nor Jordan Taylor (near left) will be among those driving for or with the SunTrust team - the two talented rising-star Taylor offspring (who got their mother's genes) are presently discerning their 2010 options. The good news is that both aren't likely to land with anything but excellent rides.

With Patterson mostly gone from Shank, emerging as one of the series' most sought-after (and thus envied) drivers is Ozz Negri, (right) with at least three possible 2010 ride possibilities (such means he'll land on his feet). 

Si, Scott Pruett y Memo Rojas voy a aparecer en el carro No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing con Felix (y mi amigo Jose) Sabates. Es verdades. Pero, el motor es desconocido ahora. ¿Tal vez un Ford?

Brumos will have two Porsche-powered Rileys in 2010; the Cayenne-based V8 and, still hanging around (for now) the manufacturer's decades-old flat-six, which the company earlier in 2009 said was done.

Former NASCAR Sprint Cup championship crew chief and sanctioning-body director (of a lot of departments) Gary Nelson (right) is back to old tricks - running a race team. He's now Brumos Racing's general manager, learning he'd  been selected such as the 2009 season closed. Those who are aware of Nelson's, um, "innovative" background are aware the native but tricky Californian has won more than a few stockcar races, legally or otherwise. Well, I guess one shouldn't imply Nelson would do anything illegal, especially if a rule has yet to be developed as outlawing whatever he conjured. There will be, though. Bet your sweet bippy.

Stevenson Motorsports (John Stevenson at left) is looking at and probably will achieve a considerable expansion of its Rolex Series operations, perhaps running as many two new Camaros in each of the Rolex and Koni Challenge series. International stage and screen star Mike Johnson maintains control of the pit box while Georgian Andrew Davis (who for the second time in as many years scored a top-3 in GT driving points) and Scotland's Robin Liddell are likely returning to the team. Liddell would've probably also scored a third place 2009-points finish had he just stayed with eating only chicken - or something like that.

Farnbacher Loles or, possibly, Farnbacher or, possibly, Loles still is proceeding full-steam-ahead and likely to better bear a certain German car-maker's banner than has another similarly named team elsewhere - and it ain't Porsche. 2009 Rolex Series GT champs Dirk Werner and South Carolinian Leh Keen (the latter now banned from the Sportsman ranks) will return - maybe. Gee, don't shoot the bearer, this writer doesn't make the decisions.

While favoring stock cars some insist The Racer's Group is racing toward nothing but oblivion on its bread-and-butter sportscar side, as even Spencer Pumpelly reportedly appears headed for the exit. General Kevin Buckler's always got a surprise-or-two up his sleeve, though, sometimes even surprising hisownself.

GAINSCO/Bob Stallings: though not eager to make a mistake, a worried man with a worried mind; times are strange ... things have changed; someone's possibly waiting for the last train and all hell might just break loose (thank you, Bob Dylan).

Ah, but what would an off-season otherwise be?

Later,

DC

PENSKE BOOKING IT?

"Before success comes in any man's life he's sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps, some failures. When defeat overtakes a man the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That's exactly what the majority of men do." Napoleon Hill, 1883-1970

The inside skinny floating in Rolex Series rumor mills suggests Penske Racing, having now cleared a so-so 2009 Rolex Sports Car Series season, will not return for another.

Has Roger Penske become so inured of winning that he runs at the first sign of defeat?

LOSING A WAR
War can be ended, it seems, in many different ways when Merriam Webster enters the picture.

An "armistice" is a generalized cessation of hostilities and usually is viewed as a temporary condition, even though Nov. 11, 1918's Armistice Day generally is recognized as the end of The War To End All Wars. Nevertheless, World War I officially ended with the Treaty of Versailles, signed in June 1919 (which also, in hindsight, was the beginning of World War II or the Still Larger War To End All Wars that, of course, no more ended war than did Richard Gatling's gun - invented nearly 80-years earlier during the U.S. War Between The States - "render future war unthinkable.")

To "vanquish" is the conquering of an antagonist or, more plainly, one kicking another's butt.

"Surrender" is yielding oneself to the authority of another, and is how WWII is largely seen as having ended, though at different times on two fronts (Europe and Pacific, respectively).

Then there's "acquiesce," which The World According To Webster defines as "to accept or comply tacitly or passively: accept as inevitable or indisputable" and which, mixed with a dash of "surrender" and tad of "gives up" sounds most like that which rumor suggests Penske Racing as now undertaking.

GRAND-AM'S 2009 RULES QUAGMIRE
Grand-Am's competition bulletin-issuance hit a series' high-water mark in 2009, having easily eclipsed those issued in any previous single season and, for good measure, more than that of many combined seasons.

A few factors were at work - principal among which was an administration's desire to assure competitors a level playing field - but it's likely a few other factors were also at work.

All, for sure, involved humans. And humans err. That's just the way it is.

Porsche erred when it sent engines, sans complete exhaust systems, to be tested on Grand-Am's dynamometer; series officials erred when they tested those engines "as-was" and consequently produced false positives.

Series' staff and, ultimately, competition manager David Spitzer tried only to tweak the formula just enough to balance it, looking to do so through a gear change here, an RPM adjustment there and, initially, extra ballast that still remains even though the other changes came full circle by season's end.

It was that "full circle" which seemed to most bother Penske Racing and The Captain hisownself. Series' detractors often saw only Penske's Porsche as being "harmed" while conveniently overlooking likewise-affected Brumos Porsche's two-car inventory, if nothing else but to illogically damn NASCAR's France family - principals in both the series and the team (altogether ignoring other sanctioning-series' "families" having similar overlapping interests).

From top to bottom, even Penske personnel at times expressed belief the team was alone singled out, though Brumos Racing's No. 58 driver David Donohue, team consultant Gary Nelson and Brumos chief Hurley Haywood hardly believed so.

In a convenient oversight that smacks of factual cherry picking, series' detractors claimed the Brumos team was the recipient of favoritism whereas at the Rolex 24 Penske Racing experienced gearbox/transaxle failures (of a manufacturer different from that used by Brumos) and had drivers who in at least three subsequent races blew excellent race positions because they couldn't or wouldn't get their minds around a recognized rule - one followed by a clear majority of the series' other drivers.

HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN GOING ON?
"War" can last, give or take, as little as about 38-minutes (while many might be inclined in a first choice to go with the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six Day War, this writer favors 1896's Anglo-Zanzibar War).

War also has been known to span generations: Le Guerre de Cent Ans lasted roughly 116 years, including timeouts, but distilled by historians and those who were there at the time it came in at an even 100 years. The Irish and Scots fought the British for so long everyone lost count.

(And people, especially U.S. citizens, nowadays think an eight-year war inordinately long. Is such the result of the computer-game age; our want of 15-second microwaved hotdogs; Wall Street's emphasis on quickly maximized earnings; or, the desire not to end it quickly and decisively with one, well-placed nuke?)

Yet, whatever its length, a cessation of hostilities often involves either a flat-out trounce or people just flat-out giving up, as some claim did boxer Roberto Duran in his retroactively named "No Mas Fight" with Sugar Ray Leonard.

Still, unless honoring some otherwise imposed time-limit rule, individuals, singly or in concert largely decide when a war's “lost”; some running at the mere thought of defeat, while others accept and become strengthened through weathering adversity. (A Marine's sword, though largely iron, is steeled by heat.)

For instance, take Penn State's Joseph Vincent Paterno, now clearly the winningest coach thus far seen in college football (Florida's Urban Meyer, having just won his 50th game, would be the choice of many to follow suit; he only needs, oh, another 400-or-so wins) and had Paterno allowed a referee's final whistle or disgruntled fans to signal his war's end, Papa Joe would've been gone long ago.

In 2004, after years of across-the-board disappointment, many former fans were willing to help pack Papa Joe's bags and even help put him on the next train out of University Park. Coach Paterno, now 82-years old, at the time had already steered previous Penn State teams to numerous national and conference championships, five undefeated seasons and a host of bowl games (long before a bowl existed for every letter in the alphabet) but nevertheless was told by detractors it was time to end his career "gracefully, with head still held high."

In a 2004 New York Times story Paterno instead told author Pat Jordan, "I want to get this thing back where it belongs. I can't get out of it like this."

Today, it's pretty safe to say the Nittany Lions are starting to again figure in national championships.

During that time of turmoil Penn State could've elected to end Paterno's "Grand Experiment" - wherein high value is placed on morals, discipline, character and academic achievement over winning - and altogether shut down the football program. Sure, Beaver Stadium would've looked very lonely and it's doubtful, but school administrators could've.

Yet, neither quit on the other, despite the pressure; despite the embarrassment; despite ... despite ... despite ...

For each, the "war" wasn't and still isn't over, because you can bet your sweet bippy that when Papa Joe moves on, no matter the manner, Penn State won't at that time end its football program, either.

No sir, it'll keep fighting. Because while it may lose a season-long battle - or tally four losing seasons in five as the team had when the "Joe Must Go" crowd really hit its stride - the school is far too proud to surrender so easily.

So was Papa Joe.

IS QUITTING IN PENSKE'S DNA?
Roger Penske was a member of the Shaker Heights (Ohio) High football team when a motorcycle accident injured his ankle so badly that doctors strongly considered amputating the joint and its foot, but instead yielded to an eventually successful recovery.

In the aftermath and without physical rehabilitation of the sort regularly available today, Penske recovered enough to become a school football hero by playing a key role in the team's defeat of a longtime rival.

Later, two years after graduating from Lehigh University in 1959 but still carrying a love of speed that as a teenager put him in a hospital, Penske was named Sports Illustrated’s SCCA Driver of the Year; a year later, adding The New York Times' driver-of-the-year award.

Noting that the reader likely already has a decent idea of Penske's racing team ownership role, in the time period between winning his first major race while a Lehigh student in 1958 and solely focusing on team ownership in 1966, as a driver Penske would stand on podiums in nearly half of all races entered, finishing under power in more than 75-percent of the more than 100-races he started.

On the flip side, Penske's first-year foray into big-time sportscar racing ownership could've been prettier.

Fielding a Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport for Dick Guldstrand, Ben Moore and George Winterstein in the 1966 24-hour Daytona Continental ended well enough, finishing first in class (GT+3000), but the team's GS got hung out to dry at Sebring when driver Dick Thompson (co-driving with Guldstrand) got bumped so far off track that he took out a nearby home's clothesline. The, um, "excursion" also tore a little oil-pan hole that after a return to the track eventually bled dry and cooked the engine in the mid-afternoon Florida sun.

(The reader's surely seen cars, race or otherwise, which developed gobs of torque and, when accelerator pedal slammed against floorboard metal, would attempt to scoot a car's rear-end beneath its front, producing massive, absolutely massive launches of a car's front clip and wheels high into the air. One regularly sees such in drag-racers. Penske's GS Corvette had a Traco 427 in it. And did it ever "lift" but, when settled down, also scooted. A.J. Foyt, driving a Ford MkII at Sebring in '66, in the 1980's at Daytona recalled the GS as being "the fastest damn dinosaur I've ever seen. It'd blow by me on a straight like I was standing still." The car's biggest problem, though, arose in cornering. "That's where I returned the favor," Foyt said, referring the Ford's superior aerodynamics.)

Later in 1966, Penske and Mark Donohue (father of racer David, just in case no one is aware) teamed to campaign a Lola T70 MkII and still later, a MkIII in the Can-Am and United States Road Racing Championship sports car series -    winning two-consecutive USRRC championships and three SCCA Trans-Am titles.

The fuse was lit and life was good, especially after the duo in 1972 would win the first of Penske Racing's 15 Indy 500 trophies.

Then, on August 19, 1975, Mark Donohue – by then one of Penske's closest friends - died the day after his March 751 F1 car careened off-course at the Österreichring while practicing for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Roger Penske didn't walk from racing. Not that he financially couldn't have. He just didn't.

Fast-forward to 1994. By then, Penske's drivers had picked up another eight Borg-Warner Trophies - already as a team owner doing what no other had previously accomplished at Indianapolis.

At that year's race Team Penske drivers Al Unser Jr. (race winner; led 48 laps) and Emerson Fittipaldi (17th place; Lap-185 oversteer-induced crash; led 145 laps) led a combined 193 of the annual race's 200 laps - a race during which only one other driver, race-rookie Jacques Villeneuve, scored laps at the head of a field in which he'd eventually finish second (led seven laps; Forsythe/Green Racing).

In 1995, after first trying with his Mercedes-powered chassis, then borrowing Lolas from other teams, Fittipaldi and Unser failed to make the Indy 500 field. Admitting it to be one of the lower points in his racing career, Penske would not return to Indianapolis until 2001 - winning the race with a rookie driver named Helio Castroneves.

While at the time U.S. open-wheel's underlying currents - more like a riptide, actually - were speeding toward a chasm opened between CART and the embryonic Indy Racing League, Penske still didn't surrender in 1995 when he walked from a bitter but nonetheless rules-induced defeat at Indianapolis - rules which were specifically aimed at Penske Racing's rightly or wrongly perceived 1994 "unfair advantage" when the team, using Mercedes pushrod engines, purely and surely dominated the Indy 500.

Indeed, since his 2001 Indy 500 win, Penske won another four Indy 500 trophies - including 2009’s with Castroneves (his third) at the wheel.

And that's principally why Penske Racing isn't going anywhere.

It just isn't in the man's character to quit.

Later,

DC

SOUL: DRIVERS; NOT CARS

 

Oh, surely, engineers and auto clave specialists can put "something" into a race car while producing it - after all, craftsmanship is an important if not dying skill - but unless one is deeply into sportscar racing's dark side then who would know that Elliott Forbes-Robinson was driving a Suzuka-Harris (or was it a Harris-Suzuka?) at Riverside when a tire shredded, big time?

Or that Davy Jones and Arie Luyendyk drove a Brawn-Piper-Thomas in 1992 while Price Cobb and John Nielsen drove a Southgate prior to the Brawn-Piper-Thomas iteration?

Not long after meeting Fergie (aka Sarah, Duchess of York), Cobb would join Pete Halsmer in a stunningly beautiful but very, very hot 1992 Dykstra-Katz , in the construction of which Max and Jan Crawford rendered an assist (as did they on others).

Anyone remember the 1993 Fujimori-Ward driven by Juan Manuel Fangio II?

Like most airplane passengers who think flight occurs solely or mainly as a result of engine thrust, most so-described sportscar techies likely haven't even a clue as to the definition of "lift" nor the identity of those who countered its most extreme circumstance in race car designs.

Oh, of course, there'll be a few folks who'll be able to quickly name the above cars and their associated designers. Baffled others will at least care enough to Bing a couple or three. Some might even turn to Websites like Michael Fuller's.

Clueless, most will get glassy-eyed and altogether miss the point being made: A.J. Foyt and Dan Gurney drove a Ford GT40 MkII; Alan McNish and Tom Christensen - the latter being Le Mans' winningest driver - drove an Audi R10; Scott Pruett drove to a Rolex 24 at Daytona crown eight (or is it nine?) times.

Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, are not cars. They made cars great; not the other way around.

REMEMBERING WHEN
There seems a tendency by those either in or along the periphery of the open-wheel and sportscar worlds to badmouth NASCAR's generally left-turning drivers - the complainers, evidently incapable of looking for, much less seeing good in something else, generally tend toward snoozing when exposed.

While paying his journalist dues toiling on newspaper lifestyle features, at roughly the same time this writer similarly worked in racing's support areas, amateur and professional.

It was at a time he also often anxiously awaited ESPN's embryonic Wednesday and Thursday evening Midget and Sprint car races. It was through those very same radio waves that a young Jeff Gordon - still using his momma's eyebrow pencil to enhance his mustache - became known outside of the USAC community.

About the same time, some guy from a once relatively obscure North Carolina town was named NASCAR Sprint (nee Winston) Cup Rookie of the Year.

Weeks later at a lunch break during a Daytona International Speedway winter test a jeans and plaid shirt-wearing Dale Earnhardt held court with a small knot of reporters along the pit road wall.

Watching it all unfold from a little farther up pit road, this race car guy at the time wasn't impressed with the new king wannabe and carried that feeling with him for years afterward.

Still, closely watching him and 42 others, though part of a job that paid nothing, was required.

As was the case with any intently watched driver, Earnhardt's preferred DIS line would be duly noted because, as is the case with any other driver driving any race course anywhere, a deviation from the norm signaled something amiss. Often, it could signal a driver undertaking desperate measures that consequently increased the likelihood of wrecking.

Though Earnhardt's 34 total DIS race victories still leads the track’s all time race-win statistics, he didn't always have the best car. Still, he darn sure could make a silk purse out of a hog's ear as good as anyone, taking a poor-handling car and still finish with a top-5 or top-10.

It was Earnhardt's ability to make a bad car do good things that ultimately gained many observers' begrudging but considerable appreciation of him, this one included.

YA GOTTA LOVE IT
ALMS mouthpieces love to belittle the Rolex Series' supposedly pumped-up race attendance and TV viewership counts.

As if cued, comes this end-of-year back pat from the Acura PR machine:

"Acura Motorsports teams and drivers dominated the 2009 American Le Mans Series with record runs in both the LMP1 and LMP2 prototype classes.

"The 2009 10-race ALMS campaign concluded last weekend with another Acura 1-2-3 overall finish at Laguna Seca Raceway. It marked the fifth time in 2009 that Acura placed in the top three positions overall. Acura became the first carmaker in ALMS history to win both the LMP1 and LMP2 classes in the same season."

"... Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz scored eight LMP2 class wins in their Acura ARX-01b. That mark tied the 2007 LMP2 win record of Penske Racing with drivers Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas ..."

Should the reader need amplification, then review the 2009 LMP1 points standings here and the 2009 LMP2 points standings here and try to divine a couple or eight reasons as to why Acura "dominated" the 2009 American Le Mans Series."

Surely, even Marx and Engels would be impressed with the, um, statement.

TOTAL WORLD DOMINATION
The vagaries of economics and racing having forced GM's hand in 2009, it decided to take its Team Corvette traveling show and switch from GT1 to GT2, but only after the 24 Heures du Mans.

As a result, Team Corvette as a GT1 team ran in but one of ALMS' first five events, then competed in the season's remaining races as a GT2 competitor.

Still, Team Corvette No. 3's Jan Magnussen and Johnny O'Connell finished sixth in GT2 championship points.

Does anyone doubt where Team Corvette will finish in 2010?

Next Question: Does anyone know why the ALMS' GT1 class died?

Last Question (for now): Do GT2 teams realize the class-killing Vette is now looking to take them out?

FIGURING LE MANS IN THE ALMS CHAMPIONSHIP
It seems as though certain races yearly play a big role in a racing championship's determination. Let's look at the role Le Mans played in the hunt for the American Le Mans Series 2009 championship.

LMP1: David Brabham and Scott Sharp won the ALMS LMP1 2009 championship in an Acura ARX-02a, scoring three wins and eight podiums in 10 races. Driving a Peugeot 908 HDI FAP (not Acura?), Brabham shared an overall win with co-drivers Alexander Wurz and Marc Gene. However, the Planet Earthman's Le Mans win did not contribute any points whatsoever to his ALMS championship tally. Mr. Sharp did not compete at Le Mans, much less derive points from the competition to which the ALMS so closely ties itself.

LMP2: Already noted above, Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz scored eight LMP2 class wins in their Acura ARX-01b despite not scoring a Le Mans podium - in which race they didn't compete, anyway. And, actually, neither did an Acura ARX-02a or ARX-01b.

GT1: Honestly, this writer's confused. Here's the deal: Just as in most GT1 years gone by, Chevrolet's Team Corvette in 2009 ran virtually unchallenged. The manufacturer, with drivers Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin led all GT1 year-end points category totals (save tires, which Michelin took hands down) yet there's no mention of a 2009 GT1 Championship actually having been awarded during the ALMS' "Night of Champions." No matter, Baretta and Gavin pulled a DNF at Le Mans and thus it did not figure in the GT1 non-award. Not that it would have, anyway. (Look Mark, like Steve Wesoloski wouldn’t, GM’s Jim Lutz won’t talk to me anyway. I might as well finally irritate you, too.)

GT2: Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long's Flying Lizards Porsche 997 dominated their class, winning six of 10 races but neither driver finished a non-points-paying 24 Heures du Mans, anyway.

Challenge: Martin Snow and Melanie Snow, who got off to a great Salt Lake City launch in the Challenge championship when they were the only such car in-class. And, no, Le Mans didn't figure in this class championship either. Then again, Le Mans didn't at all have a "Challenge" class.

Final Score: of the combined number of drivers at the top of each ALMS class, five (half) drove in the 2009 24 Heures du Mans and none (zero, nada) scored points applicable to the American Le Mans championship – even the one who won the race.

GETTING NAILED
In something that seems akin to a bank robber blaming a bank teller for getting caught, ALMS issued the following:

"Following the closing laps and finish of the GT2 race Saturday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, IMSA officials placed Jörg Bergmeister and Jan Magnussen on a two-race probation period for the start of the 2010 season with a minimum two race suspension in abeyance.

"Should either driver commit further offenses in the first two rounds of 2010, the participant will receive at minimum a two-race ban from competition by IMSA, which sanctions the American Le Mans Series." (sic)

The above sounding as though it came from a certain ALMS obfuscator, perhaps you’d like a translation: "Based on their actions at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, should either Jörg Bergmeister or Jan Magnussen do anything that angers ALMS officials in 2010's first two races they'll be told to stay home for two races thereafter. They can go back to having fun at the third race."

Check the 2004 Rolex Series' Miami race for a far longer-lasting Magnussen bump and grind. Bergmeister, the 2006 Rolex Series Daytona Prototype champ, doesn't similarly ring anybody's chimes. 

Later,

DC

GRAN PRIX DE MIAMI SHORTS - HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY

 

RACE-CHANGING DIFFERENCE
The 2.3-mile, nine-turn Homestead-Miami Speedway road course finally "lost" the driver-right gravel trap formerly located between the road course's first and second infield turns.

Designed to cushion and ensnare cars which failed to safely negotiate a transition from the track's highest-speed section to its slowest, the trap successfully filled its purpose but needlessly often caused numerous cautions thrown only to free trapped cars.

Usually having suffered no damage other than a driver's bruised ego, cars would afterward be dragged from the pit in an excruciatingly slow process that did little more than spread gravel where it shouldn't be - causing still further delay of green-flag racing.

Demonstrated more than once during Saturday's Grand Prix of Miami, the now grass-covered area serves to slow individual wayward cars; not every car in that race.

Kudos go to the HMS staff for ridding the track of an unnecessary detriment.

ROGER'S BIG LESSON
"The one thing I learned is that they (Rolex Series officials) should've left the rules alone at the beginning of the (2009) season because, basically, they detuned us," Roger Penske said.

ROGER'S NEXT BIGGEST LESSON?
No. 12 Verizon Wireless Porsche-Riley drivers Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard didn't seem to get their individual or collective heads around a Rolex Series restart rule that demands competitors retain their respective caution-flag position until having actually taken the green flag at a race track's start/finish line.

Such happened twice to Dumas earlier in the year (Virginia International Raceway and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca) when the No. 12 Verizon Wireless Porsche-Riley was in a contending position. It happened again - this time with Bernhard at the wheel in seventh place - with about 20-min. remaining and with the Penske Racing team in the midst of another strong run.

Learning of the third-such 2009 infraction, Bernhard pled his case as best as possible over the radio, saying he had nowhere to go after the cars in front failed to accelerate quickly enough.

The moment provided a poetic punctuation mark to the end of a 2009 season that many inside and outside of the series thought was Penske's for the taking.

Winning a championship being another matter, still this writer would've thought someone fit for funny farm admission had an "oh-for" prediction been rendered at season's start.

RACE TIMIING
Early in the race, while the rest of the field took the race's first green-flag restart, Memo Rojas was in a slow, simultaneous drive down pit road in his Chip Ganassi Racing w/Felix Sabates No. 01 TELMEX Lexus-Riley.

Rojas had started the Telmex car in seventh spot and pretty well hung out there for the race's first 30-minutes but team director Tim Keene called the No. 01 Telmex car into the pits for service and driver change to Scott Pruett shortly after the race's first caution flag waved - returning the Telmex car to the field's rear with the race leaders lurking but two corners behind.

At the moment Keene looked to many as though he'd altogether blown - a la Montreal - the final race's pit strategy.

The World According to Keene was mostly righted about 45-minutes later with the race's third yellow (of six, total) when Pruett (and superior pit work) put the Telmex car back on the track in front of the No. 99 - which had to absolutely, positively be beaten for the Telmex team to even possibly retain the DP driving championship.

Yet, the defending champs were fighting an uphill battle.

"We had to shake things up; do what others weren't doing," Keene said. "We had to think outside of the box."

While the Telmex guys yielded the championship trophy to the team from which it was wrested in 2008, it showed spunk by managing to climb another ladder-rung higher than where it had been in the standings before the HMS race, finishing second in DP driver points.

CAT ON A SUN(Trust)-HOT TIN ROOF
Let us first establish the premise that Wayne Taylor really gets wound up. Such is not to convey a good or bad connotation - after all, Taylor for decades has clearly shown an ability to race and win. But a launched, unsheathed claws-flailing kitty ain't got a thing on Taylor.

Opening driver Brian Frisselle put the No 10 SunTrust Ford-Dallara on the outside pole with a 1:13.163 at 113.172 mph run, next to pole-winner Jon Fogarty and his No. 99 Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac-Riley.

The Grand Prix of Miami's first caution flag likewise figured prominently for Daytona Prototype championship contender SunTrust when the team pulled qualifier and race-starter Frisselle short of a necessary 30-minute, points-scoring mark in favor of seasoned veteran Max Angelelli.

"The intent is to put him back in the car but we've got to think of the championship," Taylor said soon afterward. "The way we were losing time it seems like the right thing to do. We've got to win this race."

In what seemed more orchestrated than not, Frisselle would later say that he'd gladly fall on his sword - meaning he wouldn't mind not winning a driving crown - if the team came out the better as a result. Man, there isn't a driver in the world worth his salt who doesn't think he's the more capable; period.

Well, the team's Pirelli tires still faded faster than those of its competitors, suggesting the SunTrust team's Dallara or team engineering was more the problem than the P-Zero tires that most in the Rolex Series paddock nonetheless love to hate for exactly the same reason.

"I'm a little disgusted with, um, the materials," Taylor said without elaboration but hinting such as being the principal reason behind Frisselle's earlier driving-job relief.

Like nemesis Telmex, the SunTrust team had to try all it could to win the championship for it, too, had to more or less win the race to claim the overall crown. But, like the Telmex team, it came up short.

On the Grand-Am Weekly radio show earlier in the week, Angelelli had said there was no way he was taking a chance on a post-race, car-drive up Florida's Turnpike from Homestead to Orlando with Taylor.

"I've got a flight booked to Orlando," Angelelli said, "There's no way I'm spending four hours in a car with Wayne, especially if we don't win the championship."

With 28-min. remaining in the race, Angelelli brought the No. 10 car down pit road so that Frisselle could get back in the seat, for sure dropping the pair one place, to third, in the championship standings.

WONDERING ABOUT THINGS YELLOW
Did race director Mark Raffauf give in and finally make racing all about manipulating the show?

Rewind to the 2006 Mexico City race where NASCAR chairman Brian France appeared. A friend of Chip Ganassi and TELMEX owner Carlos Slim Domit, France was cheering for "his" team while in the No. 01's pit box.

As that race droned on - as races often do at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez - France perceived a bunching of the field as the best means by which the Telmex car might contend for the win and thus repeatedly shouted for a yellow flag. Now, before panties get all wadded and conspiracy theorists start running mouths before brains are engaged, like football coaches yelling for the "next" penalty, there ain't a race team owner or fan alive who hasn't yelled, prayed or pined for something that otherwise didn't happen.

Still, while some in the vicinity perceived France's shouts as an order, he later insisted it was merely his getting wrapped up in the moment, no less than have many fans.

Regardless, Raffauf didn't call for a yellow and, in fact, the race continued green from that point until its conclusion.

Back in "real time," red of face and flushed from the heat caused by a GAINSCO/GNC cockpit he'd just surrendered to co-driver Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty wondered aloud if perhaps the Miami Grand Prix's earliest yellow flags had been artificially induced.

"They keep falling at opportune times for our competition; first at Utah, then here and I'm starting to wonder," Fogarty said as he left the listener to fill in the blanks on just what the driver actually wondered.

Later, a couple of inopportune (for the competition) yellows flew just as the GAINSCO/GNC Pontiac engine too rapidly started nearing the end of its life (literally and figuratively, huh?) in the race's dwindling laps.

"We're not sure why but the engine started going soft there at the end," team-owner Bob Stallings later said.

"It's been pretty tough fight this year and the competition gets tougher each successive season, so I expect next year it to be even harder in the championship fight - but I want a third."

So it is said; so shall it be done?

FROM LAST TO THIRD
Speaking of tough battles, Oswaldo Negri was last in the Daytona Prototype field early in his stint but worked his No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ford-Riley to a third-place podium finish by race end, helping win the Jim Trueman Sportsman award for co-driver and patron Mark Patterson.

Contrasting Negri's quiet, calm demeanor outside of a race car with that of the Brazilian's mentality while within one, Patterson laughingly said of Negri, "He's the meanest, most evil religious guy you'll ever meet in your life."

DRINKIN' MATE GOES DOWN GOOD
"Better to be lucky than good," driver Kelly Collins often has said.

But when you get lucky and are good like Collins and co-driver Paul Edwards, good things then can happen.

Such finally did so Saturday for the Leighton Reese-owned No. 07 Drinkin' Mate Pontiac XP.R team at Homestead-Miami Speedway when the 2008 championship-winning team won its first Acxiom GT race of the season in what may be the former factory sponsored team's swan-song event.

It didn't come easily, to be sure.

At the wheel for the first part of the race, Collins went a lap down to the field when a flat-tire fix was necessitated shortly after a brush with the No. 69 FXDD Mazda RX8 of Jeff Segal.

On the incident, Collins angrily said, "He was a lap down. He didn't get it back on the lead lap following the restart and wasn't fighting for position. He was blocking me for two laps."

WILL BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK'S RECORD CONTINUE?
Just when you get into a dependable routine, something comes along and changes it.

Life does those things, you know.

As has happened for five seasons, the winner of the Barber Motorsports Park Rolex Series race - race eight of the 2009 12-race schedule - went on to win the series' championship.

In July, Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney won the 2009 BMP race and, consequently, the Daytona Prototype drivers' championship Saturday.

For 2010, though, the Birmingham, Alabama race has been moved to April - the season's third race.

TAKING THE GT CROWN, FINALLY
"For me it was really huge," Dirk Werner, driver of the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Porsche, said of his and co-driver Lehman Keen's final drive to the Acxiom GT driving championship - one that could've been "wrapped" at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah three weeks ago if not for Werner's misplaced, late-race passing attempt that has since been replayed way too many times.

Previously, one would expect someone as talented as Werner to contend in a championship hunt. Now, one expects the same of Keen, who this season consistently exhibited considerable skill at the wheel.

The pair will switch to a BMW for the 2010 Rolex Series' Acxiom GT season and, should the car be up to snuff, Keen and Werner will be a tough team to beat in 2010. Yet, one expected the same of both Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand's respective BMW teams over in that other series, too.

AN APPROPRIATE EXCLAMATION POINT ON THE WEEKEND
Just as the initial green flag started waving for the start of Saturday's Miami Grand Prix, "An indiscretion with the law," is how SPEEDtv's Leigh Diffey termed J.C. France's absence from Brumos Racing's No. 59 Porsche Riley.

When the Australian quickly went to describing the race action moments later, complaints started flowing and reached a similar second crescendo at race end after little more was said on the subject of J.C France's arrest for various reasons - one involving possession of cocaine - early Thursday in Daytona Beach.

"Why did Speed try to hide it?" said one person watching the race on television, expressing a theme echoed by another viewer, also critical of the broadcast team, "for failing" to go into greater depth.

The main reason would be that SPEEDtv's race-day job isn't to cover something already well covered. No further breaking news on the subject had occurred and thus relegated the story to old news.

In short: Diffey and crew dealt with that which was occurring, not that which had already been clearly documented.

The two-car Brumos Racing team, the face of which will likely change in many ways come 2010, won the 2009 season's first race at Daytona and coasted - after a darn hard fight to get there - to the No. 1 podium at the 2009 finale in Homestead.

Jaoa Barbosa and Hurley Haywood - the latter teaming with J.C. France in 2003 to score the Daytona Prototype class' first overall victory here - captured the win fair and square despite the team's numerous distractions.

Meanwhile, it's a bummer that too many human beings can take such obvious delight at the distress of another.

Later,

DC

HATING ALL THINGS NASCAR

 

In what appeared to be nothing more than a thinly veiled Oct. 2 attack via Twitter, "almsnotes" gave the world: "Interesting - ALMS marques BMW, Audi and Porsche saw increases in U.S. sales for Sept. NASCAR marques Ford and Toyota were down" (SIC).

Just a passing comment from someone on that side of the fence who was wondering about things cosmic; to be sure.

Then again, the above emanated from the same organization whose CEO, Scott Atherton, in July 2007, derided NASCAR for the latter's adoption of "cleaner" racing fuels, ripping NASCAR CEO Brian France by name while also extolling ALMS' "green" efforts in an "it's-all-about-us" moment not unlike those utilized by former Soviet Union leaders who never seemed to miss a moment to tell the world of the Soviet Union's greatness in all things. That would be the same "workers paradise" which collapsed from within during the latter part of the 20th century.

Yet, one would think praise would've been in order, perhaps even if only backhandedly so, should saving the Earth truly be ALMS' intended "green" goal as opposed to, say, crass commercialism.

Atherton's NASCAR reaction, though, didn't seem much different from that of a schizophrenic teacher, who having previously chastised a student for poor grades, then slaps that student for subsequently producing an improved report card.

Meanwhile, legions of ALMS fans - or maybe it's just one ALMS fan speaking legions - have time and again pointed the fickle finger of accusation at Grand-Am administrators, incorrectly claiming the latter have over the years have either repeatedly predicted or sought the ALMS' demise, publicly.

The ALMS’ faithful wailing and gnashing of teeth rose to a recent peak when one NASCAR type, Jim Hunter - long irritated over the public potshots his "family" has taken - took umbrage with recent ALMS rules changes that suddenly facilitate acceptance of Rolex Series race cars formerly thought, if not outwardly portrayed as beneath worthy of being in an ALMS competition.

OFFICIALLY UNOFFICIAL
The highest-finishing petite Petite Le Mans LMP2 car, the No. 20 Lola B09 86 Mazda of Butch Leitzinger, Marino Franchitti and Ben Devlin, was as many as two laps behind the five GT2 cars finishing ahead of it and nine laps in arrears to the No. 20 Lola B09 86 Mazda of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith.

Now, how could the No. 20 Dyson Lola B09 86 Mazda win with the No. 20 Dyson Lola B09 86 Mazda having posted nine additional laps?

Answer: 2005 Maserati MC 12.

Well, kinda sorta.

A production car not available at your average U.S. car-dealership showroom, the 2005 MC-12 wasn't approved for competition under the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) rules ("homologated" in rules parlance), thus also lacked approval for competition by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) - you know, the Yurrupean rules body with which the ALMS so enjoys identifying itself, as in "LeMans" this and "LeMans" that.

Using an "unapproved" approved race car in the course of winning its LMPBBTF class (you figure it out) at the recent Petit Le Mans, the unofficially named No. 16 "Pond Scum" Lola Mazda was unofficially termed an "experimental exercise" because it utilized biobutanol for fuel instead of one of the series' approved fuels.

For now attempting to get beyond the abstraction of allowing a car to race with a fuel that wasn't approved, butanol is a four-carbon alcohol - butyl alcohol - that much like ethanol can be produced via fermentation and is derived from two principal sources: biodegradable, such as recently publicized "swamp scum," and thus is distinguished as biobutanol; or, "dead dinosaurs" and thus is named "petrobutanol" even though each method's end product actually has the same chemical signature.

Though butanol has been around for the better part of 100 years, it's largely been treated as a bi-product of a previously more desirable product and thus has yet to be studied at length - especially insofar as environmental impact is concerned - though DuPont and British Petroleum are hard at work on boosting the product's use.

Remember one thing: if "it" burns, "it" also has a carbon signature, whether ethanol, butanol or "fossil."

Still butanol's an interesting fuel and more information can be found starting with this U.S. Department of Energy Website.

Indeed, so much of an experimental exercise was the No. 16 that it "officially" was sent to the rear of the ALMS Petit LeMans grid even though the fuel was known to be unofficial. Still the No. 16 Lola Mazda posted an official unofficial seventh-place finish. (Look, this writer didn't make up the ALMS/SCO/Petit Le Mans rules, dude).

The No. 16 car really wasn't at Petit LeMans, just like the Maserati in 2005 or the Porsche Spyders for at least part of the 2008 season and, quite possibly, still other non-existent race cars at still other times. And, no, we'll not get into the GT2 Team Corvette cars, which this year are running and winning with at least one ACO rule book exception (engine) that it supposedly won't get to keep in 2010 - assuming ALMS' adherence to the ACO's rule book, right Porsche? Nah, the ALMS wouldn't do anything contrary to the ACO. Would it?

Then, to further muck the water that flowed down Road Atlanta's hillsides, post-Petit LeMans "Tweet" by at least one recognized, reputable motorsports writer claimed one Dyson Lola Mazda used a "2008 wing" during the race. Problem: which Dyson Lola Mazda used it, the "experimental exercise" or the other car?

Now please, before anyone starts hacking-up hairballs, ALMS' past rules-bending - at least insofar as that darn ACO rule book is concerned - is such that its grids haven't always, well, been wholly defined by procedures found in the ACO rules book. So don’t be blaming a Dyson team that was allowed to do as it did.

 

For 2010, Atherton and company are at least admitting as much.

Huh?

"I’ve said before that it’s difficult to run a 10-race series across very diverse venues with a set of rules that have been optimized for a single event around a very unique circuit that occurs one weekend per year," Atherton said of the rationale ALMS used in deciding to altogether occasionally, partly and/or wholly ditch the ACO's 2010 rule book for seven of the ALMS' nine races set for next season.

Give or take, of course; races and/or rules.

"It hasn’t been an excuse but an acknowledgment of how the way things have been,” Atherton added, evidently having recently channeled a more succinct Roger Edmondson point made on the same subject shortly after Grand-Am's founding in 2000.

 

IT'S TIME FOR HE SAID; HE SAID!

That's right, sportscar fans, it's time for another edition of "What He Really Said!" or, "Balderdash Translated!"

ATHERTON: "We are the first movers to embrace a value-based new set of classes while at the same time retaining the core elements of what has made the American Le Mans Series the benchmark professional sportscar racing series in modern times."

WHAT HE REALLY SAID: "We have decided that the ACO's rules won't work here most of the time but - in yet another great example of obfuscation - the fans (the ones whom we formerly claimed to be 'for') may or may not see something that really is or isn't there or here or, perhaps, anywhere at all."

Get that?

Okay, let's try it another way:

The ALMS, sanctioned by IMSA and, perhaps, at various times possibly following rules established or not established by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, will hold two LeMans-style rules races in 2010 for which the competing race cars may or may not be defined under ACO rules and to which the ALMS may or may not apply still another set of rules.

The rest of the schedule, seven races, will be conducted under a completely different set of rules other than wholly under those specified by the ACO, the latter either having no clue as to what the ALMS is doing (lost in translation) or are are satisfied with the franchise-fee check having cleared.

The ALMS at its races, not the ACO, will decide who can do what, when, where and how so as to get enough cars on the grid because that which the series previously believed would work has been demonstrably proven otherwise.

"The new format for 2010 will create more opportunities for more teams and manufacturers to participate in the American Le Mans Series, while at the same time providing fans with the chance to see new cars, teams and drivers in both prototype and GT competition," Atherton said.

Thus, as it now apparently stands, a race team seeking and winning a 2010 ALMS championship might not get an invite to a 24 Heures Du Mans because a race attendee may, or may not see, depending on the set of official rules undertaken, a team competing outside of the Le Mans rules at the same time while competing under the ALMS rules - not THE Le Mans rules; the AMERICAN Le Mans Series rules.

Look, using Pi ("as in pi are round; cornbread are square"), multiply the square root of the primary colors' main integer, cubed, to get the answer.

Huh?

Exactly!

ATHERTON: “As everyone knows, there’s a lot of different ways to go racing. We’re not suggesting there isn’t a way to spend more money racing with (the Le Mans Prototype Challenge) but it’s going to be a very tightly controlled example; sealed engines, single tire supplier, limited suspension adjustments, limited gear ratios. The point is that everyone’s going to have the same tool. And the point is affordability and value.”

WHAT HE REALLY SAID: "Spec series!"

“Au contraire! Zee ALMS eez not a spec series nor weeel it allow tube-frame cars! Nehvehr!”

Then, using Pi, multiply the square root of the primary colors' main integer, cubed, to get the answer.

Huh?

Exactly!

And for what price in 2010 can one run what one brung? According to those having had a look-see, a good five-figures' worth for two races: Sebring and Petit Le Mans. But ya gotta give 'em credit: the remaining seven races will cost only a few hundred dollars more.

Having already quoted Atherton, here's another; one of Ol' DC's favorites, in fact, straight out of The New York Times.

"Dude, you wouldn't believe where I am," Atherton was quoted by Times reporter Dave Caldwell in a Feb. 16, 2005, story.

At this point, one has to wonder if anyone else has a clue, either.

Care to disagree? Call (386) 523-1880 Tuesday from 7:05 p.m. to 8 p.m. EDT and we'll wedge you in somewhere on Grand-Am Weekly with guests Scott Pruett, Max Angelelli and Alex Gurney. Wyatt won’t hang up on you. Promise.

Later,

DC

THE POINT SPREAD

 

The Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 championship race as is currently situated - give or take.

ACXIOM GT

Ground yourself for a major earth shaker: Leh Keen and Dirk Werner have won the Rolex Series' 2009 Acxiom GT Drivers' Championship. 

Yep, though No. 07 Drinkin' Mate Pontiac GXP.R driver Paul Edwards eliminated himself for The Glen II during an attempt at going down (okay; downhill) (yes, yes, okay, okay; in a downhill mountain bike crash) co-driver Kelly Collins has a mathematical chance at winning the driving championship being only 30-points down to the drivers of the No. 87 FarnbacherLoles Porsche GT3.

With respect due to a heckuva driver, Collins' has about as good of a chance as hitting the moon with a BB or, heck, for that matter, a 30/06.

For the sake of debate, let's say Collins and Edwards combine for a first-place finish in the Oct. 10 Grand Prix of Miami at Homestead-Miami Speedway on the way to which the Drinkin' Mate Duo on the first lap accidentally on purpose punt that pesky South Carolinian Keen and German Werner entirely out of the race (with no one getting hurt, of course).

Based on the number of Miami Grand Prix entrants as this was posted, even should such an outlandish situation occur the BMW, er, Porsche drivers will lead the Acxiom GT championship parade two days later up the road in Hollywood, Fla., at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino (does the image of a Seminole tribesman getting into hard rock seem as strange to you? Like tossing Florida State University's "Chief Fullabull," it's time to adjust, huh?).

All of the above being said, Drinkin' Mate car-owner Leighton Reese, Collins and Edwards should get some sort of major recognition for sticking out the season after General Motors at Mid-Ohio tossed the former Pontiac-supported team on their keisters.

ACXIOM GT MANUFACTURER POINTS

Porsche wins it; Pontiac is runner-up, seeing as the numbers and scenario doesn't differ a whole lot from that diagrammed above.

IN THE MANFACTURER PENALTY CHAMPIONSHIP

Really, check it out: on the Rolex Manufacturer Points page.

Wow, it's tougher to figure than initially imagined.

Barber Motorsports Park leads as the track having had the most penalties levied. Lexus and Pontiac are tied for the lead in all DP-connected manufacturers but if one throws in the Mid-Ohio Pontiac GT-related penalties the soon nonexistent carmaker breaks cleanly into the lead by five points. Porsche is a distant third under either scenario. For some odd reason that mean ol' nefarious Riley chassis not only leads all chassis makers with 10 penalty points but is in a class by itself, literally.

Go Pontiac!

DAYTONA PROTOTYPE

Though Ford has cleaned clocks in the Daytona Prototype Engine Manufacturer category with 356 points (congrats to John Maddox and his Roush Yates Engines team) to Pontiac's 315 second-place points, and Riley Technologies has won its umpteenth-straight DP Chassis Manufacturer title (351 pt. to Dallara's decent second-year but catchin'-up showing of 315 pt.) the Daytona Prototype Driver Championship title has not been settled - such unsettled feeling being de rigueur in the Rolex Series' championships hunt.

Inasmuch as one manufacturer's product may be preferred over another - thus likely  present at any one event is a greater number of one brand as compared to another brand - points-title awards therefore generally then depend in large part on the "popularity" of a product, which to this capitalist pig is the essence of how a democracy "works" because one "votes" with money. (Still, someone, somewhere "knows better" is prepared to tell everyone else such, too.)

If anything, automobile race-sanctioning bodies (save the ALMS) are "socialistic" in that they strive for pure equality - an ideal steeped in utopian ideology - as rules writers attempt to balance or juggle a diverse playing field wherein the strengths of one power plant or chassis are not precisely mimicked in another. (Despite those thirsting for such, the ALMS' "system" will herein presently escape definition, er, description, um, whatever.)

Unfortunately, however much one may otherwise strive, a human element is always interjected into the process. Like that which we singularly refer to as “automobile,” humans have many different parts, or aspects, which can vary widely within just one human (bipolar disorder comes to mind, as does someone having such) and much more so as each human is added to the equation. After all, it's highly doubtful that any two people, however "close" in spirit or body, will uniformly think alike and not at some point disagree even should each desire achievement of a shared goal, however important such may be to even a society. (A 1950's controversy between Drs. Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin comes to mind, wherein both sought a polio vaccine but one vehemently attacked the efficacy of what eventually became the only inoculation method available today in the U.S.)

You really want to know? Really?

Okay, the ALMS is as close as anything today to that which John and Peg Bishop created with their original Can-Am (yes, it was an SCCA "corporate" product, but the Bishops created it). Without getting too deep, the original Can-Am was "run what you brung" or, in modern vernacular, "LHP" (Le HodgePodge) - something the Bishops today realize was also Can-Am's undoing. But more on LHP at another time. (Those just brought to ire need to hang in there another few days for an under-construction blog so as to not expend an otherwise good bender too early.)(Then again, go ahead should the need exist; it's doubtful minds will be changed, anyway.)

Though the DP engine manufacturer's title is out of reach, Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty ("Blackhawk" No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac-Riley), along with team-owner Bob Stallings, want to win the driving title for Pontiac, having so stated back at Mid-Ohio even when GM pulled the plug on yet another car division. After this year Pontiac hasn't a chance to win a title almost anywhere, save something like "Class Fiero."

The GAINSCO driving team, breaking into the lead after their second-place late-August Montreal finish, has accumulated 309 points to lead the championship pursuit as the Rolex Series heads to Florida's southland (roughly a 5-hour drive south of Daytona Beach; J.C. France can make it in 40-minutes) for the season's concluding, all-on-the table, gotta win or try-again-next-year race.

Eight-points behind in second with 301 points are Brian Frisselle, who has capably responded in the face of intense early season pressure, and a smooth-like-fine-Italian-wine Max Angelelli - once so feared his moniker was "Max The Axe" 'cause he'd chop whoever, whenever. Owner Wayne Taylor doesn't handle defeat well because he's just not into it; never really has been. You can bet his No. 10 SunTrust Ford-Dallara is as clean, slick and as tight as Simon Hodgson and the guys back at the Indy shop could possibly make it and don't be surprised if Max wields his axe with vigor one more, perhaps final time at HMS. 

Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas are in third in the driving championship with 299 points, in arrears by two-points and 10-points to Angelelli/Frisselle and Fogarty/Gurney, respectively. Rojas and, especially, Pruett already have earned more  Rolex watches than a majority of people will even see over a lifetime but aren't likely to refuse still another, each. Wanting to go out on the highest-possible octave, the defending Rolex Series champions' Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix Sabates No. 01 TELMEX Riley have alone sung Lexus' swan song in 2009, save a sole Rolex 24 At Daytona stable mate.

Elementarily speaking, for SunTrust or TELMEX to have even a chance of wrestling the championship from the GAINSCO team, the second- and third-place teams must finish ahead of the blood-red No. 99. Thus, with simplicity in mind (which will leave us after a few paragraphs):

No other scenario will play any role whatsoever should GAINSCO's Fogarty and Gurney finish ahead of the others and therefore the two drivers will score a second set of Rolex timepieces in three seasons (um, doesn't 2009 - 2007 = 2?) but the Bob Stallings-owned team only bolts from the series after Fogarty, Gurney, Jimmie Johnson and Marcos Ambrose put an exclamation point on a following win at the Jan. 30-31, 2010, Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Assuming SunTrust's Angelelli and Frisselle win the Miami Grand Prix, they'll also win the championship should the GAINSCO team finish fifth or worse. Given that Angelelli and team-owner Taylor are all but joined at the hip, Frisselle is the only driver on the team who need wonder as to his exact standing for 2010 and beyond (don't forget, two talented Taylor offspring, Ricky and Jordan, are in the wings, learning the family trade). Regardless, Frisselle in 2009 will have demonstrated a champion's key component: overcoming distraction and pressure. Sure, he screwed up at Barber Motorsports Park; name a driver that hasn't sometime; somewhere.

Los hombres Pruett y Rojas va a ganar el campeonato si Fogarty y Gurney terminar en séptima posición. Mi amigo José Sabates entonces danza de sombrero o, quizás, Cha-cha-chá en la Callejuela de Victoria de Homestead-Miami! Olé!

Beyond an elementary "first-place" explanation, wrestling the championship from the present leaders - especially for Pruett and Rojas when the pair must also overtake the SunTrust team to win the championship - figuring points relative to other finishing positions becomes somewhat more complicated, if not confusing, because successive finishing positions are awarded disproportionate numbers of points.

With such in mind, below is a points grid through 11 spots, which should give the reader a fairly good feel.

 

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th
GAINSCO	344	341	339	337	335	334	333	332	331	330	329
SunTrust	336	333	331	329	327	326	325	324	323	322	321
TELMEX	334	331	329	327	325	324	323	322	321	320	319

By the way, with each having 311 points going into Homestead-Miami Speedway, Penske Racing's Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas won't be able to drive their No. 12 Verizon Wireless Porsche-Riley fast enough to to snatch victory from the jaws of championship defeat - if not an altogether demoralizing season.

 

THROUGH THE PAST, DARKLY

NO. 01 TELMEX LEXUS-RILEY
As a pair, Pruett and Rojas have only two races at Homestead-Miami Speedway. For the 2007 Rolex Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway Rojas teamed with Pruett for the first time and the two finished in third place, Pruett closing after Rojas qualified seventh. In 2008, Rojas started third on the grid and Pruett again closed, cutting the race's fastest lap on Lap-77 on the way to a first-place finish.

Pruett's been competing at the track with his present TELMEX team since 2004 - the year of the team's worst finish there, 10th. The irony is that Pruett finished better in that year's first Miami race - from which came the classic video footage of Max Papis, who over multiple laps near race-end banged doors, rear-ends and front-ends with Doran Racing's Jan Magnussen. The Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix Sabates team has scored an average qualifying position of 4.33 and a 4.8 finishing position over those years. Interestingly, subsequent to Papis' departure at the end of 2004, the team has averaged a 4.5 starting spot but improved finishes to a 3.0.

 

NO. 10 SUNTRUST FORD-DALLARA
Max Angelelli, like Pruett, raced at Homestead-Miami Speedway beginning with the 2004 season. Excluding endurance races, though Pruett's shared his ride with three drivers (Papis, Luis Diaz, Rojas) from 2004 to the present, beyond Angelelli and Taylor the No. 10 SunTrust car has had five additional drivers (Emanuel Collard, Jan Magnussen, Memo Gidley, Michael Valiante, Brian Frisselle) variously sharing rides with Messrs. Taylor and Angelelli. Only Taylor and Angelelli shared the car during the team's 2005 championship season. Still, for Homestead-Miami, Angelelli has been the constant in the mix, with the team averaging a 6.0 grid start; a 5.8 finish.

Though not in the SunTrust car until this season, Brian Frisselle since 2005 nonetheless has compiled a four-race track record at Homestead-Miami Speedway - two with VIR-based No. 8 Synergy Racing (Doran JE4 chassis; powered by BMW in 2005 and Porsche in 2006; Burt Frisselle co-driver) and, subsequently, No. 61 AIM Autosport Ford-Riley with Mark Wilkins co-driving, qualifying 7.0 on average; finishing 15th on average. Throw out the 2005-2006 seasons and Brian Frisselle's qualifying average comes in at 6.5; team finish at an average 9.0.

NO. 99 GAINSCO PONTIAC-RILEY
Early in the GAINSCO's Daytona Prototype life, which began in 2005, Alex Gurney shared his ride with team-owner Bob Stallings and Jimmy Vasser. Stallings has since mostly rode a reserved pit-side, war-wagon seat while Vasser has regularly been a principal part of the team's endurance crew. Jon Fogarty joined GAINSCO part of the way into the 2006 season after having enjoyed a successful singing and recording career (nah, just kidding; this particular Fogarty likely can't carry a tune any better than this writer can race a car. Um, check that; he probably can, too). With two hot shoes in the car (and Stallings being largely fingered as firing the opening DP all-pro salvo), the duo and GAINSCO would capture its 2007 title - only after that season's final, literal nail-biting, bang-up, barn-burner-of-a-race at Miller Motorsports Park.

But by joining the team five races into 2006, Fogarty has since carded only two HMS races and, among the top-three teams, is therefore tied with TELMEX's Memo Rojas for fewest DP starts on the 2.3-mile track. Yet, Fogarty didn't want for much in his first qualifying effort there, putting the GAINSCO car on the race's outside pole in 2007, sliding slightly to fifth on the grid in 2008 (3.5 avg.). Gurney each time closed with an 11th and sixth, respectively, where the team also finished in 2006 (without Fogarty), thus providing a 7.7 average team finish. In 2008, Rojas and Fogarty tangled early in the 2008 race, suggesting absolutely nothing for this year. Then again, there was that Miller race ...

 

AND THE WIN GOES TO...

South Florida's weather. 

Are you kidding me?

The Oct. 8-10 event, situated relatively early in the month, occurs at the very tail-end of the South Florida summer rain season, which almost assuredly will play some sort of role at some point over those three days.

However, assuming it doesn't rain, expect to get wet anyway because historical midday relative humidity there easily runs into the mid-90th percentile, reaching a zenith just about the same time teams undertake driver changes.

Adding heat to humidity, at about the same time the day's high temperature will approach, if not slightly exceed 90-degrees (Homestead's Oct. 10 record high is 98-degrees). The end of the 2004 HMS-2 race also produced a run on intravenous fluids, ice bags and emergency medical personnel as many drivers were treated for heat exhaustion, among them Angelelli, whose condition frightened more than a few usually hardy souls. That day's toll on race car drivers to this day stands head-and-shoulders above any other thus far seen, before or since.

Then, there's the still-churning hurricane season (June thru November), which in September 2004 produced four named tropical systems (Frances, Jeanne and Ivan) that directly affected HMS-2, first delaying the Rolex Series race by a week (to Sept. 19) and from that point generally keeping everyone's eyes on automatic horizon scan.

Though October generally mellows a bit relative to September, the reality is that Miami's National Hurricane Center's own statistics reflect the August through October calendar period as hosting 78-percent of all named tropical systems.

Still, it appears El Nino has held down the activity this year.

Now, for the national weather map: It'll be snowing in ...

Later,

DC