DAYTONA APPETIZERS

 

BRAUN X 4, or 5, or 6 or …

Some fine young talent is starting to make waves in the Rolex Sports Car Series Presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16.

Ricky Taylor, Jordan “The Philosopher” Taylor (pictured at far right with big brother Wayne Taylor ((you’re welcome, man)) and Jared Beyer have been around  for awhile but they’re old news (man, imagine, “old news” when one has yet to crack 20 years. By comparison, drivers like SunTrust No. 10’s 25-year-old Brian Frisselle are old men. And, no, MaxAxe, I ain’t gonna go there with you). Such is not to say the preceding aren’t worthy of mention at any time – all of ‘em being outstanding gentlemen as well as up-and-coming racers - but they have been mentioned; above and previously - especially starting last year.

Thinking “young” though has evoked memories of one Colin Braun (left), who at 17 (for at least some of the season) and when “allowed,” paired with Jörg Bergmeister as the two won the 2006 Rolex Series Daytona Prototype driving championship.

Okay, so Braun didn’t actually get the trophy Rolex jewelry (which keeps time) and likely didn’t even get an asterisk-mention alongside Bergmeister’s name. But Braun’s place in the Rolex Series’ history book would’ve been lauded a tad more save interference from a suspension, here, and someone else’s contract, there (which serves as a great example as to how we humans are patently incapable of envisioning unintended consequences and likewise reminds that chilling is a far better idea than legislating at every turn. Oh, and should you take a contrary view and posture the human race as more than this writer claims, why, pray tell, do legislatures still exist if not to “plug holes” previously unforeseen? Now, back to the really important stuff …)

Yet, who among the Rolex Series faithful think Braun wouldn’t have otherwise shared in that championship absent of the unintended consequences encountered? Then again, there was that Watkins Glen Turn-One thing … but, still, it occurred at a ground speed greater than we mere mortals are normally, legally allowed to travel upon the byways. And when one is quickly traveling (1.5-feet X mph = feet per second) in real time, slo-mo replay isn’t exactly a feasible option after the fact.

Whatever, Braun was darn good (as is little brother Travis Braun, too, but in a slightly different manner) and still is, given his recent breakthrough Camping World Truck Series win. Heck, even the old man, Jeff Braun, is good. He needs to be, with him engineering the TRG GT-class Porsches all by his lonesome. I’m sure the family matriarch, Diane Braun, fits in there, somewhere. Mrs. Braun tends toward being a quiet type, but still waters run deep, you know.

In the present, reminding me of “Rolex Series Braun” in many respects is Dion von Moltke (below), an 18-year-old whose roots, while firmly in the U.S., extend similarly to the Republic of South Africa. He’s a sophomore at Florida International University, which has seven campuses scattered around Florida’s Dade and Broward Counties – mostly in Miami, though. Surely, his father and mother, Peter von Moltke and Freya von Moltke, have played as an important role in Dion’s life as that of Colin’s parents. (By the way, Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke back in his day rewrote some sections on the art of warfare; one wonders …)

Having earlier this year jumped fully into all things Grand-Am at Daytona after concentrating on the Koni Challenge in 2008, Von Moltke’s now on a roll by anyone’s standard. With co-driver Mike Sweeney, von Moltke has won Koni Challenge Street Tuner races at Watkins Glen and Mid-Ohio in a car – a VW, for gosh sakes – that hasn’t graced a professional sportscar series’ victory lane in a quarter-century or more.

Kevin Doran, whose ear was grabbed by someone possessing keen eye, listened and decided to give von Moltke, along with Hennie Groenewald (more on him, later) a shot in a DP at the June 22, post-EMCO Gears Classic Mid-Ohio Rolex Series DP test.

Folks at the test, which included the No. 2 Gentleman Jack Pontia…, er, Chev, um, GM (?) Crawford; Penske Racing’s Verizon Wireless No. 12 Porsche-Riley; GAINSCO No. 99 Chevrolet-Riley and others, started wondering aloud just who was driving Doran’s No. 77 Ford-Dallara.

On Saturday, with roughly half-the-world watching, von Moltke and Groenewald will race that DP at Daytona. Here’s hope Doran won’t be shaving anything off his gears this time (to save a few ounces) so that the gearbox’s tendency to return in more pieces than at race start doesn’t occur on the 3.56-mile road course … and in front of roughly half-the-world.

Von Moltke, Beyer and the Taylors are just some of the talent coming into the racing ranks and, being an old guy, it’s kinda fun to live vicariously through them as well as have memories jogged of similar times in your humble correspondent’s life … it was some very good years. Huh, MaxAxe?

SPEAKING OF GIDLEY AND YAEGER

Groenewald and von Moltke have an airline, South Africa Airways, behind them. Memo Gidley and Brad Jaeger (who at least has his very own and very nice airplane) don’t. And that bespeaks the cold, hard reality of racing. In case anyone lacks a clear understanding: it takes money to race. Well, actually, it takes money to live, too. It just takes slightly more to race.

Having gotten advance notice that Groenewald and von Moltke might well displace them, Gidley and Jaeger (at far left with Kevin Doran) could’ve made like a sewer pipe and gotten the crap out of Mid-Ohio after Saturday’s Rolex Series show but nonetheless hung (hanged?) for two days and worked with Groenewald and von Moltke at the Monday Mid-O test to get the latter two up to speed - even to the point of sharing and explaining personal data to the two “new kids.” (Well, one, inasmuch as Groenewald is 37).

Gidley and Jaeger did such even though they were likewise helping themselves out of a seat. Now, that’s true class however one may wish to skin it. I hope still others in the industry recognize it, too.

 

GROENEWALD’s WORK COMMUTE …

… Just about runs from the extremes of one hemisphere to another (they’re separated by a demarcation line called “The Equator” that, on the South American continent runs through Brazil and neighboring countries. Go down to Brazil, shack with Ozz Negri (Helio Castroneves lives next door) and check it out sometime; the line is big, black and how they got it to forever stick to the ground is …).

Every week or 10-days over the last couple of months Groenewald has hopped on a South African Airways plane and cruises. Man, talk about racking up “frequent-flyer” miles. Heck, Groenewald gets more miles in one roundtrip than most folks get in a lifetime (remember, 6 billion humans have yet to fly in an airplane, give or take a few hundred-million.)

Chasing a dream like car racing is a pretty demanding thing at times and Groenewald, at least in the Republic of South Africa, is even more popular than Connecticut’s Ted Christopher. Plus, Groenewald has won about two more national-level titles, too.

A legend in South African racing, Groenewald is South Africa’s Wesbank V8 Supercars’ leading historical race winner - knocking on 50 with a win and a spin just this past weekend - and this year is seeking a fourth-consecutive series championship. (Groenewald’s No. 1 Jag at Killarney in May at right, credit Tony Alves/tracksidepics). 

During an April 2009 Homestead-Miami Speedway Rolex Series GT test, Groenewald bested (unofficially, of course) Boris Said's five-year-old Rolex Series record by 2/10. Not too shabby for an HMS first-timer.

 

OFFICIALLY YOURS

Grand-Am put out a release Monday stating that 2004 Indy 500 and 2009 Rolex 24 champ Buddy Rice will on Saturday pair with one of his three Rolex 24 co-winners, Antonio Garcia, in the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Porsche Cayenne-powered Coyote for Saturday’s race.

The missive mentioned nothing about the two continuing with what will be the two-car Spirit team – at least at Daytona – for the remainder of the season but Garcia, at Mid-Ohio, was plainly looking forward to car developmental work.

Garcia has no illusions about the task and relishes the thought of again being a “test driver” which, he said, is what a “true” driver wants to do in his racing career.

“I’ve won races. I don’t need to prove that I’m a winner,” Garcia said. “Now, I want to test a car and myself. To see what I can get out of it and out of me. I still want to win races,” he continued, “but it will be in a car that I helped build.”

If you’re interested in hearing or asking questions about Garcia, Rice and the Spirit of Daytona, tune in tonight’s 7:05 p.m. ET to 8 p.m.Grand-Am Weekly Radio show, during which SOD-owner Troy Flis will be on hand to answer questions. JJ O’Malley, myself and show producer Wyatt Davis will be firing a few of ‘em but you can pose your on questions by calling (386) 523-1880. Catch the show’s Web stream at http://tiny.cc/00Wdn.

(Above: Darren Law, Buddy Rice and Antonio Garcia hearing every little sound made by the No. 58 Brumos Porsche-Riley as David Donohue drove to the 2009 Rolex 24 At Daytona finish.)

 

ONE LINERS …

The SunTrust car will be your basic silver starting at Saturday’s Brumos 250 in Daytona and lasts through Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and I still like the 2004 black car best of all …

Scott Tucker’s new Supercar Life No. 95 tested with a BMW engine but the Riley was built for a Ferrari …

The good doctor Jim Lowe returns his Porsche to action Saturday at Daytona with Jim Pace and Johannes van Overbeek …

TRG has four cars entered in Saturday’s Brumos 250 at Daytona and Kevin Buckler won’t have to travel very far between series to see the other car, or two …

Later.

DC

GEAR GNASHING

 

Like “The Loves of Dobie Gillis’” character Maynard G. Krebs’ reaction to the word “work,” Penske Racing’s John Erickson similarly nowadays flinches whenever he hears “Rolex Series technical bulletin.”

With good reason.

Of the ten 2009 season-related “rules tweaks” issued since 2008’s season close, half have been aimed squarely at Penske Racing’s Verizon Wireless No. 12 Porsche-powered Riley. Or at least so believes Erickson, the managing member of the team which competes in the Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16.

When tossed an impromptu on-the-fly question about the subject while in the middle of the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course paddock, Verizon Wireless drivers Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas could return only simultaneous, almost choreographed shoulder shrugs. 

Brumos Racing’s David Donohue - recently accompanied by a foreboding, lightning-filled personal raincloud overhead - will tell you the bulletins are aimed at he and Darren Law’s 2009 Rolex 24-winning No. 58 Brumos Porsche-Riley.

“What can I say to the media that can’t be anything but negative right now?” Donohue rhetorically responded when a “’Sup, dude!?” question was posed at Mid-O.

Throw in Brumos Racing No. 59 driving tandem Jaoa Barbosa and JC France and one has substantially included the Who’s Who of Porsche professional racing In the United States as among those affected by Grand-Am’s tech zingers. 

(Yes, Mr. Buckler, I know you and the Farnbacher Loles guys have some bulletin “issues,” too, as well as you clearly being worthy of inclusion in the ”Who,” but one - specifically, THIS ONE - can only maintain concentration for, oh, a nanosecond or two. And this already is starting to get way too deep.) (And, yes, there are those who say JC France is a “Trueman” sort of guy, but I’m here to tell you he’s a darn sight better racer than this amateur will ever be - and he and I together attended Skip Barber School wa-ay back when.)

Of the 2008 season’s 10 technical bulletins, four addressed Daytona Prototype topics in generalized form (“decals” here; “paint protection” there) and none were specific to any one car, much less powerplants or transmissions shared by one particular marque. 2007’s bulletins have faded from view with the intervening Grand-Am updated Web site and, along with other preceding years, are absent from the comparisons. However, while carefully first noting this writer’s imperfect gray matter, absent from memory are a similar-to-2009 occurrence in past bulletins - especially while only halfway into a season.

Inasmuch as more championship-winning teams haven’t won the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona as have (by a 3-to-1 ratio), it shouldn’t come as a big surprise to learn that Donohue and Law aren’t presently in the championship points lead. Yet, they’ve also almost free-fallen from first to fifth in Rolex Series points since the Verizon 250 at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

Still, belying Brumos and Penske Racing’s claim to clear harm arising solely from the rules changes are Bernhard and Dumas’ fourth-place standing in the championship points - despite twice shooting themselves in the foot with penalized, race-restart infractions at VIRginia and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Presently only13 points out of first place, absent those infractions it’s certainly arguable the Verizon Wireless drivers would otherwise be further up the ladder if not atop the standings. Furthermore, over the last three races Bernhard and Dumas have scored finishes of sixth or better (with one top-3) whereas Donohue and Law’s Brumos Porsche has finished 8th, 15th and 10th.

Some have opined the difference could be found in the respective teams’ gearboxes, where the former uses Xtrac whereas the latter puts its Porsche power to the ground through an EMCO gearbox.

Though not seeking to take issue with the quality of either - indeed many consider the EMCO box to be as close to “bulletproof” as any racecar transmission anywhere - the two boxes nonetheless differ substantially to their respective approach in channeling the Porsche Flat-Six’s power (a diagram of such being left for another day) and, in that regard, most sources give the EMCO gearbox a slight advantage in such applications.

Donohue doesn’t think it solely a matter of gearbox, though.

“We just don’t have the revs we need,” he said. “Stopped on most any incline plane found on most any racetrack, in first gear I’ll all but burn up the clutch as I attempt to gain forward momentum.”

One aspect not at all debatable in the multiple tech-bulletin deal is the cost those rules changes have had on a team’s bottom line. It’s been substantial, with at least one firsthand source saying the monetary impact per team is easily into six digits and the impact on one team has been so great that it’s now running close to being in the red - with six 2009 races remaining.

Say what one might about the nobility of keeping rules tight and equitable, such is of little value if one or more teams are altogether eliminated from a championship fight - exiting the series - by the process and not by on-track action.

 

SHADES OF VAN DER MERWE

Having only one race at Daytona International Speedway between the three of them, Sarel van der Merwe, Graham Duxbury and Tony Martin – South Africans, all – showed up for the 1984 Rolex 24 At Daytona (the “Sunbank 24,” then) clueless as what to expect at the famed track. No one else knew what to expect of your basic, everyday unknowns, either.

Besides, all the attention was focused on a new car Porsche’s Herr Norbert Singer brought with him - the bright-white No. 1 Porsche 962 of Mario Andretti and Michael Andretti. The previous time Singer showed up at Daytona with a full-on factory Porsche in 1971, Pedro Rodriguez and Jackie Oliver drove the Gulf-sponsored, John Wyer-managed 917K to victory (and not too long thereafter also earned a 1972 competition ban).

In a few day’s time the three South Africans departed with the winning laurels after their Kreepy Krauly Porsche-powered March 83G by nine laps beat Preston Henn’s 1983-winning T-Bird Swap Shop Porsche 935L despite the latter’s all-star driving team of Bob Wollek, AJ Foyt and Derek Bell.

In shades of of that day, South African Airways-sponsored drivers Hennie Groenewald and Dion von Moltke will be making their Daytona Prototype debut at Daytona International Speedway’s 2 p.m. Brumos 250 on July 4 (that’s for you, too, Cleary). 

In a post-EMCO Gears Classic test Monday at Mid-O the two relatively unknown South Africans climbed in Kevin Doran’s No. 77 Ford Dallara and before long people like the aforementioned John Erickson were asking, “And just who are those guys!?”

Perhaps that same question will again arise in a week’s time at Daytona. It’s likely such will be okay with Groenewald and von Moltke, given history and all.

Look for the two at Daytona in Doran’s No. 77 Ford Dallara.

 

MID-O MIA

Among swirling rumors - one of which has him climbing into the SPEEDtv booth while another had him suffering a heart attack (another story, see below) - as to racing great Hurley Haywood’s present-day position in the scheme of things at Brumos Racing - “Too many chiefs and too few braves,” insisted one insider a few races back - came Haywood’s complete absence at last week’s MCO Gears Classic at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

“I was in Munich for the Porsche Panamera introduction,” Haywood said after returning stateside and while between Brumos Porsche school classes (buy a Porsche from Brumos and get lessons from Haywood; not too bad, eh? Too bad more Porsche drivers don’t buy at Brumos).

“It’s a beautiful car and with Porsche-quality and performance, through and through,” Haywood said  of the Panamera, Porsche’s first entre into the four-door passenger car market.

Rumor discussions were left for another day inasmuch as Haywood wished to return to instructing.

 

ROBBY AIN’T, MEA CULPA

Preceding the 2003 Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen International (as it will again Aug. 7), the Rolex Series Daytona Prototype was in its inaugural season and darn near gridding The Crown Royal 200 race when Robby Gordon at the last minute decided to go DP racing in the No. 3 Cegwa Sport Toyota-FABCAR DP of owner/driver Darius Grala and co-driver RJ Valentine.

Getting a seat-insert fitted while the No. 3 headed for the grid, Gordon hopped into a spare but fully outfitted FABCAR brought to the race by FABCAR owner Dave Klym. While the foam hardened, Gordon used the time to familiarize himself with the car’s switches, pedal positions, gearbox shifter, etc.

Taking over in midrace, all eyes were on the first turn one lap later when Gordon at full song took the hard right-hander tight on the inside line with a bevy of other cars around him. He didn’t miss a lick.

Before he climbed from the car at shift’s end - typically Robby, grinning impishly from ear to ear - Gordon had set the race’s fast lap, which no one in that race would surpass. And Gordon at that time had never so much as driven any DP for any distance whatever before driving away from the Cegwa Racing pits. Two days later Gordon also won The Glen’s Sprint Cup race. Maybe he was on a roll.

Still, that Rolex Series race at The Glen easily resides high on this writer’s best-ever racing remembrances and it likely got in the way when this writer in his last post stated Robby Gordon would on July 4 (for you, MC) be running a DP at Daytona International Speedway.

Though based on reasonably credible information that previously held otherwise, Gordon won’t be in the July 4 Brumos 250 at Daytona International Speedway.

For having earlier stated the opposite, I apologize. For having wanted to again see Gordon in a DP, I ain’t apologizing.

The way things are going, I’ll at any time probably also be retracting any and all recent “Garcia and Rice Together Again” stories, too.

So, then, while on a “roll,” let’s just throw out something like “IMS” and let everyone else run with it. Some say certain others in this biz recently did so on another front. Albeit, certainly a more “prominent” front. For now.

 

NEW ROLEX SERIES’ CARS/TEAMS?

Beyond Scott Tucker at Mid-Ohio taking delivery of a new Riley DP that’s slated to become a Ferrari, other teams reportedly now in the shadows preparing for some Rolex Series racing include another Porsche DP program and a BMW M6 GT.

 

HEART “ATTACKING”

During the week when he was to depart for Mid-Ohio’s EMCO Gears Classic race, Rolex Series technical consultant (and, um, fixture?) Don Hayward showed up for a routine yearly physical at his doctor’s office only to find himself unexpectedly being told to ready for a quadruple heart bypass. Well, let’s just say it was news to Hayward and others.

It also became “news'” to Hurley Haywood, though in a roundabout way.

At Mid-O, Brumos Racing’s media representative Patty Tantillo started getting bombarded with “How’s Hurley?” questions. Knowing Brumos icon Haywood was to be in Munich for the new Porsche Panamera unveiling, Tantillo nonetheless wanted to be certain Haywood was fine. That’s when HayWOOD learned of HayWARD and the latter’s heart bypass operation.

“I must’ve had a thousand emails and text messages asking me if I was okay after my heart attack,” HayWOOD said.

Meanwhile, HayWARD reportedly is doing just fine; considering his sternum was broken on purpose, and all.

And, PUH-LEEZE, nothing whatsoever above stated Haywood as having had a heart attack at any time.

We humans are a strange lot.

Later.

DC

Gratuitous picture of Patrick Dempsey so that all the search engines will hit:

Mid-O Post Script

 

Great crowd Saturday; best I can remember visually, despite Friday’s daylong weather front that started raining cats and dogs before sunrise. Though likely having negative effect on the overall weekend, it certainly was the best-attended I’ve seen at the storied Mid-O track.

SERIOUSLY, FOLKS - Separated only by a paddock access lane, Wayne Taylor’s SunTrust and  CGRwFyJS TELMEX teams sat side-by-side on the Mid-O pit road (BTW: a ‘road’ is something on which vehicles travel; a ‘row’ is found in corn fields). So, SunTrust’s Simon Hodgson could see Telmex’s Tim Keene launch like a Patriot missile when No. 10 SunTrust driver Brian Frisselle steered the Ford-Dallara Daytona Prototype into the team’s pit between recon-lap start and hard grid. Of course, the SunTrust gang (Travis Jacobson and Taylor) would similarly later launch when the Telmex team was deemed to have also transgressed the rulebook.

POKER FACE – Unlike a fairly emotional Wayne Taylor, CGRwFyJS’ Tim Keene is an interesting sort: quiet, usually stone faced, which well suits those within the Ganassi organization. A lot can be communicated through body language and the Ganassi gang places great emphasis on communicating nothing more than absolutely necessary. Hint to Tim: Mike Hull doesn’t wear sunglasses while golfing.

THE OLD IN AND OUT? Having its drivers fourth in the Rolex Series points, rumor has it that the Penske hierarchy is getting a tad frustrated and is pondering a Rolex Series departure, especially if it fails to do well at Daytona’s July 4 Brumos 250. “Well” being largely subjective, who knows the team’s exact intentions or even if it’s only posturing. 

With a storied racing history that includes 15 Indy 500 wins, 10 CART (defunct) and one Indy Racing League championship it’s clear the Penske organization has done well in open-wheel racing, if not entirely bulletproof there (remember the team altogether failing to qualify for the ‘95 Indy after dominating in 1994?)

Though Penske’s Kurt Busch (2004 Sprint Cup champion while with Roush Racing) looks strong with a comfortable current top-5 in NASCAR’s 2009 Sprint Cup championship, Penske Racing nonetheless hasn’t captured a Cup since first entering that series in 1972. Joe Gibbs Racing, on the other hand, has captured three of that series’ crowns despite about 100 fewer Sprint Cup starts.

So, while Penske Racing has done well largely in North American open-wheel racing, it hasn’t fared as well in stock cars even though most everyone thought otherwise when it entered the fray.

In sportscar racing, starting with the last race of the 2005 ALMS season at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, LMP2 Penske Porsche Spyder drivers Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen nevertheless finished ninth in a championship whose winner, Clint Field, scored points in only 70-percent of the races. Don’t get me wrong here - this writer being well aware he can’t drive a race car - but season champs usually score at least some points in every race.

In 2006, only two teams competed in all 10 LMP2 races; a third team – a second Penske Porsche joining at the second race in Houston – competed in 9 of 10 races. No other LMP2 team scored points in more than 50-percent of the LMP2-class championship races that year, won by Messrs. Luhr and Maassen.

Of the 12 ALMS LMP2 races in 2007, present-day Penske Racing No. 12 Verizon Wireless Porsche-Riley DP drivers Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas dominated their first ALMS LMP2 championship season with eight victories as one of four LMP2 teams that would score points for the entire 2007 season. In that season’s12 events Bernhard and Dumas claimed overall wins in half of the ALMS races contested and won what turned out to be a '”theoretical” overall ALMS championship crown.

Other than press releases or blogs claiming otherwise (which surely exist somewhere) for 2007 there is no formal championship points tabulation showing the Penske team as having won anything but the LMP2 class championship.

A Penske PR piece about that 2007 season interestingly states: “Not only did (Bernhard and Dumas) win the (ALMS) LMP2 championship, finish all 12 races on the podium and claim a class victory eight times, but they also beat the faster LMP1 prototypes to win six ALMS races overall …” (emphasis added).

How can one win a race, more so six of ‘em, and be slower?

Posing the same question and coming up with an answer intended to slow the Porsche Spyder in any competition using the name “Le Mans,” the France-based (as in “country”) governing rules-maker ACO (Automobile Club de l'Ouest, from which the American Le Mans Series purchases the use of its “Le Mans”  connection) issued a 2008 rules package mandating additional LMP2 air intake restrictions, among other changes.

Considered detrimental by the ALMS - citing its need to determine what was best for American Le Mans Series competition - that series resisted ACO rules-adherence pressure until well into the 2008 season. (A point, as this writer understands, the ACO made in return when it this year listened to but denied an ALMS representative’s vociferous objection to Patrick Dempsey’s competing in the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans.)

Without being slowed for the first part of the 2008 season, the ALMS LMP2 season that year played out in much the same way with Bernhard and Dumas at the top of the LMP2 championship, wherein a second-place Scott Sharp and David Brabham Patron team scored zero points at the Road Atlanta race. Only one other team, Dyson Racing’s Butch Leitzinger and Marino Franchitti, would score points in all 11 of 2008’s ALMS LMP2 races - and it finished fifth in the 2008 LMP2 championship points.

Some say maybe, just maybe Penske Racing’s ALMS dominance just wasn’t all it was thought to be.

Many others in the Rolex Series paddock believe Penske Racing’s engineers and drivers have yet to learn that the Daytona Prototype is designed to drive and slide, not point and shoot. Still others think Dumas and Bernhard incapable of adapting to a race car which doesn’t mostly “think” for the drivers.

Whatever, it seems out of character for such a storied organization to cut and run.

GOOD READ - 

Awaiting my Sunday return from Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, at left is one of those books you just don’t want to put down but must, to tell others of it. This publisher’s edition, as are the others of only 300 such, is signed by author Mike Argetsinger – son of Watkins Glen race founder Cameron Argetsinger – and also is signed by team owner Roger Penske, sons David and Mike Donohue, Mark Donohue crew chief Karl Kainhofer, drivers Sam Posey and George Follmer.

The same book, sans the autographs, is also available at www.bullpublishing.com, which is dedicated to books about racing. Get one. Trust me.

NEXT PIT - With Jim Beam livery, Robby Gordon will be running with Bill Lester in Peter Barron’s SAMAX No. 45 Riley for the 3 p.m. July 4 Brumos 250 at Daytona International Speedway.

The Kyle Busch and Scott Speed combo, with Waste Management and Red Bull sponsorship, will be there, too. Something you should already know unless having made like an island castaway the last week or so.

Later.

DC

UNBROKEN CIRCLE

 

Over the decades one learns life has its ups and downs, kinda like the Earth’s rotation where one daily sees the sun, then doesn’t.

Shortly after we’re convulsed from the womb we become convinced - reinforced by most everyone short of a W.C. Fields-like uncle - “It’s all about me, baby!”

(Given that humans at first unshakably believe they’re at the center of the universe it only seems logical that the Geocentric model would be at the heart of early astronomic theory. Speaking of “Geocentric,” one wonders how well Aristotle or Ptolemy would’ve fared in today’s TSA airport checkpoints, “Really, sir, I swear, that’s my name!”)

At some point each of us start realizing that life has cycles which, distilled as simply as possible, range between “good” and “bad,” up and down, in and out, and, well, you get the point: it ain’t always gravy. We’d like it to be, but it ain’t.

Tears are inevitable. Indeed, maybe such is the reason that laughter feels so doggone good.

Thus, it’s really no great surprise should a driver or team or manufacturer exit a series or sport altogether.

Given that change is inevitable, the focus shouldn’t be so much centered upon who might leave or how life changes but that it does change and how such might best be mitigated.

The Rolex Series’ powers-that-be long ago learned manufacturers come and go, as do teams and individuals, and sought to find a formula by which racing could continue.

With Pontiac’s demise (and now is said will immediately affect - as in THIS weekend - teams, drivers and the series, alike) one wonders from this spot how the future will unfold.

When I long ago feared that nighttime monster under my bed, I also knew the dawn would come.

And it will, again.

Later,

DC

IN THE MIDDLE

 

It’s almost where Mid-Ohio Sports Car course is to be found – in the middle, that is - whether we’re talking Ohio geography or the Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16’s racing season.

Six races remain on the 12-race 2009 Rolex Series calendar following this weekend’s Mid-O race and one might correctly cipher (an old Jethro Bodine higher-mathematics routine) Mid-O also being the season’s sixth race … unless you ask a team owner – otherwise just as likely to include Daytona International Speedway’s January’s Test Days as a “race” due to its expense.

“We spend just as much money going there as we would just about any race weekend,” has grumbled more than one owner. Other owners, especially later Rolex 24 At Daytona winners, say something along the lines of, “Nyah, nyah, nyah-nyah-nyah!” (notice that a certain Test Days no-show, instead preferring a coast-down test, didn’t win a fourth-consecutive Rolex 24?)

Tangent Alert! Time to regain original course.

And that’s something else to which Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course can very nearly claim because it certainly was one of the United States’ earliest, purpose-built sportscar courses, having been born by the late Les Griebling in 1961.

Originally slightly longer (2.4-mile, 15-turn) than the configuration mostly in use today (2.258-mile, 13-turn), in the decades since the course has seen some of motorsports’ best talent try and fly (Joey Hand comes to mind) in an attempt to beat what many believe to be one of the most technically challenging courses anywhere.

Among the capable few have proven to be the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac-Riley team, whose drivers Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty for the past two seasons have made the track look like their personal playpen.

In 2007, after some folks successfully dodged a veritable tornado that ripped through the grounds on the Thursday preceding, DP competitors were left scratching their heads, if not otherwise downright embarrassed when the GAINSCO car looked as though it were somehow rolling along invisible rails, running at the point for the entirety of a caution-free race. Ironically, that race’s fast lap was one thing they didn’t claim (a 1:18.483, set by a Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix y Jose Sabates driver named Michael Valiante, now with Mike Shank Racing. Got you, huh?).

As the GAINSCO team had done earlier in the 2007 season at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez - when it unleashed the “perfect pit stop” on the way to running down and passing Krohn Racing’s Colin Braun and Max Papis for that race’s win – the team would again raise the level of competitiveness when many learned the GAINSCO car had begun using a 7-post test rig to gain a handle on the track layouts it faced (go here http://tiny.cc/Ez7gI to get Lola’s summary on its 7-poster).

Not to escape notice, though, are GAINSCO engineer Kyle Brannan, team owner Bob Stallings and team manager Terry Wilbert, nor the rest of the crew because“heart” is always an important if not intangible aspect of winning.

Yet, Mother Nature’s curveball is something for which testing isn’t generally performed. If such were the case, “scrambling” to clean windscreens wouldn’t have happened in early May at New Jersey Motorsports Park (though Jeff Hazel, et al, had worked out those Kinks, helping that team’s Nic Jonsson and Ricardo Zonta win in a condensation-free No. 76 Krohn Racing Ford L-O-L-A, Lola).

Keeping in top form in 2008, Mother Nature would play a direct role in that year’s Mid-O race, which started with just about everyone aware of, and many fans fleeing, a humungous rainstorm heading toward Mid-O and which hit soon after the racers took the first green flag.

One of the wonderful things about being on the road with sportscar racing is knowing that a race usually is run as anticipated (not having to get a room extension or rebook airplane flights is enough of a “good” reason) and such was the case that day, which the Rolex Series’ Mark Raffauf later characterized as being one of the most unusual he’s seen in four decades of officiating.

According to Raffauf, cars slid from the course at each of the course’s turns when the rain just absolutely, all-at-once dumped onto the track. Three of four cars simultaneously undertaking an “off” is itself usually out of the ordinary but so many made like a rink and skated that Raffauf said he simply turned to the track’s officials, shrugged his shoulders and asked, “Well, which turn do you want to tackle first?”

Fogarty, in the GAINSCO’s cockpit at the time, recalled that he was sarcastically critical of his fellow drivers’ abilities while watching numerous cars slipping and sliding to the course’s edges and onto bordering grass - until he, too, was suddenly slipping and sliding.

Still, the team nevertheless won back-to-back EMCO Gears Classic trophies and will this Saturday try for an unprecedented three-consecutive wins, which no other Rolex Series DP team - with the same drivers - has previously accomplished at any of the series’ venues.

Stallings says the team isn’t shirking or even fearful of the challenge.

“We thrive on this sort of thing,” Stallings said earlier this week. “The team gears up for any race, but when you can throw a record at them it gives them even more incentive to show their stuff.”

Speaking of “show,” we aren’t even out of Mid-O yet thoughts and chatter are frequently turning to the upcoming July 4 Rolex Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

This post is getting a tad long in the tooth, so the informational details will be saved for a later “gossip” post, but the Kyle Busch and Scott Speed combo aren’t the only Sprint Cup types heading for the Brumos Porsche 250 sprint race there. Indeed, some anxious participants – denied a chance there – are chomping a the bits for an anticipated Aug. 7 DP ride at The Glen. If everything I’m hearing is correct, two of stock car’s heaviest hitters will team for that race. Like I said, though, …

Later.

DC

POST LE MANS (or is it Le Mans Post?)

• CELEBRATION TIME! €38,000 ($53,215.38, give or take) to enter; €40,000 ($56,016.19, give or take) to win. That's a profit of €2,000 ($2,800.81, give or take) for the overall-winning No. 9 Peugeot 908 Le Mans-winning team. Cool. Split, oh, say, over 40-some-odd team shares and one can imagine they’ll be painting the town red tonight. Or, perhaps, paying a child’s college educational costs. For sure.
• FICKLE FERRARI NO MORE: Of the 10 Ferrari F430 GT’s on hand this year for Le Mans, nine filled the race’s top-10 finishing LMGT2 spots. The lone party pooper was a fifth-place No. 85 Spyker C8 Laviolette. At a $285,000 base price, sales should surge Monday at your local Spyker dealership. (BTW: does anyone remember that the number one reason not to buy a Ferrari used to be its, um, “temperamental” nature?)
• PORSCHE PARADE OF FAILURES: Of the race’s seven Porsches (six LMGT2 Porsche 997 GT3’s'; one LMP2 RS Spyder) only one (No. 75 Endurance Asia 997) completed 24-hours but even it was “Not Classified” after failing to accumulate at least 70-percent of LMGT2 class-winner Risi Competizione No. 82 Ferrari F430GT’s 329 laps. Having racing’s best winning record, hands down, does anyone want to bet the boys back at Weissach aren’t a tad irritated just now? Maybe even cussing, too.
• RISI CLAIMS TWO PODIUM SPOTS: Rolex Series’ Krohn Racing’s Tracy Krohn, Nic Jönsson and Eric van de Poele scored third-place in LMGT2.
• CLOSE RACE: Only 11 laps (roughly 55-min.)spanned Le Mans’ top-four overall finishers. Absolutely on-the-edge-of-seat stuff there, boys and girls.
• NEXT CAREER STEP, Dancing With the Stars: Early in the race, Kolles No. 14 Audi R10 LMP1 driver Narain Karthikeyan leapt over pit wall, awkwardly landed and dislocated his left shoulder. Though the Audi team doctor would later declare Karthikeyan fit to race the ACO doctor didn't see it the same way and (here comes a lovely “Le Mans word”) "excluded" the driver from competition. His mates - Andre Lotterer and Charles Zwolsman Jr. - were then left to finish driving duties, each needing not to exceed four-consecutive hours and 14-hours, total, in the car.
• A LAZY, SUNNY AFTERNOON DRIVE: In a spot of Sunday driving on Saturday afternoon, at the 91-lap mark No. 009 Aston Martin-Lola driver Stuart Hall, with an Audi hot behind, looked to be driving with his mirrors when he at high speed steered straight right into the Bruichladdich Bruneau No. 26 Radical AER LMP2 of driver Tim Greaves. The incident provoked the ACO to (about five-hours) later "exclude" Hall, leaving co-drivers Peter Kox and Harold Primat to carry on, also walking that delicate 4/14-hour balance.
• RACERS ARE A SUPERSTICIOUS LOT: With about 35-minutes remaining in this year’s race, SPEEDtv's Leah Diffey from Le Mans rang fellow Australian and 1993 Le Mans winner Geoff Brabham, back in the motherland. The focus of the pair’s on-air conversation concerned the good fortune of No. 9 Peugeot 908 driver David Brabham, younger brother of Geoff, whose car was leading the race at the time while in the hands of co-driver Marc Gene. About three-minutes after the conversation ended and Diffey was supplanted by Bob Varsha in the broadcast chair, on-air video suddenly shifted to a clearly slowed No. 9 Peugeot. Commentators and fans alike strained for clues from the No. 9’s in-car camera and microphone as to what may be amiss and, soon, a pit-road camera focused on David Brabham, whose haggard look did little to assuage now-growing fears the leading car had somehow failed only minutes after that very close-to, if not  celebratory telephone conversation between Diffey and the elder Brabham. Moments later, just when worries started really spiking, the No. 9 Peugeot positioned itself with fellow Peugeot sister cars for a three-car, picture-perfect finish and soon quickened its pace – though still likely having left Diffey and Geoff Brabham needing a change of underwear.
• NO FILTH ALLOWED: The No. 63 Corvette, it's last win in LMGT1 apparently secure, pulled into its pit with barely 20-min. remaining in the race and, just as suddenly, the Corvette Racing crew backed the car into its garage - wherein more than four crew members could simultaneously lay hands upon the car - and promptly started polishing away 24-hours worth of accumulated slim, muck and whatever so that the Corvette could cross the finish line - and have thousands of coincident images snapped - while in pristine appearance. "I think a car that races for 24-hours and wins should look like it," SPEEDtv's David Hobbs said. Blame the Marketing Guys for diminishing the value of that 24-hour “Red Badge of Courage.”
• WE NEED PRETTY FLAG-WAVES, TOO:  With all the corner workers (of which Le Mans seems to have tons) waving all those flags on the final lap it's tough not to get wrapped up in feel-good emotions, believing the French really know how to stage with pomp and circumstance the now familiar annual end-of-race show. Just about the time wishes are harbored for a similar celebration on this side of the "Big Pond," one realizes that waving flags whilst standing on track pavement at 24-hours’ end won’t happen at Daytona International Speedway when there are four front-running cars within 11-seconds of each other (not 11 laps) still fighting tooth-and-nail for first place.
• THE TOUGHEST: Dan Binks has won 15 racing championships but he tearfully described his last few moments of the No. 63 Corvette's Le Mans win as his toughest-ever race moment – Binks’ first as a winning crew chief at Le Mans after eight years of try, try, trying again.
• TEARFUL, TOO: With a top-10 finish in sight (9th-place, actually), Rolex Series regular Patrick Dempsey was filled with emotion, too (anyone else see Michael Gue absolutely falling apart in the background?). Among the maximum three drivers in his No. 81 Ferrari F430GT - and a less-compromising setup for only three - it is probably the best way to go but such also requires maximum expenditure of physical, mental and emotional energy from each. Believe it, Dempsey’s a racer.
• THE BEST? With mere seconds remaining in the broadcast, SPEEDtv's Bob Varsha was doing a coverage-closing voiceover as snippets of preceding Le Mans race action were replayed. Announcing that SPEEDtv and the French Guys had renewed the channel's broadcast rights for another three races (congrats, guys), Varsha added, “(Le Mans) is the greatest motorsports event in the world!" Is that statement - or some variation thereof - to be found in every motorsports broadcast contract, everywhere? Regardless, at best it's a subjective comment that depends on any number of factors, notwithstanding the fact that most any “motorsports” race can be a heckuva show. Regardless of who might make it, by what objective criteria or scientific standard is such a statement based? Should someone come up with something, anything specific to claim a race as “the best” found annually the world over, someone else will assuredly have a counter. Similar to a Jew and Muslim each contending his religion to be the real thing and going to war over it, where is absolute, undeniable and complete proof that any of the claimed best-in-the-world races are indeed just that? Outside of objective, Isaac Newton-level proof, a claim of such is nothing more than marketing hyperbole best left to dolts who have little clue of the universe’s, much less motorsports' many different pleasures. Really, the only thing statements of that sort serve to accomplish is division where it'd be far better for all involved if everyone could evoke the respect and civility like that shown by a losing Alan McNish as he congratulated a winning David Brabham  - against whom the former has competed for first-place trophies since the late-1980's.
• ON THE OTHER HAND, HAD AUDI WON: Peugeot - joined post-Sebring (or should that be “Sebring post”?) by Aston Martin and Oreca for the first round - last week again protested certain Audi R15 design elements. Centering primarily around airflow into and through the R15's frontal area, Peugeot previously also had questioned exiting airflow at the Audi's rear. Whatever, in shades of the 1981 Indy 500, for which Bobby Unser was declared its winner nearly five-months after the usual race-ending checkered flag (talk about a too-long race), a frustrated Peugeot said it was ready to pursue an Audi aero appeal even with the FIA, especially pending race results.

Hopefully it’s over ‘till next year, where and when I’ll see you, Sylvain, for your race at Le Mans. At least you’ve got a greater command of French.

Plus tard.

DC

ROLEX SERIES DRIVERS AT 2009 LE MANS

 

When the 24 Heures du Mans' green flag first flies for Saturday's race it'll come only about 24-hours short of the 13th anniversary of when the last United States-born driver, Davy Jones, would claim overall victory at Le Mans.

Frankly, it isn't likely Jones will be displaced this year as the most recent U.S. driver to win the race. Only 11 U.S. drivers have been the first to take the decades-old classic French event's history.

Nonetheless, below are some of the 2009 Rolex Sports Car Series competitors who start today's Circuit de la Sarthe race.

(Driver Name - 2009 Rolex Series team, car, car class; Le Mans team, car, car class; other informational tidbits)

Jaoa Barbosa - Brumos Racing's No. 59 Porsche-Riley, DP; Pescarolo Sport No. 16 Pescarolo Judd, LMP1; Currently seventh in DP championship points with Brumos co-driver JC France, Barbosa started the 2009 season with a third-place in the Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Jörg Bergmeister - No. 67 TRG Porsche GT3, GT; No. 80 Flying Lizard Motorsport Porsche GT3, LMGT2; 2006 Rolex Series DP champ with Krohn Racing, Bergmeister is a three-time Rolex 24 At Daytona GT-class and overall (1) race winner won the 2009 Rolex 24 At Daytona GT-class race with Patrick Long, Justin Marks, Andy Lally and RJ Valentine in a Kevin Buckler TRG Porsche GT3.

 

 

Timo Bernhard - Penske Racing's No. 12 Verizon Wireless Porsche-Riley, DP; No. 3 Audi Sport Team Joest, Audi R15, LMP1; In the Rolex Series and at Le Mans, factory Porsche driver Bernhard will co-drive with his No. 12 Verizon Wireless DP teammate Romain Dumas. Starting seventh on Le Mans grid, Bernhard (134 pt.) is tied for fourth and only six-points out of the lead in the Rolex Series Daytona Prototype championship driver points. Past wins include the Rolex 24 At Daytona (2002, GT class win; 2003 overall and GT class wins) with The Racer's Group owner/driver Kevin Buckler, along with co-drivers Jörg Bergmeister and Michael Schrom. First raced a Daytona Prototype in 2005.

Christophe Bouchut - Level 5 Motorsports' No. 55 Supercar Life Racing BMW-Riley, DP; JMB Racing No. 99 Ferrari F430, LMGT2; Deep on endurance racing ability, Frenchman Bouchut has claimed numerous 24-hour race wins, including the Rolex 24 At Daytona and at his "home" track in Le Mans. Teamed with Level 5 Motorsports owner Scott Tucker, the team has made its presence known in the 2009 Rolex Series with four top-10 finishes in as many races.

 

Patrick Dempsey - Dempsey Racing No. 40 El Grado Tequila Mazda RX-8, GT; Advanced Engineering No. 81 Ferrari F40 GT, LMGT2; Most famously known for his acting skills, Dempsey continues to build a racing resume that rivals that of many longtime professional racers. Reportedly, ALMS' Don Panoz pitched a fit personally to ACO Le Mans officials, protesting Dempsey's inclusion in the field. Considering Dempsey made the race - who later stayed well within 115-percent of his class' fastest speed in pre-race skill tests - the French evidently didn't much care what Panoz said.

Romain Dumas - Penske Racing's No. 12 Verizon Wireless Porsche-Riley, DP; No. 3 Audi Sport Team Joest, Audi R15, LMP1; In the Rolex Series and at Le Mans Dumas will co-drive with his No. 12 Verizon Wireless Penske Racing teammate Timo Bernhard. Starting seventh at Le Mans, with 134 points through Watkins Glen, Dumas is tied for fourth and only six-points out of the lead in the Rolex Series Daytona Prototype driver championship.

 

Joe Foster - Dempsey Racing No. 40 El Grado Tequila Mazda RX-8, GT1; Advanced Engineering No. 81 Ferrari F40 GT, LMGT2; Most famously known for his co-driver's acting skills, Foster ain't too shabby of a driver, either. Taking a detour to France while on his way to April's Rolex Series' VIR event, Foster turned laps only 3/10-second off the day's fastest times during a pre-Le Mans tryout. Later, Foster wondered as to why, after more than a decade as an instructor at the Panoz Racing School at Road Atlanta, Don Panoz got all in a wad about Foster going to Le Mans for his first-ever 24-hour race there.

Antonio Garcia - Brumos Racing No. 58 Porsche-Riley, Spirit of Daytona No. 09 Porsche Cayenne-Coyote, DP; Corvette Racing No. 63 Corvette C6.R, LMGT1; In the No. 58 Brumos Racing Porsche-Riley is co-winner of the 2009 Rolex 24 At Daytona. Garcia is being strongly linked, along with Rolex 24 co-driver Buddy Rice, to a second Spirit of Daytona Porsche Cayenne- Coyote (No. 90). Co-drove most recently with SOD regular Guy Cosmo at the 6-Hours of The Glen last week.

 

Wolf Henzler - Farnbacher Loles Racing No. 86 Porsche GT3, GT; Team Felbermayr-Proton No. 77 Porsche GT3; teamed with Eric Lux, Henzler scored his second top-5 of 2009 with a third-place in the recent Sahlen's 6-Hours of The Glen.

 

 

Nic Jönsson - Krohn Racing No. 76 Lola Ford, DP; Risi Competizione No. 83 Ferrari F430 GT, LMGT2; with more than 50 starts in the Rolex Series - 47 in DP, alone - Jönsson's claimed his two DP wins in rainy conditions and might be hoping for some of the same at Le Mans.

 

 

Tracy Krohn - Krohn Racing No. 75 Lola Ford, DP; Risi Competizione No. 83 Ferrari F430 GT, LMGT2; co-driving with Jönsson at Le Mans and until this year for most of the pair's racing stateside, this Houston oilman is the primary mover of Proto-Auto, the consortium behind the Lola DP development program and has made close to 40 starts in Daytona Prototype competition.

 

Darren Law - Brumos Racing No. 58 Porsche-Riley, DP; Flying Lizard motorsport No. 80 Porsche GT, LMGT2; teamed with Bergmeister for Le Mans, Law hasn't missed a Daytona Prototype race since the class' introduction in 2003 and won the 2009 Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Patrick Long - No. 67 TRG Porsche GT3, GT; No. 76 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche GT3, LMGT2; Porsche factory driver Long won the 2009 Rolex 24  GT class and has raced in nearly 40 Rolex Series races, 27 of those in a DP.

Other Rolex Series-connected drivers at 2009 Le Mans: Lucas Luhr, Alan McNish, Tomas Enge, Rinaldo Capello, Mike Rockenfeller, Sebastien Bourdais, David Brabham, Olivier Panis, Sascha Maassen, Thomas Erdos, Chris Dyson, Matteo Bobbi, Emmanuel Collard, Guy Smith, Jan Magnussen, Johnny O'Connell, Olivier Gavin, Olivier Baretta, Stephan Gregoire, Patrick Pilet, Marc Lieb, Richard Leitz, Don Kitch Jr., Mika Salo, Dominik Farnbacher, Eric van de Poele.

Later.

DC

I'd Apologize ...

... but I've got nothing to do with a blogger which puts in paragraph spacing whenever and wherever it wishes.

Then again, maybe I'm just incapable of understanding how to publish stuff - after having done it for the better part of 40 years.

Still, this blog's layout stinks to high heaven and, hopefully, readers will bear with me while it's figured out - maybe with another blogging method.

Regards,

DC

LEXUS GONE?

Lexus "engines" may be departing the Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16.

Despite having helped power the Chip Ganassi Racing With Felix (y Jose) Sabates No. 01 Telmex team to three-consecutive Rolex 24 At Daytona wins, two driving championships as well as owner and manufaturer titles since entering the series in 2004, indications are that the Lexus engine brand in the Daytona Prototype class will leave as soon as the 2009-season's end - something lacking official confirmation by Lexus or Rolex Series officials.

The team, with 2008 DP driving champs Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas at the wheel, most recently won at the June 6 Shalen's 6-Hours at the Glen in Watkins Glen, New York.

The reason for Lexus' deaprture may lie in part with the economy but is said to be largely centered on a funding dispute between Lexus and Toyota Racing's U.S. arm, Toyota Racing Development (TRD).

It's said TRD believes it's owed money for running the engine program at Lexus' behest, whereas Lexus USA has supposedly said something along the lines of, "Huh, did we commit to something like that?"

Established in 1979 as an arm of TRD Japan, the intent of TRD U.S.A. is to market and distribute performance parts.

In 1979, with a parts book that looked more "pamphlet," TRD looked to build its base through racing, eventually hooking up with its most famous association, Dan Gurney's All American Racers, which ran Toyota-badged race cars most prominently in GTU, GTO and GTP competitions. Indeed, AAR's Toyota Eagle, with TRD support, dominated the final year of what today is considered sportscar's "golden decade" when in 1993 it claimed IMSA GTP driving and manfacturing crowns after dominating that season's opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Today, TRD continues its racing involvement on many of the sports' level but most prominently is associated with its involvement in NASCAR, which owns Rolex Series' parent company Grand-Am.

For those left wondering, Dan Gurney is the father of Alex Gurney, who pairs with Jon Fogarty to drive the Bob Stallings' owned No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac-Riley DP.

It's a tough position for the two Toyota-affiliated camps, one of which is low on money; the other specializing in racing - the latter having to deal with potential political fallout caused by something over which it has no control: money held and spent by the roughly 180 Lexus and 1,200 Toyota U.S. dealers.

Perhaps Bob Stallings will lend his perspective on Grand-Am Weekly, which is live from 7-8 p.m. ET, Tuesday, May 16. A program Web stream is found at http://stream/netro.ca/wele.

Later,

DC

OKAY, YOU WIN

And so, too, do I - mostly from knowing how many people have missed my Rolex Series musings.

So, here goes ... in another day or so because the lawn awaits.