BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK NOTES

 

EARLY IN THE MORNING

“When a girl reach the age 18, she begins to think she’s grown. That’s the kind of little girl, you can never find at home … Do you want to see me hug my pillow, where my baby used to lay?”  ©Eric Patrick Clapton

Penske Racing’s Verizon Wireless guys don’t exactly fit all of Slow Hand’s above descriptive lyrics, but they darn well could’ve paralleled the theme after staying awake until 3 a.m. Saturday repairing their Porsche-powered Riley Daytona Prototype – returning to the track just after daybreak.

Romain Dumas was at the wheel when the car’s left front gouged the ground as Dumas attempted to negotiate one of Barber Motorsports Park’s late-course right-hand turns Friday. Give or take, Dumas’ "off” occurred in the complex in the neighborhood of pit road’s entrance.

(One road-racing “beauty,” if you will, is the accounting of turns. Some drivers see X; others see X(-), still others see X(+). Crew chiefs, team managers, officials and still others see, or don’t see turns while at the same time looking at exactly the same track diagram.)

In one of those areas of description in which, again, almost everyone will disagree (some say the flooring gave way, others say it was ripped apart, etc.), the bottom-line result in Dumas’ one-car off was his legs being exposed to conditions which injured in his lower left leg, in the area where calf muscle transitions to Achilles tendon. In short, it hurts and, yep, it’s on his leg’s backside. Such leaves one only to think about what could’ve happened, but didn’t. Thank goodness.

Whilst the very much broken Verizon Wireless’ repairs were being undertaken, and not wishing to take any chances whatsoever, another black-and-red Riley was taken out of storage in Charlotte, N.C., put on a transporter and traveled in as straight of a line as is possible to Birmingham.

“We got the (broken) Verizon car pretty well fixed up,” Penske Racing GM John Erickson said shortly after the team returned to BMP around 6: a.m. “We’ll need only (to use) a few parts from the other car.”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT SHANK’S PLACE

Evidently Mike Shank Racing’s Bruise Crew’s (No. 06, John Pew, Michael Valiante) Daytona experience – where the team worked feverishly and successfully to repair a missing Riley underside after Pew mowed the grass in a morning practice – paid some dividends for Mark Patterson and Ozz Negri’s No. 60 Ford-Riley team after Patterson, also, decided to make like a Deere and escape Barber Motorsports Park’s paved portions.

Though the Riley’s undertray (“floorboards” to you engineer types) clearly was junked, Patterson didn’t do anything to his legs - the Shank team having long ago “reinforced” that area on the cars, as has the No. 99 GAINSCO Pontiac-Riley (which this morning talked about reinforcing the reinforcement) and others.

Still, Patterson’s rapid-rate deceleration eventually sent him to the track’s infield medical facility where particular attention was paid to his suddenly taller self, having stretched his neck and all.

Frankly, this scribe, who was along for the ride to the medical facility, didn’t think Patterson would return to racing at BMP but trained medical personnel and Patterson concluded otherwise. However, one shouldn’t be too terribly surprised to see Negri climb into the car as soon as possible after Patterson serves his minimum sentence in Sunday’s Porsche 250 which, this year, isn’t nearly as hot nor humid as past years.

BUT, WHEN IT’S HOT, THEY’RE HOT

With race-day temperatures forecast to be unseasonably cool and relative humidity readings likewise down (darn thee, global warming!), one would think most everyone in the Barber Motorsports Park vicinity would welcome the far more comfortable conditions in place for the Porsche 250 weekend.

Not so, Scott Pruett, who believes he and Memo Rojas hold a competitive advantage in their Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix No. 01 Telmex Lexus-Riley when the ambient temperature is 90-degrees-or-better and they’re cooking inside.

Pruett said he believes Rojas’ improved (increased, too) fitness regimen this year has made it tougher for dissimilarly prepared teams to effectively combat the two drivers, who come into Barber Motorsports Park with a one-point drivers’ championship lead over Daytona Brumos 250 winners, Max Angelelli and Brian Frisselle, whose No. 10 SunTrust Ford-Dallara managed to fend off the determined Daytona charge of third place points-holders Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney and their No. 99 Gainsco Pontiac-Riley.

Three-points, total, separate the top-six divers in the Daytona Prototype championship hunt.

GIDLEY RETURNS TO RAKING

After a one-race hiatus, Memo Gidley and Brad Jaeger returned to racing at Barber Motorsports Park in Kevin Doran’s No. 77 MacDonald’s Ford-Dallara, promptly posting a top-five best time by the time Friday’s practices concluded.

“It drove me crazy,” Gidley said of the one-race deal that was intended to showcase the talents of a South Africa Airways-sponsored Hennie Groenewald and Dion von Moltke. “I don’t want to do it again, either, so I’m really glad to be back.

One of the interesting aspects of watching Daytona Prototypes is rear wing commonality - they’re all the same in size and structurally (though not the struts) - and the accompanying ability for the fan to visually discern a team’s rear wing preferences. It’s a subject usually reserved for high-level secrecy until at least post race; if then.

No, lacking a protractor and the ability to slap one on the wing (assuming a team member would even allow a pilgrim to do such), one can’t determine a wing’s precise degree but one can see if it’s flat, like that of the No. 76 Krohn Racing Ford-Lola and No. 10 SunTrust Ford-Dallara, which respectively were seventh- and eighth-fastest in Friday’s combined-time stats, or if the wing favors the other end of the available spectrum.

Like Gidley and Jaeger’s Dallara, Friday’s fastest teams seemed to prefer higher rake angles and, presumably, produced more drag on their respective rear wings.

CRONKITE’S DAYTONA DAYS

Known for his tranquil sailboat life less so than being a newscaster legend for whom the “news anchor” term was coined, Walter Cronkite, who died Friday at 92, was the “voice” part of a CBS television network team that in 1960 produced the first-ever TV programming which originated from Daytona International Speedway – sportscars included.

Later.

DC