MONTREAL NOTES

 

SOME SPIN AND WIN; SOME DON’T

NASCAR Sprint Cup regular Marcos Ambrose worked hard to put together the No. 77 Aflac Ford-Dallara Daytona Prototype ride, even to the point of scaring up some sponsorship money for the effort, then helplessly watched teammate Carl Edwards - likewise a seasoned NASCAR veteran - spin the Kevin Doran-owned Daytona Prototype into a tire barrier shortly after Edwards drove onto Circuit Gilles Villeneuve’s suddenly wet front straight as he concluded a pre-race warm up.

Such ended Ambrose and Edwards’ first Daytona Prototype outing – even before it’d officially begun. Many were thinking “top-5” for the two, who had displayed considerable ability in adapting to the car during Friday’s practice and qualifying.

It’s unusual to see an accomplished driver like Edwards thusly dump his mount but anyone who’s been around racing for a decent length of time have seen others do the same – whether at local bull rings with nary a soul in the stands or international stages while tens-of-millions worldwide watched on TV.

It’s even rarer to see a spin-and-win like Danny Sullivan’s at the 1985 Indy 500. More often it’s something akin to Roberto Guerrero from the inside pole crashing his Buick-powered Lola in 1992 or, worse, four cars crashing out after Kevin Cogan’s Cosworth-Penske sharply swerved from a front-row sandwich at the start of the1982 Indy 500.

Most often it’s a matter of physics, wherein a car’s front end can’t match the speed of a quickly accelerating rear end, which more-or-less drives around the impediment.

Cogan and Guerrero, each having displayed immense talent up to their respective shunts, never fully recovered then-derailed careers.

Late in the Montreal race, with rain again starting to fall, Sylvain Tremblay fought a suddenly stepping out rear end after mashing the gas at the wrong moment in his No. 70 Castrol Mazda RX-8. Finding an unforgiving concrete wall and crunching his radiator, only moments later Tremblay was parked.

Like previously stated, it happens to the best and, safe to say, is always unwanted.

 

DEMPSEY TAKES A FAST BREATHER

Breaking from filming of ensemble-comedy “Valentines Day” and sneaking into Montreal under the cover of darkness Friday night, Patrick Dempsey was thrilled to have finally returned to the racetrack “for a little fix.”

“I just had to come; couldn’t stand to be away from it any longer,” Dempsey, owner of the No. 40 Mazda RX-8 Rolex Series GT race car, said just before the Montreal race Saturday as he sat atop the team’s pitside war wagon.

“I’ve really missed not getting into the seat and I can only imagine what my driving is like now,” he said with a slight frown.

With the meat of the Rolex Series schedule not favorably cooperating with Dempsey’s filming schedule, Dempsey Racing-regular Joe Foster and Dempsey stand-in Charles Espenlaub (they really don’t look anything alike, save the dark hair) grabbed the Montreal 200 race lead at one point Saturday before a rain shower rendered  the treadless Pirelli race tires grip-free at the wrong time. Espenlaub briefly spun from the course and while no physical damage was done, it was enough to relegate the team to a fourth-place finish.

Though Dempsey hasn’t raced as much as desired, he nonetheless stole enough time from his schedule to recently make a run up the California coast and climb into a historic, Lee Dykstra-penned 1992 Mazda RX-792P at the Aug 14-16 2009 Monterey Historic Automobile Races (aka, Monterey Historics).

Bearing an especially unusual, cutting-edge (especially for its day) four-rotor engine, the 792P’s 2.6-liter Wankel was made primarily of titanium and ceramic and easily put out roughly 700 to 750 horsepower, according to Rolex Sports Car Series official Mark Raffauf.

Raffauf, who at the time of the Mazda prototype’s introduction was president of the International Motor Sports Association, recalled Mazda flying the car from Japan to Daytona International Speedway for a 24-hour test.

“It was an evolution of the Mazda 787 that won the year before at Le Mans but it was loud; real loud. According to telephone calls fielded by the Speedway (at the time) the car made such a tremendous noise that it was heard more than six miles away,” he said. “It was a real engineering feat, though. One of the coolest cars ever built.”

Dempsey had similar thoughts of the car, in which Mazda helped him get the ride at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

“I had a blast driving it,” he said with a wide grin. “It was the fastest I’ve ever driven. Purely a phenomenal experience.”

Dempsey says if all goes as planned, he’ll be back in the seat of his No. 40 Mazda at the Sept. 18-19 Rolex Series race at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.

 

LOOK, IT’S BUDDY RICE!

In a late-night, hotel-lobby encounter following respective sponsor commitments, Romain Dumas encountered Buddy Rice as each independently reached the hotel in which they were staying.

Dumas, wearing a Porsche baseball cap, grabs his cap’s bill by either side, flattens it and starts yelling, “Look, look! It’s Buddy Rice! It’s Buddy Rice!”

Um, it’s probably best not to repeat what Rice said in response.

Later,

DC

NO SURPRISES

 

PORSCHE GONE? 

“I’d rather be the hammer than the nail, yes I would, if I could, I surely would” (performed by Simon and Garfunkel; lyrics by Paul Simon; arrangement by Daniel Alomias Robles)

Rumors of Porsche’s factory involvement departure from the Rolex Series at the conclusion of the 2009 season, if true, shouldn’t really come as a big surprise for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the German manufacturer’s inability, through Penske Racing, to field a competitive car.

No, make that “field a car no one else can beat, except in the rarest of circumstances, such as global nuclear annihilation, in which case none wins.”

From race podiums to media centers, it’s Porsche’s nature to strictly control its brand, even to the point of calling a spade a non-spade or, particularly elsewhere in an earlier time, claiming a particular team didn’t have a factory advantage even though everyone in the corresponding paddock knew otherwise.

The Rolex Sports Car Series presented Crown Royal Cask No. 16 is a strange creature in the world of sportscar racing in that most anyone can effectively compete for a podium. Porsche doesn’t like such an uncontrollable idea and thus may well take its toys and go home. Should it, the Rolex Series will survive.

WHEN WINNING ISN’T NECESSARILY A GOOD THING

Watkins Glen Crown Royal 250 winner Krohn Racing withdrew from Saturday’s race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, obliquely citing legal “issues” with race car manufacturer Lola, whose badge graces two Krohn Racing cars but which, according to those in the know, has had little to do with the car’s success since the car’s introduction at the second race of the Rolex Series’ 2008 season.

Krohn Racing and Lola, working in a collaborative 2007 effort now known as “Proto-Auto LLC” after all-but-dormant Daytona Prototype manufacturing rights were secured from Multimatic, spawned a “second-generation” DP that was a hassle from the get-go as exasperated Lola designers saw multiple early designs and individual design elements repeatedly rejected by officials overseeing the Grand-Am DP project.

“They (Lola) just couldn’t get it through their heads that we weren’t going to allow them to build whatever they wanted to build,” one Grand-Am official said at the time while additionally pointing out that Lola’s 2007 design project had produced two, three-inch, three-ring binders thick with material - rejected and accepted renderings together - that juxtaposed with Riley Technologies’ second-generation DP work was about 10-times as voluminous.

A competing DP designer in early 2008 recalled fielding a call from an exasperated Lola engineer who in the summer of 2007, and well into the design-process window, wondered aloud as to “what one must do so as to submit an acceptable design.”

“Use proper minimums,” he said the Lola engineer was bluntly told.

“This was Lola’s first go with anyone having a NASCAR mindset and he just couldn’t fathom that Grand-Am wasn’t going to change their rules just so that they (Rolex Series) could point at a Lola on the grid. Lola wanted special exceptions for being Lola. Frankly, I rested as well that night as I had in months because it was the first firm indication that Lola wasn’t going to get whatever it desired when I thought it would, easily.”

The competing engineer also contended that Lola’s initial intransigence led to the design’s eventual inefficiencies.

“Time was running out and they had to submit something. With a deadline on the calendar they didn’t have another year to lollygag about and that’s what they got,” he said while sweeping his hand toward a Krohn Racing car, “a big, green paperweight.”

In an impromptu Aug. 7 Rolex Series Watkins Glen paddock discussion, a well-placed Krohn Racing insider cited to a reporter a number of efforts it had undertaken to take the car from “paperweight” to winning.

“All done without Lola’s help,” he said. “Not one thing have they done to help us this year. They’ve fought us at just about every juncture, including the cost (to end users) of parts.”

The company insider went on to say that negotiations to bring Proto-Auto “solely under our roof appear to be nearing an end and I think you’ll soon be hearing a positive announcement to that effect.”

Remembering Krohn Racing’s earlier-2009 runaway win (by Rolex Series standards) at New Jersey Motorsports Park, the reporter suggested Krohn Racing might not wish to win any other races until the matter was settled.

“Otherwise, Lola might not be willing to part with its piece of a pie that will grow more desirable as a result,” the reporter said.

A few hours later, Krohn Racing’s Nic Jonsson and Ricardo Zonta (pictured at left, left to right, respectively) won the Crown Royal race, in the process scoring the series’ third-largest margin of victory – 3.325 seconds – thus far in the 2009 season.

Though along with the Montreal withdrawal announcement Krohn expressed optimism about an early return to Rolex Series racing (the team “will continue testing”), the mere mention of legal proceedings makes one think it might well be 2010 before Krohn Racing returns. The really bad news? Other DP teams were taking a hard look at acquiring the Proto-Auto car, with one reportedly signed.

 

DOES ANYONE BELIEVE INDY ISN’T ON 2010 ROLEX SCHEDULE?

After this weekend’s Montreal event the next stop for 10 Rolex Series teams will be Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) and a  one-day Sept. 3 test of two IMS track configurations: the 2.621-mile (4.218-km), 16-turn (10 left, six right) counterclockwise-running MotoGP track (opened in 2008); and, the clockwise,13-turn (nine right, four left), 2.607-mile (4.195-km) former F1 track used for the United States Grand Prix during the 2000 through 2007 seasons. Each configuration uses about one mile of the oval’s layout.

The MotoGP circuit, at left, gets the morning workout; the very similar (just take out MotoGP’s Turns 1, 2, 3, 4 and replace with nearby oval portion) but opposite-running F1 track gets the afternoon test. Or, maybe, it’s the other way around.

Whatever, opened in 1909, the 2.5-mile oval has since had multiple surfaces ranging from crushed stones (mixed with tar), to bricks, tarmac and asphalt. The effect of the present asphalt surface, the one which ground Good Year’s 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup tires to dust, is one of the questions to be answered at the test.

The track eventually also built its way to roughly 250,000 permanent seats, making it the largest motorsports facility in the world. IMS  approaches its maximum capacity, from paddock to grandstands, for its annual IndyCar Series Indy 500 and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Allstate 400. The 225,000 attendees for the 2002 United States Grand Prix is believed the largest turnout ever for a Formula One race.

Humans don’t understand what they don’t know. The reason for the preceding profound statement is the almost mind-blowing  process used to convert the 2.5-mile IMS oval to a road course, some of which includes:

• Crews moving temporary inside walls and catch fencing at points where the road course enters and exits the oval
• Install tire barriers for the road course’s Turns 1 and 12 (F1 configuration), as well as other areas, in the process moving approximately 10,000 of IMS’ roughly 24,000 tires for various road course safety features
• Closure of several infield roads along with erecting concrete and tire barriers that help define the road course’s infield portions
• Moving 60 6-ton and 60 4-ton concrete barriers used in various locations on the circuit.

The above is just a smidgeon of what must be undertaken as between 12,000 and 17,000 man-hours are expended in turning the   traditionally configured Brickyard into a road course.

In short, IMS is something other than your mother’s local bull ring - and it even has a golf course that this humble (repeatedly humbled?) golfer will someday get to play before driving into the Great Fairway in the sky.

When the five DP and five GT teams (described below) take to the IMS track it’ll mark the culmination of a route whose test at first was super secret but now has become a tool to measure “overall reaction from our participants, fans and media,” according to Grand-Am president Roger Edmondson.

The originally intended mid-August test (note that it was a couple weeks-or-so after NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ Brickyard 400) was supposed to include at least two NASCAR Sprint Cup cars (one being out of the Richard Childress Racing shops) but, for some reason (probably because the Good Year Indy tires actually allowed the Sprint Cup cars to kinda, sorta race this year), the Cup cars were dropped from the rescheduled Sept. 3 test (which doesn’t mean they won’t eventually hold a test, BTW).

Rolex Series teams invited to the IMS test (assuming all is well following this weekend’s action at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve) include Daytona Prototypes No. 01 TELMEX Lexus-Riley'; No. 99 GAINSCO Pontiac-Riley; No. 10 SunTrust Ford-Dallara; No. 6 Pew Sailing Ford-Riley; and, the No. 90 AMA Pro Racing Porsche Cayenne-Coyote.

A full driver list for the test, as of the time this is written, has yet to be released but the grapevine has Mike Shank fulfilling a lifelong dream to drive a race car at IMS. However, one would expect the Rolex Series to undertake some sort of initiative to get those names into the public domain if the test truly is a means by which to gauge “overall reaction.”

Grand Touring teams expected are the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3; No. 07 Drinkin' Mate Pontiac GXP.R; No. 57 BryanMark Financial Pontiac GXP.R; and, the No. 70 SpeedSource Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8.

As an aside, one recently got the feeling that NASCAR blamed its sportscar side for leaking the secret Aug. 18 test. While such could be true, Charlotte stockcar-side personnel nonetheless were buzzing with the news shortly after the first date was mentioned.

When one considers the effort undertaken for this test, one can’t help but believe the Rolex Series will be at IMS in 2010 unless some catastrophic flaw arises at the test – which would likely only delay an inevitable IMS Rolex Series race.

LISTEN IN

Learn if Mike Shank really is going to test the No. 6 MSR Ford-Riley at Indy. Besides Shank, tonight’s guests on Grand-Am Weekly are Brendan Gaughan and Andrew Davis - who with co-driver Robin Liddell won the 2008 Montreal GT race in the No. 57 BryanMark Financial Pontiac. Perhaps Davis will reveal if he, too, will test at Indy on Sept. 3. Join JJ O’Malley, producer Wyatt Davis and yours truly from 7:05 p.m. (following ABC national news) to 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday on WELE 1380 AM Sports Radio – get LIVE Web stream by clicking here!  

Later,

DC

GOING TO CIRCUIT GILLES VILLENEUVE

 

AMBROSE AND EDWARDS

Getting ready for this Saturday’s Daytona Prototype debut at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide series regulars John Edwards and Marcos Ambrose, respectively at middle and at near right pictured with Kevin Doran, far left, tested Doran’s No. 77 Ford-Dallara at VIRginia International Raceway Aug. 18.

Roush Fenway Racing’s Edwards and JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ambrose each have two Nationwide Series starts at the 15-turn, 2.71-mile road course situated on the Isle of Notre Dame and surrounded by the waters of the St. Lawrence River. In the two Nationwide races held thus far at the course, Ambrose has  posted one top-five and one top-10 finishes; Edwards a top-10.

“I love racing at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve,”  Edwards said. “The Montreal fans are great and to have two opportunities to race there next weekend is just awesome.” 

In 2009 NASCAR action, Edwards and his No. 60 CitiFinancial Ford currently is second to points leader Kyle Busch in the Nationwide Series and is fifth in the Sprint Cup Series’ championship hunt.

After finishing 8th (2007) and 10th (2008) in his first two NASCAR Nationwide Series seasons, Ambrose for 2009 switched to a fulltime ride in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, where he’s currently 17th in the standings. Still, Ambrose occasionally climbs into the Jodi Geschickter-owned No. 47 Armor All Toyota Nationwide car – particularly for road courses. He won the Nationwide Watkins Glen race Aug. 8 and the following day finished second to Tony Stewart’s first-place in NASCAR Sprint Cup action.

“It’s a great track (where) I’ve always had a chance to win,” Ambrose said of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where the driver currently holds the record for number (64) of first-place laps. “But I haven’t won it yet and I’m going to keep going until I do.”

A DP rookie like Edwards - even though itching to drive a DP since the 2007 Mexico City race - Ambrose nonetheless has one Rolex Series start, a pretty impressive one at that.

Competing in the 2005 Rolex 24 At Daytona with fellow Australians Paul Morris, Craig Baird and John Teulan in the No. 00 Porsche GT3, Ambrose and his mates, aggregately named the “Aussie Assault,” finished a dismal 53rd overall (of 62 cars starting the race), completing an official 271 laps. However, for about 260 of those laps the team rarely ran lower than third place; was easily among the quickest cars in the GT field; and, for the better part of the race’s seventh and eighth hours had compiled a one-lap lead on the GT field. A bum transmission was the team’s Achilles heel, ending their race in Saturday’s late-evening hours.

Before coming to NASCAR in 2006, Ambrose scored 27 road course victories in his native Australia and has since won NASCAR races at Watkins Glen. Ambrose dominated the 2007 Nationwide Montreal race before a late-race Robby Gordon punt – for which Gordon was reprimanded – and the result of which all but handed the race win to Kevin Harvick. 

HOW ‘BOUT THOSE SPORTY CAR GUYS?

Fully one-third of the drivers entered for Sunday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series Napa Auto Parts 200 presented by Dodge in Montreal come from or have considerable road racing backgrounds.

A couple of those, Brendan Gaughan and Andy Lally, are teaming in the No. 66 TRG Porsche GT for Saturday’s Rolex Series race and on Sunday the two are hoping to be in that day’s Nationwide race, Lally in the Johnny Davis owned No. 0 Chevrolet; Gaughan in the Rusty Wallace owned No. 62 US Fidelis Chevrolet.

Lally has at least one start in each of NASCAR’s Sprint Cup and Nationwide series, most recently scoring a cherished Sprint Cup start three weeks ago in NASCAR Sprint Cup at Watkins Glen.

2006 Rolex Series DP “Shadow” Champion (yes, Jorge Bergmeister solely was awarded that year’s title but had a powerful assist from) Colin Braun, who will sprint (as will Kyle Busch) from Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Chicagoland for his No. 16 3M Ford ride at Montreal. Though he didn’t run in the 2008 race, Braun nevertheless was there to set up Greg Biffle’s 2008 eventual eighth-place-finishing Montreal car. Brad Coleman, who teamed with Braun (and Adrian Carrio for the Rolex 24) in 2005 as a part of TRG’s ”Sweet 16” team, is running the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet. in the 2008 race Coleman finished eighth.

Jean François Dumoulin (“We just call him ‘JF,’” said AIM Autosport’s Ian Willis, who helped steer the No. 61 AIM Ford-Riley to a win at Montreal in 2008) is entered in both races, running AIM’s No. 51 Tower Events Ford-Riley with Toronto’s John Farano.

Dumoulin, a 2004 and 2007 Rolex 24 At Daytona class winner, has been racing at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for years, cutting his first racing lines there in Formula Ford. Dumoulin, along with Willis, appeared regularly on the “Racer” TV reality series, filmed at Circuit Mont-Tremblant, about a 90-minute drive north of Montreal.

“Montreal is almost a hometown race for me,” Dumoulin said. “When I started racing in Formula Ford that was our biggest race of the season. I am happy to be back this year, especially in a Rolex Series Daytona Prototype with a good, established team. I think we have a strong package.”

Driving Johnny Davis’ No. 23 Mahindra Chevrolet, Dumoulin is a Nationwide Series teammate to Lally.

Boris Said, Max Papis, Justin Marks, Michael McDowell, Paul Menard (successfully raced a Spirit of Daytona GTS Corvette before going “NASCAR”), JR Fitzpatrick and still others are strong road racers.

 

PLEASE, DON’T KILL THE MESSENGER

Good since ancient times, the above message stands true today, inasmuch as media types (that is, those who hold journalism’s tenets near and dear) often only can convey facts provided by others, however conflicting they at times may be.

Case in point: NASCAR’s Rolex Series folks say the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is 2.708-miles in length whereas their NASCAR Nationwide Series counterparts claim the course to be 2.709-miles in length.

Given that the French (and, um, most Montreal inhabitants don’t think themselves anything but) are inclined toward using the far more rationally intelligent metric system, yours truly grabbed the course’s length in official  units Thinking the difference may have occurred in “translation”

Leaving no stone unturned in the determination of whose truth was truest, it occurred to ol’ DC to turn to the one place where the measurement’s metric counterpart would likely be most accurate. Given that many an F1 race had been held at the track (with more in the future, just wait and see), he clicked to Formula One's Statistics site (which also has a wonderful interactive Circuit Gilles Villeneuve map) and found the track’s measurement to be 4.361 kilometers.

Appropriately armed and given the fact his slide rule’s distinguishing characteristics had long ago worn away, Ol’ DC then went to his favorite unit converter site and commenced converting, which produced 2.7098-miles.

Thus, rounding to the next-highest increment, we come up with 2.71 miles. Now, lest anyone think such to be a gross misstatement of fact, the distance-difference in rounding up is slightly more than 6-inches but waaaay less than 7-inches.

Got that?

And, speaking of marathons, check out the above Circuit Gilles Villeneuve satellite image.

See the narrow rectangle, diagonally running at the image’s center. It is the Isle of Notre Dame rowing basin used in 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics competition. Note the scale at lower right. The Rolex Series’ paddock is located at the top of that rectangle of water, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve pits (along with start/finish line) is located at the rectangle’s lower left. Rolex Series teams, and anyone else who may wish to hang out in the paddock but also wish to see the cars on track must travel almost the basin’s entire length for and between EACH practice, qualifying and race.

To put it mildly, team carts get a workout. Others, bereft of transporters and other cart-access means, must walk that distance which, round-trip, easily exceeds two miles and the reason yours truly will “bulk-up” for the Montreal race – if nothing else because eating between walks isn’t easily achieved, either.

Oh, what we go through so as to communicate information to those who can’t attend races: foreign lands, rare sites, meet wonderful people and, in this case, experience a truly international and cosmopolitan Montreal. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to do it.

 

LISTEN IN

Tonight’s guests on Grand-Am Weekly are Brendan Gaughan, Andrew Davis, winner with co-driver Robin Liddell of the 2008 Montreal GT race, as well as once-frustrated-driver-turned-frustrated car owner Mike Shank, whose Michael Shank Racing fields the No. 6 and 60 Ford-Riley’s in Daytona Prototype competition. Shank will get to fulfill a lifelong dream as it is he who will test drive at Indianapolis Sept. 3 – finally realizing a dream unrealized as an open-wheel driver.

Join JJ O’Malley, producer Wyatt Davis and yours truly from 7:05 p.m. (following ABC national news) to 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday on WELE 1380 AM Sports Radio – get LIVE Web stream by clicking here!  

Later,

DC

LOYALTY LANDS LALLY A HELUVA CUP RIDE

“It’s been a long four years,” TRG Motorsports’ Kevin Buckler said shortly after TRG driving-regular Andy Lally made Sunday’s Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dip’s At The Glen NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

“Andy’s done a lot for this team, sacrificed a lot, put up with a lot of things that would make other drivers walk away,” Buckler said, “But Andy’s been really loyal and I had to repay him.”

Indeed, Buckler repaid him to the tune of losing a sponsor who would’ve otherwise graced the side of the TRG Motorsports’ No. 71 Chevrolet.

“It’s a sponsor who’ll be on the car for the 2010 season with (NASCAR-series regular) David (Gilliland),” Buckler said, “but they wanted to be on the car for this race only if David was in the car."

Even though having given Lally no Watkins Glen ride guarantee other than that with co-driver Justin Marks in TRG’s No. 66 No Fear Porsche GT3 car in Friday’s Crown Royal At The Glen 200, Buckler still felt himself caught between a rock and hard place with much-needed sponsorship money offered on one hand, or showing his appreciation of Lally’s dedication to the team on the other.

Even though at minimum doubling his team’s Glen costs - and possibly footing most of the cost himself - Buckler opted to put Lally in the No. 71 Adobe Road Winery Chevrolet and Gilliland in the No. 70 TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet.

Out for his attempt, first, Gilliland bobbled once under braking and sealed a go-home, 46th-fast qualifying attempt.

On pit road two cars behind Gilliland, Lally’s mind alternately drifted from wanting to pinch himself for just being there and the realization that he needed to gather his focus for the one-shot chance at making the field.

“It was when I cleanly got through the Carousel that I felt it’d be a good lap,” Lally said, “and all I needed to do was hit my marks cleanly from that point.

“I got a little squirley coming out of the last turn, put a couple of wheels in the dirt and made it look good for TV, but the tires were chattering a little and I was kind of concerned that I might’ve scrubbed off too much speed so I just buried the throttle and headed for start/finish.”

Moments later, when he got word of his time, the adrenaline pump’s letdown was coursing through his body when his emotions hit a high.

“I knew my time was good enough to make the field,” Lally said shortly after  recording his eventual 15th-fastest time – bested only by Boris Said’s 8th-quickest time among the Cup’s non-regulars on hand.

“At 34, after I had at times wondered if I’d ever get the chance, I finally fulfilled a lifelong dream,” Lally said with a slightly cracking voice that gave him pause.

Back to a broad smile, it nonetheless was momentarily dashed when someone asked if both TRG Motorsports’ cars had made the field.

“No, I don’t think David did,” Lally responded and not without some sadness - such not particularly surprising given the degree to which Lally has been a team player.

Soon, a beaming Said approached, embraced Lally in a bear hug shared by racers who first climbed racing’s pinnacles in sportscars. The two, soon also joined by Ron Fellows - who came in at 37th-fastest and also made the Heluva field - the three quickly slipped into an animated, laughing world all their own.

Making his way back to the garage, Buckler stopped for a moment to talk with a reporter.

“This is going to cost me but it’s worth it because Andy is in the show",” he said. “He’s been incredibly loyal to the team for many, many years and really deserved the chance.”

“I’m very, very proud of him,” Buckler said.

And also loyal.

Later.

DC

FUELING THE PAIN AT BARBER

Details have started to, um, flow following the seizure and discovery of non-conforming pit lane fueling equipment following the July 19 Barber Motorsports Park Porsche 250 presented by Legacy Credit Union.

According to those familiar with what occurred, it really was “seizure and discovery,” by the way, for officials believed something was amiss but lacked specifics until after an impound was conducted by officials from the Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16.

Furthermore, that any Daytona Prototype teams were caught out was a surprise because, according to the insiders, the focus of Barber’s post-race fueling probe was actually on the GT side of the fence, but that “we figured if we were to look at those guys we also needed to look at the DPs for continuity’s sake.”

Still further, “We were as surprised as anyone that the top-two DP finishers (and championship points co-leaders) were out of compliance.”

Three teams were deemed to have transgressed in one manner or another. Two Daytona Prototype teams - the No. 01 Telmex Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance/Bob Stallings - were each fined $15,000 and penalized 15 championship points. The No. 86 Farnbacher Loles Racing Grand Touring team was fined $7,500 and penalized 15 points.

Each of the three teams are in the thick of the 2009 points-championship fight within their respective classes and the exacted points penalties were suffered across the board in driver, team and manufacturer championship categories.

The specific Grand-Am rules-violation verbiage (emphasis added): “Violation of Sporting Regulations 9-7. Fueling rig must be used as designed and delivered with no modifications of any kind. Fuel rig exit fitting confiscated per Sporting Regulations 7-8. Act detrimental to the sport of Automobile Racing Sporting Regulations 12-1.”

  In the below image, on the left is an example of a Grand-Am rules-specified “fuel rig exit fitting.” To its right is a bisected “modified” elbow, one of two such offending, nearly identical fittings confiscated from the DP fueling rigs at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.

Rearranged so as to provide a different perspective in the below-right image, more easily seen is an “unacceptable sleeve” within the elbow - which at the very least reduced fuel-flow turbulence - is the most evident no-no, but other modifications also were found, again made outside of rulebook specifications (noticeable is a piece of transparent film, used to secure the otherwise-unsupported insert sleeve in the bisection, but wasn’t “part” of the offending apparatus).

The three examples shown in the image at below-left, from left-to-right, are an unaltered BSR assembly; the No. 01’s elbow in the middle (which bears a bisection cut); and, at far right, the No. 99’s complete, non-conforming assembly which mirrors that of the unaltered BSR assembly. Carefully compare the flanking “complete” sections and one can see the inner sleeve protruding from the No. 99’s assembly.

While other non-conforming but relatively minor aspects peculiar to each team’s rig were ascertained, the two unacceptable, “sleeved” elbows were said to have come from a commonly known and frequently used third-party who modified the pieces outside of Grand-Am specs.

Though the altered elbows’ inside diameter was actually less than that of the approved BSR assembly, the use of it was said to have improved a refueling procedure by as much as by two seconds.

Though images are absent herein, the failing Farnbacher Loles Racing fuel rig’s dead-man valve and its connections’ various interior metal surfaces were, in some cases, milled and in almost all cases polished, much like one might “port” an intake manifold.

Strongly suggesting a rogue operation on the No. 86 Farnbacher Loles Racing team side - hatched by one or more individuals within it - is evidenced by the lack of duplication in any other Farnbacher Loles Racing team cars’ fueling rigs. Though officials seized all Farnbacher Loles Racing refueling rigs used at Barber Motorsports Park, only one was found to have been unacceptably altered. Indeed, Farnbacher Loles’ “illegal” No. 86 team rig was juxtaposed by Rolex Series officials with a fully acceptable, “legal” version from Farnbacher Loles’ No. 87 car.

When one considers five different Rolex Sports Car Series DP-class competitors have produced a combined margin of victory totaling less than one-minute over the series’ thus-far completed 46 hours (1,487 laps; eight races) in 2009 (through the July 19 Barber Motorsports Park race) - and with similar GT-class MOV numbers thus far in its 2009 race schedule - every millisecond gained, wherever gained, looms large.

Did any of the teams in the matter act in concert with each other or team members within an individual organization?

It’s doubtful. Indeed, the situation strongly suggests that individuals - whether working directly or as an independent subcontractor for the involved teams - most likely autonomously undertook efforts which produced the greatest fines thus far levied in Rolex Series history. Furthermore, in a competitive environment in which every tick of a clock can represent the difference between winning and being an also-ran, it’s understandable a human brain would envision and employ the means by which a team might better perform so that it finishes first. After all, winning - the ultimate demonstration of superior skill and/or ability - underlies competition.

Though speculation runs rampant as to who knew what, when and the time period during which the above transgressions may have been undertaken, lacking is any official ability to determine exactly such.

Frankly, it’s tough for anyone indirectly involved to know, with certainty, that any of the acts described above were done with malice and forethought; that someone, acting alone or in concert with others, decided to nefariously circumvent the Grand-Am rule book.

Indeed, knowing racers’ competitive nature, it isn’t difficult to imagine that the involved parties simply sought an edge and in the process, perhaps even inadvertently and unknowingly, crossed a forbidden line. 

IGNORANTIA LEGIS NEMINEM EXCUSAT

“Ignorance of the law excuses no one” for it is “… not that all Men know the Law but because 'tis an excuse every man will plead and no man can tell how to confute him,” noted English jurist John Selden (1584-1654) in part wrote in his Table Talk: Laws - a principal still in use today when a bank-robbing suspect stammers to judge and jury, “Buh-buh-but I didn’t know I couldn’t rob it!”

Later.

DC