PENSKE BOOKING IT?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So was Papa Joe.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Later,

DC

SOUL: DRIVERS; NOT CARS

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Does anyone doubt where Team Corvette will finish in 2010?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Later,

DC

GRAN PRIX DE MIAMI SHORTS - HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yet, the defending champs were fighting an uphill battle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So it is said; so shall it be done?

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

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

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

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

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

It didn't come easily, to be sure.

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

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

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

Life does those things, you know.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Later,

DC

HATING ALL THINGS NASCAR

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Answer: 2005 Maserati MC 12.

Well, kinda sorta.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

Huh?

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

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

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

 

IT'S TIME FOR HE SAID; HE SAID!

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

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

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

Get that?

Okay, let's try it another way:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Huh?

Exactly!

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

WHAT HE REALLY SAID: "Spec series!"

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

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

Huh?

Exactly!

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

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

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

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

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

Later,

DC