Ah, Heck Might As Well Make Another Up

 

What does a driver do on the Sunday of a Memorial Day weekend?

If he’s not in one of the two Big Ones, he’s generally watching one or both – being darn happy he’s not there after Brit Mike Conway and Ryan Hunter-Reay do the “Mess Around” dance and one of ‘em get launched. “I had nowhere to go,” Hunter-Reay said afterward.

Conway did. Up, up away and over. And while Conway was looking at the track (assuming he had his eyes open) his tub was being grated by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway catch fencing. Meanwhile – ABC TV viewers having had only a cursory look at the launch and its aftermath – Ms. Franchitti was running up pit road trying to catch her husband, Dario Franchitti, who’d just one the race.

When ABC returned to Conway’s car and his being attended by numerous personnel, ABC switched back to Mrs. Franchitti for a special bulletin: “She’s shed her footwear, Jim, presumably to make her sprint even quicker,” came the word from the pits. “She’s doing a great job,” (or some similar baloney came back from the broadcast booth. Gosh, do you reckon local affiliates when into “stupid” mode, too?)

Ms. Judd is a stunning woman. I happened to be lucky enough to be hanging out with EFR a couple of years ago when Dario, Marino and aforementioned knockout conversed with us for awhile and not only is she downright nice, she’s smart, too. Why she married Dario: “An Italian possessing a Scottish brogue.”

But I digress.

Neither the IRL’s Indy 500 nor NASCAR’s Coca Cola 600 would occupy Alex Gurney’s time until he got “in a run.” Not a “jog,” mind you. None of that wimpy, feel good stuff that gets one thinking something’s been accomplished. Still, Alex didn’t sound like he was too terribly happy to be in the neighborhood so we didn’t exactly discuss race favorites.

Though Alex didn’t express such, his “head” might well have been the same as a few other heads up this way for the two days of racing, with races split over a four-day period during which only three involve race cars being raced on Lime Rock’s 2.45-mile near oval.

Meanwhile, 90-minutes away in the nearest real hotel room (the ones which usually stock all the things we traveling folks fail to bring with us; better yet, those things we take home, especially $25 bottles of cognac. Around here, they start at $50 – even then such being considered something akin to bock beer. “Are you really sure you wouldn’t rather have this $500 bottle?” The counter guy seemed absolutely mortified that someone would, gasp, actually drink the cheaper version.

Speaking of cognac, there must be more registered Volvos in this state than in Sweden. Subaru’s – especially Outbacks - too. (And, yes, Mark, I know they’re a Japanese product).(Aren’t they?).

Motor Racing Network’s Eli Gold and Preston Root chilled while taking in the 1100 from the Double Tree lobby. The lap times at Indy and Charlotte (have they stopped calling it Lowe’s Home Improvement Speedway, yet?) gave Root and Gold some excellent practice for calling Monday’s LRP race, which’ll be posting mid-40’s. Yes, yes, I can hear the self-professed “real” sporty car types’ snide remarks but the operative difference Monday at Lime rock is that there will be a bunch of cars which will have a chance. Maybe even the entire field. Where is it written that a Daytona Prototype absolutely, positively must defeat a Grand Touring car? Simply stated: must a lesser-class car lose to a “primo” class; like the time the Porsche LMP2 beat an Audi LMP1? Or Bob Garretson’s GTO trounced the IMSA BIG DOG field at Sebring in the early 1980’’s.

And, speaking of this whole lesser is better thing, how about those DTMs?

Seen like never before except at the “Big Brother” races, the NASCAR media and public relations folks are in Lime Rock, some already apparently wondering what all this sporty car stuff is about. They’ll get it, I’m sure, and then light some sort of special fuse but, in the meantime, it’s interesting to watch fish out of water.

So, too, in Lime Rock are race-attendance numbers never before seen at the facility. Skip’s place has expanded the camping areas into places they’ve never gone before. A record crowd being on hand already was apparent Friday afternoon and the LRP personnel have been shoehorning them in ever since.

The happiness evoked over those crowds might be tempered somewhat by the LRP throng’s longstanding love relationship with the internal combustion engine, domestic or foreign, because one is just as likely to see an Alfa Romeo dealership/shop as a Ford sales floor. IT’s kinda like that Long Beach Race where the show is the event. Not the race. The only difference herein, though, is the race is the show.

The Alfa shop I regularly pass while undertaking my journey to the track is assuredly of old stock; probably a former horeless carriage shop and a buggy carriage shop before that.

But, it’s a hoot to see countless Volvos tailgate whoever’s in front of them. Does everyone on earth except physicists think physics doesn’t apply to everything?

I suppose if one is to choose between jogging and, say, pigging out at Mickey D’s (for achieving the ends of which the No. 77 McDonald’s Doran-Dallara-Ford reportedly has plenty of coupons, so many so that Memo Gidley gave up on his all-veg lifestyle because it was the only way he could buy food.)

Oh, and Jonathan Bomarito was enthralled in the race, watching a large flat-screen TV under the Grand-Am Tech tent, wherein teams got a buy one (tech inspection) and get one free(watch the 500 while being teched.)

A high-falootin factory driver with Mazda, Bomarito said he’s having as much fun, probably more fun than ever before in life after hooking up full time with SpeedSource. After he watched Mike Conway do his thing at Indy just laps before Dario Franchitti cried like a baby, Bomarito said, “Yeah, I’d do it again.

It’s gonna be a humdinger, the Lime Rock race Monday at 2 p.m. on Speed and XM Satellite.

Be sure to tune in. Even Chip said he’d be in.

(This was just as safe and bland as I could make it.)

Later,

DC

ROLEX SERIES INDY DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED FRIDAY

 

Well, No It’s Not, Either

Ol’ DC screwed up.

Due to an error of brain synapses having fired when they shouldn’t or, perhaps the “enthusiasm” portion of the brain having improperly overruled the frontal lobe of a guy ordinarily not disposed of such, that which was “thrown up” (appropriate, huh?) late Wednesday herein was just plain wrong. As one person very close to the situation said, “Your posting about an announcement being made today in Indy with regard to a Rolex Series race there is categorically incorrect.”

Lest anyone be confused, those two words - “Categorically incorrect”  - aren’t even remotely related to, say, “Great job!” and aren’t one of things that makes a journalist’s day.

Yet, this journalist isn’t about to take aim at anyone but hisownself.

Me being an official Old Guy who understands the sands of time are winding down, he got fairly fired up over the prospect of being at Indy last year. Yes, one supposes, he could get some invitations from others to attend some sort of race there but deep down inside he’s a sporty car kind of guy who’d really like to see such a thing happen at a place that as a youth he could only view from afar via the magic of closed circuit TV.

As a professional, this hurts. No denying it. From “credibility” to personal karma … well, suffice to say it ain’t fun to err and to have tremendously done so at that. Yet, one supposes if a splash is to be made, one might as well make it a good one.

As a sporty car guy who heard considerable enthusiasm, cited below, over the prospect of a Rolex Series Indy race, I sincerely apologize to those who were misled, even though unintentionally so. There were some folks on a serious high, I’m telling you, and it was the result of yours incorrectly saying (in shorthand), “Indy; Rolex Series; announcement; reaction?”

Now, they’ve crashed. It hurt them and I hurt as a result.

The end result is that a wonderful idea is now returned to limbo, where those with silver tongues (and attorneys) will hammer details about which others have no clue.

Yet, instead of withdrawing the incorrect blog entry (one is sure others have neatly and stealthily withdrawn previous incorrect posts while tucking tail between legs and running) this writer’s detractors can continue to be armed with the right wrong stuff, below.

Ah, the sun will assuredly arise on the morrow. And, however many billions-of-years from today when it doesn’t, no one will be around to give a hoot that Ol’ DC was wrong on this day, anyway.

Now, have some fun reading that which isn’t yet and hurling some darts afterward.

Mea culpa.

Lo siento.

Later,

DC

 

Tim Keene, Mike Hull to sleep in own beds (okay, you, too, Hodgson)

Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Grand-Am Road Racing officials will on Friday announce the date of a forthcoming Rolex Sports Car Series race at the historic venue.

In ground-breaking fashion on Sept. 1, 2009, nine teams from the Rolex Series’ Daytona Prototype and GT classes participated in a reverse-direction test of The Brickyard’s 2.621-mile MotoGP motorcycle racing circuit, which will be next used for that  series’ upcoming Aug. 29 Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix. Additional tests with 2011 Rolex Series tire supplier Continental Tire were conducted earlier this year at the famed facility.

“I was finally able to remove Indy from my bucket list,” SunTrust Racing’s Wayne Taylor said after the 2009 test in which he and son Rick Taylor shared seat time in their familiar No. 10 SunTrust Ford-Dallara Daytona Prototype.

Excited at the prospect of the return is Rolex Series points leader Scott Pruett, who shares the championship lead and the No. 01 TELMEX BMW-Riley DP with co-driver Memo Rojas,

“Indy is a magical place,” Pruett said. “I get goose bumps just thinking about racing there.” Beyond being the Indy 500’s 1989 “co-rookie” of the year, Pruett’s posted top-10 finishes in both open-wheel at NASCAR stock cars at the famed facility.

Pruett’s present-day team owner and former open-wheel and sportscar driver Chip Ganassi was happy to learn a Rolex Series race date had been finalized.

“Simply put Indianapolis is hollowed ground,” Ganassi said when told of the news, “What more can you say?”

Ganassi ought to know as his Target Chip Ganassi Racing team has collected two Indy 500 wins among its stellar racing-trophy collection, which since 1990 in open-wheel racing has compiled seven championship titles and nearly 80 wins.

Drivers Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, respectively starting tail-to-nose in the field’s third and sixth spots (think about it), look to add to the team’s trophy collection in Sunday’s Centennial Indy 500.

The likewise Indianapolis-based Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates team has had a powerful impact in the Rolex Sports Car Series as well, with Pruett scoring series’ driving championships in 2004, 2006 and 2008. Rojas joined Pruett on the Series’ topmost podium spot in 2008 - the pair failing by just six points to collect the 2009 Rolex Series driving championship to go with it.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway ties run deep in the Rolex Series.

Michael Shank Racing owner Mike Shank spent much of his youth in open-cockpit cars and dreamed of some day competing at IMS. When Shank stepped from driving Formula Atlantic cars and into ownership, he wondered if that dream had escaped him. When provided an opportunity at last year’s Rolex Series test Shank didn’t allow the chance to drive at Indy to elude him, suiting up for a few laps in the No. 60 Crown Royal XR Ford-powered Riley DP.

“This is absolutely the biggest news to come through in this series since I joined it in 2004,” Shank said Thursday.

“For me it’s just awesome to stand on that front straight and think of those who have raced, lost life and have had life renewed while winning at Indy,” he said. “The life-changing moments made at Indy are really beyond what words can express. It’s just awesome to know we’ll be going there.”

“By no means do I want to shortchange the meaning of other race tracks or those who’ve competed on them. It’s just that Indy has had 100 years of it. It’s an incredible place and it’s truly a dream-come-true in knowing we’ll be competing there.”

Indianapolis also touched the life of 2007 and 2009 Rolex Series champion Alex Gurney, who heard “Indianapolis” often spoken at his childhood home. Father Dan Gurney competed at the track as a driver/owner, twice finishing a best of second place in 1968 and 1969.

Gurney’s No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Chevrolet-Riley co-driver, Jon Fogarty, was a fast-rising open-wheel star when he turned down the seat that Buddy Rice would drive to a pole and victory in the 2004 Indianapolis 500.

With sportscar and open-wheel often sharing kindred spirits, it’s reasonable to presume hundreds of others found in or around the Rolex Series – from crew to scribes – are likewise touched.

And, no, the reader needn’t re-read all of the above to ascertain the “missed” Rolex Series’ Indy date. The writer hasn’t a clue so he didn’t put one in.

Well, to be accurate, he does have a “clue,” but clues differ wildly from established fact.

So, let’s just leave its lack as being a labor of racing, or something like that.

Later,

DC