Wheee Doggie!

 

You remember Jed Clampett, don’t you? You know, “The poor mountaineer (who) barely kept his family fed?”

Right?

So on Tuesday afternoon, here was Ol’ DC, making like Jeb (the ‘barely keeping family fed’ part), writing individual descriptions of Grand-Am’s Bigger Fish Found Swimming in the Talent Pool, when the stuff (you know) hit the fan with phone’s a-ringing and email boxes a-filling, signaling that Chip Ganassi Racing W/ Felix Sabates and their No. 01 TELXMEX BMW-Riley got “nailed,” to wit:

‘

 

No. 01 Team Penalized for Rule Violation

June 29, 2010

GRAND-AM Communications

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - GRAND-AM Road Racing today assessed penalties on the No. 01 team that competes in the Daytona Prototype class, as a result of a rule violation during the June 19 Rolex Series race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

During post-race inspection, the team was found to be in violation of Daytona Prototype Regulations 4-1.1 Engine Eligibility (components and performance levels that must be strictly adhered to).

As a result, the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates team was penalized 25 team points; drivers Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas were penalized 25 driver points; and BMW was penalized 25 manufacturer points (see standings).

Additionally, the team was fined $15,000 payable to Camp Boggy Creek, a full-service camp for seriously ill children and the official charity of GRAND-AM.

GRAND-AM also announced a rule change affecting any teams using the 5.0-liter BMW V-8 engine. Cars electing to use this engine must weigh an additional 75 pounds, increasing the weight minimum to 2,350 lbs.

(The above is in its entirety, but to see it for yourownself click here)

“Aha!” says Ol’ DC to hisownself, “If there’s a reference to more weight there’s gotta be a corresponding, newly issued ‘Competition Bulletin.’”

Though the bulletin all but wholly restates already long-in-the-book specifications for the “Dinan-tuned” BMW engine’s internal capacity, measurements and dimensions, one sentence stands out most (but probably due to it’s being new and in red): “Cars electing to use this engine must weigh 2350 lb.” Check it yourself, here.

(By the way: good job, Rob, with the ‘lb.’ thing! I’m proud of you. However, to be slightly more specific, I’d go for something like, “Cars electing to use the above, so described and thusly enumerated engine which originated from Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and traversed The Big Pond, in spirit if not physically, but passed through Grand-Am approved engine-building hands before being placed in a Daytona Prototype engine compartment and taking to the grid and/or competing in and finishing a Grand-Am sanctioned competition for which there is a Daytona Prototype class must weigh at least 2,350 lb.” K?)

Indeed, the crux of the rule change is that a certain Rolex Series’ Daytona Prototype powered by BMW, more specifically, for now, a “Dinan BMW” gets the new minimum weight - as do “innocent bystanders,” Starworks Motorsport’s No. 7 FlexBox/Extreme Indoor Karting and No. 8 Corsa Car Care/Extreme Indoor Karting (at left) BMW-Rileys.

Chip Ganassi (below right, with Scott Pruett, holding yet another PRS Guitar – hmm, wonder if they have a steel?) being among The Big Fish That Swim, Starworks’ main dude Peter Baron (who manages, drives, hauls, cooks and cajoles cars into going really fast, despite otherwise now apparent unseemly advantages) is among those somewhat smaller fish who would like to swim (not “sleep”) among the next fish-size up, or so. Baron’s hard work, frugality and having the guts to wear ugly shorts lies behind his ongoing push to be a bigger fish (and, likely, will someday arrive there, too, despite Henri Zogaib; allegedly).

But even when a Big Fish, rules are rules and, sometimes like the bug hit by a windshield (rarely the other way ‘round), stuff happens. (Think about it: the Sun doesn’t really “rise in the east,” or anywhere, for that matter – the issue of which having been settled just about the time Copernicus burned in Hell).

Ryan Dalziel (he’s Scottish; one can hear it in the brogue and I don’t care what Marino Franchitti pointed out about Dalziel’s surname, “Don’t you think it a bit odd for a Scott”) said, “I feel for Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas as a fellow BMW driver, knowing that they, like me, go out there and do the very best to win in whatever is driven, but I at least take solace knowing I am closer now in points to them than previously.”

AH, “POINTS”

Certainly; no question about it: the Ganassi/Dinan deal is fodder for budding conspiracy theorists (who surely will eventually mature into a “Blame Dick Cheney for Everything” type, leaving behind such mundane, lightweight and simplistic matters like “competition points.” But, like walking, talking and, probably, farting: “baby steps; baby steps.”)

With across-the-board, 25-point penalties exacted, down to seven are Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas’ formerly doggone big and darn-sure cushy 32-point drivers’ championship lead over next-closest pursuers, Mark Wilkins and Burt Frisselle (pictured at right is their AIM Autosports’ No. 61 Pacific Mobile Ford-Riley. And who woulda thunk them, eh? ).

With Tuesday’s lifeline, now only 10 points behind the leaders in third is Dalziel. Dalziel, a victor in one of the Rolex 24’s darkest ever of dark-horse victories, had formerly occupied second place in the points before slipping to third with a broken halfshaft that prematurely ended his Mid-O race (and I thought only Alex Job did such things that, like Dalziel’s, beforehand was lapping somewhere just this side of the sound barrier).

(By the way: you among the conspiratorial types did notice Dalziel, Wilkins and Frisselle had altogether different Rolex 24 rides and teams than those in the present, right? Really, there’s just gotta be something to it. Cheney?)

The 25 points helped Ford to muscle its way into a five-point manufacturer’s championship lead, while SunTrust Racing now is only 12 points behind the TELMEX team.

(Oh, just thought of another good one for the conspiracy crowd: MESCO Building For the Future Rookie of the Year Award. Yep! It’s all right there: Jonathan Bomarito leads Dion Von Moltke by one point! After all this time and despite the fact that Bomarito drives SpeedSource’s No. 70 Castrol Syntec Mazda GT and Von Moltke drives Doran Racing’s No. 77 South African Airways/MacDonald’s Hamburger Ford-Dallara DP. Heavy, dude; anyone got a joint? Or tequila? Tequila will work. Salt? Lemon?)

Brumos Racing’s Hurley Haywood (left), who’s likely seen almost every imaginable rule “interpretation” possible during his time in the sport, offered that the Ganassi team “would’ve won every single race” thus far in 2010 if not for a “mistake” in this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona (Justin Wilson’s now infamous Moretti Chicane “burp,” later determined to be a suspension failure, likely due to an earlier off-road/line excursion) and a more recent Memorial Day Lime Rock Park incident with the No. 99 GAINSCO Chevy-Riley DP which intentionally pinched the TELMEX car into an unintended infield plow – for which no prototype is made.

Indeed, in seven of 2010’s scheduled 12 races, the TELMEX team has won five and finished second once. Put another way: excepting Lime Rock Park’s dismal 13th after failing to score big points while making like a farm plow, they’ve yet to finish outside the top 2 in any 2010 race contested.

Insistent that the TELMEX team all but flaunted its prowess in a series that in 2009 quickly issued almost draconian, later all but completely reversed rule assessments that nailed Brumos’ (and Penske’s) two Porsche-powered cars, Haywood said of Tuesday’s penalties, “The awareness of something going on was way late.”

Like a golfer who is almost sure to sail his ball after a first-swing chunk, given a moment’s thought and the realization of the considerable degree of enmity heaped upon those who fashioned the 2009 “Porsche assessments,” one can see how the series might have this year been inclined to carefully travel the path forging Tuesday’s road.

WE’RE HUMAN, RIGHT?

Beyond being “damned if you do; damned if you don’t,” who among us are individuals? A real, honest-to-gosh, hands-down individual? Someone who, say, is akin to 2002 Daytona 500 winner Ward Burton, who dropped out of North Carolina’s Elon College and proceeded directly to a nearby mountain, quite literally living off the land for better than a year. There are those who say he at one point looked a lot like Big Foot, excepting the “height” part. “Nope, that was the dead giveaway on his not being Big Foot,” said one headshaking, NASCAR type who’ll remain anonymous herein because while he may not be Big Foot, Ward can be downright ornery.

Okay, that leaves the most of the rest of us to be a part of any group, large or small, who must in certain ways behave (talking back to my mother didn’t work, trust me) or share a look (uniforms are uniforms, no matter black, pink or punk), speech (Southerners, slow and dumb; Yankees, brash and arrogant; Californians “airheads” or “Bill Auberlen,” pictured at right, nearest, with Joey Hand, far right in his famous Gatorz Sunglasses, after Turner Motorsports’ first GT win at Mid-Ohio). 

Notable psychological studies have shown humans so wanting to be a part of a group that individuals will exhibit behavior totally at odds with their perceived “regular” nature. Think not? Check out the Stanford Prison Experiment sometime.

Humans inherently wish to be accepted, be a part of a group so that we feel “accepted.” There’s nothing wrong with such because it more often than not helps guide us into accepted practices, too, which often become “fair for all.”

Who thinks Chip Ganassi or No. 1 Mike Hull (left) or, even, team manager Tim Keene will be personally assessed or adversely affected by a $15,000 fine? Certainly, even if it were to personally hit home, feeling the pinch would be lessened the higher up one’s position in the food chain, but each still would survive a personal, $15,000 hit because more than any other reason each of those mentioned are champions.

One cannot become a champion by quitting. Champions also don’t just abandon the behavior. Whether genetically quartered or socially engineered, once one wins it becomes increasingly difficult, if not altogether distasteful, to lose. Losing becomes not only unpalatable but unacceptable.

So, if they personally had been hit with the $15,000 fine, each would get on with the rest of their lives, each likely continuing their championship behavior.

But none of the above actually got hit, personally speaking, with the fine. Other than a few really deserving kids and families getting a break in life as a result (all Grand-Am fines go to Camp Boggy Creek, a Hole In The Wall Camp), the actual fine is inconsequential to Ganassi, Hull and Keene.

“Okay, so the team gets hurt, financially.” Are you kidding? Shoot, the team’s per-race room and board runs more than the fine. Throw in luxurious transportation in the latest 5-year-old CGR van, and “life’s but a dream” (right Tyler?).

Frankly, this writer just couldn’t bring himself to inquire of Scott Pruett’s thoughts because he probably would’ve conveyed an ear-blistering, “’Hi’ to the family back home,” or something to that effect. But he’s also probably madder than a wet hen (just how “mad” a wet hen may get and “why “are questions best left for Tina Gué.)(With total and complete due respect, Bettina)(I’ll address Lucy another day).

PRUETT PROBABLY MADDER?

It boils down to “integrity” and Pruett doesn’t like his questioned. Further, neither his nor Memo Rojas' deserve questioning. They got in a car, they drove. You think either of them will slack at this point?

Who reading this doesn’t think Ganassi or Hull won’t bring their embarrassment to the attention of Steve Dinan – or even that Dinan doesn’t at this point feel it by osmosis – who in turn will bring it to the attention of those in his employ? There’s going to be a lot of attention paid to integrity – if not that of a person’s, then that of preventing in the future an engine that might’ve, certainly could’ve just slipped through Dinan’s various processes. His people are human, too. It’s likely they, too, are embarrassed, if not mad. But being mad is a typical first stage of embarrassment.

Besides, it seems far more reasonable to assume that Dinan would much rather be known for engines that are more powerful than stated, especially considering a current class action taking to task lawn tractor engine builders like Briggs and Stratton, who have not admitted to intentionally misleading anyone but who is willing to queue tens of millions in dollars to chill everyone having a beef over a stated 19HP engine having only 17, or whatever it really dynoed.

Some, like Ol’ DC, can remember when an Oldsmobile (ask your father) actually had an Oldsmobile engine. When one fellow in the 1970’s learned his Oldsmobile engine was really a Chevy, well, he didn’t like it. And won. Big time. ‘Tis the reason a potential car buyer today will typically see a legal statement, arising again and again, conveying the engine of the BelchFire 2000 may actually have originated at the WimpMobile Carworks.

That’s an area in which NASCAR likes to work: integrity.

(Geesh, sorry, everyone. I just set off a whole ‘nother round of “Cale,” “Richard,” “win,” “1984,” “Daytona,” “Reagan,” “uh-huh” from the you-know-who types, who I suggest go toe-to-toe with Yarborough on that matter, sometime. Just, please, let me know ahead of time so I can buy tickets. Cale’s been known to take a poke or two, you know. Like Ward, he ain’t never gonna be confused with “Big,” except in fighting heart. Indeed, a champion’s heart.)

First, integrity plays a role in racing’s relationships. I’ve certainly screwed up there a time or two and it hurts. But that it hurts is the reason one remembers something to have been wrong and serves to underscore why one should not again do the same.

Second, integrity plays a role when another, somewhat smaller fish like Mike Shank races. Sure, Ganassi and Company might well at present best MSR’s shop or, even, bank account – business or personal (sorry, Mike, but I needed an example) but there is one thing for which NASCAR strives: close competition. It is, in the final analysis, “The Show.”

Though one really can favorably compare, say, Hendrick Motorsports’ shop technology with that of most F1 teams, the reality is that not everyone, not even a good-sized minority can afford to go F1 racing – or, for that matter, afford repetitive F1 attendance costs – because the cost of such racing is so great that eventually paying it is the guy standing in line with his two kids . . . assuming he can afford it.

JJ O’Malley and I, thanks to at Daytona International Speedway president Robin Braig, recently gave away a couple of VIP passes and tickets for Saturday’s racing (Rolex Series in the morning; Sprint Cup at night) at DIS. The guy who called in at just the right time, John Mazur, was just absolutely thrilled we enabled him to take his two kids to the race and treat them to a first-class experience. The fact is, even at NASCAR’s prices, some people won’t have enough money to go around at day’s end. I’m proud we were able to help a couple of kids probably get the thrill of their young lives because they’ll be standing in Victory Lane, for all of Saturday if so desired.

Someday when those kids grow to fully understand what’s going on, Shank and Baron will be the Chip Ganassi’s of that future day because they today were able to race head-to-head, car-to-car, driver-to-driver with Ganassi, now the Big Fish, because he didn’t have a “special” advantage as a result of being a Big Fish.

In the final analysis, that’s what Grand-Am’s Tuesday decision was really all about.

Still, they’re a strange breed, these racers, who the week after helping rebuild a team that burnt to the ground wishes to do nothing more than run over that team on the way to victory and, the week after that, rejoice that they are back in the championship hunt at the expense of yet another team.

“Sure,” they say, “We’d rather do it on the track and in the heat of competition” but don’t you worry, they’ll take it any way they can – as long as it’s “the other guy.”

“Well now it's time to say goodbye to Jed and all his kin

They would like to thank you folks for kindly dropping in

You're all invited back again to this locality

To have a heaping helping of their hospitality

Y'all come back now, hear?”

(Special Thanks to Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, The Foggy Mountain Boys and Columbia Records)

Later,

DC

OH HENRI! AGAIN!

 

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT HENRI, UPDATE (with special thanks to inquiring blog readers)

According to Florida legal eagles (of the prosecuting kind), Henri Zogaib attempted to swindle the Florida’s Seventh Judicial Circuit (court), too.

Zogaib (left and right), you might remember, isn’t well liked by many in the racing industry, mainly because it’s believed he raced with others’ money ($5 million, give or take) that most involved thought would be placed in high-return investments. As most know, “racing” (with notable exceptions like NASCAR) is “a hole in asphalt into which one pours money” and those who do so gladly seek means by which to feed a habit some deem every bit as addictive as ice cream. Not “ice milk” or “frozen yogurt,” mind you, but real, seriously high-fat, melt-in-your mouth, cat-attracting ice cream.

Detailed elsewhere in this blog under similar title to that above is an initial explanation of what Zogaib is alleged to have previously, um, fostered upon unsuspecting, lovable but evidently malleable innocents

(“Alleged” - as yet Zogaib’s case has not been adjudicated. Now, yours truly didn’t fabricate this “convict by a jury of peers” idea; such concept likely would’ve been well beyond this person’s mental faculties, anyway, especially at the time written. Instead, peruse the United States’ Constitution’s framers and, particularly, George Mason and Patrick Henry, the fathers of The Bill Of Rights. And, no, the BOR’s “father” really wasn’t James Madison, per se, though he did put pen to paper, even though such came close to plagiarism. For those interested, learn more on the Bill of Rights’ origins here and here. I promise: it’s scholarly stuff, so you might want to stay away from it, Wolfgang).

Vassup dis time mit Henri?

In a May hearing which set Zogaib’s bail at $100,000, Judge R. Michael Hutcheson, of Florida’s Seventh Judicial Circuit, stipulated that Zogaib could not use nefarious proceeds as the means by which to post that bail, whether posted entirely by Zogaib or through a bail bondsman.

(Yes, boys and girls, it’s time again for Ol’ DC’s How the Constitution Works: “Bail” is ((usually)) a monetary amount pledged to be surrendered to a court of law by an arrestee should the latter fail to subsequently appear before or abide other ancillary legal requirements as established by the former. Put in another manner: the Guy Who Gets Popped is conditionally released by the Dudes In Charge in exchange for a money moved from the pockets of the GWGP to those of the DIC. Still another way: You don’t go directly to jail but you could lose $200. More? Okay: you rot in jail awaiting trial unless you put up some serious bucks. K?

(“Bond” is directly influenced by an individual’s community standing and/or credit worthiness. Thus, a “bail bondsman” is ((usually)) an unrelated third party, person or corporation which the court deems as 1) being creditworthy and, 2) at the time of further judicial proceedings is likely to produce the body ((which is not to be confused with “habeas corpus” … or the “hair of the hound,” for that matter)). Usually the “body” surrenders ((pays)) to the bail bondsman a portion of the established bail which forever stays in the bail bondsman’s pocket ((until the IRS steps, uh, reaches in but which is an entirely different matter)). Laws vary by states ((a “States Rights” issue, BTW)) influencing what a bail bondsman may charge an accused seeking a ((legal)) jail escape but someone, somewhere decided 10-percent of the bail is a good figure with which to work. However, be assured, one can expect to pay more if charged with murder rather than “swindling old people and/or race-car drivers” – or is it the other way around? I forget.)

(For further reading on the fun one can have playing “Bail Roulette,” see Lindsay Lohan – this one having little to do with “scholarly,” though)

Ahora, vamos a ver? Ah, sí.

Enter wiretaps. Yes, those ubiquitous (for the criminally inclined and, perhaps, those who aren’t) little buzzes, clicks and occasional “Hey, Yeakel, get this!” heard while talking over telephones. To be precise, the “wiretapped” conversation occurs between an inmate (Zogaib, in this case) and one or more outside parties.

Huh?

Inmates, even of the temporary kind, can’t retain cell phones beyond a certain point – usually the booking room. An inmate, however deeply enmeshed in the legal process, wishing to speak with someone remote to the jail in which that inmate is found must then utilize a hard-wired telephone (landline) provided by the facility in which that inmate is found. As a matter of “security,” minions of the facility are empowered to record and/or listen to that landline conversation. Remember, while one can receive or “reach out and touch someone” using a cellular phone, one who is imprisoned must use a landline provided by the facility in which he’s imprisoned.

That’s where Zogaib went wrong for the 1,343,497^th time (allegedly).

Zogaib, having promised The Honorable Judge Hutcheson (and an honorable sort, he truly is) his funds would be scrounged from sources other than personal, the state’s attorney now questions the source actually used and has demanded Zogaib be returned to jail and result in a probable forfeiture of bail – money that could’ve been but now won’t be apportioned to those deemed to have been duped, by the way.

For more on the story, go to The Daytona Beach News-Journal.

For those not clicking away, it’s time for another installment of Ol DC’s How The Constitution Works: Exactly how does one determine funds are of a nefarious origin if one hasn’t yet been convicted of having done just that?

Ask Peter Baron or Ryan Dalziel and they’d insist Zogaib did the “ill-gotten” thing. Ask an unassociated party – one who hasn’t a clue as to this dust-up – and the answer likely will be “Gee, I don’t know.”

While Zogaib has faced a number of civil lawsuits (“civil” being distinct from “criminal” law) and, as of now, might have committed a crime, who is able to exactly say from whence each dollar of Zogaib’s funds might’ve originated? Remember, Zogaib’s criminal culpability has yet to be demonstrated “beyond reasonable doubt” in a court of law and, this writer submits, whoever may face prison time desires/deserves time in a court (the pesky U.S. Constitution; Amendments 5,6 and 7, guaranteeing such) to counter any arguments the state or claimants may proffer against him.

However, until another higher court overrules a lower court, it’s best to remember that, like Mother Nature, it’s not nice to fool a judge.

Later,

DC

LIME ROCK, WATKINS GLEN REFLUX

 

MICHAEL SHANK RACING

“Never have I seen such an outpouring of support in all my years of racing,” is the way Mike Shank characterized the Grand-Am paddock’s torrent of willingness to help the team-owner in reconstructing his No. 6 CAP & Associates Ford-Riley Daytona Prototype after the race car’s pit-road-entrance meltdown during the Sahlen’s 6 Hours of The Glen’s.

“I remember when Wayne Taylor went through this and, you know, you never really understand something until you find yourself in the middle of it. I am truly humbled and appreciative of the people and teams in the Rolex Series.”

“Wayne offered me a ready-to-go Riley,” Shank said. “The only problem is that it has a Chevy in it. Don’t get me wrong, Chevrolet’s a proud name and all, won a few championships, too, but we’ve sorta got some Ford parts lying around the shop right now; know what I mean?”

Shank said the fire in the race’s final hour started sometime before No. 6 CAP & Associates DP driver Michael Valiante – who with co-driver Brian Frisselle scored a first 2010 podium together earlier in the same week at Lime Rock Park – “lost his dash” while the pit-side team lost telemetry shortly afterward.

Preliminary evaluations indicate the car’s heat exchanger (other folks say it’s the Australian-made product’s third such failure alone this year in Shank’s Rileys) likely lost most or all of the Ford engine’s coolant at some point during Brian Frisselle’s stint, who reported symptoms supporting that supposition as the powerful engine became increasingly lazy when pushed toward peak loads.

Though arising uncertainties caused concern insufficient were specific reasons to park the car, Shank said, but the combined later loss of telemetry should’ve in retrospect provided a big shot across the team’s bow, he added.

“If nothing hit us square in the face the clues were there,” he said – hindsight having the greatest capability of producing the sharpest vision short of an electron microscope.

While the Roush Yates-produced Ford power plant remains Shank’s engine of choice, the same may not be said of the Riley chassis at Mike Shank Racing – for at least one race, anyway.

“While it didn’t work out as I would’ve planned, I’ve been thinking about making a switch to the Dallara for awhile. I want to emphasize that no decisions had been made before events forced the issue, but Dallara certainly has wanted me to switch,” Shank (at right) chuckled. 

“Frankly, I’ve been of the opinion for some time that Dallara has been making inroads and when you see the results like those of the SunTrust car recently, well, you certainly are left to wonder about its (Dallara’s) potential. Having a Riley and Dallara in-house we’ll be able to make a head-to-head direct comparison and, hopefully, determine which will best suit our future.”

Enter Brad Frisselle, who’s owned more than a few race cars in his 40-or-so decades of racing (oops, sorry Brad, my error; meant to write “4-or-so.” However, when compared to this writer’s “Indy Thing” it ain’t much of an error . . . at least to everyone else and, especially, Hurley Haywood).

A 1976 IMSA v. 1.10 driving championship winner (achieved when offspring Stephanie, Burt and Brian were but gleams in Brad and spouse Terrye’s eyes, and at a time when men were men and sheep were scared ) Brad Frisselle just happened to have a Dallara DP collecting dust – though of a kind more often found in a race shop than museum.

Introduced to the world in April 2008 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Dallara DP01-002 bore sponsorship from BSI and the number 47. Driven by Burt Frisselle (yes, the “Frisselle” name is tending toward a tad overused herein but what’s a writer to do, all-of-a-sudden call ‘em ‘Phred?’) and Switzerland’s Gabriele Gardel (who lasted four races that year), the mainly ugly orange Ford-powered Dallara out of Doran Racing started and finished ninth of 14 DPs in its debut.

After Gardel’s departure following a 39^th-place overall finish at the 2008 Sahlen’s 6 Hours of The Glen – coincidentally also involving a fire – Burt Frisselle’s co-driver for the following six races was a veritably unknown Ricky Taylor (at below left with Burt Frisselle). The duos’ and their Ford-Dallara’s best 2008-season finish of fifth-place came at Barber Motorsports Park.

Until Wednesday, the Dallara had since been parked at Kevin Doran’s shop – interrupted only by an unexplained late-2009 and early 2010 odyssey that saw it travel to Indianapolis but then make a U-turn and return to Doran’s shop.

(By the way: isn’t it eerily interesting the Dallara DP01-002, like the Shank Riley, also suffered a fire at a Glen 6-hour race during even-numbered years? And how about that “unexplained” 8-hour roundtrip from Cincinnati and Indianapolis back to Cincinnati? More so, the car will have had at least two different drivers who nevertheless share the exact same surname. Further, those two drivers also share a given name that starts with a “B.” Add the fact that Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas scored their series-leading fourth win at the respective years’ Glen race and one becomes tempted to deduce a serious 2012 apocalyptic clue. Well, you be the judge; but I’m certainly packing my stuff, though for Mid-O.)

Oh, yes. That’s right. Excuse me; just got a little excited there for a moment. But ya gotta admit . . .

(Dick Cheney! That’s the answer! Has to be! Haul him in front of a Congressional committee! They’ll get the answers even if they have to pull out a waterboard! Or a Cheney tooth. All done in humanity’s name, of course.)

Oh, yes. That’s right. Excuse me; just got a little excited there for a moment. But ya gotta admit . . .

“Michael (Valiante) and Brian (Frisselle) both have Dallara experience, so the change of chassis isn’t really expected to be much of an issue, insofar as the drivers are a concerned,” Shank said, avoiding any mention whatsoever of 2012. (Brian Frisselle and Valiante, L to R, pictured at left in happier times)

“As far as the rest of the team, well, I’ve got a great bunch of guys and they’ll do just fine,” Shank said with an assuredly churning stomach – not the result of anything his drivers or team might or might not do, mind you; Shank’s just got stomach-churning down pat.

Though at separate times, Valiante and Brian Frisselle each had seat time in the No. 10 SunTrust Dallara (each having contributed to that car’s developmental curve, now clearly bearing fruit), though Valiante in 2008 drove slightly fewer races in a Dallara as compared to Brian Frisselle’s 2009 season. But Valiante drove two Dallaras, beginning with Dallara DP01-001, which became no more after melting down in a SunTrust transporter fire occurring just before the 2008 Glen 6-hour (oh, no, not the “Glen” and “fire” words again! Um, precisely when is this 2012 apocalypse deal supposed to happen? Anyone; anyone?).

Teamed with SunTrust Racing mainstay MaxAxe Angelelli in 2008, Valiante (at right at Infineon) co-drove Dallara DP01-001  four times (best: 8^th at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca) at a time when GM had more than one Pontiac engine competing season-long in the series (“Pontiac” is a now-gone car brand; ask your father, who likely either also had an Oldsmobile or knew of it. That also now-gone car line was named after Ransom Olds, who raced against Henry Ford before “Daytona” joined with “Daytona Beach” to form Daytona International Speedway . . . or something like that.)(If one were to throw in “. . . and its first mayor was William H.G. France . . .” it wouldn’t take much time before it all became “fact” in this electronic world).

Following the transporter fire occurring on the road after the Monterey Peninsula visit, SunTrust for two races deployed a formerly retired Riley (then a show car, if memory serves) with a lot of help from a paddock (which later started regretting such, Wayne being Wayne, if memory again serves).

Dallara No. DP01-004, today still in the SunTrust Racing stable, was placed into service for the July 3, 2008, Brumos 250 at Daytona International Speedway, where it finished 38^th overall and 20^th in DP. From that rather ignominious start the SunTrust team waged an uphill battle that by the 2008-season’s final three races was on a podium-finishing roll, recording one win (Infineon) and runners-up finishes at New Jersey Motorsports Park and Miller Motorsports Park.

For the 2008 season, Angelelli finished sixth and Valiante 11^th in the Rolex Series driver points standings (Valiante missing the Crown Royal 250 at The Glen, for which a then unemployed Memo Gidley (left)  substituted in a controversial, acrimonious 7^th-place finish. Or was that in 2007? Aw, heck, ‘tis what happens when an Old Guy and all one wishes to do is get Gidley in somewhere, somehow).

Valiante at season’s end duly dismissed from SunTrust and shifting to MSR over the 2008-2009 post-season, Brian Frisselle joined MaxAxe and the SunTrust team’s Dallara DP01-004 for 2009. Newly powered for 2009 by Roush Yates Ford engines, in 12 races the driving duo (being joined by Pedro Lamy and Wayne Taylor for the Rolex 24 At Daytona) over 12 races combined for six podiums – among which were two wins (Brumos 250 at DIS and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve). The 2009 SunTrust pair finished third in the year-end driving championship points; six-points out of second-place and 12-points short of first.

Brian Frisselle understandably likewise getting axed for meager performance (anything less than Total World Domination being “meager” in Wayne Taylor’s eyes), the pair of former SunTrust drivers then joined for 2010 in the Michael Shank Racing No. 6 CAP & Associates Ford-Riley and, excepting the Lime Rock Park podium, seem snakebit since.

Though five top-10 finishes in six 2010 Rolex Series races might suggest otherwise, two of the most experienced Dallara Daytona Prototype drivers outside anyone named Angelelli, Taylor, Gidley or perhaps, Brad Jaeger (though gaining ground is Dion Von Moltke, at right)  are teaming in another Dallara – a Mike Shank Racing Ford-Dallara, at that.

Shank says the Dallara, now in the MSR shop, a will receive a full bumper-to-bumper makeover to current car specs. The biggest problem for the MSR team is the “time” in which to accomplish it all before debuting next week at the team’s “home” track, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Still, this is getting downright interesting; very interesting. And, thank goodness, before 2012.

 

LIKE LOOKING IN THE MIRROR AND SEEING A POLICE CAR

(Above thanks to David “Almost Cut My Hair” Crosby)

Slightly paranoid; that’s how a second-place Jonathan Bomarito (left), in his SpeedSource No. 70 Castrol Mazda RX-8, must’ve felt at the Sahlen’s 6 hours of The Glen this past weekend when Leh Keen and his Dempsey Racing No. 41 Mazda RX-8 made like Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard running roughshod over Yankees at Manassas.

With Bomarito doing some asphalt dirt-tracking (yes one can; Bomarito did) now and again on in his successful effort to stave Keen’s charge, the battle for GT’s second place was unquestionably one of the best of the day, if not the season and in any race class.

Keen (at right) lit the Mazda’s afterburners after a misguided late-race pit call – “I screwed up,” insisted near-distraught team manager Michael Gué – and Keen was told to “Go git ‘em!” or whatever the equivalent Queen’s English version (Michael Gué speaks the native tongue and thus, if nothing else, sounds positively brilliant even when screwing up, which Ol’ DC wished were the case when he does – again and again).

Still, after the Dempsey Racing Mazda fell from an almost assured first place to a bare top-10 finish, Keen pulled formerly believed impossible moves during his charge, even causing Speed commentator Dorsey Schroeder to excitedly give voice to a higher octave or two (cohorts Leigh Diffey and Calvin Fish previously known to be fairly excitable types)(well, on third thought, maybe only Diffey).

Keen’s move on Lime Rock Park GT-winner John Edwards’ (and Adam Christodoulou) No. 68 MazdaSpeed Mazda RX-8 in The Glen’s chicane nearly caused apoplexy all around.

Whether Keen ran himself out of tires or Bomarito was just a hair-width better when he, too, lit the burners, the Castrol driver successfully defended his important and higher points-paying second-spot race finish.

As of The Glen fray’s end, Bomarito and SpeedSource No. 70 Castrol Mazda RX-8 co-driver Sylvain Tremblay are one point behind championship Rolex Series GT leaders Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal, who happen to also drive SpeedSource owner Sylvain ‘My Way’ Tremblay’s (Same guy? Who would’ve thunk it?) No. 69 FXDD Mazda RX-8.

In third (11 points out of first) is the guy who won the GT-class at Sahlen’s 6 Hours of The Glen, Andy Lally, who, ho-hum, notched another victory (two in the last three races, sandwiching a fifth place) for a still-hell-raising Kevin Buckler and his clearly disadvantaged TRG Porsche team. Of course, it was Buckler’s strategy that really won it – not Porsche power. (Then again, for you 2012 Apocalypse types, Grand-Am’s Mark Raffauf was in the control tower.)

Lally (at left with KAB and foes) is as slick as oil on a screwdriver in setting up his moves, as a champ-caliber driver should be, and led to his burning some serious celebratory post-race Turn 1 rubber – facilitated fewer than 48-hours beforehand by co-driver and patron saint, Bob Doyle, who with Lally also leaned on Spencer Pumpelly for the No. 66 Porsche’s run to the front. Whether the trio or a duo thusly derived will show up at Mid-Ohio depends on just how many more private-school educations Buckler is willing to burn.

Say what one might or, perhaps, are even inclined to say about the RX-8’s advantage, the Mazda driver development program is churning out some very, very gifted drivers in Segal, Bomarito, Christodoulou and Edwards - all having nailed GT victories this year.

*AKA, “Inner Loop,” “bus stop,” etc. Really: hallowed road-racing ground called something like “inner loop?” C’mon, it sounds like something conjured by a bunch of stock car types, even while recognizing the right-left-right-turn racing surface was laid as a means to sufficiently slow a NASCAR Sprint Cup car’s mass for the following turn. For this writer, The (Gianpiero) Moretti Chicane works for Daytona International’s SuperStretch “bus stop.” How about The (Tommy) Kendall Chicane or, grudgingly, perhaps even “The Kendall Loop” at The Glen? Anyone who’s been around sportscar racing long enough would recognize the reasons behind each name. There: said; done.

 

“BEST IN CLASS”

GAINSCO Racing’s Bob Stallings (left, foreground) couldn’t resist often using his clever “Best-In-Class” dig throughout the week, referring to his No. 99 Chevrolet-Riley team. Of course, it’s the only Chevrolet engine in the Rolex Series Daytona Prototype field, for now, so it could be dead last, overall, and fit Bob Stallings’ Best In Class definition. Evidently, the new GAINSCO engine’s rumored extra horses evidently didn’t leave the barn – or something else is amiss.

Of course, the Rolex Series’ championship-winning team (2007, 2009) would in the future rather be “the best; period” – something which some observers think the team must first turn to an evidently forgotten past for the answers to do so. Ian Willis and AIM Autosport’s No. 61 Pacific Mobile guys apparently have already done so.

For the record: credible reports have one of the series’ most recognizable teams switching to Chevy power in 2011. Then again, there was that “Indy” thing . . . and a gratuitous picture of Jimmie Johnson (a handsome lad) at The Glen (right).

 

IT’S BEEN A LONG, LONG TIME

In March Scott Pruett (below) turned one of the most important corner’s he ever faced in his many successful decades of racing: the half-century mark. Put another way: he’s in his 51^st year (think about it, Scott).

The driver of the No. 01 TELMEX BMW-Riley fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix (y José) Sabates has been in that team’s cockpit since the first race of the 2004 season. Since then, he’s fared no worse than second in the Rolex Series’ Daytona Prototype driver’s championship despite having had three different fulltime co-drivers: Max Papis (2004), Luis Diaz (2005-2006) and Memo Rojas (2007-Present); has thrice won that DP driving championship.

Pruett (with Rojas) now holds a 28-point lead on second-place Ryan Dalziel halfway into the 2010 DP championship race and looks to be firmly on rails to win an unprecedented fourth Rolex Series championship – and would make for nine U.S. driving championships won during his racing career (such tabulation omitting a few other driving crowns).

Wait, there’s more: Pruett has thus far won more than 30 races and so many Rolex 24 at Daytona timepieces that he’s giving them away (as heirlooms to Scott and Judy Pruett’s kiddies). Pruett’s also won in IndyCar; he’s won in Karts; he’s won in Tans-Am.

He’s also been doing television commentating since the early 1990’s. Expect such to play an ever larger role in his life after he wins a few more races and, probably, another championship.

2011 LIME ROCK REDUEX?

Not if the track doesn’t make some improvements.

On the minds of many is the $30,000 to $50,000 tab incurred for the No. 01 TELMEX BMW-Riley’s off (Memo Rojas at the wheel with Jon Fogarty steering) during the Memorial Day’s first lap of the race. Kinda, sorta seen by many as having been otherwise innocuous closing of a door, the undulation s of the immediate track perimeter was so unforgiving that a primary player and crowd draw was all but entirely eliminated before its first complete race lap. Another is rub LRP’s, um, antiquated scoreboard. (G-A’s Tani Miller at LRP, right).

Still, the party was a good one. By the way: Skip Barber competed in IMSA v. 1.0’s first-ever race at Pocono (you get to figure the year).

Later,

DC

WELL, RING MY CHIMES

 

From Friday’s Corning Leader . . .

‘Nuff said there, huh?

NUMBER 9, NUMBER 9, NUMBER 9

Included on the White Album, Revolution 9 was Yoko Ono’s first solo recorded, um, performance as a “Beatle” and it was, still is one of the strangest “tunes” you’ll ever hear. Its repetitious use of “number nine” runs the length of a longer-than-usual cut, especially for its time. (For the record, Ono really wasn’t credited with the Revolution 9’s but it was relatively early in hers and John Lennon’s relationship and no one wished to rock the boat, which sank soon afterward, anyway, after Paul McCartney objected to Revolution 9’s inclusion on the album but lost that battle. It wasn’t long afterward that Lennon and Ono started getting naked in public places and McCartney formed “Wings.”)

Thinking they should’ve actually been played Monday at that existential Connecticut track, a few strange tunes were nevertheless played at The Glen Friday in preparation for today’s Sahlen’s 6 hours of The Glen (2 p.m. EDT) on the 11-turn, 3.4-mile race course that’s been around almost as long as Mark Patterson.

Patterson (No. 6 Cap & Associates Ford-Riley), Nelson Philippe (No. 7 Flex-Box BMW-Riley) and Paul Dalla Lana (No. 94 Turner Motorsports BMW M6) each drove his car into a late apex and a likewise late exit at the turn. Unfortunately, at that latter point the racing surface gives way to The Glen’s famous unforgiving blue Armco barrier and “recycled” tires contained by netting. If one doesn’t get you, the other will – including the tire netting which caught and ate the No. 6’s right rear wing endplate, bending the struts (we’re hearing a lot of that word lately, huh? Another Mayan 2012 apocalyptic clue? Ask BP).

Though Patterson would later get the piece of a spotlight he so ardently enjoys, it would be the The Dalla Lana who got the action at No. 9 started with an early morning spin that didn’t just rearrange the formerly beautiful BMW’s rear, but removed it. And we’re talking “gone.” An oil spill in the turn was initially thought to be at fault but later information from Peter Argetsinger, son of Watkins Glen International founder Cameron Argetsinger and a championship-winning racer in his own right, suggested “weepers” are at fault. Argetsinger is coaching the two-car, six-driver Peter Baron FlexBox and Corsa Car Care driving contingent.

Philippe did much the same as did Patterson, raking the right side, though Patterson also did cleanly crack, from fore to aft, the No.6’s gearbox casing.

THE FORMERLY EXITING TURN 11 . . .

. . . Has become the insanely exiting No. 11 turn.

Nick Ham and Eggs (his self-conjured moniker, not mine) cracked his – the No. 43 Sahlen’s RX-8 – big time after glancing off the new not-particularly safer barrier (so says nearly every driver with whom this mouth from the south has spoken) now sitting at the very edge of Turn 11’s track-out.

“I feel terribly,” an unusually quiet Ham said later in the day. “The car’s not going to make the grid; we’re done. (Joe Sahlen has) been a really nice guy about it. He seems unfazed by it all but I feel badly and want to make it up to him,” Ham hinting he may do the Rolex Series’ June 18-19 Mid-Ohio race.

Ham wasn’t doing anything that hadn’t for years, if not decades naturally done by those entering The Glen’s front, pit-box straight.

The scene of some of the track’s most hellacious wrecks across many racing series, Peter Argetsinger believes the situation only was made worse with the SAFER Barrier’s new location.

“First, 11’s a high-speed corner; drivers are carrying a lot of momentum through there because they’ve got one of the track’s two-best passing opportunities at the end of the front straight as they go into (Turn) One. A driver’s got to get a jump on the car he intends to pass so he tends to let it all hang out coming through 11. That’s why you’d see so many left-sides go off there. Only time will tell, but putting the Safer Barrier right at the edge of the track will probably slow the cars down, which will also probably reduce the passing in Turn One. It’s also made the turn more dangerous because cars that in the past could gather it back in after a late apex now will tend to glance off the barrier, shoot diagonally across the track and hit the wall at pit-in. What they did there at 11 was a mistake; plain and simple.”

We’ll certainly know something later today. The Sahlen’s 6 Hours of The Glen gets underway at 2 p.m. EDT.

Later,

DC

STRUTTING THE STUFF

Many in the Grand-am Rolex Sports Car Series would think this late-May to early July stretch to be a busy one, going from one place to another – four venues in all – in fewer than five weeks.

Throw in a trip to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca the week before Lime Rock Park, then Le Mans and/or Montreal’s F1 race in the week following the Sahlen’s 6 Hours of The Glen and most everyone involved are undertaking more of an endurance contest in pursuing the job than might otherwise be perceived in the “glory” of it all.

Then there are guys like newlywed Calvin Fish or his partner in crime, Leigh Diffey – whose offspring Reve Clifton now grows faster than is father can at times imagine. It doesn’t take long to find oneself mired in deciding for one to the disfavor of the other; a tough, tough decision.

All things considered, it ain’t such a bad job – working in motorsports if not necessarily on or in a race car – and it keeps a body closely tied to that which has been (usually) long loved.

LIME ROCK PARK

Duncan Dayton, Rob and Chris Dyson, were just a few of the names making an appearance among the throngs who visited Skip’s Place over the Memorial Day weekend. “Ducati,” “Honda,” BMW (two-wheeled kind); Buell and bunches of car makes were there, too.

And what a place LRP remains, having undertaken only a modicum of changes over the couple-or-so decades since this writer last visited: new pavement added, slight modifications alongside the original course and a new media center: “Put the finishing touches on it just a couple of nights ago,” Skip Barber proudly remarked.

Also new to the area – alongside Highway 44 between Lime Rock Park and Hartford – was one of the ugliest “trees” ever conceived, for it was not grown as one might otherwise have anticipated, though assuredly “planted.”

Atop one of the granite-filled area mountain tops, standing well above (“sticking out like a sore thumb?”) its neighboring “real things” was a cell phone tower disguised as a, well, little more than a disguised cell phone tower – because it darn sure wasn’t a tree. Save, perhaps, a duplication of some anthropological interpretation of an arboreal fossil.

According to Grand-Am competition dicta . . . um, director Mark Raffauf – who made Connecticut his home before going off to the University of Florida at age 16 and who often returned as dicta . . . um head of IMSA v. 1.3.19 to 3.2 – the area in which one finds Lime Rock Park is restricted from taking too much license with development, and has been since sometime in the mid- to late-1700’s.

And here we are today, thinking ourselves in an enlightened, tree-hugging era.

SO, WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH AN OCCAISIONAL PUNT?

In the wake of a first-lap run-in that easily ruined Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett’s day but didn’t really do much for Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney’s either, rumors, talk, innuendo and similar stuff floated freely throughout the Rolex Series’ paddock for the following 173 laps (!) about how a certain owner of a certain El Diablo Rosa race team (the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Chevrolet-Riley, but this writer doesn’t want to get too specific) “ordered” his guys to take out those “other guys.”

“Not true,” according to Bob Stallings, the bad gu . . ., uh, owner in question.

And, really, one can readily see his point: taking out someone else almost inevitably leads to taking oneself out to at least some degree, too, even given the Daytona Prototype’s robust nature.

Doing so doesn’t make much sense when given a between-event (LRP to WGI) gap narrower than the difference between first and second in the GT points chase; a way faraway “home base” in Texas for repairs and/or back-up car retrieval; and, the fact that one of the hottest stars in racing today (no, not Ashley Judd) who Saturday is scheduled to provide the team with tons of extra-special notice (read, “media exposure”).

SPEAKING OF JIMMIE JOHNSON

The four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion and cohorts will be racing at Pocono this weekend, so Johnson will be sprinting to Watkins Glen for what is understood to be a mandatory 30-minutes of practice for those otherwise unfamiliar with the endurance contest’s nature.

Johnson, who races Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 48 Lowe’s Home Improvement Chevrolet, not only will be driving over The Glen’s 11-turn, 3.4-mile”long” road course for the first time – the August 6-7 Watkins Glen International race uses the 2.45-mile, 11-turn course (yep, same number of turns) – he’ll be using an engine believed to have originated at a Sprint Cup competitor’s shop: Richard Childress Racing. One wonders if the Childress engine guys will be passing along Johnson’s driving data to other RCR associates for later use – or even should it be worth passing.

Utilizing the wonders of modern technology and considerable “dollar power” Johnson will undertake a helicopter journey Friday from Pocono Raceway to The Glen so as to amass that mandatory minimum 30-minutes of practice time so as to allow his start in the Sahlen’s 6 Hours. Hmmm, one wonders if he’ll remember the difficulties of passing an unyielding GT car.

GRUMBLING RIGHT ALONG

“Setting up and tearing down like this (at Lime Rock Park’s one-day, all-in-one, including the “kitchen sink” show) reminds me of my days in Outlaw,” Leighton Reese said Sunday as he took a micro-second break from helping set up his Banner Racing Chevrolet Corvette’s paddock presence.

“Hell, we’d go to three tracks in three states over five-nights! I love it!”

Reese, to whom “wine and cheese” probably means a bottle of Mad Dog and limburger cheese (probably just ‘cause it smells mean), was pretty well in the minority as team after team fumbled with going from a quiet Sunday (during which they could park, set up but not fire engines) to pure, out-and-out hustle (some said “thrash”).

COST OF BUSINESS

The human condition being what it is, future thrash becomes less likely with practice – if not altogether because of absent teams and visiting fans after many local hotels followed a “How-To Gouge” page recently torn and discarded from most Daytona Beach-area hotels which once almost uniformly commanded four-day minimum stays, entirely rethinking that “strategy” when business dried up.

SKIP DELIVERS (with a NASCAR marketing department assist)

On hand for the LRP race was a record crowd that ate up more space than originally dedicated.

Those who must do such things approached Rolex Series officials and asked that they please allow use of some contractually yielded space for those campers who showed up over the weekend expecting plenty of room “at the inn.”

Though much can be said of crowd and fan dedication to LRP, not all who showed at LRP were the party-hardy types. NASCAR reportedly spent some $600,000 in a regional media blitz that teamed with rail and rubber-tired transportation services to deliver fans to a track not a mile down the road from one-lane bridge (a shadow of its past self, now under repairs and, presumably, will provide greater future egress and access).

Nonetheless, expect more and more NASCAR participation as the racing outfit cranks up the promotional fires – and spending.

RACING AND ‘RULING’ AT LIME ROCK PARK

First, one must make the race.

The Spirit of Daytona undertook a real, honest-to-gosh thrash as it worked to comply with a technical inspection that really should’ve been exercised elsewhere and on an event weekend that allotted slightly more than the 2.5 hours between the end of qualifying and the race’s start.

In one of those computations used by race car officiating to make a casual observer’s brain turn to mush, the Spirit of Daytona’s rear wing assembly height (not just the wing, itself) was deemed to be something like ½-inch too high – never mind a lack of luxury with regard to time in a one-day show or that the assembly was the same “presented” and four-times passed earlier this season to series’ officials.

Adding insult to injury, Antonio Garcia qualified the car 0.002-of-a-second off the pole, occupied by the No. 75 Krohn Racing Lola-Ford driven by Nic Jonsson.

OF RACING LINES DRAWN

By now, most everyone knows of the No. 99 GAINSCO Chevrolet-Riley’s run-in with the No. 01 TELMEX BME-Riley driven by Memo Rojas.

If you don’t, here’s the shorthand: Fogarty ran Rojas out of racing room. Rojas’ car-body front plowed into nearby undulating ground and hurt the latter more than the former (it’s amazing how smooth the green, green grass of home looks to a casual viewer. But, if you’ve yet to figure it out, let’s think of it this way: if it is so doggone smooth, why put down asphalt in the first place?)

Angry words were exchanged, accusations made, team owners and managers got in a huff and fumed, bad blood percolated and Rolex Series officials stepped in.

Of course, no one at anytime or at any racing venue has ever previously seen such a thing. Right?

About the most interesting aspect was the No. 01’s Tim Keene’s crafty rulebook use, putting his drivers in the car for 30-minute periods and earning at least some points, even though each would turn but a handful of laps during their respective “shift” during which each would go onto the track, turn a couple or three laps every now and again, fulfilling the letter of the rule demanding points-earning participation so as to earn championship points.

Smart, that Keene guy. Then again, Chip Ganassi and his No. 1, Mike Hull, demand such.

FINALLY, THE REST OF THE RACE

Which starts with qualifications, of course, and during which Nic Jönsson captured his first career Rolex Series pole with a time of 48.786 (110.687 mph) in Tracy Krohn’s No. 75 Ford-Lola.

As best as Ol’ Rolex DC can figure, Riley had not previously been shut out from a front row since the car entered competition in 2004.

A former Swedish Touring Car championship title being the culmination of one of the many, many different racing series in which he’s participated, Jönsson has scored three Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype victories, two of which came in 2009 as Krohn’s (and Jeff Hazel and David Brown’s) Lola ever more starts to come into its own (remember, it knows the way to Watkins Glen’s victory circle).

With no intended disrespect for Tracy Krohn, who deserves just as many accolades as does anyone for his dedication and love shown to the sport, the Ford-powered Lola stood an excellent chance at winning had Ricardo Zonta been Jönsson’s relief driver, as was the case when the duo took the New Jersey Motorsports Park and Watkins Glen races in 2009. The aforementioned three, with an assist from Colin Braun, finished fourth in the 2010 Rolex 24 – a first place had of been likely if not for fate’s intervention and another car punting the No. 75.

Rounding out the LRP overall top five qualifiers were: Antonio Garcia (until the wing police strutted in); Ricky Taylor; Jon Fogarty and Memo Rojas (get the whole PDF tamale here).

In GT, Jordan Taylor captured his second pole in as many races and third front-row start of the season after recording LRP’s fastest time of the day at a 53:315 (101.284 mph) in the No. 30 Mazda RX-8.

Taylor was trailed by Adam Christodoulou, James Gue, Sylvain Tremblay and Andy Lally - the only non-Mazda driver to break into the top five in the No. 07 Banner Racing Corvette. Likewise, the GT qualifier rundown link is found just above.

The race results – 174 head-spinning laps’ worth – document Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli’s win at LRP. The teams two 2010 wins are of little surprise to most series’ watchers, save Ricky Taylor. Oh, he thought he’d win at some point, it’s just that he was inclined to do so before heading to SunTrust and a seat in father Wayne Taylor’s car so that others would not be able to say, “He got the ride because of his old man owning the (SunTrust) team.”

Well, the reality: Ricky Taylor got that ride because of his old man, flat and simple. Ricky Taylor got “into” the SunTrust team faster than planned but, contrary to personal, internal and external beasts, odds makers and the just plain envious, Ricky Taylor started winning, too.

If a surprise is to be found in the LRP DP competition it was that of Mike Forest, who finished second with Ryan Dalziel after the former grew, then shaved a new cookie duster, vowing he’d do the same for the rest of the season as long as the magic held. Of course, he won’t and, just as surely, his Peter Baron-owned Starworks Corsa Car Care BMW-Riley won’t finish second again. At season’s start in the Rolex 24, Dalziel (scoring a Rolex Daytona ‘timepiece’ by the enduro’s end) and Forest started and thus scored driver points in two different Daytona Prototypes. Since then the two have since proved a model of consistency, putting Dalziel only seven points behind leaders Pruett and Rojas.

Hanging 20-points out of first are Burt Frisselle and Mark Wilkins, who likewise pulled a different Rolex 24 ride than their present Pacific Mobile No. 61 Ford-Riley. But, honestly, what else is new? Run by AIM Autosport, the No. 61’s driving team at a season’s end consistently find themselves in the top-5 or top-6 championship points nearly every year. On top of everything, they’ve now found something (legal) that when developed will help the team kick even more booty. But, yours truly having been sworn to secrecy . . .

Earning their first podium finish in a season when many were believed probable, Michael Valiante and Brian Frisselle placed third in the No. 6 Michael Shank Racing/CAP & Associates Ford Riley. And it’s about time. Can you say “snake bit?” Until Saint Skip drove the snakes from LRP Monday the pair had been nothing but snake bit.

Bringing a less-than-perfect head to Lime Rock Park and noting the season is “only” five (after LRP’s end) races deep into a 12-race season, Barbosa said for him the season at this point was just crawling along.

That crawling feeling continued for Barbosa in Monday’s three Rolex practices and qualifier, during which team manager Gary Nelson said he’d “even thrown the kitchen sink at it and even it didn’t work.”

By race end Monday life was renewed for Barbosa and co-driver Terry Borcheller, keeping the duo in the DP points’ top-ten and raising team spirits (points as of LRP here) after Barbosa led eight laps and finished fourth in the No. 9 Action Express Racing Porsche Riley started nearly dead last by Borcheller.

“It was more strategy than car,” Barbosa insisted afterward.

Jordan Taylor led the GT race’s five opening laps in the No. 30 Racers Edge Motorsports Mazda RX-8 from the big city of DeLand, Fla. During the race’s first 45 laps “GT” Taylor was involved in a tight, three-way, lead-changing battle with Andy Lally in the No. 07 Banner Racing Corvette and Adam Christodoulou in the No. 68 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8.

Both Taylor and Lally lost big ground relative to other competitors when fuel, tires and/or strategies dictated pit stops just before on-course cautions would’ve provided better opportunites and did, for the competition.

In the end, though, Edwards and his No. 68 RX-8 wer ethe big gorillas, leading the race’s final 87 circuits.

"I think the last 10 minutes of the race were the longest 10 minutes of my life," Edwards said. "I had pressure from behind, so I was just trying to stay ahead and not making any mistakes. This was our very first test day with this new car that the team built over the last month - I think that's all you need to say about SpeedSource and Mazda."

James Gue and Leh Keen finished second, 3.112 seconds in arrears but still gave the No. 41 Dempsey Racing/Team Seattle Mazda RX-8 its second podium finish this season, Gue and Keen being the ‘driving’ force. GT point leaders Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal finished third in the No. 69 SpeedSource/FXDD Mazda RX-8, the pair’s fourth-consecutive podium finish which has extended their championship-points lead by five over a fourth-place-finishing Sylvain Tremblay and Jonathan Bomarito in their No. 70 SpeedSource/Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8 (148-143).

For a full rundown of the race finish, click away.

If you’re not getting a sufficient fill of Rolex Series racing, SPEEDTV.com will stream Friday’s qualifying for the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen, which begins at 3:40 p.m. ET Friday and is a “time-certain” schedule. Coverage begins at 3:35 p.m. and runs through each 15-minute session: Daytona Prototype and Grand Touring (GT). You can access the live stream here: http://stream.speedtv.com/.

SPEED will also broadcast Saturday's Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen, covering the opening two hours of the race beginning at 2 p.m. ET. Live coverage resumes at 6 p.m. through 8:30 p.m.

Later,

DC