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