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