ALL(MENDINGER) OF THE STORY

DAYTONA BEACH – During the recent Dec. 19 Rolex Series test at Daytona International Speedway, A.J. Allmendinger was full of energy, vim, vigor and all that stuff while testing Michael Shank Racing's new Ford-powered, third-generation Riley Technologies' Daytona Prototype -- which a member of a certain "Trustworthy" team claimed The 'Dinger as having sandbagged; regularly pulling up just short of clocking low 1:40's.

Allmendinger's fire, smile and upbeat attitude took a Stuka-like nose dive, though, when mentioned was "RPM" (Richard Petty Motorsports) or, even, "stock cars."

In need of some material for folks who handsomely pay for such (that is, the guy who cuts the checks being the "handsome" one, 'cause the stringer pay darn sure ain't), so as to speak with Mr. Allmendinger your intrepid reporter risked life and limb in running a rear-to-front transporter gauntlet of hostile MSR team members.

Likely seeing themselves akin to the Wizard of Oz's winged monkeys, they chanted "Oh-re-o, Oh-reo. Oh-re-o, Oh-reo."

So I tossed a package into their midst and that was the end of that gauntlet.

Climbing stair leading to the "2nd floor," forging ahead into the midst of an "up-front" groupthink by "The Talent," (that is: owner/s, engineer/s, drivers and, sometimes, Barry Waddell), Mr. Allmendinger was in the midst of chow when asked if he might provide a few, um, "testy" thoughts.

"Sure, but don't ask me anything about my other racing activities," Allmendinger responded with narrowed gaze.

The confused reporter (a regular condition of which ColdPit regulars are aware) wondered aloud as to why such circumstances should, even could exist, "After all, you can hardly not mention your other driving job in NASCAR, even if only cursory."

"Not even a word," was Allmendinger's terse reply, followed with, "Don't bring up the subject, at all, please. If you want to talk about (Mike) Shank (Racing) and sports cars, that's cool, but don't go anywhere near my other racing job. If you do, I will be forced to say things no one will believe I am capable of saying, even if captured by video."

Given the reporter's primary want of sportscar stuff, the driver's wish to steer clear of that "other" anti-subject was duly noted.

“But still . . .”

Unleashed then was a short verbal volley that would've impressed any U.S. Marine, after which six assorted others in immediate proximity said something along the lines of, "Somebody might've said what we just heard but clearly it wasn't A.J."

The reporter, properly silenced (stunned?) but nevertheless remaining curious as to that which had occurred to Allmendinger's previously believed "secure" 2012 sponsorship deal -- 26 of the 36 official races on the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup's official schedule. As everyone knows, "Two out of three ain't bad" (thank you, Meat Loaf).

Having paid little attention beyond the point of Kurt Busch and Penske Racing each having respectively acknowledged a need of marching to different drums (thanks to Linda Ronstadt and/or H.D. Thoreau), some of "the rest of the story" subsequently became apparent to your humble scribe at the Fountainhead of Informational Flow, the DIS Media Center.

Simply put: Despite Allmendinger having scored his best Sprint Cup points finish as yet and with 2012 agreements already in place, when a certain Mr. Kurt Busch became a free agent a certain Richard Petty Motorsports executive displayed something other than magnanimity with regard to Mr. Allmendinger's continued association with RPM.

Speaking unreservedly to the favor of acquiring Mr. Busch's talents -- even if to the detriment of Mr. Allmendinger -- at least one RPM executive offered his soul, um, er, real estate in exchange for Mr. Busch's services.

“I would mortgage my house to make Kurt (Busch) a part of this team,” RPM Chief Operating Officer Robbie Loomis said in a Dec. 13 interview on SiriusXM's NASCAR-themed satellite radio show, Sirius Speedway.

"We value what he (Busch) has done on the race track. He has won a (Sprint Cup) championship and worked for a first-class operation like Penske Racing. Guys like that don’t come along every day.”

“(Sponsor) Best Buy has been a great partner for a long time, and A.J. Allmendinger has done a fantastic job for us. He’s coming off his best season yet, but I can tell you there is a lot of interest on our part in having Kurt Busch in the fold," Loomis said.

That RPM is struggling to stay viable is the gist of more than a few Charlotte, N.C., conversations. That someone within RPM would put at risk one of a family's most sacrosanct financial assets shows a high regard for RPM and Mr. Busch.

Yet, to all but callously discard someone else in the process, especially a darn decent (in more ways than one) "someone else," just provides for bad air.

If someone can be simultaneously noble and ignoble, Loomis sure made a good run at it.

If incorrect, nonetheless peripherally tied to the matter ("collateral damage," if one might), is (wait for it) "leading multi-channel global retailer and developer of technology products and services" company Best Buy (really, the preceding quotation is Best Buy's self-description).

Seeing some entwine Best Buy in Allmendinger's abandonment, thus sought by this reporter was an Allmendinger comment as to Best Buy's culpability.

"No, no, no!" Allmendinger said whilst in the midst of exchanging his driver's suit for street clothes.

"I've got absolutely no issues with Best Buy. They're good people and have been a terrific sponsor. They've got nothing to do with this. It's just one particular guy," Allmendinger at that moment stopping well short of naming that "guy," also effectively ending the discussion in silence but with downcast eyes and a shaking head saying volumes about disappointment and disbelief.

Allmendinger -- on the record or off -- could've at that time trashed someone, anyone, but did not. He took a higher road when more than a few folks would've chosen, perhaps did choose differently.

It's little wonder why Mike Shank (actually, everyone on the MSR team) thinks so highly of Allmendinger.

Even though Allmendinger over the course of his five NASCAR Sprint Cup seasons has in each improved his points standing over the previous (starting at 43rd his first season and in 2011 scoring a career-best 15th), his move to Penske of course doesn't guarantee a 2012 Chase spot.

Looking at its racing-entity empire as a whole, Penske Racing has compiled nearly 350 major race wins (about 70 of 'em in NASCAR), over 400 pole positions, 15 Indianapolis 500 victories, a Daytona 500 win and nearly 25 national championships (among them, Brad Keselowski's 2010 Nationwide Series title).

Yet, the organization has yet to get any closer to the topmost of the Sprint Cup ladder rungs than Rusty Wallace's second-place finish to Dale Earnhardt in the 1993 Sprint (nee Winston) Cup championship. (Note: Wallace drove for team-owner Raymond Beadle when the driver captured his 1989 Cup Championship crown).

Given Mr. Penske's success elsewhere (Chip Ganassi presently is 12 wins shy of Penske's Indy 500 win total, though the former enjoys a 5-to1 advantage over the latter in the Rolex 24), many are left wondering why a class-act Penske Racing organization has over the course of its 40 NASCAR seasons failed to claim center-stage at the stock car sanctioning body's annual awards ceremony.

Given Penske's seeming affinity for open-wheel types , maybe, just maybe, The 'Dinger can help turn that particular championship corner.

Being among the best liked in the Sprint Cup family, a 2012 Allmendinger surge into a year-end Chase ranking will be widely celebrated in the garage, mainly because Allmendinger, despite a head-spinning period no one saw coming, continued to display a personal class-act style that's a perfect match for the Penske organization.

Later,

DC

SPEED, WHAT SPEED?

DAYTONA BEACH – Gawd, what an absurdity.

You get up in the mornin', you hear the ding-dong ring (with thanks to Johnny Rivers), get the coffee a-brewing, rub eyes with balled fists (or extended fingers; depends), whiz, yawn a couple of times while stumbling along the drive in search of a newspaper, reverse course and stumble anew whilst returning to a structure wherein existing are "Honey-Do" demands for acts to be performed whereupon.

Inside again, (where presently in Detroit it is colder inside most houses than outside everywhere in Daytona Beach), finally in hand is a warm coffee cup possessed of wispy steam arising and its bearer headed for a favored morning-time butt holder (whether "chair," "couch" or "throne" being a matter of timing and a highly personal decision, but it being beneath one's butt being universally true . . . unless absent is that particular anatomical feature and, no doubt, an offended someone now reaching for his phone so as to protest this writer's "insensitivity" of those without. But, that's another ramble, altogether saved for the future, whilst still rolling with this one).

Contained still by the slumber from which you had just been loosed are the yelling kiddies, spouses, bosses and those who think themselves Bosses of The World (that is, every other driver on the morning commute) who will yet get their "moments."

It's a beautiful thing, those early day moments of quiet near-perfection.

Yet, deep inside you know it somehow is falling short.

At first struggling to understand the void felt and give it voice, a "EUREKA!" moment then arises.

Quickly grasping one of the most important tools of the modern-age male (archaeological digs millions-of-years in the future will confirm such), a remote control in an instant has set alight a nearby television and SPEEDtv subsequently tuned for the latest word concerning the world of motorsports – a “morning news” having been deemed an important part of nearly every real-time cable channel’s line-up (as distinguished from tape-delayed, scripted "reality" shows, the advertised description of which surely makes proud the likes of Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Joseph Heller – were they still kicking, that is).

After all, among Tuesday’s hot-topic motorsports banter were the IndyCar Series' Dallara weight-distribution hassles – according to some the chassis apparently having been devised by Rube Goldberg's progeny at the behest of an ICS committee which forgot the car would occasionally race on surfaces other than just road courses.

The open-wheel car's integrated chassis weight having been shifted rearward by committee fiat and the Goldberg-types happily complying, the Dallara reportedly is a road-course dream not-as-wonderful on ovals, upon which IndyCar Series cars either charge ahead famously fast or, elsewise, when "baby got back," seriously rub along walls.

Then, there are the legions of sportscar fans eagerly awaiting news on what will likely prove to be the most competitive GT-class season since last century and while under the sanction of IMSA version 1.x.

Why, on Tuesday alone, at Daytona International Speedway were nine different marques -- Porsche, Ferrari, Viper, Ford, Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Mazda and Buckler -- begging to differ with those who decried this week's DIS test as "inconsequential."

The January 28-29 GT race within the race? Well, it'll probably be nothing short of spectacular and just as likely to set off a firestorm of mid-Rolex 24 complaints from the faster Daytona Prototype types who expect the GT guys simply to move over whenever in proximity -- plus-or-minus a one-mile radius -- and discounting a proffered GT-position-fight argument as being not at all germane to a DP’s sole right of way.

In fact, such reminds one of some highway drivers all too often seen in a rearview mirror contained within the painted boundaries of a multi-lane highway's farthest-right lane, the following driver absolutely foaming at the mouth because the car immediately ahead is motoring along "too slowly" at the lawful speed limit.

Then, also at the test was the Brazilian driving talent, Filipe Nasr (in No. 58, at left), who came to DIS Tuesday after undertaking a detour journey through Yurrup and winning the Sunoco Challenge along the way. The guy is intelligent, more handsome than Ozz Negri, well mannered and speaks English without apparent trouble. In short: A perfect interview subject. Was “darn fast” omitted? We’re talking lickety split, actually.

Last but not least: Arriving Tuesday at Daytona International Speedway for the first time anywhere in decades was the first official Corvette prototype design to be officially produced by an official Corvette race car producer in the form of four darn-good-looking copies (SDR No. 90; SunTrust No. 10; Action Express Racing's Nos. 5 and 9, the latter pictured way up above and, shown at right, two of its drivers: João Barbosa, left, and Terry Borcheller, middle. The guy barely discernable pictured to Borcheller’s left was widely rumored as Bill Riley, but such remained unconfirmed. Besides, Shank’s new Gen3 Ford DP is supposedly being built this week at the Riley shops).

So, returning to this morning’s real world, what did SPEEDtv offer avid race fans? The chance of acquiring one's very own Personal-Time Gut Trainer, for "three easy installments" of $19.95, plus handling (at another $1,295.99 each, by the way. Yessiree, quite a sales-tax savings there).

Well, at least the morning started with great promise.

Later,

DC

CHANGING THE GAME

Plain and simple: The Corvette DP is a game-changer, notwithstanding is whether it immediately goes faster than everything else.

For now.

Still, in an odd, ironic kind of way and after having taken a route that's stretched over nine racing seasons, the Daytona Prototype concept is "coming home" in its 10th season.

When former Grand-Am president Roger Edmondson in 2001 revealed the DP concept to this writer -- which at the time didn't even have an official name ("Daytona Sports Car" would be its first) -- one of the embryonic project's ambitious intentions was a desire to have everyday car owners relate to the future racing class through styling cues, primary among which were headlight and taillight lenses.

It's fair to say Porsche wasn't exactly thrilled with the whole DP styling-cue idea, but rarely is Porsche thrilled when something is outside of its hands, anyway.

Porsche has said, will say it's a matter of quality control. Others will, have countered (ask those whose association with Erwin and Manfred Kremer dates to the 1979 Le Mans) it's a matter of Porsche being able to make a buck or two. There's probably truth to be found in each, not that such shouldn't.

As those who were aware of those times have since conveyed, Porsche so lacked, um, enthusiasm for the DP concept that it supposedly threatened to shut off the parts-supply pipeline to those involved. That is, until someone noted that while countering clout could be exercised in new parts distribution channels, out in the wilds of America were thousands of junkyards from which sufficient parts quantities could be gathered.

Though Porsche's attitude became helpful in time, it remained antagonistic because even the Cayenne-based engines built by the Lozano Brothers came from a junkyard or through surreptitious means.

Oops.

On the domestic side, the DP which took the 2003 Rolex 24 At Daytona class crown was a "Ford Focus" fielded by Multimatic Motorsports and driven by Scott Maxwell, David Empringham and David Brabham.

Seeking to improve throttle response or "drivability" at the accelerator pedal which the three drivers pressed "to metal," changed was that proverbial 25-cent part -- though due to inflation the cost allowance probably should be around five bucks.

The three drivers -- Brabham, Empringham and Maxwell -- got their desired response but from a locally acquired spring that hadn't been previously tested at all on the (then only) Robert and Doug Yates-built engine, much less properly so.

Three springs, inconveniently placed, would snap and need replacement during the race. Alone subtract those laps lost in the pits replacing only the springs and a Ford Focus would've been entered in the history books as finishing ahead of all others in the 2003 Rolex 24.

Yet, despite Dearborn's officially approved name, the Multimatic Ford Focus effort immediately afterward all but entirely ground to a halt and languished to such an extent that precious developmental time passed quickly and irretrievably, making the Ford Focus DP an also-ran barely beyond its first race.

GM Racing, although willing to put its name Chevrolet name on valve covers and associated exterior car decals, was similar to Porsche in its not being thrilled to see a DP carry Corvette taillights and headlamps.

The Corvette, at the time, was only a handful of years into a relatively new program elsewhere and, reportedly, wasn't desirous of confusion arising.

At the same time GM didn't wish to offend those within the Grand-Am's topmost ranks who likewise had firm, similar connections to a very successful form of North American stock car racing.

The GM folks then said, "Let there be Pontiac," and between the 2004 Rolex 24 At Daytona's first practice day and race end, transformed within every GM-associated engine bay were Chevrolets to Pontiacs -- save one.

"No one's signed a contract with me yet," Jim Bell said after a reporter asked why his race-winning, Bell Motorsports-fielded No. 54 Kodak Doran JE4 still bore "Chevrolet" decals.

Car owner/driver Forest Barber, knowing drivers Andy Pilgrim, Christian Fittipaldi (who wasn't even listed on some official forms) and 2003 DP driving champ Terry Borcheller were sufficiently imbued with talent to have already carried the show, barely had enough time (or engine compression) to drive the DP's final 30-or-so minutes.

"Pontiac," at the time deemed GM's high-performance division as the guys in marketing would supposedly see it, offered a neat, clean way to escape fan confusion and for years to come keep happy the Grand-Am powers that be.

Yet, with the Chevrolet-to-Pontiac (and a similar Toyota-to-Lexus) switch came cries of woe heard from owners, who were reluctant to spend money merely for the sake of styling cues, and constructors, who noted that a seemingly simple headlight and taillight swap required engineering and associated expenses.

Though David Klym's FDSC/03 DP design was most associated with the Brumos Porsche Racing team, Darius Grala's Cegwa Sport chassis No. FDSC/03 004 "Toyota" had competed in eight of 2003's12 races and was expected to again undertake a limited 2004 schedule (eventually, three races).

"While a Lexus tail lamp might be an off-the-shelf part, the structure (the DP) into which it is mounted isn't," FABCAR's David Klym said in the changes' wake. "We've got to do everything from CAD (computer aided design) to making new molds before the first body part can even be produced."

Thus gone in 2004 due to practical considerations now reemerged, ironically in the "Corvette DP."

Later,

DC

FEAR AND LOATHING

LAS VEGAS – Back in Ol' DC's Daytona Beach-area neighborhood is a matte-black Subaru WRX that a grocery store stock boy has driven to work for the better part of two years - a best-guess that Ol' DC's brain neurons can summon, that is.

Given the array of other fixed and electronic devices (translucent license-plate cover; radar detectors - yes, in the plural, arrayed on the dash like a bank of launch controls) the WRX about a year ago transitioned from a lovely shade of blue to a flat-matte finish, presumably in an effort to evade a bouncing of local and state gendarmes' radar and light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation ("LASER") guns. (By the way, whatever happened to "VASCAR?")

Whatever the intent, the WRX guy plainly was ahead of the curve given the flat-matte look so prevalent at SEMA Show v. 2011.

Indeed, given quick retrospection, "prevalent" is an understatement of nearly stellar proportions.

Matte was "in" big time. It was displayed on cars throughout the Las Vegas Convention Center's numerous halls, being displayed by small mom-and-pop car accessory displays to major automakers’ small-superstore-sized showroom footprints.

Running hands and fingers over many of the encountered matte surfaces, Ol' DC walked away with one principal thought: "What will become of Mothers, Maguire and like?"

Is the shine dead? Clear-coating a thing of the past?

Will FuzzBuster fade from the day-to-day battles between scofflaws and law?

To some degree, one is left wondering if the dark, foreboding flat-matte shift is a reflection of a soured economy, just as are long dark skirts (yes, it's true: shorter skirts accompany upbeat economic times and soaring stock markets. Get out there and do your part: buy stocks, bonds and whatever else that may help make legs look longer, sleeker and leave old guys longing for youth's "good ol' days").

Still, colorful rays of hope were seen at SEMA, almost literally.

Beating all to heck what long ago was termed "metallic" colors was what appeared to be, well, "colorized" metal.

Definitely metallic-like in an aluminium foil-like manner, Ford's display contained a red Mustang that was indescribable, as would the above words tend to support. But it sure was beautiful. Likewise, a greenish Camaro over at Chevrolet.

Both were astounding finishes that one best avoid should sun or Klieg lights be bouncing around in the immediate neighborhood. Or maybe not, if carried is a spare pair of welder's glasses.

MATING CALL

Ol' DC, now arising at times before many others even consider going to sleep, was already strolling the Specialty Equipment Manufacturer Association show’s middle part of its 2-million square feet well before others had even arisen. Then again, such is probably expected in Viva Las Vegas.

Suddenly, from the other side of an outside wall near which Ol' DC stood, came the squeal of smoking tires and, from the inside and heeding the clarion call, throngs of guys rushed headlong over each other and through the wall's doors, braving the brash morning Las Vegas sunshine.

Created by some fire-breathing Corvettes courtesy of Chevrolet, a line100-people deep soon formed, each hoping for an under-12-second, 1-lap ride around a parking-lot slalom course.

It was a well-oiled drill, for sure, Chevrolet's folks managing to smile each time the whole time, as hundreds of folks were herded through the drill like, well, cattle being led to you-know-where.

In the end, proved was one thing: put loud throaty sounding, rubber-peeling cars and scantily clad wimmin in one place at the same time and guys will either salivate to death or die trying to be the first in line for a spin, even if it hardly gives anyone time to pee one's pants.

Indeed, so numerous were the eye-candy, scantily dressed wimmin that even Neanderthal types must've figured they had a better-than-even chance of scoring, given the misinterpreted wimmin otherwise seen smiling at guys that even female-sized beer goggles wouldn't have countered elsewhere.

Here's a clue guys: The SEMA eye-candy wimmin are paid to: 1. Look good, 2. Smile, and 3. Look like they're actually interested in whatever you say.

HANGING AT CONTINENTAL, BOOTH 43425

At the Continental Tires display were Patrick Dempsey Racing's No. 40 Mazda RX-8, dazzlingly shiny in its "Florida" livery, and the No. 01 TELMEX/Target BMW-Riley Rolex 24 lookalike car complete with Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, Graham Rahal and Joey Hand's names atop the doors.

Standing off to one side and observing for about 30-minutes, nice to see were the number of people - male and female alike - who looked inside the shiny car, walked around it, knelt and stood alongside it (despite the flat-matte show theme) for portraits taken by camera-wielding friends.

A SPONSOR PARADISE?

SEMA's gathering of every (or doggone close to "every") automotive, truck, desert, deep woods and related accessory manufacturers just seems to be the perfect place to knock on doors for sponsorships.

Why, even Turner (Motorsports) had a prominent location with their championship-winning Rolex Series BMW parked within.

One hears Turner's already committed its sponsorship dollars, leaving, oh, perhaps a few thousand other exhibitors needing, wanting exposure.

Yet, awaiting a sponsorship just to up and jump into an awaiting lap are nearly every racer who complains they can't find sponsors.

Later,

DC

Somewhere Over The Good Ol' US of A –

On the way to SEMA in Las  Vegas . . .

SCHEDULE TIME

For all you skeptics out there, yes, it's true, there will be a 2012 Rolex Sports Car Series without being presented by Crown Royal.

(Thank goodness . . . that is, for a reduction in the previous never-ending story, um, er, series title.)

Lucky thirteen - the number of venues the series' will be undertaking in 2012, beginning at Daytona International Speedway with the 50th Anniversary race of Rolex 24 At Daytona and ending in New York City at a very well known, longstanding hotel where certain other series also celebrate their season's end.

Between the beginning and end are 11 other races - one more than every season since 2006, during which Infineon (Sonoma) and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca were on the Left Coast swing, Autodromos Hermanos Rodriguez on the southern end and Watkins Glen to the north.

Look for some interesting revamps - like a big date change for Lime Rock Park - when Grand-Am president Tom Bledsoe will be announcing the rest at SEMA.

KROHN DOES AND, MAYBE, DOES NOT DAYTONA

"Krohn Aviation" (as was on the side of the team's No. 76 car) tested Oct. 25-26 at Daytona International Speedway.

Even though testing with the 50th Rolex 24 At Daytona in mind, owner Tracy Krohn and Krohn Racing head Jeff Hazell were pretty doggone non-committal about returning for the Rolex 24.

"It depends on what they (Grand-Am) do with our car," Krohn said, Hazell later echoing the boss' words.

Following its DIS test, the Proto-Auto Lola car was destined to face the manufactured winds of Langley Research Center's wind tunnel.

Located adjacent to Virginia's Langley Air Force Base and a part of a ever-shrinking NASA, the wind tunnel, built in 1934, is billed as "the world's largest."

Ask some racing folks long familiar with it, Langley is also "the world's leakiest," "antiquated," and shouldn't be used for establishing the aerodynamic efficiencies of one Daytona Prototype, much less comparing and establishing the differences between Daytona Prototype models.

"Whether we come back (to Daytona and the Rolex 24) depends on what Grand-Am gives us or takes away, aerodynamically," Krohn said, who tilted with and won all but one (minor) of the multiple civil counts leveled against it in 2009 by Lola.

"I've spent a lot of money on legal fees (Proto-Auto v. Lola) and little to show for it. So, now, I'm just waiting to see what they'll do after they take it to the wind tunnel.

"I'm not interested in running for the sake of running. I'm a competitor. So if whatever they give us, whatever they say is 'okay' aerodynamically and we think it'll work, then we'll be here (for the Rolex 24).

"But if we think it won't work, if we think we don't have a real chance at winning, why come?"

THE NEW CORVETTE DP

"Your next door neighbor, even if she's never even heard of a DP, would know this car is a Corvette when she saw it. I don't get all fired up over body shapes but this car is the most bad-assed car I've ever seen," one (Corvette DP-to-be) owner said recently, off the record.

Those who wish to see the car and, perhaps, the likes of Jimmie Johnson on hand for its unveiling, should be in the vicinity of Daytona International Speedway come Nov. 15 - the day preceding the Rolex Series' test commencing on the 16th.

MY FAVORITE ROLEX 24 PICS

Over the years, especially when the world depending on dark rooms to move a picture from camera to print, Ol’ DC took his fair share of pictures, especially at the Rolex 24. Some were good, some weren’t so good. Nevertheless, herein over the next few months will occasionally appear some never-before-published Rolex 24 images taken over those years by yours truly.

At left is the 1988 winner, managed by Tony Dowe and driven by Martin Brundle (GB), Raul Boesel (BR) and John Nielsen (DK) in Tom Walkinshaw Racing’s No. 60 Jaguar XJR-9. It completed 728 laps in 24:00:34.940, one lap in front of a second-place Porsche 962 driven by Bob Wollek, Brian Redman and Mauro Baldi, after the No. 60 Jag qualified 6th on the grid with a a 1:40.716.

Later,

DC

ON THE TRACK AGAIN

Colin Braun, the 2006 Rolex Series Daytona Prototype-driving-champ-who-wasn't-because-a-lawyer-didn't-understand-age-isn’t-always-all-defining was at Barber Motorsports Park last week for a two-day test with Starworks Motorsport.

Team principal Peter Baron before the test said Braun's 2012 seat with the team "is his to lose."

No word, as yet, if Braun did so, but such idea is difficult to fathom when involving such a talented racer.

(Be forewarned, it's at this point wherein arising is a treasure trove of bar-bet material produced by the 2006 Rolex Sports Car Series season, mostly connected to Braun.)

At Krohn Racing in 2006, when “allowed” to compete Braun was teamed with Jörg Bergmeister in one (No. 76) of two (No. 75, the other) Ford-powered Riley Daytona Prototypes throughout the season, the latter being teamed three times with drivers other than Braun (altogether excluding those who were a part of the first-of-year, multi-driver Rolex 24 team).

Bergmeister’s spare-driver rotation included: Max Papis at HMS; Boris Said at WGI’s (Sahlen’s 6 Hours at The Glen); Niclas Jönsson, team-owner Tracy Krohn and, again, Said at Sonoma. Should the reader be a tad confused about all those drivers at Sonoma: yes, Herr Bergmeister drove two different cars. (An Ol' DC maxim: "Rules rule at the time they are, or are not rules." Rules, laws, regulations, ordinances, statutes and kindred edicts can change or even be nonexistent at one time or another. Desirous of an example? Compare the quantity of Federal Statutes as of the close of the First Congress and that of the most recent).

Despite being altogether absent for three of that season's 17 points-paying races (it was a busy year) Braun nevertheless finished fourth in the 2006 championship fight.

Just in case someone thinks Braun, or Bergmeister for that matter was taking a veritable "cruise" lacking competition: In 2006, nearly 38 drivers completed at least 82-percent of that season's 17 races. As a whole, 21 drivers would meet rules definitions for having competed in every Daytona Prototype race among the 51 drivers who appeared at no fewer than half of that season’s 14 venues. Keep in mind that every Rolex Series driver must compete, or “drive” to at least some minimal, defined extent so as to score points ("complete" a race) but wherein attempting, more than one driver has found himself on the short end of the stick – no track time at all – when a preceding driver did not complete a car’s handoff to a teammate whether the result of mechanical failure, wreck or dumbheadedness. (Krohn Racing No. 76, right, in 2006 Sahlen’s 6 Hours At The Glen Victory Lane).

Together Braun and Bergmeister (below, left and right, respectively, with thanks to Krohn Racing for images) together produced two wins; eight top-fives and thirteen top-10's – only once finishing out of the top 10 (a 12th at Mazda raceway Laguna Seca, Race 1).

Braun's three in-absentia races wasn't the design of anyone from Krohn Racing or the Rolex Series.

Instead, some lawyer/s, lacking the ability to think outside of a particular legal box, used the term "under 18 years of age" to define a “minor” class of people who were excluded from what may well have been established, ordinary and gainful professional practices coincidentally conducted at a racing venue having engaged contracts between the Indy Racing League and Philip Morris USA.

Um, er, wasn't Krohn Racing a sportscar team? Yep, still is a sportscar team, in fact.

The Rolex series just happened to schedule a race the same weekend (Saturday) as the IRL (Sunday).

"So, Williams, you're saying Braun couldn't 'legally' race because of a contractual agreement that didn't directly involve the Rolex Series, Krohn Racing or Braun? And they didn’t even race on the same day!?"

Yep.

A misstep typical of those who haven't stood on a particular fence side (and we've all been there; or not there), some arguing of late that the same has befallen IndyCar Series' CEO Randy Bernard, who clearly has accomplished what his employers sought – "out-of-box thinking" – but who in so doing, some claim, lacks perspective unique to motorsports and, particularly, open-wheel racing. Indeed, the absence of intimate knowledge of one racing style as compared to another, say, stock car versus sportscar, can lead to miscues, too. Woe inevitably visits those who conjure answers when a question’s full grasp eludes.

The whole Smoking Braun deal was still weirder in a number of ways, such as Braun could've raced on Monday (which because of the legal squabbling nearly occurred), but we in the United States have in recent times "gotten off" on telling others not only where to go, but what to do and how to do it along the way. So let's just stay focused on Braun's racing or, perhaps, lack thereof.

So, as a result of smoking, a nonsmoking Braun in 2006 didn't race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (HMS), Watkins Glen International (WGI) or Infineon Raceway (Sonoma) – at all of which the race card included the IRL – where Bergmeister (at right, credit Grand-Am) respectively finished 8th, 1st and 9th, ultimately besting (who else?) Scott Pruett and Luis Diaz ("Memo Rojas" before a name change) by 16 points for the championship crown . . . well, er, Rolex "watch." Okay, okay: "timepiece."

Perhaps more surprisingly, having been “exposed,” Braun still didn’t partake of any tobacco product, even though he daily remained at The Glen during the race weekend. Amazing, that. 

On 2007, Braun finished fifth in the championship, hampered again by an undesired and forced race absence again at Sonoma, only this time it was at the hands of Rolex Series competition director Mark Raffauf, who insisted, "Colin Braun is one of the brightest talents the racing world has seen in the last few years," just before exacting a 16-day suspension period, within which was a race date at Sonoma.

Raffauf claimed (as did also claim a few team owners and drivers) Braun earlier that year breached the peace at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Barber Motorsports Park and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

Again driving for Krohn Racing (it's a "Texan" thing) in the season's third of three 2007-season visits to Watkins Glen International, Braun was reportedly handed a pre-race "aggressive driving" warning ticket by Raffauf but nonetheless, while fighting for second-place in the race's final laps, committed the egregious act of contacting the No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac-Riley and driver Max Angelelli, who has been known to, um, rub fenders, too.

"However, like other emerging stars before him, occasionally these young drivers need to be refocused," Raffauf was quoted in the suspension announcement.

"I have no doubt that Colin will emerge from this suspension as an even better driver."

After Sonoma, Braun returned for the season's final race and proceeded to finish fifth in the championship, one spot better than when he was suspended. Funky, that.

Other than in a few one-off rides since the close of the 2007, Braun's been doing just that, becoming an "even better driver" while under the wing of Roush Fenway Racing.

After three years, a win and a personal best fifth-place NASCAR Truck Series championship finish in 2009, Braun's ride fell prey to a sponsorship plague which has yet to be defeated at Roush Fenway Racing (as well as others).

Released by Roush in Dec. 2010, after taking a year off Braun's apparently returned to sportscar racing and there's little doubt he's a "better driver," too, maturity's process being what it is.

Unsure at present who exactly will land in what car and with whom as Starworks owners Baron, Alex Popow and Enzo Potolicchio (who also moonlight as fairly good drivers) are working toward fielding three cars for the 2012 season. (Dalziel, Baron, Potolicchio, at right)

Just a few weeks ago at the end of the 2011 season, Potolicchio and longtime Baron driver Ryan Dalziel won the 2011 season's final race at Mid-Ohio, overcoming an otherwise season-long winless drought for Ford (Roush Yates Engines).

Also in Starworks’ Barber Motorsports Park test pits was Canadian Mark Wilkins, who isn’t likely to return to Woodbridge (Toronto) based AIM Autosport in 2012, especially since his Riley DP No. 001 is being restored to its black and gold livery – the colors worn for 2008-season race wins at Montreal (at left) and Watkins Glen International (race No. 2) – in preparation for its soon-to-be delivery and display at a Canadian motor sports museum.

"We're on good terms," Wilkins insisted of his relationship with his former team, soon without the Daytona Prototype in with which Wilkins and 2008 co-driver Brian Frisselle scored three podium finishes and finished fifth in the Rolex Series championship.

"I wish Ian (Willis) and AIM all the best but now is a good time for each of us to take new directions."

It was was in a Starworks Porsche-Riley (in a sole Porsche flat-six DP) that Wilkins led seven laps at Mid-Ohio in mid-September, one of the six drivers to lead the race, giving way to Starworks’ sister car and eventual winning-driver Dalziel (at below right, credit Grand-Am) after Wilkins’ tires went away toward race end.

A battle to be Starworks' engine supplier has since emerged, with Ford and Porsche the apparent leading contenders.

One only can wonder if Ford will beat Porsche at Starworks, just as it may have prophetically done at Mid-Ohio, or whether the team will run the flat-six – an engine even Porsche says has likely already traveled the full length of its developmental spectrum (yet, when Alwin Springer is involved, one wonders what magic he might still perform).

Whatever the power, Starworks appears set for a heckuva strong 2012 driving team.

Later,

DC

DEMPSEY GONE?

"Depends," according to some observers at Barber Motorsports Park.

Following a primary sponsor's withdrawal from Dempsey Racing's No. 41 Mazda RX-8 program, Dane Cameron (left, hatless) and James Gué (right, in hat) won't drive in 2012 what they drove in 2011 despite having finished fourth in the Rolex Series' GT championship, 13-points shy of first place.

Thus the former two-car, full-season (emphasis on "full season," please) team now is down to one; presumably driving are Joe Foster, Patrick Dempsey and, probably, Charles Espenlaub as needed, as the team's principal drivers.

Dempsey Racing and Foster, who not only drives but is the administrative "brains" behind the team, were at Barber Motorsports Park, often being among the earliest to hit the track Monday when the various sessions commenced (pictured at below, left).

When the checkered flag fell on the Monday's final Rolex Series session of the two-day test, though, Foster and team struck the tent, jumped on the nearby I-20 eastbound ramp and headed for their Atlanta-area shop.

Before departing, Foster was enmeshed in an animated conversation with Grand-Am officials who promptly declined comment.

One nearby team's crew member wasn't as mum, claiming Foster at various times during the day expressed dissatisfaction with the new tire, saying that Foster (at right) felt it was better than what previously existed but fell short of the mark he wished to experience.

"What mark?" rhetorically grumbled yet another nearby GT competitor who's been in the thick of more than a few pitched points battles over recent years.

"What racer doesn't think tires can't be better? We always lack enough horsepower; always want the latest 'this' or the latest 'that.' Like golfers playing on a golf course, he (Foster) just needs to quit bellyaching about the clubs and focus on the fact that everyone else faces the same sand traps, too.

"If you ask me, either the team can't deal with the situation it's in or it's falling apart; one or the other. The tire just happens to a convenient excuse."

Noted is the turmoil that reportedly roiled within Dempsey Racing during the 2011 season, most particularly as it related to Cameron and Gué's No. 41 Mazda RX-8.

According to firsthand accounts, the team's behind-the-scenes performance at that time was deemed poor given the level of driving talent, only thrice cracking the top five (4,4,5) in nine starts.

Reportedly attributed to poor strategy calls, a sponsor's subtle requests for change evolved into a clear-cut demand for change, heeded just before the series landed at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

"What happened?" the Barber source asked rhetorically. "They finished on the podium at the very next race (NJMP) and kept on improving."

In the season's four remaining races, Gué and Cameron finished with three thirds and one sixth-place finish, averaging a 3.75-place finish as compared to a 7.375 average finish in the races prior to NJMP.

"2012 probably would've been a helluva good year for them if they had stayed around," the source continued.

"No one ever really wins in a sponsor versus owner face-off like they had over there because a sponsor doesn't generally get where he's at professionally unless he's competitive, too.

"You've got a team owner who's competitive but you can be sure that the sponsor's competitive, too. The difference is the sponsor's the one who's funding the team, man. He may be proved right or proved wrong but you've got to listen to him. You can't blow him off like he hasn't a clue as to how to win."

"You just don't find yourself taking something like that to the mat and then have everyone walk away with a warm and fuzzy feeling after that kind of deal. It was his (the sponsor's) ball to take home and he did."

Nevertheless, Dempsey Racing's No. 40 RX-8 (left, at Daytona) -- with Foster, Dempsey, Charles Espenlaub and Tom Long sharing the wheel -- made an early season statement on the 2011 Rolex 24 At Daytona podium, finishing a team-best third place in the race.

Unfortunately, it also was the team's final 2011 foray into a top-5 finish, averaging roughly an 11th-place average in the 11 races in which they scored points. Keeping the string intact, the No. 40 finished 11th in team points, seven spots behind a fourth place for the No. 41 team. In the GT driving championship, Foster finished 13th; Dempsey two places better in 11th.

Dempsey is a light year or two ahead of the driving ability he demonstrated just after the actor wrapped the movie "Made of Honor" and finally was free to run at the 2007 season's third race, ironically, at Barber Motorsports Park.

Dempsey's first intended 2007 race, the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (then Grand-Am Cup), occurring on the Friday preceding the Rolex 24 At Daytona, was preempted by Dempsey's desire to be at spouse Jillian Fink's side while she delivered twins Sullivan Patrick and Darby Galen on Feb. 1, 2007.

Outside of childbirth, in one of those darned if you do; darned if you don't rock-and-hard-place things, Dempsey's weak point was not getting enough seat time when conflicting were TV and movie shooting schedules which, as Dempsey has noted, provided the funds with which to seed Dempsey Racing.

Undertaking a concerted effort in 2011 to better himself -- often involving strenuous cross-country flights which are never particularly fun regardless of "cabin class" -- Dempsey competed more than he'd previously raced in a single season and it showed in his improved skill set, too.

So where's the team's weak spot?

It surely wasn't TV time, which aptly came shortly after Gunter Schaldach's No. 07 CoolTV, Leighton Reese-owned Chevrolet Camaro rammed Foster's No. 40 Mazda RX-8 at Road America, afterward making more newsreels than J.C. France and Chris Bingham's 2006 Mexico Hat Dance.

Also, Foster isn't exactly what one can describe as a shabby driver, by any measure.

In the 2011 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, Foster teamed with Scotty Maxwell (at right) in driving a top-of-the-line Ford Mustang Boss 302R prepared by Ford factory proxy Multimatic Motorsports -- Foster the opener; Maxwell the cleanup.

For the most part considered de rigueur in "team sportscar," especially insofar as sprint races are concerned, a team's "weakest link" usually starts a race (and in Grand-Am, the starter must qualify the car), followed by the "strongest" of the driving crew, who then theoretically can close a race providing the best possible results given the overall conditions.

Earning a series-leading three poles (tied with Rum Bum Racing's Nick Longhi) at Barber Motorsports Park, Lime Rock and Watkins Glen International, plus sitting on an additional four outside poles, Foster sat on the greater number of Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge front rows than did anyone in 2011.

Hobbled somewhat with a shoulder and neck injury following the Road America shunt, Foster still finished the 2011 season having compiled the third-greatest number of lead laps, 87, bested only by Matt Plumb (89) and Billy Johnson (108). Trailing Foster in the three following spots were the likes of Bill Auberlen (78), Longhi (49) and John Edwards (45).

Despite some criticism leveled at Dempsey at NJMP over SPEEDtv, the driver has more often than not received praise for his heads-up driving, generally transferring a reasonably positioned and "whole" car to teammate Foster, who closes when he's in the RX-8.

That the teamed averaged an 11th-place finish in GT seems at odds with potential, thus perhaps lending credence to the now-former sponsor's reported perspective.

Dempsey Racing is looking to run two cars in the 50th-anniversary Rolex 24 At Daytona (Jan. 29-30), reportedly having most, if not all the available seats filled. As of now, the team will halve that car count for the remainder of 2012.

Later,

DC

DAN WHELDON, RIP

In one of the most dominating performances in the history of the Rolex 24 At Daytona, in 2006 Scott Dixon, Casey Mears and Dan Wheldon teamed to win the twice-around-the-clock event.

Compiling a race-leading 272 laps on the point, the team - born of drivers coming from Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix Sabates and Target Chip Ganassi Racing teams - would compile 734 laps in their No. 02 Lexus-powered Riley DP by race end, at the time ranking fifth overall (now sixth overall) in the race's all time completed-laps category - just 28 laps shy of 1992's leading 762 laps.

Wheldon's finish, in the pursuit of which he'd personally lead an individual sixth-best 58 laps, was a considerable improvement over his 33rd-place finish just a year earlier, in which he co-drove the Pontiac-powered No. 2 Howard Boss Motorsports' Crawford DP03 along with Milka Duno, Marino Franchitti and Dario Franchitti.

Though Wheldon and the Franchitti brothers had already long known each other, Wheldon once later said it was in the trenches of that grueling 2005 Rolex 24 race where he gained a keen appreciation for "those two Italians masquerading as Scots" - said with a hearty laugh after dislodging a tongue previously implanted firmly in cheek.

In just a few months' time Wheldon would've returned to Daytona International Speedway to join the many other returning Rolex 24 At Daytona champions, who will help celebrate the race's Jan. 28-29, 2012, 50th anniversary.

Wheldon wasn't exactly the tallest to be found in a paddock, but what he lacked in physical stature easily was overshadowed by his accomplishments in a race car - 16 IndyCar Series wins; a 2005 IndyCar Series championship; and, two Indy 500 wins coming in 2005 and 2011 - as well as his being just a darn nice guy who joked, laughed, smiled and made others feel as perfectly at ease as could anyone.

Perhaps that's the best way, too, for Wheldon to be remembered.

There's a cold certainty found in numbers which are indisputable. The warmth of a meaningful smile, the quick extension of a welcoming hand is something altogether different.

And that's the Dan Wheldon this writer will most remember.

And miss.

Later,

DC

LOVE AND HATE

LEXINGTON, Ohio -- On the one hand, there's Brumos Racing, whose contributions to racing -- should anyone in racing have somehow missed their scope and magnitude -- have been considerable.

Of Brumos' prominent founders, the late Bob Snodgrass also was instrumental in getting the Grand American Road Racing Association -- now just "Grand-Am" -- off the ground at the tail end of last century.

Another who is deeply involved in both Brumos Racing and the Jacksonville, Fla., Brumos automobile dealership chain from which the team draws its soul, is entrepreneur Dan Davis, who was a well-established Floridian when Snodgrass (along with Mike Colucci) cars in knee pants watched race cars compete in downtown Watkins, Glen, N.Y.

Then there's yet another race-day member of the Brumos Racing "founding" cast, Hurley Haywood, who as a driver captured wins for "Brumos" in cars as diverse as 914-6's, 917's, 935's, 962's and a Porsche-powered FABCAR. Still, Haywood can be found wherever Brumos Racing may be, lending his brain if not his body to the No. 59's Porsche GT3 Cup car's effort.

Brumos Racing drivers Leh Keen and Andrew Davis -- both having developed championship forms before joining Brumos for 2011 -- admitted to understanding theirs would be a tough first year but, as Davis put it, "How can you not be a part of the Brumos team if you've got the opportunity?"

Many others -- from the doggedly handsome Don Leatherwood to "Peppermint" Patti Tantillo -- also "bleed" Brumos red, blue and white.

On the other hand, there's Autohaus Motorsports.

A relative "new kid" on the block when compared to Brumos, Autohaus Motorsports was founded by Robert Kirkland in 1999, yet, it isn't much of a stretch to believe that a guy who sold Mercedes-Benz cars for a living, just as has Brumos, knows a thing or two about sports cars and racing, too.

Whether "new" or old hand, though, doesn't much matter because people don't get into racing, whether at the ownership or driving level, not to win - if you catch the drift.

Also not interested in just tooling around tracks for fun is Autohaus driver Bill Lester.

Having scored a BS in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, Lester intellectually is on a par with some of racing's greatest names -- past and present.

Lester so loved racing he gave up a cushy job and left behind a whole bunch of stock options when racing's siren song successfully called him away from Hewlett Packard.

Lester's not done badly at racing, financially speaking, but who in racing doesn't think he could've done still better toiling in some dark, pizza-box and Coke Zero-bottle-strewn computer engineering lab?

As have so many others with their work lives; even their love lives, Lester gave up a lot to find that better line; that perfect apex.

The team's other driver is Jordan Taylor, one of Wayne and Shelley Taylor's offspring.

SunTrust Daytona Prototype driver Ricky Taylor, Jordan's older brother by just under two years, has been getting the lion's share of attention over the last year or so, but those who hang around racing know Jordan Taylor is far from a slouch.

Indeed, stints in Karting, Skip Barber and Formula Mazda notwithstanding, Jordan Taylor this year in Rolex Series GT was on pace to be the first of the brothers to win a national-level, major sportscar racing championship in that black-and-red No. 88 Autohaus Chevrolet Camaro.

On the Friday night prior to the Mid-Ohio race, it looked like Jordan Taylor would score that championship, too, though certainly nothing ever in racing (if not everywhere else, too) is certain.

The above cast of characters would be largely responsible for squaring the 2011 Rolex Sports Car Series' Grand Touring driver, team and manufacturer championships this past weekend at the Mid-Ohio Sports car Course, all of it coming on the heels of a fifth championship-points lead change in a class within which seven different teams have won in 2011.

With Autohaus atop Brumos by just three points when the team transporters parked and disgorged their respective contents at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, each team needed to hit on all cylinders just to maintain the status quo or, perhaps, one to miss a cylinder or two to drastically change it all.

As Friday qualifying got underway the Brumos Racing team would hit on none of them. Not a one.

Try as it may, not a single cylinder of Brumos Racing engine's six cylinders would fire its fuel charge and without a qualifying time, it would be sent to the rear of the starting grid.

"I was pumped to get the pole," Davis said late in the day as he and co-driver Keen headed for the parking lot.

"We had some fast times in practice and I felt like I could get it."

When a Daytona Prototype is sent "to the rear," it goes to the head of the GT pack. Well kinda, sorta and not exactly. But it ain't the "back," as was found Chip Ganassi Racing's Memo Rojas in the No. 01 TELMEX BMW-Riley DP when, subsequent to a post-qualifying engine change, he on the race grid found himself at least preceding the Stevenson Auto Group's No. 57Chevrolet Camaro and Whelen Engineering's No. 31 Chevrolet Corvette.

In his Brumos Porsche, Davis, however, really was at the field's rear.

"There's a whole bunch of cars in front of you from there," Davis said in complete sincerity.

Winning the GT title suddenly had taken on a whole new dimension -- for everyone but Davis, who pledged to take the lead and did just that on Lap 27.

Talk about lonely: Sitting inside his idled Autohaus Camaro, one can only imagine the slow-motion silence Lester, must've felt just after a slippery track threw him from it on Lap 15.

For two laps Lester would sit, completely alone, between asphalt and metal barrier.

The silence must've been

deafening as he saw the championship fade from his grasp.

Frankly, Autohaus, Bill Lester and Jordan Taylor deserved better.

But so too did Brumos, Leh Keen and Andrew Davis -- and got it.

One race pretty well summed why this writer hates this sport -- and loves it, too.

Later,

EIGHT MID-O's DOWN; ONE TO GO

A look back and not-so-bold look forward.

June 28, 2003 - Round 7 of the 2003 Rolex Sports Car Series -- After losing the previous week's Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen race lead over the span of that race's two remaining laps, arising anew the following week at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course were eerily similar circumstances which likewise involved a late-race yellow flag, also occurred with but two remaining laps and left drivers Forest Barber and Terry Borcheller to wondering if life was but a series of replays wherein the locale may change but the script remained pretty much the same.

Whether attributable to lessons learned and differently applied or fate merely hanging a left instead of a right, their Jim Bell-prepared and managed No. 54 Bell Motorsports Chevrolet-powered Doran JE-4 found Mid-Ohio's Victory Lane.

Yet, in every case which involves those who snatch victory from the jaws of defeat lie those on the flipside of that coin: snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, as it were.

Borcheller was at the No. 54's Chevrolet-Doran's wheel when the engine of the No. 29 Ford Mustang of Eric Curran (at the wheel) and Stu Hayner could motor no more - the GTS-class Mustang having dominated the race, leading it for more than 50 laps of the 102-lap race before yielding.

Finishing second was David Donohue, paired with Mike Borkowski in the No. 58 Red Bull Porsche-FABCAR, after the driver slowly unwound an earlier, grass-mowing excursion, likely the only thing having prevented Bork and Donohue from occupying the podium's topmost step because, as is the case in life, all it ever takes is "just enough." In third was Tommy Riggins and David Machavern in the No. 48 Heritage Ford Mustang GTS.

Aug. 7, 2004 - Round 7 of the 2004 Rolex Sports Car Series -- The start of the 2004 season at Daytona brought with it a plethora of new Daytona Prototypes and by mid-season "new kid" Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates had become the bona fide monster of the Rolex Sports Car Series' midway - only there were two such monsters: Scott Pruett and Massimiliano Papis in the No. 01 CompUSA Lexus-Riley; Jimmy Morales and Luis Diaz in the No. 02 CompUSA Lexus-Riley.

After Papis led Laps 1 through 35 and Pruett Laps 39-96 (Wayne Taylor and his mean-ass-looking SunTrust No. 10 car was the only other race leader), at race end it the No. 2 Citgo Crawford-Chevrolet of Venezuelan Milka Duno and English hot shoe Andy Wallace, effectively drove a wedge between the two Ganassi monsters at the conclusion of the Mid-Ohio Road Racing Classic's finishing order. in a sign of the shape things to come, four additional DPs finished on the lead lap of the 96-lap race.

Aug. 27, 2005 - Round 10 of the 2005 Rolex Sports Car Series -- In a finish that saw the members of a half-dozen race teams all but fight each other for space in their respective pits so as to gain clear sight of the final, fleeting moments of the EMCO Gears Classic at Mid-Ohio, six Daytona Prototypes charged toward the finish line from the final three turns of the 2.258-mile, 13-turn course, the first and sixth-place finishers of which respectively book-ending the 61/100-of-one-whole-second spread which contained 'em all at race end.

The 94-lap, 225.6-mile race saw 22 Daytona Prototypes undertake the epic battle at race start; 17 DPs finishing at the head of the field's two-class race at its finish.

Out front were Butch Leitzinger and Official Old Guy Grand Pooh-Bah Elliott Forbes-Robinson in their No. 4 red-on-black Boss Snow Plow Crawford-Pontiac, followed closely in second place by Scott Pruett and Luis Diaz in their No. 01 CompUSA Lexus-Riley. In third were Wayne Taylor and Max Angelelli's No. 10 SunTrust Racing Pontiac-Riley, now tamed in its more sanguine and now-familiar SunTrust blue.

June 24, 2006 - Round 9 of the 2006 Rolex Sports Car Series -- While the No. 12 Lowe's Fernandez Racing Pontiac Riley might've started last among the Daytona Prototypes, co-drivers Mexican racing god Adrian Fernandez and Brazilian Mario Haberfeld nevertheless found the means and determination to drive their No. 12 Lowe's Fernandez Racing Pontiac-Riley through the field to earn their first - and last - Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series overall victory.

Compared to 2005's close conga-line finish, all but a yawner was Fernandez' 3.089-second winning margin over Krohn Racing's second-place Ford-Riley, driven by Colin Braun and eventual 2006 champion, Jörge Bergmeister. Finishing third, paired for only their fourth race, were Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney in the GAINSCO Auto Racing's No. 99 Pontiac-Riley.

In what has become Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates' definitive worst-ever Daytona Prototype finish, Luis Diaz and Scott Pruett crossed the line 36th, some 14-laps in arrears to the leaders, after the No. 01 CompUSA Lexus -Riley tangled in Turn 9 of the 13-turn course with brothers Burt and Brian Frisselle, one of whom having driven the No. 8 Synergy Doran-Porsche DP, essentially to the junk pile, but which set up a resultant funky but frightening crash involving driver Joey Hand.

Driving the No. 21 Matt Connolly Motorsports BMW M3, Hand and Paul Edwards, in the No. 64 TRG Pontiac Pratt & Miller GTO.R , were two among a nearly inestimable pack of GT drivers longing for a win and being handed such opportunity when, on Lap 97 of the race's 99 laps, the Mid-O track went from full-on, no-passing yellow to go-get-'em green.

In a scrum much akin to a pack of greyhounds chasing a warm, fuzzy fake rabbit, just about each of the cars were battling for the race's GT-class win when Edwards made contact with the rear of Hand's car, forcing the No. 21 machine off and eventually into a series of bumps, jumps and flips - or maybe that should've been jumps, bumps and flips - that, in turn, drew hundreds-of-thousands of YouTube hits.

June 23, 2007 - Round 7 of the 2007 Rolex Sports Car Series -- With an air similar to that of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's march across The South, Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty took the look of a team possessed with rolling over and crushing their competition in one of 2007's handful of Daytona Prototype-only races.

In earlier qualifying Fogarty put the blood-red, Bob Stallings-owned No. 99 Pontiac-Riley on the EMCO Gears Classic at Mid-Ohio pole – the team’s fourth pole and its seventh consecutive front-row start by that point in the 2007 season. The pair soon afterward also scored its third victory of the 2007 season, at the time becoming the sole DP team to have won more than one race thus far in the season.

Well into their cool-down lap, breaking loose were howls of non-official but nonetheless vociferous protests nip, nip, nipping on the No. 99 team's heels faster than the "best of the rest." Thirty seconds and what may as well have been miles behind in second place were Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas in Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 01 TELMEX Lexus-Riley. In third were Colin Braun and Max Papis in the No. 75 Krohn Racing Pontiac-Riley.

June 22, 2008 - Round 8 of the 2008 Rolex Sports Car Series -- In what was becoming an apparent tradition of domination that included an unmatched combination of pole positions, front-row starts, podium and first-place finishes, Jon Fogarty, Alex Gurney and the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac-Riley team again showed a mastery of the 2.26-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, even though not quite as great of a mastery as that demonstrated in 2007.

Given Gurney and Fogarty tend toward being cerebral, gentlemanly types disposed of Victory Lane celebrations having a touch of solemnity, arising in that special area where solemn accolades sometimes flow was a veritable nuclear meltdown - coming from a Brumos Racing camp who suddenly again realized, "Yes, we can!"

Having finished second, defined by some as the "First of the Losers," drivers David Donohue and Darren Law and the team's No. 58 Brumos Porsche arrived at race end to its first podium finish in a monkey uncle's age. Unrealized at the time was an impending success that ultimately led to a 2009 season during the first of which every force situated outside the camp would seemingly work against the team to keep its drivers from winning a championship, collaterally collecting the No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche-Riley sister car, in which drivers J.C France and Joao Barbosa had finished fifth at Mid-O, driving the team apoplectic with its dual top-five finish.

Almost anti-climatically, in third place was Matt Plumb and Gene Segal's No. 7 Rum Bum Racing BMW-Riley DP effort, which sadly by season's end would end.

June 21, 2009 - Round 6 of the 2009 Rolex Sports Car Series -- Just as has been the case nearly innumerable times since the driver climbed aboard his first kart, Scott Pruett relishes in "reigning" time and again upon any competitor's coronation parade - the GAINSCO Gang being Pruett's principal focus in things Grand-Am mainly due to the things the GAINSCO Gang themselves did . . . like "win."

Joined for a third-straight EMCO Gears Classic at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course race with Pruett but yet to break the mold cast for himself, Memo Rojas again played understudy to the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix (y José) Lexus-Riley's Top Dog.

In the 2009 version something had to give way between the two red, white and blue Daytona Prototypes (think about it) and the TRD "Lexus" engine would do just that when, in a pre-race announcement, was Toyota's North American marketing arm's decision to make like a horse and trot from the series at season's end.

First, though, a race and a championship was to be won.

Seizing the "last" Mid-O Toyota poignant moment as would have Shakespeare a sonnet, Pruett reminded the world that he, too, was of longstanding California stock, even though the genes directly preceding his helped make Levi jeans famous in the '49 Gold Rush instead of those who would rush to race-car finish lines.

Breaking entirely from tradition and making a green car (as in "color") do what it wasn't supposed to do were Niclas "Nic" Jönsson and Ricardo Zonta, the two sharing the No. 76 Krohn Racing Ford-Lola that had begun to field a fine but soon-to-be stilled set of racing legs.

Yet, from Pruett's perspective, like a bad dream not at all inclined to simply "go away" were fellow Californians Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty and the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Chevrolet-Riley fellows, generally otherwise linked to Texas, who placed third.

June 20, 2010 - Round 7 of the 2010 Rolex Sports Car Series -- Memo Rojas, finally establishing himself as a competent driver in his own right and among Mexico's best, put the No. 01 TELMEX BMW-Riley on pole and Pruett would end it there. Quietly establishing itself as the team to actually beat, the TELMEX duo combined to lead 64 of the race's 107 total laps, yielding to only four others (Nelson Philippe, 18 laps; Michael Valiante, 14; Mike Forest, 8; Buddy Rice, 3).

Mike Shank Racing's No. 60 Crown Royal XR Ford-Riley scored its second podium thus far in 2010, John Pew having qualified the car 10th and Ozz Negri bringing the car home second. In third was AIM Autosports' No. 61 Pacific Mobile/Bio sign Ford Riley with Burt Frisselle and Mark Wilkins at the wheel, the former having qualified right where the latter brought it home.

Sept. 17, 2011 - Round 12 of the 2011 Rolex Sports Car Series Season?

One thing is clear going into today's EMCO GEARS Classic at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course: Pruett and Rojas need only to drive complete, 30-minute segments apiece to walk with the 2011 Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype driving championship. Should the pair prevail at race end, it will amount to Pruett's fourth and Rojas' third win at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course since the Daytona Prototype first started competing here in 2003.

Perhaps all the more remarkable is the sheer dominating nature of the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix (y José) Sabates team at the track since it first competed at Mid-O in 2004.

Already testing its 2012 version of the Gen 3 Daytona Prototype at its top-secret coast-down tunnel, one might as well expect to see the TELMEX team continue its roll.

Later,

DC

“CAN YOU SAY, ‘ADIEU, OH CANADA?’”

MONTREAL – Since first coming here (coinciding only with the first Grand-Am race here), this most recent north-of-the-border trip uniquely produced a first: Ol’ DC climbed aboard “The Metro” and got where he needed to go. On a first attempt, yet!.

It also may be his last, whether willingly or otherwise.

Furthermore, though, “NASCAR” in whatever form may not return at all to Montreal – or so proclaimed numerous NASCAR “gear” vendor signs greeting those offing the Metro (works for me because “disembarking” doesn’t), reading “ADIEU NASCAR!” and “80-percent off!” the idea being the vendors would rather now take a hit on already absurdly priced products than sell none whatsoever in the future, evidently not yet learning of this thing called “The Internet.”

The issue boils down to bragging rights, according to “The Guys Having Connections,” (TGHC) a.k.a., “informed sources,” because Québécois want it all: a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

Anyone who knows anything about everything knows the difficulty in getting a Sprint Cup date.

Just ask Kentuckians, who were a part of or witness to the travails of Kentucky Speedway lawsuits (involving NASCAR), a buy-out (by O. Bruton Smith’s Speedway Motorsports Inc.) and a race/date/site shift (from Atlanta; another SMI site).

From track construction to date shifts, all told getting a Kentucky Sprint Cup date probably cost somewhere just north of $1 billion when such was finally consummated earlier this year.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Quebec, governmental, travel or “somebody’s” authorities are withholding a $500,000 contribution toward advertising, thinking such will force NASCAR into scheduling a Circuit Gilles Villeneuve NSCS date.

Such even has left one of Quebec’s greatest native sons, Jacques Villeneuve, greatly consternated.

“They are a proud people,” said one of the TGHC’s in reference to the Mexi . . ., er, Canadian, er, Mont Royale standoff.

Just for the heck of it: 2,000 $500,000 units comprise $1 billion.

Chump change, huh?

Do the Québécois in charge really think the $500,000 being held hostage will move mountains?

Interestingly, a $250,000 provincial Quebec grant and $225,000 from Ottawa (Canada’s functional equivalent of Washington, D.C., in the U.S.) were okayed for next weekend's Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières – a motorsport event which draws far more from within the province than without, especially when it doesn’t have a Patrick Dempsey to offer.

Then there’s the road-course aspect .

For some odd, perhaps quaint reason this poor soul has yet to grasp (and, all told, may never grasp), NASCAR clings to holding only two road course events annually for its most vaunted series where drivers proudly proclaim themselves, if no one else, as “the best.”

Without any intention whatsoever of making light of skills involved in oval track racing, one still ain’t gonna git Ol ‘ DC to trash talk road-course racing by comparison.

But he will bash the idea of holding two races among the 36 “officially scheduled events” on the NSCS calendar.

Add a Daytona qualifier here, a “Winston Million,” there, and before long one realizes fewer than 5-percent of Sprint Cup’s annual calendar is devoted to turning in any direction other than just “left.”

Recently, Jimmie Johnson said he’d like to see more road course races on the Sprint Cup schedule while Matt Kenseth expressed disdain for such, his seeing the NSCS as being “rooted” in bull rings scattered throughout North America.

One is just left wondering which of the two drivers have had the greater road course racing success, huh? Take a guess.

In a Thursday, after-dinner happenstance meeting outside of “Vargas” in downtown Montreal, NASCAR Nationwide Series director Joe Balash affirmed that doubtful would be he and his NNS crew hanging at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve beyond the scheduled Sunday race date, unlike last week’s Sprint Cup race at The Glen which spilled like a rainstorm runoff from Sunday to Monday.

If more frequently made were the point that road-course types tend to run a show as originally scheduled – and therefore go home on time – perhaps more “Left Turn Traditionalists” (LTTs) might willingly accept more road course events.

Yet, the boys getting the glory largely are clueless, what with “private” aircraft and personal valets (some would say “go-fers’) abounding who “handle” life’s little hassles.

Noting much is to be said for experiencing those little hassles, even a single unexpected additional day’s worth of on-the-road lodging, local transportation, food (as many as three more meals per day for each team member; 16 for Tom Seabolt) and even better, being told “there is no more room at the inn” – such otherwise regularly happening to anyone and everyone else, fans included, who suddenly learn a race has been postponed.

You know, it’s not like a hotel can cancel all the rooms it booked for still other folks or that commercial air carriers like Delta can or will just show up at an airport with a few extra but empty aircraft alone reserved for delayed team members, fans, media and other workers.

Yep, a delayed race really can put a crimp into a whole bunch of well laid plans, as the gods have attempted at Montreal for many of the NNS dates run there so far but which, as noted, still holds the show as scheduled.

Yet, with all its positives – not the least of which would be proving that NSCS drivers are “real men” – such ain’t gonna happen with the Sprint Cup teams and, if it were, likely wouldn’t happen at Montreal anyway, especially now that the provincial gov’ment has decided to, um, cajole NASCAR’s cooperation.

Having been a part of racing for many decades, this writer has yet to see the equal in ancillary race attendance – that is, family and friends who accompany team members – as those who will come to Montreal for this race.

Husbands and wives find romance; a father – as did this one – will introduce children to a truly cosmopolitan North American city having few equals worldwide.

Do the hard math with the available numbers, e.g., “team members from two North America racing series” (NASCAR’s Grand-Am and Nationwide series) and then reasonably, even conservatively extrapolate the numbers of those who accompany team, media, or fans coming from all over North America, along with international origins, and it soon is easy to see how that $500,000 is easily “repaid” many times over.

“Proud” has its place.

This one is misplaced.

Later,

DC

POST NJMP, PRE-WGI-2

BUMPING AND GRINDING

Practiced nearly without fail at nearly every race, the guys from Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix (where’s José?) Sabates No. 01 TELMEX BMW Riley will store their car and head for the barn (“hotel” to you, Gary) when just about every other team still is thrashing on this or that for whatever race may be on the weekend’s schedule.

Not so at New Jersey.

Situated in one of NJMP’s main garage’s 10 spaces the TELMEX team worked well into Thursday and Friday’s late-afternoon hours, alternately changing suspension and gear components – ultimately allowing Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas to clinch their first NJMP victory on Saturday.

Still, the race hardly was a cruise for the TELMEX squad, which was penalized a “stop-and-go” for having rear-ended Ricky Taylor (celebrating a birthday this week, BTW) and his No. 10 SunTrust Chevrolet-Dallara.

“I felt bad about that,” Pruett said Sunday while at Indy (more on that, later). “I’m not sure what happened, but I didn’t get into him intentionally.”

HOT, HOT, HOT

Race car drivers get the lion’s share of well-deserved recognition for skills and fortitude absent of mere mortals, yet racing remains a team sport, as was demonstrated in the No. 40 Patrick Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8’s final pit stop.

A fresh Charles Espenlaub dumped the car’s clutch and roared away from the Dempsey Racing pits as a dumbfounded crewmember stood holding a desperately needed fresh recharge for the car’s cool-suit apparatus.

The cool suit easily will turn into a “hot” suit without the means to keep cool the water circulating through its veins, potentially leaving a driver’s cardiovascular system stressed beyond recovery, especially in a 130-degree cockpit.

Though admittedly an editorial shot in the dark, that inability to cool Espenlaub may well have contributed to a Lap 44 incident in which the No. 31 Whelen Corvette of Boris Said was “door-slammed,” as co-driver Eric Curran later put it. A winner just weeks earlier at Road America, Said’s Corvette had clawed upward through the New Jersey pack to eighth place when the car’s suspension was irreparably damaged by the “slam” and exited the race.

Meanwhile, the team’s No. 41 Global Diving sister car, driven by James Gué and Dane Cameron scored that driving duo’s first podium in 2011. Gué and Leh Keen, now paired with Andrew Davis at Brumos Racing, teamed for a 2010 race win in the No. 41 Mazda at The Glen.

The Brumos pair, driving the No. 59 Porsche, sit atop the standings by but a single point over the No. 88 of Jordan Taylor and Bill Lester – that single championship point as likely as not a courtesy of crewmembers Sean Mabry, Sean Murphy and Adain Murawski, who despite fire suits, helmets and a 139-degree pit road asphalt repaired a broken drive (aka, “accessory” or “fan”) belt on the compactly contained, complexly belted Porsche flat-six engine.

The broken belt drew a lot of attention from Porsche factory representatives, who surmised something, perhaps a bolt, was propelled into the engine compartment at just the wrong moment, wedging between the belt and a pulley, quickly stressing and snapping a belt pushed beyond the limits of a belt tensioner.

At New Jersey, Davis and Keen finished 12^th, while Lester and Taylor finished fourth, the former seriously putting a dent in the latter’s previous 10-point championship points lead.

Presently within 20 or fewer points of the leading Keen and Davis are another nine drivers beyond the aforementioned No. 88 Autohaus Chevrolet Camaro pair, all having a legitimate shot at winning or influencing the championship in the Rolex Series’ three remaining 2011 GT races.

CHANGING GEARS?

The Mazda RX8 appears to be heading toward the end of its production line, if the rumblings prove correct. One might consider scoring a Patrick Dempsey autographed version ASAP. For sure, this writer could do it but, how such might impact Mazda-associated Rolex Series teams remains to be seen.

Originally scheduled for an introduction at the Aug. 13 (a great date if one isn’t superstitious) Rolex Series short-course race at The Glen, it appears an announcement of the new Generation-3 Chevrolet “Corvette” Daytona Prototype (officially, “DPG3”) will come at a later date.

With the NASCAR crowd in full force at Watkins Glen during its originally scheduled date, it was believed to be the best possible date for an announcement by some within the automaker’s upper ranks. Still others, though, for unspecified reasons, felt it should come at a later date.

Conspiracy theorists have seen anything and everyone, from the EPA to other sanctioning body principals, as having had undue influence on the Chevy guys – even to the possible extent of canceling the project.

Interestingly, Chevrolet is into the Rolex Series unlike ever before. Really into it.

SUGGESTED READ

Gordon Kirby is someone this writer once “wanted to be” upon “growing up.”

No, it wasn’t that Kirby is that much older than yours truly, it’s just that he started pursuing his love of motorsports writing much sooner, relatively speaking, and in ability still is light years ahead of this correspondent.

Kirby, who has written for a just about any and every English-language motorsports-centered periodical published over the last four decades, also has impacted the sport as have few others of his ilk.

One of this writer’s earliest memories of Kirby is encountering him in the late 1980’s in Road Atlanta’s now long gone media center. To say it was an “intimate setting,” particularly when IMSA was in town, is an understatement of considerable proportion.

Already an AutoWeek “rock star,” Kirby would notably later ply his incredible talent at Racer, as well as authoring seven motorsports-related books.

And he’s still at it.

Suggested, then, as recent commentary published by Kirby: The Way It Is/ Struggling for an identity.

INDY DEMO

On hand for a Sunday static display at Indianapolis Motor Speedway were the No. 01 TARGET/TELMEX BMW-Riley out of the nearby Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix Sabates shop and Doran Racing’s No. 77 Office Depot/MacDonald’s/Freescale/HP Ford-Dallara, from slightly farther away (Cincinnati).

Pruett was joined by a small squad of TELMEX Racing’s elite crew at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday, staging a pre-race “demonstration” that showcased NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Grand-Am Rolex Series cars which took a three wide one-lap pass just minutes before this year’s Brickyard got underway.

The Rolex Series’ DP and GT cars, along with the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series, will start the three-day smorgasbord of racing, officially billed as the “Super Weekend at The Brickyard.” For exacting information, check out the countdown clock at right, which will be adjusted when the actual scheduled is published.

With at least a few major questions remaining – not the least of which is the IMS road course’s exact configuration – a September start of IMS road-course tire tests is slated, apparently to be followed by at least two others prior to the 2012 Super Weekend.

One can catch footage of Sunday’s “demonstration” at

Billed as the opening act for the, it’ll be a busy 27 July, 2012 for the Continental and Rolex squads, the latter of which on Friday will practice, qualify, race, celebrate in Victory Lane and then make like a sheepherder and get the flock out.

INTO THE FUTURE (Watkins Glen 2)

Media types, among which occasionally found is yours truly, who dabble (have hard cards, especially) in multiple series deal with hundreds of “press releases” just about every weekend. Indeed, “vacation time” comes in November, when just about everyone in racing chills to a large extent. The email doesn’t stop, for sure, but the number does fall, gratefully.

One from Ryan Dalziel kinda caught the eye:

“THE PLOT: Ryan Dalziel could be forgiven for being sick of the sight of Chip Ganassi Racing duo Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett.

The flying Scotsman has spent most of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series campaign looking at their exhaust pipe.

But, as he heads into New York for the Watkins Glen 200 this weekend, August 12-13, Ryan is determined to give the Fort Lauderdale-based Starworks Motorsport team a vital shot in the arm.” (Italics added)

Dalziel is one of the most talented Scottish racers around (methinks Dalziel actually will appreciate that distinction more so than, say, “among the world’s best”) but the wrong things seem to happen at the wrong time for the personable chap – such as Henry Zogaib (whose travails soon are to be fodder for an update, herein).

Dalziel’s Starworks team, headed by the ever resourceful Peter Baron – who squeezes pennies as well anyone – recently bought a couple of Penske Porsche-configured Rileys for a reasonable price (can you say “fire sale?”) and first deployed one of the acquired cars at Road America.

Dalziel and co-driver Alex Popow (darn near unknown outside of his native Venezuela and neighboring South American countries, Popow’s very, very capable) need only to get a handle of the car to do as well as the team-wide talent reflects and it may well come at the Glen, where keeping the revs up is a rewarding experience.

This weekend at the Glen is gonna be busy, what with NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Rolex Series and others hanging around.

Kind of provides a preview of The Shape of Things To Come.

Later,

DC