No 2011 One and Done

 

The 2010 Rolex Sports Car Series season for the Action Express Racing team can be succinctly described: “One and Done.”

So miserable was AER’s season after coming off its 2010 Rolex 24 at Daytona win, established by regulars Joao Barbosa (left) and Terry Borcheller (with one-race assists by Ryan Dalziel and Mike Rockenfeller), that in just two 2011-season races the team’s already surpassed where it was the same time last year, having covered two of two possible top-five finishes.

Barbosa, Borcheller and J.C. France – who during the 2010-2011off-season honed its driver exchange to likely the quickest seen on pit road at Homestead-Miami Speedway (HMS) – the No. 9 AER Porsche-Riley (below right at HMS) this year has finished third and fourth in two races.

Yet, even with three drivers where only two are supposed to be the “ideal,” Barbosa, Borcheller and France might well have finished even better if not for a pit-stop oversight.

“Joao was pulling out and a tire ran over an air hose by about, maybe, two inches,” a frustrated France said after Grand-Am officials directed the No. 9 Porsche-Riley to take a 30-second break from last-hour track action – a one-lap loss when pit-in and pit-out drive times are taken into consideration, dropping the team from fifth to 10th-place in the process.

“We struggled a little bit early but we could run with anybody out there,” Barbosa said. “The results are starting to show and hopefully we can keep fighting for podium positions.”

While former NASCAR Sprint Cup official-turned-sportscar team manager Gary Nelson believes the team’s benefitted from an off-season demeanor change, an in-race slip often is the difference between standing tall at the top of a podium or falling somewhere short of it.

“The biggest disappointment was the black flag because it was such a minor slip on our part,” Nelson said. “We felt like both cars were competitive but we have a little more work to do to fight for first place.”

Meanwhile, the No. 5 AER Porsche-Riley, coming off a ninth-place finish in January at Daytona International Speedway (at left), David Donohue and Darren Law’s second, second-place finish at HMS in as many Rolex Series races there now have helped this year’s clearly obvious two-car team (in 2010: part AER; part Brumos) cover the four possible top-10 finishes thus far available to the team.

The effort also shows up in the Daytona Prototype driver points, too, where the five drivers jointly occupy second and third-places – separated by two points, 56 to 54 – though Barbosa, Borcheller and France are tied in second place with Max Angelelli and Ricky Taylor, drivers of the No. 10 SunTrust Chevrolet-Dallara (right).

As have the AER drivers, the SunTrust pair already is off to a far better season as compared to 2010, having started 2011 with fifth and third-place finishes at DIS and HMS, respectively. (“Started” with “finishes.” Don’t ya just love English!?)

After their 2010 win at Daytona, Barbosa and Borcheller were the worst of the DP lot at the following HMS race and immediately fell from Sitting On Top Of The World to sixth in the DP driving championship.

Likewise at first struggling last year but eventually rallying to an end of year second-place 2010 DP Rolex Series championship finish, Angelelli and R. Taylor (below, celebrating their 3rd-place HMS podium) also were well down the points list in eighth place after the HMS race, one point behind the AER duo.

(“Ah, um,” the reader says to himself at this point, “Grand-Am doesn’t fractionalize its points system. How could sixth- and eighth-places be separated by but one point yet be two-places distant in the championship hunt?”

(The short answer: “Scott Tucker” occupied seventh place.

(A somewhat longer answer because the short answer doesn’t at all address the “how”: Tucker, Level 5 Motorsports team owner/driver, who presumably sought seat time for himself and fellow team drivers as well as gaining valuable “quality time” for tuning Level 5’s pit, logistics and shop crews, hung for but two 2010 Rolex Series races before making like a Continental Tire and rolling down the road.

(In those first two races – there would not be a third 2010 Rolex Series race for Tucker –he respectively posting third and 11th-place finishes at Daytona International Speedway and HMS, while Angelelli and R. Taylor posted back-to-back sixth-place finishes.

(Given an equal “50” championship-points subtotal ((a full season constituting a championship-points “total”)) a tiebreaker based on “best comparative finish” thus thrust Tucker ahead by one place in the standings relative to Angelelli and R. Taylor.

(The above – whether Ol DC’s four paragraphs or someone else’s one paragraph – demonstrates at least one reason journalists and editors are averse to midseason points nitpicking, instead preferring the nice and somewhat neater ordinal scoring thus far thankfully seen in 2011.

(Put another, final way: allowing even a five-driver, second-place logjam to be resolved at season’s end is far better than blowing tight print space having to explain nuance while, probably, boring to death the reader. “Just saying ‘no’” to any coverage all too often is an editor’s immediate response.)

Now, where were we?

Ah, yes . . .

There should be little doubt drivers Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, team director Tim “Too Sly” Keene (at left with a Paul Smith Guitar award after 2010 Miller Motorsports Park win) and the whole of the Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix (y José) Sabates sportscar team is a darn-capable outfit.

Remember, so determined were Grand-Am officials to ascertain the TELMEX team’s “secret of success” that disassembled and, in at least one case dismembered, was the car which first received the 2011 Rolex 24 At Daytona’s checkered flag – nothing “illegal” having been found at the processes’ completion.

(So microscopically was the No. 01 BMW-Riley examined that the team later privately claimed the exercise – unsubstantiated but believable – cost upward of $100,000 in damages, never mind related costs of having on-hand five mechanics, a truck driver and, probably, Keene.)

Nowhere in history have nor will the future bring anyone or anything that endlessly will be “Sitting On Top of the World”

Some team at some unknown time will successfully wrestle the dominance of the Rolex Series from the TELMEX (the No. 01 TELMEX BMW-Riley passing the No. 99 GAINSCO Chevrolet-Riley at HMS, below right) team’s grasp, such not so much reflecting any desire on this writer’s part as much as a recognition of history; any history.

Whether the 2011 season will produce another champion is plainly debatable and not something easily wrestled from a team to which winning is nearly a birthright.

Yet, one gets the feeling a reprise of 2007 may be afoot, a season during which a pitched battle for the DP championship’s topmost honors (in GT, as well) ensued throughout, ultimately determined in a final, knockdown drag-out race at the end of which first-through-fourth DP Rolex Championship places were separated by a mere 27 points.

Though certainly not on the scale nor importance of, say, World War II’s Pacific campaign, this year’s championship fight is one which might well be of epic proportions relative to racing, and it’s one of those which people will wish to have personally witnessed.

Later,

DC

TAKING AIM

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If anyone is inclined toward favorably noting recent quality teamwork, surely Burt Frisselle, Mark Wilkins and the AIM Autosport team deserve a nod for their No. 61 BMW-Riley’s fourth-place Rolex Sports Car Series finish on the 11-turn, 2.3-mile road course March 5 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“That literally was the first time we'd been on that track with the Continental Tires,” Frisselle (below) said after the race. “We didn’t do any off-season testing down there at all.”

“We'd had a shakedown at Roebling Road (outside of Savannah, Ga.) on the way down to the race, but the power-steering pump broke after Mark and I got in something like 11-laps apiece.

“So when we got down there, we had to fix the pump the first day (Thursday) and our first laps were Friday.”

The team, based in Toronto, picked up some BMW of Canada attention and help in the off-season of sufficient nature to warrant AIM’s change from a longstanding relationship with Ford (Roush Yates Engines). Frisselle’s co driver is Mark Wilkins (below, left).

Steve Dinan’s tuned version of BMW’s 32 valve 5.0L V-8’s interaction with the DP’s XBo . . . um, er, XTRAC “386” longitudinal transaxle was an altogether different beast, Frisselle said, noting he’d even stalled the car after a pit stop.

“The power comes on completely differently,” he said, somewhat embarrassed. “The torque builds over a broader time period than the Ford.

“With the Ford you could just put petal to metal, dump the clutch and leave a 50-foot burnout like Michael (Valiante) does on pit road – the torque comes on that fast – but you need to treat the BMW more like a street car, working the clutch and engine revs together – one going out, the other going in.”

The BMW engine, which isn’t that far off of what the reader can find in a BMW dealership on either side of the border, evidently lends itself to efficiently transferring power to a road.

As drag racers have long understood, a burnout’s bluish-white smoke and acrid smell is great showmanship but hardly gets one from point A to point B in an efficient manner.

Being sure the team’s new BMW engine was doing its job properly was none other than BMW tuning meister Dinan, who no doubt is quite interested in contrasting the feel of the BMW versus that of the Ford’s.

“Steve’s in a unique position with our coming on board with the BMW,” Frisselle said after being “tuned” by Ford for more than five years.

“The TELMEX guys (the only other team running a BMW engine for 2011) went from a non-competitive engine to a competitive engine, whereas Mark and I are coming from an engine that remains very competitive.” (The below being a picture of the TELMEX car actually winning March 5 at HMS with BMW power).

The Lexus/Toyota engine used by Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix (y José) Sabates for its No. 01 TELMEX Lexus-Riley in 2009 – the engine’s last competitive Rolex Series season – hadn’t been further developed since the summer of 2008, according to Toyota Racing Development’s Gary Reed at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course’s 2009 EMCO Gears Classic, where the end-of-year termination announcement was officially announced.

Frisselle said the key point on which he, his teammate and likely every other DP driver in the series must recognize is that the Continental Tires are unlike its predecessors.

“The strategy no longer is anything but conservation of tires, as I see it,” he said, adding that by the end of the HMS race, “The (Action Express Racing, with Joao Barbosa driving, No.) 9 car was catching me every bit as fast as I was catching the (No.) 10 (SunTrust) car. He had his nose up under my rear a couple of times.”

“Like us, David (Donohue in the AER No. 5 Porsche-Riley), Max (Angelelli in the No. 10 SunTrust Chevy/Cadillac-Dallara) and Scott (Pruett in the No. 01 TELMEX BMW-Riley) and Joao (AER No. 9 BMW-Riley) had worked to conserve our tires so we’d have something left for the race’s end. Others didn’t and paid the price.”

“It was a real battle over the last few laps and I think if we’d had another two or three, Joao and I would’ve gotten around Max, though I don’t think we could’ve gotten David.”

“From the driving-the-car standpoint, it's extremely difficult for the driver and I wish we’d have better grip at the end of the race. But you know drivers, we’ll take more horsepower, more grip, gears and all that stuff any day of the week.”

“The ones who’ll benefit from all of this in the end are the fans, because the teams who fail to properly manage their tires are going to go really fast, get out front but then fade as the race goes on,” Frisselle said.

“The teams who properly manage their wear will have enough at that time to start coming on. So cars you haven’t seen at the front will suddenly start showing up there and you’re going to see four or five cars battling it out for the top spots at the end of the race, right down to the wire. And that’s going to be really cool to watch,” the driver, inexorably marching to his big Big 3-Oh, said.

Turning a corner, too, is AIM, who’s oldest Riley DP (No. 001, folks) will appear with new livery for the April 9 Barber Motorsports Park Rolex Series race near Birmingham, Ala.

“We’ve started putting the Gamma 88 colors on the car and its looking good,” AIM’s Ian Willis said.

“You know, we’ve been behind the eight-ball before and have done well,” Willis said. “But this new BMW engine is something else and I’m really looking forward to what we’ll accomplish at Barber (Motorsports Park) and VIR after that.”

“It’s going to provide some excellent racing, for sure.”

ASSUMMING SUNTRUST CAR CHIEF TRAVIS HOGUE CAN FIND THE SUNTRUST 10 CAR

Hearing some scurrilous journalistic-type rumors, proffered by an unnamed herein reporter (well, at least within this particular paragraph), SunTrust No. 10 Car Chief Travis Houge was certain his team was suddenly in deep water only hours before the race.

“First hearing the cars were wrecked in Turn 1, Hogue smiled, lifted and swept arm as if to point out the 10 car behind him, started speaking about “it being right there” only to find it long gone.

Looking a tad befuddled, car chiefs don’t like disappearing cars, you know. Obviously running down some sort of mental check list whose end was soon reached then with suddenly ashen face, Houge immediately implemented some sort of contingency plan, drilled at least into his head if no one else’s, exhorting what few SunTrust team members were around, suddenly shouting “Emergency Plan Able Baker Delta 3 is now immediately in effect! This is no drill! This is no drill!” Houge grabbed his radio head gear, while continually broadcasting the apparent code talk over and over, repeating the emergency action code nonstop.

Hardly hesitating Houge made like a standard, everyday Miamian freely disregarding highway traffic laws, commenced to run over a few souls like a semi over Volkswagens, shifting into high gear between the hauler and pit road where, looking like a gymnast on spring break in Daytona, Hogue leapt high into the air and thence earned a 9.800 by simultaneously planting both shoe-clad feet solidly atop the HMS pit road wall.

Frantically scouring the Turn-1’s far ends (seen above) for signs of the SunTrust car or life within, again and again Houge would repeatedly shout, “Emergency Plan Able Baker Delta 3 is now immediately in effect! This is no drill! This is no Drill! Why isn’t anyone answering me!!”

Soon seeing an an old guy take a picture and then suddenly bolt for stage left, Houge dropped his right hand only to then see “his” car slowly being pushed into the pit stall below.

Suddenly, something seemed entirely amiss to Houge.

“Hey, Travis,” Bob Adie said, “If you hadn’t been yelling so doggone much with all that Delta and Wanna make ‘er stuff we could’ve told you everything was fine! But, noooo, you gotta get everyone else riled up to no end! Dadgummit! Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if Homestead AFB hadn’t scrambled a couple of F-16s by now!”

“Oh, I’m gonna get that $%#*&^$&#^$%@#$^%@) Williams!!!” the still-running old guy heard from faraway as he passed through HMS’ faraway tunnel at such full-tilt boogie speed that it would’ve made Jessie Owens proud.

Nah, Houge didn’t fall for anything so dumb. And anyone who knows Bob Adie is aware he never says anything at all, so he’d be stepping way out of character to nail someone with a word like “hell” – or even dadgummit.

So, like, no way. But it was fun, especially with the perfect picture from Brian Cleary.

Yet, April Fools is just around the corner and one needs to warm up.

Later,

DC

DEAR DC

Enough reader mail having accumulated, it’s time for another installment of “Dear DC”

DEAR DC: You referenced a book in one of your recent ramblings; what book?

Answer: Exactly!

DEAR DC: Is it true you (a couple of weeks ago) flew across the country just to eat dinner with California’s best, Scott Pruett?

Answer: It defies reason, doesn’t it? Goes to show how Daytona can drive one to madness at this time of the year.

Besides fine wine originating from the Pruett winery, it was an intimate five-course dinner shared with Pruett, spouse Judy Pruett – who Scott long ago endearingly nicknamed “My Wife” – and 55-or-so of their closest friends.

It was Ol’ DC’s first hardcore exposure to Californian haute cuisine, which appears to be the reason many are so thin on The Left Coast, dispelling his original belief that the state’s many taxes left little to fill a taxpayer’s cupboards.

(The thought just occurred that California’s relaxed marijuana “attitude” may well have given additional meaning to “haute cuisine.”)

Actually, Ol’ DC, well understanding of Pruett’s introverted nature (shown just about everywhere other than at a race), wished to witness the driver’s rare public appearance so as to allow Ol’ DC some guidance that he might someday replicate.

DEAR DC: What’d you learn?

Answer: California’s BMW clubs are very loyal to fellow BMW types; and, “stay in the cocoon” – which I’m still doing to the greatest possible extent.

DEAR DC: Who’s the new gray-haired type atop the Action Express Racing war wagon at this year’s Rolex 24 and Homestead Miami races?

Answer: Inasmuch as Bob Johnson was a gray-hair long before becoming AER team owner, Dear DC presumes Iain (yes, correct) Watt to be the person in question.

Having briefly joined the team in 2010 for two races beginning at Montreal, Watt came from Robby Gordon Motorsports after coming from Gillett Evernham Motorsports (GEM) after coming from Eddie Cheever Racing after coming from . . . well, Watt’s been around for awhile.

During a Rolex Series stint in 2007 (with fewer gray hairs), Watt had smartly changed the FABCAR-turned-Coyote from outmoded to competitive battler (Christian Fittipaldi, who really is “The Most Interesting Guy In The World,” Harrison Brix and Antonio Garcia, shared the Coyote wheel at the time) when NASCAR Sprint Cup’s GEM came calling.

Watt likewise produced competitive cars there just before the outfit started imploding (ultimately folding in 2010), leaving him to make like a steam engine and chug along, bouncing around for a short period of time before again finding a home in the Rolex Series.

Longtime paddock roamers across many series often use superlative terms such as “brilliant” and “genius” to describe the otherwise low-keyed, unassuming Scotsman.

Thus far the team has produced consistent results that have produced a top-three in points or better for both its driving teams, with David Donohue and Darren Law (third in points) most recently finishing second in their No. 5 Porsche-Riley at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

DEAR DC: Is it true Grand-Am’s 2012 rules have yet to be published?

Answer: Yes, it’s true. So, too, are the ALMS and ACO’s 2012 rules. Does such rise to portending a 2012 apocalypse?You decide.

DEAR DC: Word on the street says Kevin Doran is a machine-gun freak in his spare time.

Answer: Doran is so into shooting ‘em up that his team’s Columbus-area shop has hung lurid calendars of M61 Vulcan and Thompson Machine guns where others would display Farah Fawcett and Bambi Morgan pinups (ask your father’s father).

Like auto racing, machine-gunning is another one of those sports into which one can “pour” almost incalculable sums of money.

And I thought skeet and trap were expensive.

(Note To G-A: Thanks to golf, Kevin’s chilled considerably in recent years; no worries. Um, then again, he was pretty upset after driver Henri Richard was involved in a second race-ending wreck in as many driving stints. Further, though, that Kevin didn’t, well, you know, after getting all mad and all should be evidence enough that he, well, you know, won’t. But, still, there’s the time . . . )

DEAR DC: Has up-and-coming driver Dion Von Moltke really jumped from Grand-Am to ALMS GT3 Cup racing?

Answer: Yes. Or is it GTC? Whatever it may be the move was cited as necessary for the talented young South African to efficiently gain driving experience.

Methinks, however, Von Moltke’s move to a relatively slower GT3 Cup car among that series’ four classes will tend toward providing him more of a rearview-mirror defensive driving school education instead of polishing his apex-finding skills, commencing with this weekend’s Mobil1’s 12 Hours du ‘Bring, um, “of Sebring.”

DEAR DC: We heard tires were a problem at Miami.

Answer: Tires wore thin at the wrong time for some teams but such is always true at every racetrack when someone, whether driver, engineer or wrench-turner misses a set up. If you really want to “talk” tire problems, check last week’s Daytona 200.

DEAR DC: Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix (y José) Sabates’ TELMEX crew looked different at the last race.

Answer: Well, not entirely different; a couple of veteran TELMEX guys remain from a pit-crew shuffle after a doubling this year of the Indy Car Series’ side at the team’s Indianapolis Target CGR headquarters – where the sportscar and open-wheel teams are separated by about three paces. Still, according to Ol DC’s memory, the shop might need an expansion because the assembly space is getting tighter, unless one counts the broom closet.

DEAR DC: Did Troy Flis of Spirit of Daytona Racing (No. 90 Chevrolet Coyote; Antonio Garcia and Paul Edwards) after the Homestead race really say, “I want my money and I want my money now!”?

Answer: No. Flis’ post-race comments were more akin to Howard Beale (Peter Finch) and 55-or-so of his closest friends in the 1976 movie “Network,” yelling, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not taking it anymore!”

First, a little background: Flis, as a “Chevrolet” team owner and manager, has collected a few bona fide, national-level sportscar racing trophies.

Prior to 2011, SDR developed the Coyote chassis and the Porsche Cayenne V8 engine, which formerly pushed the SDR No. 90 and which now resides in the No. 5 and No. 9 Action Express Racing Riley chassis engine bays.

Despite an uphill battle and many skeptics along the path, Flis has stayed true to his belief that the team would be in the thick of the 2011 championship fight and toward that end in the off season switched to Chevrolet – a manufacturer with whom Flis has had considerable success but which recently had some financial problems.

(Hopefully the reader is aware of that carmaker’s money hassles and that, as a United States citizen, he presently has a stake in Chevrolet parent General Motors. No, one mustn’t pay U.S. income taxes to be a citizen and thus hold a fractional share of GM. Indeed, only about 10-percent of the citizenry actually pays income taxes and therefore arising from which is one of civilization’s greater dilemmas: Should only the supposedly brighter people who earn income decide its disposition or should others, presumably less bright and who haven’t at all earned any income, have an equal say? On the one hand, though more efficient, “minority rule” isn’t particularly and shouldn’t be appetizing to any part of the citizenry as a whole. On the other, presumably not so smart is allowing non-earners - as would children in a household - to wholly dictate income earners - such as parents’ - expenditures. Next week: Why we’re actually a republic and not the democracy as most think.)

Now, back to what’s really important:

At Homestead-Miami Speedway’s 2.3-mile, 11-turn course the SDR No. 90 Chevrolet-Coyote was a contender. It was fast out of the box, led a practice session (No 2), qualified third-fastest overall (Paul Edwards qualified 0.050 behind Memo Rojas’ No. 01 Telmex BMW-Riley) but finished 11th in DP after a Lap-28, front-of-the-pack cruncher between Garcia and Michael Shank Racing’s No. 60 Crown Royal Ford-Riley, at the time driven by Ozz Negri (with John Pew in during the other times).

Sent for a drive-through penalty after being apportioned blame in the matter, Negri was bummed, especially inasmuch as he claims to have long ago learned the contrary in the aftermath of a 2005 Phoenix penalty and subsequent suspension (see Negri’s in-car HMS video ) not to drive aggressively.

However, whether the blame, suffering the greatest “penalty” of all was the 90 team, whose otherwise promising race ended on Lap 28 and after which Flis was wondering aloud , among other things, as to why he should remain “a nice guy” (which he and his family truly are).

DEAR DC: Did Grand-Am institute a new (in-race) policy of some sort or just try to throw the Homestead-Miami race? It seemed the race had more penalties than usual.

Answer: Evidently! Though Ol’ DC doesn’t know of any information which even suggests G-A meddled in the race’s outcome it nevertheless apportioned a record 11 (sprint) race penalties at HMS. Oh, for the “good ol’ days,” when men were men, DP doors flew and sheep were scared.

DEAR DC: What’s with the SunTrust No. 10 Chevrolet-Dallara and the No. 99 GAINSCO Chevrolet-Riley? Neither seem to be making much noise this year.

Answer: You, like, are using the same schedule as everyone else, no? The series being two whole races into (17-percent) 2011’s 12-race schedule and all, right?

I’ll admit SunTrust’s Max Angelelli no longer seems like the mean, bruschetta-selling Italian of old. Such baffles: One doesn’t know whether it is original Mr. Nice Guy Ricky Taylor’s undue influence on Angelelli or Angelelli is mellowing with age – especially after this year finally flying over his sons from Monaco and showing them that their father really isn’t just a mechanic (true).

After finishing second in 2010 driving points the pair hasn’t moved much, presently in a five-person, two-way logjam for second (with Action Express Racing’s Terry Borcheller, Joao Barbosa and JC France).

However, after respectively finishing 12th and eighth in class after the 2011 season’s first two races, way down in ninth place (!) is the No. 99’s Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney – 2007 and 2009 Daytona Prototype driving champions – and thus may be producing telltale signs of trouble within the team.

Maybe it’s just lethargy holding over from a period during which they were the only Chevrolet-powered DP in the paddock and believed itself tied to an underpowered engine.

Though El Diablo Rosa scored the HMS pole (Fogarty), the SunTrust team’s end-of-race results would tend to belie a lack of power given that it, too, is a Chevrolet-powered car that at Homestead also led the most laps (Ricky Taylor, 27) – the second race in as many which a Chevrolet-powered car has finished in the top-five.

Furthermore, though a car can be fast and hold its otherwise hard-used tires for a qualifying session’s 15-minute period, such isn’t the same as a full fuel and tire run, which to some degree at both races has hampered the No. 99 thus far in 2011.

The team, or certain key members, could just be bored with racing as a whole or bored with the series in particular. While such is a human characteristic, true champions go over, under or around such a wall.

The regular crew – Terry Wilbert, Kyle Brannan, Link Smith, Andy Greer, Glenn Feather and Eric Crowder – are broadly experienced and each have many times celebrated in Victory Lane.

Bob Stallings hisownself has said GAINSCO’s sponsorship is in place through 2012. (By the way, GAINSCO’s new South Florida HQ is clearly visible from Florida’s Sunshine State Parkway; cool to see the red GAINSCO blazing on the building’s side in the dark of night.)

Though Fogarty was seen casually hanging in the HMS paddock, seemingly without a care in the world, the team doesn’t seem to be firing on all cylinders.

That, alone, troubles a soul.

DEAR DC: Why does ALMS get on ABC while Grand-Am only gets SPEED?

Answer: Here, you figure it out:

“The ALMS’ next event is the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in Sebring, Fla., on Saturday, March 19. The season-opening 12-hour race will be shown live on ESPN3.com and americanlemans.com starting at 10 a.m. ET. ABC will televise race highlights from 12:30 to 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 20.

Okay boys and girls, it’s time to get out your RolexDC decoder rings for this month’s secret QnA.

DEAR DC: Raphael Matos?

Answer: Yep.

Later,

DC

STRANGE DAYS

 

Screw the book.

A strange race in a strange place where at any given moment “racing” is found on a nearby Interstate Highway or Parkway, even while a real race may be underway at Homestead-Miami Speedway

Though traveling internationally, but still wandering around a place wherein English is a second language and the TV dial is full of Spanish-language channels, en Me-ah-me Memo Rojas feels as though he’s still at home, especially so when encountering government officials, who not only speak the native tongue but do so in much the same B.S.-way remarkably similar to that which he departed in Mexico D.F. And “they” (I’m still looking for that rather elusive group, BTW) say math or music is the universal language! Hah! Politics es politicas, porque en todas partes encontrarás lo mismo, hombre. (Don’t bother to translate; it’s all dirty words, anyway).

Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix (y José) Sabates’ Mike Hull – the behind-the-scenes genius who has likely steered his genius boss (Ganassi hired Hull, right?) into more sportscar and open wheel Victory Lanes than might’ve otherwise been the case (at least Chip Ganassi recognizes it, one tends to think, I think, therefore I am, I think) showed up for work Thursday dressed head-to-toe in black – hat-to-shoes – feeling that if he was going to be consistently accused of cheating he may as well dress the Black Bart part.

After a $100,000 teardown a few weeks back, Grand-Am officials were left still looking for the secret success, um, cheat of Team TELMEX which showed Thursday, as usual, with a pristine DP and the members of which were visiting the Miami Zoo (aka, “South Beach”) long before everyone else.

After missing courses of Muscovy Duck breast and tuna-on-the-raw (had God meant such, fire wouldn’t be with us today) and some darn-fine wine last Saturday evening in Auburn, Calif., Joey “Five Fingers” Hand walks with a new walk, talks a new talk – or so everyone else observes – for no longer is he some yellow-suited Turner Motorsports Continental Tire Challenge GS wanker slipping into the big-boy’s Rolex Series pool. Instead, Five Fingers is now a Rolex 24 At Daytona winner that relative few others will ever be and, with the sudden fame, is accorded Red Carpet treatment wherever he traverses.

The Ganassi Guys (which is distinct from the GGG, or Ganassi Gate Guard, at the Rolex 24) have been winning so much that whosoever is successful in taking them out will be celebrated far and wide.

Dedicated to “taking out” the GG team, Burt Frisselle and Mark Wilkins, together again in the AIM Autosports’ No. 61 Gamma 88/BioSign BMW-Riley, swear they’ll don WWF-style latex head coverings (you know, something akin to the mask found on the “Masked Fiend” whose “office” is a WWF steel cage in a “ring” that’s really square). The big problem? The two drivers already are good guys and needn’t wait for some miraculous, head-smashing, ear-ringing moment to forevermore “see the light.”

Following in their father’s Wayne Taylor’s footsteps in more ways than just driving are brothers Ricky Bobby Taylor and Professor Jordan Taylor, who now with a modicum of suspicion stand quietly away from all others, conversing in hushed tones with one or fewer other humans (a cell phone is not a person, and Wayne Taylor speaks with his at least as often as he does anther human – which usually is on the other “end.” Then again, none of us peons actually hear that supposed “other end” conversation, either).

Speaking of Italians, reportedly now dead over the lack of a royalty (others might say “management fee”) is a deal that would’ve brought one of the world’s best Brazilian drivers to a Grand-Am Daytona Prototype ride for the season’s remainder. (No, Ozz, not you; you already compete in the series).

Dropping any pretense of civilized behavior – you know, essential social-active patter like “Hello, how are you? How’s the wife and kids? You still dying of cancer or is it in remission as yet? Did you choose synthetic or original-flavored for your last oil change?” – was a cigar-chomping Mark Raffauf to a certain paddock scribe who’s writing a book in which the former has an interest.

As the scribe appeared and kindly cutting to the chase as he would with minions found, well, everywhere (at least insofar as he’s concerned) Raffauf, cigar firmly clinched in teeth between cheek and gum, on Thursday grumbled, “Where’s the book?”

“Soon to be found in a deep, dark place,” thought the scribe, who long ago had been exposed to a cigar-chomping “uncle” of such monumentally gruff proportion that all who might follow were forevermore rendered mere wannabes.

Later,

DC