Speed EuroSeries 2012 Champ Starts Rolex 24 Training

When 2011 Formula 3 and Sunoco Daytona Challenge winner Filipe Nasr (pictured at right) tested his first Daytona Prototype about a year ago at this time at Virginia International Speedway, the rap on the driver after the test was entirely positive.

Then again, it came from Grand-Am public relations . . . (grasp my drift, please, and in a practical sense; they gotta make a buck, too).

This year, with Italian Ivan Bellarosa in an Action Express Racing seat, yours truly just had to be there in person. After all, the Grand-Am boys not only were correct in their assessment of Nasr’s talent at VIR last year, the driver posted a solid, mostly surprising-to-many third place showing in the 50th Rolex 24 At Daytona.

While sharing the glory with the "Best Mostly No-Name Team" in the field – co-drivers named Michael "Malcolm" McDowell, Jorge Andrés Gonçalvez and Gustavo "El Tigrillo" Yacaman – Nasr was the only one among the four to lead the race.

Although yours truly is disinclined to pooh-pooh anyone's ability to drive a race car – such taking for more ability than many believe – the two previous Sunoco Challenge winners hadn’t been of true championship caliber and were hardly of Nasr's league.

Thus, the Sunoco Daytona Challenge had some work to do in overcoming expectations of the talent it was attracting for, well, what truly is a lifetime opportunity and, with Nasr’s “octane” level now proven, the Sunoco Daytona Challenge needed to back it up with another top-shelf driver.

Bellarosa might be accomplishing just that, according to the driver's Rolex 24 At Daytona coach, Max Papis.

Papis (pictured left, with helmet-holding Bellarosa), the reader might recall, made such a name for himself – "Mad Max" – in the 1996 Rolex 24 At Daytona’s waning hours that the event became, as Wayne Taylor once put it, "The only race ever in which a second-place finisher (Papis) is probably better known than the first-place finisher."

Taylor ought to know. He was that first-place finisher.

Of course, Papis in 2002, with Fredy Lienhard, Didier Theys and Mauro Baldi, would win his first Rolex 24 in a Lista/Doran Dallara-Judd and, as “Mad Max Papis,” became a star that easily bridged oceans of many descriptions but, to his fellow countrymen, elevated him to a stature equal to some of Italy’s most famous racing names.

“It is an honor to have met Max,” Bellarosa said. “As a boy I would dream of someday racing in America. To be coached by Max in America; to race in (the) Daytona 24 is more than a dream come true. It is indescribable.”

Papis, of course, believes he can still win another Rolex 24 title, and such accomplishment really shouldn’t surprise anyone, but Papis likely would also believe he could still win a Monaco F1 race, too.

Prior to this week the 37-year-old Italian hadn't previously even visited the United States, so Bellarosa’s English is a little rusty. Papis, as his driving coach, provided a bonus for the Action Express Racing team and this reporter alike inasmuch as Papis speaks Italian, too. Or, at least, so everyone thought when coming into this gig.

"It's amazing how much I've lost the ability to communicate racing terms in Italian," Papis said just after Bellarosa spun his car in a VIR North Course uphill turn from where Papis had chosen to coach, as well as relay, by radio, pertinent information from the pits.

"I'm man enough to accept the blame," Papis jokingly cracked in response to a reporter noticing the, um, coincidence between Papis suggesting Bellarosa loosen a sway bar position and the driver’s subsequent spin.

“Ivan was listening to me just before he spun,” Papis said. “It is something he must get used to hearing, the radio chatter.”

"Europeans don't hear a lot of radio chatter and aren't used to it," Papis said. "While Ivan (pronounced “e-VON”) will be hearing a spotter at Daytona – he will not be telling Ivan how to drive the car, of course – Ivan still must to learn to listen to the radio. So we're introducing bit by bit what Ivan will be exposed to, including the radio chatter."

Bellarosa (pictured at right, probably trying not to hear Max Papis) was getting exposed to a lot of informational chunks, for sure, including when he was to go fast and slow.

"I will tell him that 'from an owner's view' when he's not to go through a turn too quickly, and possibly hurt the car (with an off), and when an owner won't mind him going off because he probably can't hurt it."

For his part, Bellarosa doesn't want to hurt the car, either, so he's taking it in what might be likened to baby steps: careful here; barreling ahead there.

Where he (and Max) is comfortable, it's petal to metal. Where unsure: tiptoe (How many readers remember “Tiny Tim?”).

"I feel I am at 60-percent of my ability," Bellarosa said after completing about 75-percent of his two-day VIR test.

That's 60-percent of his 100-percent ability, he clarified.

(How’d you do with the math? Need help? Get it here.)

"If I wreck the car, we do not have a second car. It will not do me any good," or, roughly translated, "I'll get no seat time whatsoever should the car be irreparably hurt."

"I did not know what to expect. The car was heavier but has more horsepower than my (SPEED) EuroSeries car, so it is quite a difference."

If the record book is any indication, Bellarosa will do well enough: In his 134 professional starts in a range of car types, the driver has scored 34 wins, 42 podiums, 20 poles and 17 fastest race laps. Put another way: If he's in a race car, it has better than a 25-percent chance of victory.

"He is really very good," Papis said, perhaps using himself as the top-rung "bar" by which Bellarosa is measured.

It's not a bad measurement at all, huh?

Later,

DC

 

Ivan Bellarosa images courtesy of Anders Hillenbrand

OF PUMPKINS AND CARRAIGES

TORONTO – Most of those who have won national or international automobile racing championships tend to agree on at least one thing: It ain't easy.

At this time a year ago when Toronto-based AIM Autosport agreed to undertake a larger-than-life responsibility of fielding the Rolex Series' first-ever Ferrari 458 Italia entry, the team's "bar" was set higher than ever before.

Had AIM failed to score a Rolex Sports Car Series championship of any nature with its new Ferrari at the 2012 season's recent end, most everyone in the paddock would've probably pointed to the considerable odds any team faces when fielding a new car, nodding understandably.

A few in the crowd, especially the Italian types from Maranello, would've held a diametric (look it up) point of view.

Why?

AIM Autosport co-owner Andrew Bordin – a winning race car driver in his own right – probably said it best Friday:

"Ferrari isn't a car manufacturer. The whole organization is a race team that sells cars so that it can underwrite its racing. Winning races and championships is something they expect."

AIM Autosport co-owner and chief race-day strategist Ian Willis believes their 2012 Rolex Sports Car Series Grand Touring season, at the end of which the team and drivers Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal actually did reign victorious, expressed his belief that the season went AIM's way chiefly because when things went wrong, they ultimately still went right.

"I call it our 'miracle season,'" Willis insisted Friday, citing two incidents in which the team could've been knocked down and, possibly, altogether out but ultimately prevailed.

"I think the biggest goof of the season was my timekeeping at Watkins Glen (II)," Willis said.

For those in need of memory refreshment: The WGI2 race start wasn't exactly Assentato's finest hour and in which, after receiving the race's first green flag, the driver hurtled headlong into Turn One only to see unexpectedly early braking from the car he followed. (below)

In the perfect world of repeated super slo-mo and "expert opinion" voice-overs from a cranky former race car champion, whatever goes wrong can be put right, even if the result on the track remains the same.

(Oh boy, the email should soon be flowing on that one, Dorsey. And no, Calvin, thoughts of you being cranky and old were the farthest thing from mind, even if true.)

Seen differently is the real world, one in which a split-second decision on the direction for one to suddenly turn a steering wheel after the unerring little voice of physics says, "Uh, 'scuze me, but braking, hard or otherwise, really isn't an option you can exercise just now without considerable repercussion."

Nevertheless, confusion and repercussion followed, during which Willis improperly figured – by 28 seconds – that Assentato had completed the requirements of Grand-Am's rules-mandated 30 min. driver shift.

By the way, Assentato jumped from the No. 69 Ferrari and made like an arrow, flying straight to No. 57 team owner Johnny Stevenson to issue a profuse apology after innocently but still altogether knocking the competitor from the race.

"The 28 seconds was my error," Willis said.

"All heck was breaking loose and I failed to properly monitor the time and told Emil he could exit the car."

Grand-Am officials treated that 28-second transgression exactly as it would've 28 minutes.

"We were in the wrong but I still appealed and, even though I was certain they'd rule against the appeal, they reversed the decision.

"However, I assure you that's a bullet we'll never dodge again," Willis concluded in all seriousness.

Even should he dodge no issue at all, whatever it may be, the repeat of a championship is a tall order, no matter the opinions of the boys back in Maranello, who've experienced a fair share of Victory Lane dry spells over the years.

Insofar as 2013 is concerned, Willis insists the team will do its best to revisit the annual Rolex Series champions' banquet as it had this year, outright taking home the team and driving championships as well as providing a strong points contribution to Ferrari being named the season's top GT manufacturer.

On top of it all, AIM is looking ahead to the 2014 season, too, when ALMS and Grand-Am fully become one under the NASCAR umbrella.

"It's been a wonderful year," Willis said, "I guess one could say it's was a Cinderella-type story."

Ah yes, one of those "miracle" tales, eh!? (Couldn't resist.)

Later,

DC

Most excellent images recorded by one Brian Cleary, a nice Irish-type lad who most everyone likes. For more, visit BCPix.

YOU DREAMED IT ALL, DOROTHY

KANSAS CITY – "They've got some crazy little women there . . ."

Beg your pardon, but continued resistance to the temptation of reciting one of the all-time-great song lyrics/tunes was ultimately beyond your humble scribe's capacity.

Had the September meeting of the minds between Mr. James France and Dr. Don Panoz (respectively, at left) not occurred, the Kansas Speedway test now past likely would've allowed everyone's first look at the Ford EVOS EcoBoost V6 Daytona Prototype.

Alas, just because a couple of guys got together and decided the two major North American sportscar series was just two too many (think about it) ardent Ford fans everywhere are again left pining for the good ol' days when the carmaker dominated endurance races like the Rolex 24 At Daytona . . . um, uh, er, just as it had earlier this year in the race's Golden edition.

Okay, so a Ford can still dominate, as did Michael Shank Racing, Ozz Negri, John Pew, A.J. Allmendinger and Justin Wilson prove at the 2012 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

With a Ford engine, that is.

Yet with all due respect to the boys (hmmm, one wonders the number of women on the production or R&D floors) back at Roush Yates Engines, a Rolex Series DP engine wasn't ever quite enough "identity" for the boys back at Dearborn, who both loved and cringed at the sight of the Ford oval on the front of Starworks' DP (at right) and with the 2012 season's advance would mysteriously disappear.

When asked the relative importance of a race car's cornering ability versus that of an engine, the teacher of great-racer teachers, Terry Lee Earwood, replied (over 3 nanosecond's time), "I'll take horsepower any day. It's a racer's best friend."

Thus, a fellow whose blackboard mantra generally was confined to five words – "turn in, apex, track out" – still wished for "more power."

However, when not in the seat and viewing from afar – where most fans find themselves – the shape of a car, not an engine's power or, for that matter, its sound (Doppler Effect), allows the easiest, most-often-correct recognition.

INTERSECTING

If, as some say, luck results from the convergence of knowledge, opportunity and awareness then Grand-Am's rules makers were all over it in the spring of 2011 when begun anew was the second of the every-now-and-again rules evolutions promised when the Daytona Prototype concept was publicly unveiled in January 2002.

With an updated DPG3 on the 2012 racing horizon, Grand-Am's upper management were soon calling upon GM and Ford for exploratory discussions on the shape of things to come. (Remember the song, perchance? Mike Curb produced it. Yep, THAT Mike Curb.)

Those at GM/Chevrolet/Corvette divisions were totally okay with joining the Daytona Prototype's ranks so long as "their" car bore certain visual styling prompts that when appearing together unquestionably communicated "Corvette."

At about the same time as Chevrolet began its massive breakneck effort (beginning late-spring 2011) "Ford" was likewise given the same opportunity but it declined for reasons, at the time kept close to the Blue Oval's vest, that later (and later herein) became clear.

As males everywhere possessing sufficient testosterone will display, if not personally attest (and women everywhere flat-out know), a simple challenge of male ego often is in and of itself enough to spur testos . . . er, competition – as has clearly happened often enough over the last 60-or-so years in North American sportscar racing.

Indeed, the official Ford story of Ford Motor Company's founding being directly tied to a bet arising from racing is indisputable, but it's highly likely that Henry "The Original" Ford's testosterone also played a role, too.

It's safe to say "considerable" was the media impact of the Corvette Daytona Prototype's December 2011 introduction at Daytona International Speedway's Daytona 500 Club. (above)

SWITCHING GEARS

Other than the Ford Muckety Mucks theirownselves, what or who pushed them over the top is a matter of conjecture to the rest of us down-the-food-chain types, but react they did.

Heck, it could've even been that big blue Ford Oval on the front of Starworks' second-place 50th Rolex 24 At Daytona car or, finishing ahead of it in first place, was a nicely liveried but nevertheless plain-Jane, vanilla-flavored Riley (no disrespect intended, Mr. and Mr. Riley) out of Mike Shank's Pataskala, Ohio, race shop. (at left, Shank on sidepod)

Concluding a Rolex 24 dry spell lasting since its 2003 Daytona Prototype class win (Multimatic Ford Focus DP), its engine-powered 1999 overall win (Dyson Ford-R&S Mk III) and, 45 races beforehand (count 'em; all of 'em), the Shelby American all-Ford Mk II (no, it wasn't a "Lola") win, Ford after the 2012 victory got some well-deserved credit after paying some serious dues in the 2009 Rolex 24.

Somebody internally at Ford must've then wondered: "If we can get this kind of PR after a privateer took disparate parts and won, what if ?" because by the following summer squeezed onto the already well-crowded space of Ford aerodynamicist Bernie Marcus' drawing board was a Ford DP blank sheet. (And, yes, Marcus still draws his designs with graphite in hand, as also does the elder of the two aforementioned Riley chaps.)

As did his counterparts at GM rely on cues taken from an iconic GM product, German-native Marcus (who as a snot-nosed kid partially designed the ducting on the famed March 83G) likewise borrowed the looks of a Ford-crafted icon, only it wasn't the longstanding iconic "Mustang" expected by just about everyone in the universe.

Instead, chosen as the DP styling model was a slightly newer Ford icon – the Ford of Europe, Stefan Lamm-designed Ford EVOS. (right)

FUSION' IT TOGETHER

Known internally as the Kinetic 2.0, the hybrid EVOS wasn't so much about Ford's "future" as it was the "near-term," as exemplified by the 2013 Ford Fusion whose design elements clearly are shared with the EVOS.

Indeed, expect to see EVOS design aspects arise throughout the Ford vehicle lineup over the next model year or so, as it was even in the company's version of its NASCAR Sprint Cup competitor for 2013, the Ford Fusion EcoBoost race car. (below)

In a loaded comment made along with the 2013 Ford Fusion's NASCAR introduction – that for most listeners went in one ear and out the other – Ford Racing director Jamie Allison's "We are very excited about what is upon us for 2013,” went well beyond the then-presently obvious.

ADD ECOBOOST

Extending Ford's ever-growing EcoBoost "green" powerplant theme in Grand-Am from its Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series' Ford Focus ST-R with EcoBoost (fielded by Multimatic Motorsports; driven by James Gué, Gunnar Jeannette, below), destined for the "EVOS DP" was a turbocharged V-6 developed by Roush Yates Engines in Mooresville, N.C.

An iteration of RYE's Project Libra, a Ford-based EcoBoost 3.2-liter V6 turbocharged engine was destined to occupy Ford's Daytona Prototype engine bay.

At Allison's direction, Marcus' infusion of EVOS elements into the Ford DP design along with The Boys In Marketing's nomenclatural EcoBoost was at the least a well conceived, well coordinated rolling billboard campaign that would have cut a broad swath across North America's racing series (wanna bet there isn't something afoot for the NHRA's Team Ford Racing, too?).

When a Grand-Am decision to "hold" (read: "altogether stop") the Ford DP project a week after Dr. Don Panoz sold the ALMS lock, stock, tracks and hotels to Mr. James France, it's little wonder Ford's Allison blew two sets of Ford Racing Pro Stock Mirror-Image Head Gaskets (part no. M-6051-JC501).

Then again, what's another $900 when burnt were million-dollar Ford design, research and development chips?

And THAT, folks, seems to be about as much a part of racing as is racing. It wasn’t the first; won’t be the last. Though it could darn well be Allison’s.

THE GOOD NEWS:

Born today in radically different years, um, decades were Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Michael "Rocky" Rockenfeller – both Rolex 24 At Daytona winners and neither of whom yours truly would bet against, regardless of age – even against each other.

Later,

DC

NO “DOROTHY” JOKE HERE

KANSAS SPEEDWAY – In a faraway place long, long ago, author Paul Erlich wrote in a best-selling (Chicken Little) book that by the 1980's Planet Earth's food production would tank and couldn't, wouldn't sustain fewer than half the stomachs now inhabiting Terra Firma, your faithful author tripped through Kansas City.

What’s food, population and the like got to do with racing? The same as President John F. Kennedy touting across-the-board tax cuts. Erlich was wrong; Vice President Joe Bidden was wrong, too, when a lot of folks initially agreed with each.

It was the Age of Aquarius, a time when people were "dodging" bullets in more ways than one, and the dummy which preceded this one learned Kansas City straddled two states: its namesake and Missouri.

The second lesson learned was the cleanliness of Kansas, or at least the parts which this westward bound traveler then saw.

Arriving late Friday evening much as he had way back in The Day, both appeared nonetheless as true today as when Jupiter was in Mars, or wherever the heck it was. (Now, how such a large planet could fit within the smaller of the two was, still is outside of yours truly’s capacity to grasp.)

Yet, on Friday, combating colder temperatures was at the top of many agendas and a Saturday morning subject wagged by the tongues of darn near everyone having made the trek to Kansas Speedway for two days of Rolex Sports Car Series and Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge testing.

The colder Kansas City area temperatures – something which the residents said had only just chased away "beautiful 70-degree days" – brought forth grumbles equal to the throatiest Ford V-8s found in the Rolex Series and Continental Tire garages. Yet, everyone was equally full of praise for the area's lush green grass and, forbid, even Kansas Speedway, itsownself. (No, boys and girls, "itsownself" isn't proper, but Ol' DC is hisownself improper. Just remember to eat your grits, listen to your grandfather's stories and learn one of the best tunes of all: a race engine at full song.)

Enough with that sideline filler: on to the important stuff.

It's cold. The tires are cold and, as Starworks Motorsport's driver Alex Popow put it, the track itself is in need of tire warmers more so than the tires rolling over it.

Then again, Saturday's heavily clothed Popow is Venezuelan – inhabitants of a South American country situated just north of the Equator (it's really hot and humid along the Equator, Menendez). For Popow, who nowadays calls South Florida "home" more than not, temperatures even at his Miami-area home – where the last recorded snow flurry occurred in Jan. 1977 – are a touch too low.

At the midday lunch break Roush Performance No. 51 Mustang Boss 302R driver Joey Atterbury smiled from ear to ear as he talked of the 1.5-mile tri-oval portion's challenging radius banking – heretofore reserved for those of the stock car-only crowd – prompting his perplexed wonderment.

Atterbury's co-driver, Shelby Blackstock, named the road course's Turn 6 transition from infield to tri-oval – two hard-left turns – as most the vexing for him.

"It is a new track to everyone here," said a smiling Michael Shank Racing driver Oswaldo "Ozz" Negri Jr., who agreed with Blackstock when it came to Turn 6, though Negri’s reasoning was one involving overall familiarity.

"Just driving on a new track provides a bunch of challenges that we got over a long time ago at tracks like Watkins Glen or Daytona.

"At those tracks, we know where we are, the turn-ins, apexes and so on. We even know where to find certain light poles or fences. Here, it's a different deal. When you’re in unfamiliar surroundings, everything is weird."

For Negri and the roughly 20 other drivers on hand, Kansas Speedway's 1.5-mile tri-oval radius banking – of which about 95-percent is used before being interrupted by about nearly mile's worth of infield road course – makes for a very fast track.

Unofficially, the two Roush Boss 302R's on hand had bested the 100 mph average-speed barrier in the Saturday morning session and by afternoon's end session picked up another five mph.

Five DPs are here for the test – MSR's No. 60 Ford-Riley; Starworks usual flotilla (amazing for such an "underfunded" team, huh?) of three cars (2 Gen3; 1 Gen2 Ford-Riley); and Action Express Racing's No. 9 Corvette DP.

The above order pretty well respectively represents how the DPs ran by the end of Saturday's final session, averaging roughly 20 mph faster laps than that of the Roush Mustangs.

(The primary driving contingents for the DPs: AER, João Barbosa, Brian Frisselle; MSR, Ozz Negri; Starworks, "Don't Call Me" Al Popow, Sebastien Bourdais and, possibly, Scott Mayer.)

So, then, with all this cold weather and, certainly, warmer weather expected for Aug. 16 and 17, 2013, when both series return here for earnest combat, what exactly does one learn?

“First and foremost; the track,” MSR owner Mike Shank said. “While the temperatures will be far different, we’ll be able to take data from this test and adequately extrapolate the future conditions we expect to encounter. It gives us a leg up. That’s about it.”

And, at this time, comes the end of this particular session, leaving still more extrapolations to come.

Later.

DC

NEW YORK CITY‼!?

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – In 2000, Grand-Am's Rolex Sports Car Series and then Motorola Cup, now Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, held its banque. . . um, hor d'oeuvres awards ceremony in Daytona USA (the shrimp was fabulous).

Later retiring to its Imax Theater, found there were the pretty wimmin handing winners' trophies awarded by a furtive series hopeful that it'd one day have a history upon which to reflect.

Some would at least note the top-dog prototype winners – named "Dyson" in one respect or another – had a last name absent of the letter "P."

Today, that history is populated with the once-absent letter with an accompanying name, "Pruett," along with "Ganassi," "Sabates," "Rojas" and a Mexican-based telecommunications company, "Telmex," now making inroads into the United States – if nothing else, probably because a substantial number of its customers are migrating here.

Monday evening's Rolex Sport Car Series awards banquet heralded something new, something unknown and, therefore, something that some might find somewhat uncomfortable.

In a word: "Change."

One needed to look no farther for evidence of such than to see Scott Atherton, once the bane of any series other than the ALMS, beckoning the spirits of Bob Akin and Jim Trueman as he acknowledged top amateur winners in GT and DP, Emil Assentato and Alex Popow, respectively.

Described in yet another single word: "Surreal."

Even though this end result has been a known entity to your scribe for its five-year process, it just seemed altogether odd now that it has concluded.

THE POP & POP BUSINESS WINS AGAIN

Well, "Mom and Pop" just didn't seem to fit; know what I mean?

Bob Riley often fondly recalls his days with Gary Pratt and Jim Miller, founders of Pratt and Miller, and who, along with the senior Riley, conceived, built and raced one of the world's most daring cars of its time, the Chevrolet Intrepid.

Even Riley The Younger, Bill, worked on that team, learning and developing skills that have served him well over the years since – especially those years during which Riley Technologies was formed and became a mainstay in those who would build and field superiorly crafted racing machines (a recognition of accomplishment Bob Riley is quick to counter with, "We've had our bad days, too, you know.")

At the 2012 season's start and the advent of the Pratt & Miller-crafted Corvette chassis, who would've imagined Bill Riley taking home yet another manufacturer's trophy to show his father.

An uninterrupted string of championship wins since scoring their first DP-connected trophy at the end of the 2004 season, one wonders if Bill and Bob Riley have a shelf large enough to accommodate the nine such trophies they've since won.

TESTING, TESTING

Upcoming are tests in Kansas City (Oct.), Daytona (Nov., Dec. and The Roar) but the most often discussed test is one not yet scheduled – at least publicly so.

Austin's Avenue of the Americas (yes, yes, I know) is ready to roll, according to the FIA.

Set for a fist-weekend-in-March race, most everyone who expects to be there is likewise expecting a test date between now and then – one that one come sometime between the 51st Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Austin race date.

BY THE WAY

Has anyone ever seen anyone else hauled off a commercial aircraft for having tampered with the restroom smoke detector, which is in violation of Federal law?

JUST DESSERTS

Joining the aforementioned Riley constructor's (yes, yes, I know) title were Chevrolet for its engines; Starworks Motorsport for the inaugural North American Endurance Championship win (engines by Ford's Roush Yates Engines) and its Alex Popow for scoring the Trueman award; Chip Ganassi Racing With Felix Sabates (BMW engines) for the overall championship; T-Roy and Michelle Flis for the Spirit of Daytona team having won three of the season's 13 races; and, Mike Shank Racing for the Rolex Sports Car Series most important moment: winning the 50th Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Diverse? Slightly, huh?

THE LITTLE RED CAR

AIM Autosport just didn't get much respect when it was a Daytona Prototype team, even though the team and drivers, mostly Mark Wilkins paired with Brian and/or Burt Frisselle, having scored victories and been in the thick of more than one championship points fight.

Not unlike what most in motorsports have experienced, times were when AIM (Grand-Am Division) wondered how it'd make the next race.

In a whirlwind marriage that for all intents and purposes can easily be described as an unexpected odd-couple arrangement occurring at the veritable last minute in December 2011, Jeff Segal convinced co-driver Emil Assentato and Ferrari to take a flyer, if not a clear leap of faith of belief in Segal hisownself, and hook up with AIM to run a brand new Ferrari 458 Italia program for the 2012 season.

They walked away as champions.

AIM principals Ian Willis and Andrew Bordin, as good as they may be, were quick to shift the blame, um, oops, praise to "a loyal bunch of guys on this team" who, no doubt, feel the same of Willis and Bordin.

Later,

DC

BEGIN THE BEGUINE

DAYTONA BEACH – It's time to uncork a Jed Clampet "Wee doggie!!"

Yesiree, Bob.

But having been, um, lambasted for revealing things like a Rolex Series Indy race a bit too early (among other gaffes) then hopefully you'll forgive that Ol' DC wasn't all over this matter even sooner – or at least alluding to it – as he was five years ago when the first buyout talks were held, ironically, in the week following Grand-Am's Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca date (MRLS being on the Rolex Series schedule this weekend).

It went downhill from there in the following years, mainly because of too many leaks -- loosing subsequent contractual and sponsorship nervousness -- which then forced public denials, but the damn had been breached and a beginning of an end achieved.

In the few days subsequent to Speed.com's John Dagys breaking the demise of ALMS (it's always nice to see having journalistic talent head for a future HOF induction) a million suggestions for sportscar racing's future were posited and herein some of the more plentiful re-twits are examined.

Can We All Just Get Along?

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: If getting along were possible, there wouldn't have been two "premier" North American-based series in the first place, huh?

Well, Then, Let's Make Everyone Happy!

Short Answer: "Oh, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, that's a good one!"

Longer Answer: We're dealing with owners, drivers, sponsors, fans and, well, still more owners, drivers, sponsors and fans. Each has been complaining about something, like, forever. Some samples, respectively: "The 'series' likes that other team better and that's the reason we got our butts kicked”; "That other driver has more horsepower and that's why he kicked my butt"; "That sponsor's sign is better placed than my sign and that's why he's kicking my butt"; and, "We can smoke it at Sebring."

Better TV Coverage!

Short Answer: It wasn't Grand-Am's fault that ALMS decided to look the future in the eyes and blinked.

Longer Answer: ALMS largely had 21st-century video distribution correctly pegged but partially caved when the hounds wailed . . . the no-longer-really-major networks are traveling exactly the same path as have newspapers and periodicals for the last decade: down. Just as has doctoring evolved from Deadwood, South Dakota's single "Doc Cochran" (played by Brad Dourif on the HBO series "Deadwood") treated gunshots to kidney stones, while patients today sees trauma surgeons and urologists, respectively. A long-gone W.J. Gardiner, Esq., one of Daytona Beach's first practicing attorneys, was legal counsel to three generations of this scribe's family in every possible legal matter. Available today are attorneys covering more specialties than even the most esteemed attorneys ever saw coming 50 years ago.

Longer Answer Part 2: In a perfect world, a worthy series shouldn't pay for TV coverage. It should be the other way around, in fact. One of the two sportscar series involved in this deal paid for their TV exposure (Big $$$ cost, too). The other didn't and, in fact, wouldn't. The age of specialty only gets more "special." The so-called big networks haven't yet learned they aren't special anymore and day by day are less relevant.

The ALMS GT Class Is Phenomenal; Let It Live On!

Short Answer: It shouldn't be hard to find a home for eight teams. Really.

Longer Answer: Honestly, this writer must be missing something, but he just doesn't get how the ALMS' "GT Team Championship," as of Baltimore's conclusion, can be so wonderful when only eight teams exist within it. Perhaps there are more here and there, after all some teams don't care to participate in season-long championships (which likewise exacts extra money for participation) but eight teams just didn't ring any chimes here. Admittedly, Ol' DC at times gets a tad confused, misses some things here and there. Thinking such must be the case, he looked at manufacturer participants but, at five, that was of little help. Then, throwing his hands into the air, he figured maybe, just maybe, a tally of the Baltimore GT cars might help his gray matter find a tally that provides for the nirvana of which so many have spoken. He tallied 17 cars in Baltimore’s results, of which many were two-car teams and of which five were GTC. One notable team owner, with whom your scribe chatted while writing this, noted that the cars are actual factory examples and that a "balance of performance" is used to equalize the table, um, er, “playing field.” Then, there's the subject of "going to LeMans," itself , which brings us to . . .

What About The ACO?

Short Answer: Insofar as Americans are concerned, the French revile anyone not named Jerry (not "Lee") Lewis and Patrick Dempsey.

Long Answer: What, have we Americans developed some sort of inferiority complex? See short answer and screw 'em (the ACO, not Lewis or Dempsey).

J.C. France Will Run, er, Ruin The New Series

Short Answer: Congressman (14th district) Connie Mack IV is running for a Florida U.S. Senate seat and he's been arrested far more frequently than has J.C. France.

Long Answer: J.C. France gives the appearance as one tough mother. Actually, he isn't. A "mother," that is. But he is someone anyone would and should have protecting their back. But he's also a helluva nice guy whose heart runs deep to those who know him. Given his understandable disdain of the political beast it's doubtful that J.C. France will find himself the head of Grand-Am but he, at the least, has run the gamut of motorsports, unlike the many who have held lofty "racing" positions. Going beyond the mere obvious, J.C. France had competed in motorcycle racing to Legends cars to Skippy School and even team ownership. Certainly, he deeply loves motorsports, as can anyone attest who has seen him tussle in the streets of Mexico City.

Manufacturers Are THE Answer

Short Answer: History says they aren't.

Long Answer: Big international-level manufacturers don't really want to constantly play in a prototypical pool, else they'd be here.

Longer Answer: Study history, preferably wearing something other than rose-colored glasses, and specify a time when manufacturers -- as a full-on factory effort, mind you -- have really, truly played without interruption in the international sportscar arena for, say, a decade's length. The insistent but inane drumbeat of "manufacturer involvement" is grating, to say the least. When the male ego -- or might that be "testosterone" -- gets wrapped up in pissing contests (I apologize for the base language and imagery, but it is what it is at its core) someone inevitably has more money than someone else, and they'll spend it to find a better way; a faster way; a quicker way to corner; ad infinitum (or nauseum; your choice). The whole idea of, "Well, we just haven't done it right before and all we need to do is have another chance . . . blah, buh-blah, blah, blah, blah" reminds me of Marxists who have a never ending supply of, "We just didn't get it right the first time," even though Karl Marx and Fredric Engels tried and tried and tried -- and it didn't work.

Many years of effort awaits beginning today. Who among us really knows what it'll all look like a year and, roughly, five months from now when the 52nd Rolex 24 At Daytona gets underway?

At this time, I'm heading for the news conference that'll perhaps give us more knowledge on the subject.

Later,

DC

SPORTSMAN AWARD

Also known as the "Trueman Award" or, in a collective misnomer, "Trueman-Akin Award," the award is collected at year's end by the best of the best of the best ("sir!"; don’t you just love that Will Smith MIB routine) amateur driver paired with a (even better; um, 'bester?') professional driver.

Currently in the middle of the fight for the 2012 season's sportsman awards are 2010 Bob Akin GT bust winner, Emil Assentato, and defending DP winner, John Pew, who regularly pedals faster than . . .

. . . well, now . . . if this isn't a good time to go totally tangential, one might be hard pressed to find another . . .

Each time yours truly hauls the lead (not "lead" or "led," think about it) into town (he having long lived outside of a city limits that once was more than 12-miles east but today has crept within 2/3-of-one-mile) he regularly encounters race-car drivers, or, at least, those who evidently fancy themselves such.

One thing for sure: These incredibly gifted souls most often drive vehicles more fully suited for rollovers (center-of-gravity issues) or, perhaps, roller skating (a Yugo actually lurks among them that I regularly see. Yugo? No, we ain't talking no fancy SMS-style of communications akin to "ur" or "U" or similar shorthand. As for the car itself, ask your grandfather).

Furthermore, the folks who drive the rollover specials just don't seem to comprehend that they are, for the most part, driving boxes having engines and wheels.

Trucks and SUVs heretofore have not been the height of aerodynamic efficiency. If "the box" were, the late Kelly Johnson of Lockheed Skunk Works fame, wouldn't have produced the SR71 or, at least, in its deployed appearance.

Worse yet, as one goes faster with or in a box, needed are exponentially larger amounts of energy in the effort to overcome atmospheric resistance.

Yet, setting aside last-moment braking and lead-foot starts, still everyone wonders "why?" the car-sticker MPG numbers aren't realized in the real world?

On many of the roller-skate vehicles are found "totally cool" but usually one (just one, Menendez) terribly misaligned "blue-light" headlamp.

Having bought a two-fer package at the local discount department store (think "Wally World") and using a state-of-art Phillips head screwdriver the "master mechanic" then strips three of the four headlight-assembly screw heads before realizing that, by golly, the only thing needing removal and replacement was the bulb, itself.

After learning the "thingies" atop a screw have utilitarian purpose but now being absent of form or definition, what does one do to secure a headlight assembly sans three of its four screws?

Duct tape.

Yep. No new screws needed when duct tape, now available in a variety of colors, is at hand.

Why, existing even are wild tales of Ol' DC using the versatile sticky, stringy stuff to bolster the blown-out corners of his well-traveled suitcase. (So frequently seen is the beast that at least one airline agent no longer bothers me for an official gov'ment ID. True.)

Indeed, lore has the now-famed tape as even having been used on (what else?) race cars!

So, off into the sunset races the race-car driver/master mechanic to see the effect of his cool lights that he really can't "see" anyway -- kinda like those terribly cool but near-worthless non-OEM brake-light lenses.

Once upon another time, your faithful correspondent was sitting first-in-line in the outside lane at a final westbound traffic signal -- a last "gate" before hitting an awaiting 60 mph zone in which few actually hold speed-o-meters to 60 mph.

Pulling alongside in the inside lane comes a Mazda RX3, its new blue-metallic paint sparkling smartly, contrasted against which were shiny new, too-big wheels bearing way-too-narrow tire shoulders, ones that concrete curbs love to lie in wait to kill.

Evidently deprived of room within the car, each open window sports one vertically hanging arm, appearing to do all but reach the asphalt below.

Following the traffic-light's color shift from red to green, the RX3 accelerated and realizing he wasn't out-accelerating the old dude to his right, quickly went petal-to-metal. (It's really easy to determine such, given the RX3's tendency to increase by three octaves its engine whine.)

As the blue car's rear came into focus, seen were additional rad add-ons like its aftermarket soda-can exhaust extension, along with a trunk-mounted wing akin to those seen on DP's, endplates and all: not too big; not too small; just right. Er, for a DP, that is. On the Mazda RX3 it, well, kinda overpowered the decklid entire car.

Soon, this non-racer's Emerson Fittipaldi-massaged 1994 Chrysler Concorde was left in the wafting dust of the hammer-down automatic-equipped RX3, whose driver and his two-fewer engine cylinders were proving the car could get worse gas mileage than the old dude's 3.5L-6 DOHC, 375 HP, 456 lb.-ft. torque (in my dreams, but still . . .)

Then, about 200-yards ahead, came a flutter of glitter-blue: on-off-on-off-on-off-on-off-on-off.

Anyone remember those balsa-wood rubber band-powered "airplanes" owned and thrown by just about every kid of every generation since manned flight began? (Except those born before the Wright Brothers, Menendez.)

Should one gently detach the balsa-plane's wing from fuselage and toss the former, however briskly, the now-independent wing hits the atmosphere's mass and quickly blocks almost all forward motion, leaving it to mostly flutter along the horizontal plane.

Gravity ever more pulls the wing downward, fluttering on-off-on-off-on-off-on-off-on-off.

Just like a certain RX3's detached wing.

Oops.

Two dudes poured from the suddenly stopped roadside RX3, scrambling as would The Three Stooges Minus One, the face of each absolutely aghast, clearly wondering, "How could've it all gone so terribly wrong!?"

A nearby parking-lot stroll two days later answered the question, as within its boundaries was found wingless RX3: the two-dozen-or-so sheet metal screw holes revealing that all had been bet on their securely holding the wing, but didn't. At least, not enough.

Man, when set, sheet metal screws seriously attempt to hang on. Gnarly, dude. Gnarly. Like the RX3's trunk lid, in fact.

One supposes that now suddenly necessary is either a new deck lid or a darn good body putty.

Then again, the world's best doggone OEM deck lid or body putty won't do didley squat if the person aligning or applying it doesn't know didley squat.

When eons ago asked for his thoughts about those who say he and other race car drivers aren't athletes, Scott Pruett said: "They don't know anything and until they've gotten into a race car and have done, or at least tried to do what I do, then I won't even address the issue. High to my family back home!"

(Nah, not really. Well, insofar as the quote's final sentence's "family." I just couldn't help it. You know I love ya, Scott, right?)

The "armchair" types really believe themselves as capable as race car drivers Assentato and Pew; or team managers and chief wrenches like Jeff Pomfret and Ed Daood; or, even, engineers and strategists such as Ian Willis or Dale Wise.

It's a good thing to dream, to want, to try, to accomplish. After all, each of the professionals above probably did the same, but didn't stop with dreaming, which is easy.

It's the "accomplish" part that takes guts, desire and, often more than any of us think we have, considerable "sacrifice."

Just remember: if you want to be cool, don't use sheet metal screws to secure a rear wing.

Later,

DC

TRYING TIMES

MONTREAL (17 Aug., 2012) – First came Jordan Taylor (below) gaining some seat time with David Donohue at The Glen, then Paul Tracy scored some time, too, with Donohue at the 2.709-mile Circuit Gilles Villeneuve course on Il Notre Dame.

What's up?

Well, succinctly, "tryouts."

Not that anything is amiss with Action Express Racing, it's just that the team clearly will again be competing in the Rolex Sports Car Series in 2013 despite persistent rumeurs (“French,” Menendez) of it opening an ALMS front.

Then again . . .

"We just want to make sure we have someone who is familiar with the team, its personnel, strategy and competitive ways should a situation so dictate," AER queso grande Bob Johnson said while undertaking flight (not self-powered) to Montreal Thursday.

"Mainly, we're looking at what next year may bring. Silly season is at hand, you know."

Tracy had only two spins in Friday's early afternoon practice session, successful in that Mr. Tracy scuffed only tires and asphalt; not car.

"Funny, as soon as I started telling people 'We signed Paul Tracy for Montreal,' they cringed and, in one way or another, suggested I might want to make sure we brought extra parts," Johnson deadpanned.

BUMP AND RUN

At the end of his opening shift at Watkins Glen International on Saturday past, Emil Assentato climbed from his AIM Autosport No. 69 FXDD Ferrari 458, then dejectedly made his way to the Stevenson Motorsports pits, seeking team owner John Stevenson.

"I apologized to him for wrecking his car," Assentato said. "It was my mistake."

It's a mistake all who watched SPEEDtv's live coverage couldn't help but see.

Assentato, who later remanded the car to co-driver Jeff Segal, had just taken the opening green flag for The Glen's Continental Tire 200 Presented By Dunn Tire and was bunched at the front after gridding on the GT field's outside second row, directly behind the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro.

Caught out when a Porsche ahead of him suddenly slowed, Assentato reacted with a hard left, the left front of Assentato's Ferrari catching the Stevenson car on its right rear, spinning the Camaro and himself toward the top of Turn 1.

Supposedly fragile, the Ferrari hardly played that role, the thoroughbred's most apparent casualty being its hood, which laps later took flight and some others would’ve liked to take home.

The supposedly sturdy "American Iron" Camaro, with John Edwards in the driver's seat, was far less fortunate when, caught on the rebound for a second go between the two cars, the left-rear suspension was junked.

Given The Glen race was young and the season's end close at hand, Stevenson team director Mike Johnson (who gets all the pretty women, for some reason) (well, not that he’s had more than one, particularly special woman) (yet, if a bachelor he could've) ordered the team home. Instead, the order to rebuild was issued and the team soldiered on.

Given the championship points fight -- and having in the prior Indy race having fallen sharply from the top's vicinity -- the team needed to soldier onward.

Although it hadn't won until early July's Sahlen's Six (Sahlen's 6 Hours of The Glen), prior to that the team also hadn't once finished worse than seventh (the season's second race at Barber Motorsports Park) and in five subsequent races to BMP finished on the podium in each.

Then there was Indy.

Stevenson Motorsports came into the inaugural Indy race with a five-point lead in the NAEC (North American Endurance Championship) GT standings and, with the No. 57 leading a second-high 27 race laps, all appeared copasetic until it literally hit the wall and, well, didn't win the NAEC.

The team soldiered on, as it would also later do at The Glen, but came home 15th and 14th, respectively, in each.

Clearly falling like a boulder tossed into a well-maintained pool's deep end, it's not been fun to watch for most everyone except the FXDD team, who has remained atop the GARS (Grand-Am Rolex Series) points standings despite suffering its own ails since the Ferrari's last podium, also at the Sahlen's Six.

Ironically, the expectation of FXDD's recent tribulations is pretty much what kept the Stevenson folks looking forward to the "next" race, knowing that in a human world, “things happen.”

They just didn't expect it to be happening to theirownselves.

CAMERON GETS THE CALL

It was 2009 and Dane Cameron (at below right), who has lived the whole of his life while under motorsports' big tent, was at Barber Motorsports Park sitting at the edge of The Racers Edge hauler's side door.

Head firmly in hand, Cameron looked to be completely dispirited with motorsports and the political activity within. He appeared as if he wished most to run quickly in but one direction: away.

As old folks have learned, practiced or from which did indeed quickly hauled tail, "politics" is nearly everywhere, absent total solitude.

Save two races -- one at season's start; one in the middle -- Cameron, um, "vacationed" the following year, pondering his future fate within the only tent he's really ever known.

He then returned.

Paired in 2011 for the most part with James Gué in a Dempsey Racing RX-8 and even though absent a win in competition, the pair finished fourth in the GARS GT championship after having finished fifth-or-better in half the Rolex Series' 12 GT races that season.

However, politics weren't absent that year and, in fact, were a tad more vociferously present for sponsor Global Diving's final year in GARS. This time evidently unaffected, certainly not to the very evident degree of such in 2009, Cameron's results were largely consistent whether in or out of whatever political storm may have been occurring at the time.

A Left Coast Karter as are a substantial number have been in this sportscar thing, Cameron started quickly from the gate, immediately scoring two Jim Russell Racing School-associated championship titles.

The following year, Cameron went head-to-head with a chap we all know today as "J. R. Hildebrand," to whom Cameron finished second in the U.S. F2000 National Championship.

In 2007 Cameron won the Star Mazda Championship, in the course of which he finished only once out of the top-10.

Despite the 2008 Atlantic Championship ultimately falling short of personal expectations (something along the lines of "first, always"), in his first race that year at Road America, Cameron started from the race's pole and finished second.

In short, Cameron's competitive record is "not that bad," huh?

Cameron, who raced a Chip Ganassi-prepared DP for the first time in 2006 when all of 18 years in age, will soon have an updated Gen2-to-Gen3 BMW-powered Riley in his hands, readying for 2013.

Surely, it’s a great Team Sahlen story in a lot of different ways, but its also a great Dane Cameron story, too, who somehow found deep within him an abiding love of this sportscar racing thing and stayed with it.

By the way: Cameron's co-driver during the earlier-referenced dark 2009 Barber Motorsports Park episode was Wayne Nonnamaker, who evidently saw something inside of Cameron, even when Cameron was questioning it.

Later,

DC

DEFENDING THE DEFENSIBLE?

Scott Pruett, having had a fair share of his own first-place-losing dust ups with Juan Pablo Montoya -- and having not at all forgotten them, either -- came to the defense of his Chip Ganassi Racing With Felix Sabates (GASR) teammate Friday while between Watkins Glen track time preparing for today’s Continental Tire 200 Presented By Dunn Tire at Watkins Glen International (6 p.m. EDT, live on Speed).

Heavily criticized for, well, heavy-handed driving at the July 27 Rolex Sports Car Series Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Montoya bulled his way around a number of cars, never mind the standing of those teams' in race position or championship points.

Most adversely affected was Peter Baron's Starworks Motorsport team's Ryan Dalziel and Enzo Potolicchio, who with their No. 8 Ford-Riley Daytona Prototype were in the thickest part of thick in two different but same-race means’ to an end.

The first, ending with Tani Miller's Brickyard Grand Prix's checkered flag, was the North American Endurance Championship, at the end of which the premier points-accumulating team would cash a $100,000 bonus check.

Then there was the season-long GARS Daytona Prototype driving championship, in the pursuit of which Dalziel and Potolicchio had departed the Sahlen's 6 Hours of The Glen in second place, going into Indy trailing Pruett and co-driver Memo Rojas by just five points.

Highly respected in many different racing paddocks for making much of little, Baron historically has nevertheless accomplished quality car preparation; recruited and retained talented personnel; and excellent race finishes with relatively little cash; fewer numbers of personnel; and, as importantly as anything, upgrading the look of paddocks everywhere with fake palm trees flanking the Starworks’ hauler doors.

Baron's also a pretty doggone smart cookie. So smart, he's a number-crunching savant (he was an economist by age 2).

Number-crunching savants also possess a better-than-average ancillary skill of entrails reading and, true to form, Baron's pre-Indy reading told him two things: a Starworks car would win, bringing with it that NAEC bonus check; and yet, warned Montoya's Grand-Am etiquette would also punt a contending Starworks DP.

Confused about the mixed signals, Baron was in "defense mode" before even leaving for Indy.

"You really don't exactly need to pull a Nostradamus to know Montoya's driving style, you know," Baron said , "But I still sent every single Grand-Am official an email predicting that Montoya's purpose for being there would only cause heartache and pain."

(Uh-oh, one can see a Country Western song coming on . . .

"Oh Montoya, Montoya

why must you punt

all your competitors

into a shunt?

"It's not hard to see you

handing out knocks

leaving your competitors

wishing upon you a pox.")

Sure 'nuff, having fewer than 20-minutes remaining after nearly three hours of racing, Dalziel was running second with his sights set on getting up front to claim that check and, more than likely, the DP championship points lead, when on a right-hander Montoya charged toward and bumped into Dalziel's No. 8 Starworks Ford-Riley's right side.

While it was little more than a garden-variety bump that caused little more than cosmetic damage that pushed the No. 8 DP to the left, off the asphalt and into a muddy morass disguised as grass, Dalziel, co-driver Potolicchio, Baron and the Starworks team suddenly saw defeat snatched from the jaws of victory, because even had Dalziel not taken first in the race he would have at least seized the points lead with a raggedly looking, beat-up GASR car somewhere behind.

The resultant full-course yellow shuffled the field, pushed GASR's No. 01 TELMEX BMW-Riley DP farther toward the field's front, ultimately finishing second, and the Dalziel/Potolicchio No. 8 Ford-Riley DP down the iconic Indy scoring pylon into a dismal 17th overall, 7th in DP and so far away from the Pruett/Rojas DP that a pre-race five-point deficit had more than doubled to 11 points in arrears.

Baron's pre-race Future Vision proved correct after all: Montoya punted a Starworks car and a Starworks car won, albeit "the other one," with Alex Popow and substitute-driver Sebastien Bourdais at the wheel of Starworks' No. 2 Ford-Riley DP.

"Juan Pablo (Montoya) was there for one thing and one thing, only," GASR teammate Pruett said Friday at The Glen.

"He was supposed to go to the front. That was his orders and, true to form, he was doing all he could to do that," said the driver who Montoya punted from the NASCAR Nationwide Series race lead -- with only a nine laps remaining -- at Mexico City's Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in 2007.

Despite plenty of love lost over that deal, Pruett still defended his GASR teammate's actions taken two weeks ago at Indy.

"Juan Pablo was paid by his sponsor (Chevron) to put the car in the spotlight," Pruett said. "In case anyone's missed it, the brightest spotlight shines on those who are leading the race. And that's what Montoya was trying to do.

"Yes, Juan Pablo isn't contending for the Rolex (Series) championship. Yes, he was wasn't contending for the NAEC championship (settled at the end of the Brickyard Grand Prix). But he was doing what he was told to do.

"Everyone in that race should know by now that Juan Pablo does his damndest to do what he's paid to do, that's all. And they should've just moved over and let him pass. That's all. Just let him by.

"Had (Montoya) won the race it wouldn't have had any bearing on either the DP championship or the North American Endurance Championship because for those two things the contenders would've been scored as if he (Montoya) hadn't been there at all.

"I'm just not inclined to blame anyone but those who hadn't considered that (aspect) before the deal went down," Pruett concluded.

Safe to say Baron likely won't change his mind even though the Starworks Motorsport team still left Indy with a fat check, inasmuch as the Starworks' No. 2 Ford-Riley of Alex Popow and Sebastien Bourdais did indeed win the Brickyard Grand Prix fair and square, having lead 24 laps (Popow 7 laps; Bourdais 17) when they -- as had Baron somewhat seen -- took Tani Miller's checkered flag.

LOSE ONE, GAIN TWO

Being announced at noon Saturday at Watkins Glen is a Team Sahlen's two-car Daytona Prototype effort for 2013.

The team has for the last couple-or-three seasons campaigned two-or-more Mazda RX-8’s in the Rolex Series' Grand Touring class.

After Mazda having this model year already ended the car's production for sale in dealer showrooms, the RX-8 after this season will go the same way as did the Volkswagen Karman Ghia -- into either junkyards or collector's hands.

Not being announced at noon Saturday is SunTrust ending its 9-year Wayne Taylor Racing sponsorship come the end of the 2012 season.

Nor, according to a mad-as-hell Wayne Taylor, owner of Wayne Taylor Racing, is such likely to be ever announced.

So, mark one more up for the Ol’ DC rumor mill that never seems to work, even when one would prefer it didn’t work. Or should that be, “even when one would prefer it did work?” Hell, who knows? Because if anything, one is damned if they do; damned if they don’t.

Whatever the case. Mr. Taylor insists, shall I note “vociferously” so, that SunTrust is assuredly, definitely not going anywhere with respect to SunTrust Racing being on the side of his No. 10 Corvette Daytona Prototype.

Well, there’s goes that final, end-of-driving-career interview he and I were going to otherwise soon undertake.

Later,

DC

WHAT’S GOING ON - 1

WATKINS GLEN (10 Aug., 2012) – Noting that "odd" Northeastern weather of the last day or so has confused airline schedules and left hundreds of erstwhile passengers hoping to again fly to desired destinations, it also rained heavily overnight in southern "upstate" New York.

Nevertheless, now laying down new rubber washed from the 2.4-mile Watkins Glen International course are Rolex Sports Car Series competitors readying for Saturday's "Continental Tires 200 Presented By Dunn Tire" that hasn't a thing to do with the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge -- absent from competition until the Sept. 07-09 meet at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca which, of course, uses a “Continental Tire Sports Car Festival”

LOOKING FORWARD

Considering the waves created, the Bob Stallings/GAINSCO/Indy Brickyard Grand Prix/Grand-Am/Officiating/Mid-Race Withdrawal deal will likely be the subject of at least one more ColdPit rumination: this one.

In a Saturday morning meeting of one mind with Stallings (his was the mind; this blogger's wasn't) the owner of the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Corvette DP expressed optimism for both the future of the series and his participation in it.

"(Grand-Am) president Ed Bennett is a businessman who has been successful in just about every endeavor handed him by NASCAR and I don't see any reason why he won't be successful over here (in Grand-Am's Rolex Sports Car Series)," Stallings said.

The gist of the conversation is that Stallings has the intention, now and for a "foreseeable" future, of staying in the series. Of course, the “future” is always realized.

"Obviously, there's still the problem of inconsistent officiating" Stallings insisted.

"Ed Bennett's been making personnel changes that I think is for the better but there still is room for still other changes in that area."

Well, perhaps this won't be the last ColdPit mention, either . . . and for some time to come.

RESEARCH

One of the processes escaping the attention of many journalism wannabes (the numbers of which having exploded with The Web) is the necessity of accurate, substantiated research.

It's not at all unusual for this correspondent to spend hours in search of only a few words used in but one sentence or a sentence's worth of words used in a paragraph.

It's an effort to minimize errors that nevertheless can and still will happen, we being human and all.

Those errors, though, can have tremendous although unintended negative impact on others -- however "small" their number.

Learning new information or, even, learning information anew (the human mind has been shown to be clearly imperfect in memory) can be interesting, if not plain fun.

Recently referencing amateur and professional driver combinations in an earlier blog contribution, your intrepid correspondent spent a couple of hours undertaking a year-by-year distillation of data beginning with the 2003 season. Herewith are some additional informational nuggets:

For 2003's second Watkins Glen 2.4-mile "short" track race, Tommy Riggins put Dave Machavern's Heritage Motorsports Ford Mustang on the Rolex Series' pole with a fast lap of 1:11.245 at 123.198 mph.

After Simon Gregg (Peter and Debbie Gregg's son) and Justin Bell's (he, too, having a famous father, just . . . can't . . . remember . . .) Derhaag Corvette was fastest in season-opening Rolex 24 qualifying, Machavern's car would be the final such GT. Period.

Excluding 2012's stats, in the "most wins by an amateur/professional in a DP" category, the Forest Barber/Terry Borcheller combination produced the most, five wins, in sheer numbers but the accomplishment occurred in the Daytona Prototypes first season (2003) and such would not be seen again, even over all the seasons since.

But leading the list, since, with three wins, each, are J.C. France and the woman racer too many folks love to hate, Milka Duno.

(Listen here: armchair quarterbacks like to talk of Duno being "too slow" and, resultantly, a "roadblock," "dangerous" and etc. Duno isn't a Dario Franchitti, that is for sure, but she's also gone faster and for greater periods of time than the vast majority of her race-car-driver wannabe detractors. At the very least, Duno had the nerve to try something that left many a pilgrim having pissed their pants after only a ride-along.)

In second with two wins apiece are Mark Patterson, Jim Matthews and, with 2012's Rolex 24 victory, John Pew.

Just three other amateurs have accomplished a DP-class win (with the help of a "friend"): Matthew Alhadeff (with Bill Auberlen, HMS, 2007); Tracy Krohn (with Nic Jönsson, WGI-6, 2005); and, Enzo Potolicchio (Ryan Dalziel, Mid-O, 2011).

If an incomplete 2012 season is again included, Alex Popow scored a win at Indy with Sebastien Bourdais (the latter having cranked out a top fast lap in practice earlier today at The Glen).

The team owner with whom an amateur/professional driving combo is most likely to score a win is Mike Shank, whose Michael Shank Racing pro/am combinations have scored four wins (including 2012, so far).

The most successful professional driver still participating in the Rolex Series who has assisted more than one amateur in scoring one or more wins is Terry Borcheller, who has driven in wins with Forest Barber (5) and J.C. France (1). France also has had the distinction of winning with Hurley Haywood (2), though the latter is largely out of the game, now (supposedly).

If 2012 is included, following closely in Borcheller's tracks with three "helps" is Oswaldo Negri Jr., who has helped both Mark Patterson (2) and John Pew (1) find the way to Victory Lane (Ian James was the "other" pro who aided Pew.)

Later,

DC

DIRTY LAUNDRY

Didya ever notice that TV "news" leads with "Our top story . . ." but within the very same broadcast "sports" more often than not delays its high-importance story for a late or final segment.

Now, that's entertainment.

KNOWING WHEN TO SAY NUH-UH

"It's an issue bigger than my pay grade allows me the latitude to discuss. You're going to have to ask Bob Stallings about that one." - Jon Fogarty, in an on-air response to a question posed by an MRN pit-road reporter following the No. 99 GAINSCO Racing Corvette DP's early race hard right into the Rolex Series' Indy paddock.

VERY NEARLY SAILING INTO THE SUNSET

Bob Stallings' Official Take:

"We came here hoping to win the inaugural Brickyard Grand Prix; put a very strong effort into not only today but in the various earlier Indy tests. Our practice session today went well and qualifying went extremely well but during the race a variety of things did not go well. Some were self-inflicted wounds that prevented our drivers from getting the most out of what was very good car, but in addition to that there were some highly questionable officiating calls which contributed to our problems for the day. The team, car and drivers could have overcome these hurdles but we simply concluded, taking everything into consideration, we would be better off retiring the car and preparing ourselves for the final four races of the year.'"

Whew!

One wonders what might've occurred if Stallings had been aware of a quick pit-road survey taken of team principals shortly after the No. 99 Red Dragon took it to the garage (okay, "paddock").

When approached, fully one-half said either, "I definitely understand and would like to do the same" or "I don't understand but I still wish I could do the same" while one-third of the remaining respondents said "I don't understand but wish I could understand"; the next third of the last half (yes, one can do that) said, "Ah, hah, hah, hah, hah!" which left a final third of the one-half of the respondents to look at the questioner and reply, "Huh!?"

BUT ONE GUY BID ADIEU

Leaving behind all chances of scoring a darn fine bust of Jim Trueman (likely handing it to John Pew, who'll no doubt be angry because it was handed to him) Starworks Motorsport's "Sportsman" driver (a euphemism for "money man") Enzo Potolicchio made like a sewer pipe and got the crap out; made like a bird and flew; a tree and leaved; a ball and bounced; a cheese wheel and rolled; a mile of asphalt and, uh, er, well okay, that one didn't work . . . but you've probably gotten the idea by now, right?

"I tried just about everything I could to keep him in the series, man," Peter Baron said of Potolicchio, "But he was madder than heck over (co-driver) Ryan (Dalziel) getting run off the course by (Juan Pablo) Montoya.

"Enzo probably would've stayed had Grand-Am simply have conceded the situation could've been handled better. They didn't even have to say the 'M' word ('mistake'). But they didn't and (Enzo's) gone" (reportedly to another series).

FADE BACK TO RED

It's probably fair to say that more than one, or in this case, two things contributed to Stallings becoming so bummed that he'd pull the No. 99 at Indy.

Remembering Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás' admonition against forgetting the past, the GAINSCO team's on-track Rolex Series genesis came in 2005 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca but really didn't start firing on all cylinders until Stallings -- who really ain't too shabby with his own lead foot -- voluntarily unbuckled his No. 99 driver's harness for the last time after 2006's carrera Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, having co-driven with Alex Gurney to 13th-place finishes in each of that season's first two races.

Sometimes incorrectly credited with having instituted the "all-pro" DP driving team, Stallings instead was likely the first DP team owner to fully recognize an all-professional, full-season Daytona Prototype driving team was becoming necessary to claim championships; his farsightedness rewarded in 2007 and again in 2009 when the GAINSCO Express (with no intended slight to The Lizard) ran on rails and kicked bootie.

"It's not something I necessarily wanted to do, because I enjoy driving, but something based on recognizing what you've got to do. Sponsors like exposure and the best, safest way of getting seen is up front, winning," Stallings would later convey about the decision that ultimately led to Jon Fogarty getting into the car in Stallings’ stead (after Rocky Moran Jr. met an immovable object at Long Beach).

And yes, 'tis true, Stallings is very high on the GAINSCO corporate totem pole – at which lofty place he must also answer to a board of directors.

That those who race will mortgage souls for an acquisition of the "next-best" mechanical device, two darn good hot-shoe drivers are sometimes cheaper than forever chasing those hot new "go-faster" race car parts (the latter being a never-ending story) because, mainly, you'd still have an amateur, no matter how good, in the car at some point.

Believe it, professional race car drivers really are that much better (though Pew has yet to figure out that one, bless his pea-picking heart).

Nevertheless, Stallings understood a pro/pro combo was to a pro/amateur combo as the latter was to an amateur/amateur combination, especially in a series that at the time of Stallings' 2005 Rolex Series entry had 18 professional drivers who by that season's end had competed in each of its 14 races.

An additional five professional drivers in 2005 -- for reasons ranging from injury to suspension – missed only one of those 14 races.

When all was said and done, two amateur/professional driving combinations that year won just two of the 14 contested races (Milka Duno/Andy Wallace with Max Crawford atop the pit box at Mont Tremblant; Tracy Krohn/Nic Jonsson with TRG (Kevin Buckler) in the WGI Sahlen’s Six hour).

With the benefit of retrospection and, especially, end-of-season points reports, the best season for the pro/am driving combo came in the Daytona Prototype's first (2003), when Texan Forest Barber teamed with Terry "Pool Cleaner" Borcheller in a Jim Bell-managed Chevy/Doran JE4 DP to take home six wins in that season's 12 races -- and absent from two of which, resulting in a win and a second-place for Borcheller, was Barber altogether absent.

In 2004 the Rolex Series got GASR (Ganassi And Sabates Racing. Of course, "GASR" isn't the organization's true moniker -- it still being "Chip Ganassi Racing With Felix Sabates," a title just as unwieldy today as when introduced in 2001 over the fence in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Yet, beyond economy of words and space, GASR's got potential, like, "GASR and go!" and "He's a real GASR!" or, even, "GASR passer").

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE NOW PAST

Pairing Scott Pruett and Massimiliano Papis in the No. 01 CompUSA Lexus-Riley, Pruett made clear the team's focus at the conclusion of the season's second race, during which Jan Magnussen and Papis banged doors severely and repeatedly enough to end any chance of either claiming high, race-end finishes.

Visibly angry as he walked to the GASR hauler, Pruett was very, very clear in his disgust: "We're here to win championships and we're not going to win any if we keep finishing at the back because of a lack of emotional control."

A reminder is in order: Folks, Pruett's thoughts were expressed at the 2004 season's and GASR's second Rolex Series race, held at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

(It was at the very next race that Pruett became the team's "permanent" sprint-race closer, by the way. It was only at Indy just past when it looked as though maybe, for the first time since, Pruett wouldn't close but still did so.)

Another of Stallings' issues coming to a boil at Indianapolis were frustrations over Grand-Am officiating in general -- not just those unloaded at The Brickyard Grand Prix.

Bless his heart, Stallings tends toward stoicism and probably not the type of guy with whom one would care to play much poker.

However, life nevertheless has its "straws" (a.k.a., "hay," Zube, and not the thing through which one sucks).

On the flip side of that stoic coin, however, is "Vesuvius."

Patented by Kevin Doran's long unchallenged mastery of the pit-box frustration eruption (even though his practice of such has since considerably waned, supposedly attributable to Doran's adopting "Zen Golf"), all humans are prone to letting 'er rip when maximum snootfulls have been reached -- the main difference from one human to the next being the degree of tolerance and/or amount of annoyance encountered over various time periods.

Largely freeing his mind in 2006 of solely focusing on a driver's primary goals of "Go Fast" and "Then Go Faster," Stallings had the opportunity to think.

No, such isn't intended as a slap nor, even, hinted as a "bad" thing; Stallings long ago proved he could capably put mind to work and succeed.

Still, it's likely his "thinking too much" is that which drove Mrs. Stallings to send Mr. Stallings to a race-car driving school where Mr. Gurney was met, fast friendships followed and, well, the product of which today is in the pits.

If nothing else, in the intervening years Stallings felt he demonstrated exemplary public control of feelings while, for sure, the behind-the-scenes action wasn't nearly as cheery.

Stallings has long worked for changes within Grand-Am's business plan -- those which he thought best, of course -- but stayed with Grand-Am even when others within and soon without chose different paths.

On the racing side, the No. 99 GAINSCO Automobile Insurance car was the only real hope in the Rolex Series paddock that countered the juggernaut known as GASR, but which began to falter after its 2009 championship, falling ever shorter in the pursuit of a third Rolex Series championship.

Following their 2009 championship season, 2010 wasn't exactly an unexpected "off" year" for the Red Dragon squad, at least from this onlooker's present day retrospection, given that champions for whatever reason rarely repeat.

Other than a lack of wins going into 2010's ninth race at New Jersey Motorsports Park, where it would claim its first 2010-season win, the No. 99 team nevertheless was a top-10-finishing model of consistency despite one mid-April,13th-place bobble at Barber Motorsports Park.

(All things needing to be squared: In the 2010 championship Fogarty would finish third in the championship, Gurney fourth due to their 13th-place BMP finish, a DNF, at the end of which Gurney was denied points equal to that of his starting co-driver because Gurney fell short of getting a then-required "30-minutes driving time" as specified under Grand-Am General Sporting Rules 10.5 -- an inequity later deemed subject to modification by one of two exceptions presently listed in the rules section, but just one example of many rules that, well, didn’t seem quite right to Stallings in the first place.)

By 2011's ninth race (a 12-race schedule, as was 2010), the team had scored six top-five finishes, among which were five podiums and one win. Sitting third in points the team eventually finished fourth in the championship, despite a DNF at the final of three 2011 WGI races.

All in all not that bad . . . except if one expects only to win, win and win.

An odd thing, having thought of those two seasons as "poor," but to instead see that they were good enough that still others, having finished lower still, would've gladly accepted.

Arriving at Indy -- the ninth race of the current season -- Gurney, Fogarty and GAINSCO had beforehand this season only thrice finished in the top five and sat 10th in points. Safe to say the GAINSCO team wasn’t, hasn’t been terribly thrilled with the season as it went into Indy.

TRACK OUT

About the time the now-defunct Lola Daytona Prototype was nearing production, Jeff Hazell looked to build a better mousetrap, euphemistically speaking of course, and have it at the ready for the new DP.

In the simplest of explanations, car windows "fog," Hazell wished to defeat such.

Put another way: Water vapor condenses on a surface separating two dew points, whether that surface is on the interior of a windscreen (as those speaking the Queen's English would recogniz . . ., um, "recognise") or atop a bonnet, where one might place, say, a cold beverage, Hazell wished to defeat such.

Well, he probably didn't much care about the cold beer can -- unless atop his Ferrari Daytona 250 GTO, that is -- but he did wish to give his team an edge in a car-racing class where one needed to gain or at least retain every possible millisecond.

His work would later prove itself at a wet 2009 New Jersey Motorsports Park race when Krohn Racing drivers Nic Jönsson and Ricardo Zonta won going away -- in a car whose windscreen did not fog, even once -- by more than 44 seconds over the second-place SunTrust car of Max Angelelli and Brian Frisselle (man, if anyone wishes to talk about a darn good driver without a ride, try either of the Frisselle brothers). Already noted as being well behind, the race's three second-through-fourth DPs were covered by fewer than 10-seconds. Zonta’s margin of victory remains among the largest as yet seen in Daytona Prototype racing.

Surely, Jönsson and Zonta had the ability to drive in the wet -- as one is sure does also Gurney and Fogarty -- but seeing the road course helps, like, big time. No?

Frankly, it blows the mind that others haven't since beat a path to Hazell's door for his magic but humans undertake still more confusing behavior in matters of even greater importance.

In the driver's seat at Indy during one of the race’s various downpours, Gurney could hardly see beyond his car's windows when he realized his position relative to then pit-in entrance and dived for a pit road he'd been seeking and leading to his pit, ironically having a principal thought to rid his car of the vision-obscuring fog and making safer his windows. So, in the middle of a downpour, with windows fogged and literally in unfamiliar territory, Gurney erred and gave a few folks, including those watching, a pucker-up moment. But’s that’s all; “Pucker-up buttercup.”

Thus incurring penalty No. 1 and, inasmuch the second followed the first, penalty No. 2 and, inasmuch as it followed penalties Nos. 1 and 2, Bob Stallings ire.

There always being three sides to every story -- yours, mine and the “whole darn truth” -- someone needs to recognize that each side has a gripe. That each side's gripes now have been exacerbated by years of an ever-building number of gripes held by sides having solely heard their side and no one really, ardently or earnestly listening to the “other” side nor, even, a third angle's whole darn truth.

Like a marriage counselor who from one of the partners hears "he leaves hair in the sink" but knows the true difficulty lies elsewhere and is far deeper, each side in this matter will be best served by understanding that the now-manifested difficulties won't be superficial in understanding nor simply solved in their resolution.

But resolved they must be.

ANOTHER DOOR OPENS

"It's pretty amazing, but evidently there are enough people out there who think highly enough of us that we've been able to scrape together enough money to be at The Glen this weekend," Peter Baron said Thursday before the race.

Burning the telephone lines and email servers for the last couple of weeks, enough of the right folks learned about Enzo Potolicchio leaving Baron's Starworks Motorsport that the team owner has been able fund at least one more race for Scotland's best, Ryan Dalziel.

Who knows with whom he'll co-drive (Sebastien Bourdais or Lucas Luhr would make it a heckuva team, huh?). But even otherwise a chump, clearly established back in the days when Dalziel won at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with co-driver Henri Zogaib was Dalziel’s capability of successfully following a poor “opening hand.”

Beside Zogaib's clear lack of being able to speedily drive, Dalziel was able to take to the front a lapped car when he jumped in.

Insofar as Potolicchio is concerned, Baron insists the Venezuelan isn't in same sub-league as Zogaib.

"He (Potolicchio) was really bummed and angry over the Indy thing. I mean, I can understand because I'm still bummed over it," Baron said. “It’s really pretty tough to be mad at Potolicchio.”

"He and Ryan (Dalziel) had a legitimate chance at winning the North American Endurance Championship as well as the Rolex Series DP championship but those balloons were pretty well popped when (Juan Pablo) Montoya ran Ryan off the road."

"Enzo went out taking care a couple of full-season expenses” (which Baron felt he wasn't at liberty to specify) but Potolicchio couldn't or wouldn't cover all of them.

"I've been in similar situations so many times over the years that, you know, I pretty well know what to do," Baron said somewhat dejectedly but a moment later perked up with, "But it's really cool that people have jumped in to help in all sorts of ways that I didn't imagine would happen. That really touches me deeply."

Later,

DC