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