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