FALSIES

ROLEX 24 FALSEHOODS

Haywood Drove a 917 at Daytona

(Note: This is the first in a series of Rolex 24 falsies of however many Ol' DC cares to post. But, he figures at least one more will hit before The Seriously Big Race later this week. The links will whisk the clicker to exotic background material at least once or twice. They're mostly for Ed Bennett's sake, though, so he can gain a sense of the sport's background).

When one works closely enough to something, probably anything, it's surprising what others may see or for that matter not see and, even, see something where nothing such existed at all.

Thoughts of what is, isn't and couldn't have been recently arose during a question-and-answer (QnA) between The Fourth Estate Inquisitors Club and a couple of notable, accomplished sportscar drivers, both of whom having been around the sport a lot longer than many of the inquisitors.

One of the interrogators confused a couple of facts and spoke of them as having simultaneously occurred when they hadn't at all.

"Hurley, what was it like to drive a Porsche 917 back in the day?"

For all the considerable knowledge and great ability possessed and displayed by one Hurley H. Haywood, competitively driving a Porsche 917 wasn't among it, for he hadn't at all been at the wheel of a 917 (parade, show or "historic" laps notwithstanding) in either its or his "day."

Haywood might've, probably has driven a 917 since the car dominated its two Daytona 24 races (1970, 1971), but FIA rules would sunset Herr Doktor Norbert Singer's first contribution to his storied Porsche career about two years before Haywood became a household name of lofty enough stature to drive any factory backed Porsche.

(Bar Bet Material: No, Dr. Singer -- who has his own fan club, by the way -- didn't design the 917, but he did design the 917's ducting.)

(OL’ DC NOTE: As usual, when Ol’ DC blows it, he leaves the evidence trail intact. Thinking “Daytona” and “prototype” racing, Ol’ DC just up and totally forgot HHH’s 917-10 Can-Am days, even though Ol’ DC personally witnessed a few. So, in one way, Hurley did drive the 917 in his and a few other people’s “day.” But he still didn’t drive a 917K, or 917L, which were a different breed than the 917/10 and, eventually, the Porsche 917/30 that flat-out dealt a death blow to Can-Am. And I even possess personally shot pictures of Haywood in the Brumos 917. Bummer.)

Herr Doktor Singer's mind was at work hatching the 917's air-ducting system just about the same time, give or take, that Peter Gregg discovered Haywood in 1968 at a Jacksonville, Fla., SCCA autocross.

Haywood, driving a Corvette between college classes he'd soon, um, make like a tree and leave, had all but tripped over the autocross in a hunt to dispel boredom.

Gregg was at the same event for the purpose of breaking in a new Porsche being prepped for racing.

Haywood, not knowing any better, was unbothered by Gregg's already well-founded racing reputation and turned faster laps than did Gregg, who not only noticed someone did better than he but civilly talked with him.

In a much later, similar situation at Savannah, Georgia's Roebling Road Raceway in a new race car both drove (no, not at the same time, Menego), Haywood again was the faster of the two.

"He hired me on the spot," Haywood said of the aftermath.

Co-driving a 911S the two drivers afterward won their first race together at Watkins Glen International in 1969, after which Haywood involuntarily was on his way to a government job in a Southeast Asian paradise.

When Haywood returned to racing at the start of the 1971 season, the 24 Hours of Daytona was his first stop, the FIA long before that event having already mandated the 917's competitive demise, so angry were they with the Germans.

In 1971, two-driver teams were common to an international-level 24-hour race (23 of that year's 48 Daytona starters were such) so as a twosome, Gregg and Haywood were de rigueur in tackling the race without a third or fourth driver along for the ride in their No. 59 Brumos Porsche Audi Porsche 914/6 (#9140430705).

But they really wouldn't need one, either.

Qualifying 23rd, after 260 race laps something snapped mechanically (never does a Porsche engine fry; don't believe the race's official record keeping) and the pair finished 29th overall -- 428 laps in arrears to eventual winners Pedro Rodriguez (his fourth Daytona win) and Jackie Oliver, whose John Wyer No. 2 "ride" was one of four Porsche 917's on hand.

The good news? Gregg and Haywood finished nearly 150 laps ahead of Derek Bell and Jo Siffert's No. 1 John Wyer Porsche 917K and only 14 laps behind a 28th-place No. 4 917K driven by Vic Elford and Jonkheer Gijsbert van Lennep, Esq., who later in 1971 co-drove the same No. 3 Martini and Rossi 917 to a Le Mans win with Herr Doktor Helmut Marko (yes, that Helmut Marko) who co-drove with Rudi Lins at Daytona.

(BBM: In its 1970 Daytona debut, the Porsche 917K scored a victory with co-drivers Rodriguez, Leo Kinnunen and Brian Redman. Redman also finished second, driving a sister 917K. According to, well, the storytellers, Kinnunen had difficulty with understanding the Queen's English, as spoken by John Wyer and company. Having been repeatedly told to slow due to his massive lead but apparently not having a "clue," when Kinnunen next pitted for fuel Redman went in for two slower-driving stints so as to preserve the car for the finish. Of course, there are those who would say, even to this day, that Redman is slow, slow, slow anyway. Countering such fallacy was his later 1981 championship romp in the Flying Banana, aka the Cooke-Woods' Lola T600).

Insofar as Daytona and, especially, the FIA was concerned, when 1971 ended so, too, did the Porsche 917: two Daytona races; two Daytona wins; and, Daytona done.

The 917 was a helluva car having a legendary status rivaling that of axe-wielding Paul Bunyan's -- but even Herr Doktor Singer didn't rank it the equal, much less ahead of the Porsche prototypes that would follow. Then again, the following race cars would pretty much be "all" Herr Doktor Singer's whereas the 917 wasn't.

Before imaginative enhancement and following fantastic tales took hold, the Porsche 917 likely was more attributable to a boring racing climate fostered by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) than anything else.

In a series of moves during the years immediately preceding the 917's introduction at the March 13, 1969, Geneva International Motor Show, the FIA in June 1968 had come down hard on prototypes having large-displacement engines.

And who had kicked bootie with large-displacement engines? Exactly!

All sorts of behind-the-seen political reasons were cited for the FIA's almost complete sportscar racing rulebook rewrite (try to quickly say that three times, starting with "complete") but the FIA (with the ACO celebrating in the background) made it pretty clear American-based engineering was no longer welcome unless it first could "homologate" Yurrupean-sized engines. For goodness sakes, Ford's Pinto and Chevrolet's Vega both were a couple or three years still down the road.

Small-displacement engines!? At the time, frankly, yours truly was trying to just get his head around something called "cubic centimeters" and eventually would acquire a Vega to better understand it.

But liters?

Having unloaded on Zee Ameerikahns on the Atlantic Ocean's western shore, the French-dominated FIA hadn't given much consideration to chronic foe Germany (the reader does know France and Germany are historically acrimonious, no? Believe it: doubtful would be the recent collaborative resolve of France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel if not for a considerable fear of a collapse of the Yurrupean, oops, European Currency Unit, with such doing no good whatsoever for either country, especially Germany -- according to leading German economist Jörg Bergmeister, who happens to also drive a Porsche every now and again between economics lectures).

The result of the FIA's rules rewrite was a 800-kilogram (1764-pound), 5-liter homologated sports car class having a minimum build of 25-units.

It was a racing class that, in net effect, produced the world's first "supercar," the 917, because the class was intended for "street cars."

As known by anyone possessing at least some awareness of Porsche's glorious racing history, the company scrambled to produce their 25 examples of the 917 but only after the FIA learned of Porsche's intent to compete within its "S" or "Sports" (not "prototype") competition class and, most particularly, after learning that Porsche had only fully constructed six of the FIA's 25 required cars.

(A lot has been said, indeed, "urban myths" arose in a couple of cases, as to how Porsche met the minimum.

(Porsche's own story: Porsche "'had all the bits and pieces to build 19 more for the homologation,' according to Rico Steinemann, Porsche’s racing manager at the time, 'the FIA then decided, no!'

("'As all of the racing department’s resources were being utilized, the workers to build the cars would have to come from elsewhere.'

("'We put together apprentices, messenger boys, bookkeepers, office people and secretaries,' remembered Steinemann years later. 'Just enough people, taught just enough to put together 25 cars!'" - Source: "40 YEARS OF THE PORSCHE 917," Motorsport PR, official Porsche press release distributed Mar. 9, 2009.

(Author Randy Leffingwell's Porsche Legends not only possesses beautiful photography but has even more on the 917's origination, in "Porsche's" own words, as well as other interesting Porsche historical tidbits, as of the book's August 2002 publication.

Oh, yeah, the rest of the Haywood "early" story . . .

In 1973, driving a Brumos Porsche 911 Carrera RSR (given the 917 story: ironically entered as a prototype because it wasn't homologated), Haywood and Gregg won the Daytona 24 in an upset by besting supposedly "faster, better" 3.0-liter sports prototypes like the (N.A.R.T.) Ferrari 312P, a (factory) Matra-Simca, a (Reinhold Joest) Porsche 908 and a John Wyer Gulf-Mirage.

Haywood saw his and Gregg's Daytona 24 win in 1973 as that which "put my name on the international stage for the first time. It was when everyone really started paying attention to me," the overall Daytona 24 win leader said recently.

Haywood eventually added another four Daytona 24 victories to a longstanding record five that only now is being directly challenged by Scott Pruett, who has four wins overall (and five others in-class).

Although believing his name was thrust into worldwide circulation after his 1973 Daytona 24 win, people surely had started taking notice of "Haywood" by that time, he having won five "sprint" races during the preceding two seasons.

Among another three Daytona 24 podiums (1st, 1975; 3rd, 1976; 1st, 1977) Haywood would win an additional eight races among 24 total podium finishes in the series' following years before he'd go to Le Mans for the first time in 1977, winning at Circuit de la Sarthe with co-drivers Jürgen Barth and Jacky Ickx in the No. 4 Martini Porsche 936 (#77 001).

In a touch of irony, the fellow who "discovered" Haywood, "Peter Perfect," placed third in that year's 24 Heures du Mans (with co-drivers Jacques Borras and Claude Ballot-Lèna in a privateer Porsche 935).

Later,

DC

IT’S TIME

DAYTONA BEACH – Search the world for an opinion as to the one culture considered to have the most persistent romantically inclined males and, hands down, Italians rule.

Substitute "sports car" for "romance" in a similar search for "the most" or "the best" and, again hands down, Italians rule.

It seems only natural that an Italian appreciative of both worlds would wax metaphorically, as if the two actually were one, while he stood highest on the 1998 Rolex 24 At Daytona Victory Lane podium.

"For many years I think, 'Daytona doesn't love me,'" a suave, salt-and-pepper-haired, 50-something Italian male said in halting English about a race in the pursuit of which he had spent enough money to perhaps have bought not just one Rolex, but Rolex itself.

"I said, 'Well, Daytona is like a woman, I try again and again.'"

Having just won a race he'd been pursuing on and off for nearly 30 years, the Italian's win in a Ferrari 333SP likewise plied a 500-lb. winless-at-Daytona monkey from the back of Italian sportscar-maker Ferrari, who hadn't won at the famed track since another Italian, Lorenzo Bandini, and New Zealander Chris Amon won in it 1968 while driving a Ferrari 330P4.

A cheering throng, chanting "Moretti! Moretti!" had gathered around Daytona International Speedway's victory podium while Gianpiero Moretti wasted little time in fastening a new Daytona Cosmograph to his wrist (unlike today's winners who stiffly stand while photographers almost endlessly snap pictures of drivers displaying watches in boxes, "Right hand here; left hand there. That's right, just like everyone else," a brand manager endlessly coaches).

The watch secure to his wrist, the chant gave way to raucous victory cheers when Moretti thrust his fist into the air, co-drivers Mauro Baldi, Arie Luyendyk and Didier Theys heartily celebrating, backslapping their team owner -- who for the moment celebrated as much as might have Gaius Julius Caesar in claiming Rome after crossing the Rubicon.

Moretti wasn't interested in winning just any DIS race -- for in 1980, driving with Reinhold Jöst in a Porsche 935J, he'd won the season-ending sprint race at Daytona -- it was the Rolex 24 Moretti had fervently pursued and, in so doing, had grown a little older, a little slower and tired more easily.

Noting his weaknesses as much as his strengths, after wheeling two Saturday race stints Moretti handed the 1998 Rolex 24's Saturday night and early Sunday shifts to his three younger drivers.

On Sunday afternoon, with victory in sight, though, Moretti wanted to take the checkered flag and, most of all, drive the MOMO Ferrari into DIS' Victory Lane.

With just under an hour remaining in the race and the team having reversed an early race 18-lap deficit to a net eight-lap gain over second-place Rohr Motorsport's 911 GT1 Evo, team manager/part owner Kevin Doran called Baldi in for the car's final pit stop and driver change, whereupon Moretti climbed in with 50-minutes to go.

"This is a feeling I want to have. I want to see a picture of my car, me in the car in Victory Lane in Daytona," Moretti emphatically said after the 711-lap race. Clearly, he felt it was something he'd earned and wasn't about to blow the opportunity.

Fielding a reporter's following question, Moretti responded: "You ask me what I want to win, here or Le Mans? The answer is easy; if I win Le Mans, I will be happy." Then, raising his arm for all to see the Rolex on his wrist, he said, "No doubt, the Rolex is what I want. It has been my desire. Today, I did it!"

Moretti, having previously tried and failed 15 times to win the Rolex 24, was asked if he'd return for another go in 1999, so that he might have a Rolex for each wrist.

"I'm 58 in two months, it's time . . ." Moretti said, words failing him at that moment and his eyes welling with emotion.

Those who well knew Moretti were aware beforehand that the '98 race likely was his final Rolex 24 At Daytona. He was tired.

They knew that had Moretti not won he would at least know his best effort had been given, even if it meant defeat, as is sometimes the case in love for a woman. Indeed, some later opined, it may well have been his recognition of that being his last Daytona try; a soul-calming acceptance and resignation that made the win possible.

Finally, even though at times exasperated beyond despair in the past, he in 1998 would win the chase for his "love."

Moretti was a man of class, a man of his word and served well as the very definition of "gentleman racer" or, for that matter, "gentleman," alone.

On Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012 -- just two weeks shy of the 50th Anniversary of the race he loved and which 14 years ago finally loved him back -- gentleman Gianpiero Moretti passed.

"It's time . . ."

Later,

DC

AIN’T NO WAY!

Now that fait accompli is Lady Gaga in Times Square on New Year's Eve having had a ball with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is it too late to publish a 2011 "best" list?

Inasmuch as many astute motorsports journalists have already published top-10 lists focusing on various series and within which its "best" drivers, teams and etc., your humble scribe feels only somewhat compelled to do the same.

Thus, he digresses a bit with his simple yet distinctly complex, "AIN'T NO WAY!" Awards, the occurrence of that which follows being entirely haphazard.

After finally settling a reported monetary squabble originating in 2001 -- whether it hallucinatory, paid, forgiven or forgotten -- the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series' 2010 return to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin's Road America race track was delayed until 2011 (something had to give when vociferous cries arose for a "West Coast" race upon such being omitted with the 2010 schedule's original release).

After finally arriving in cheese-head land and those angered, roaring race car engines having since fallen silent, most everyone likely thought the race's highlight was Gunter Schaldach and Joe Foster taking wing at the 4-mile road course's Turn One perimeter.

Schaldach having flown his No. 07 TheCoolTV Camaro beyond it, while Foster, having been gently extracted from his No. 40 VisitFlorida.com Mazda, was soon thereafter flying, too -- albeit in a hospital-bound helicopter.

While it was the kind of crash that makes onlookers cringe and sponsors cheer (exposure, exposure, exposure) and women swoon, your scribe deigns to disagree that "flying" surprise trumped all else at Road America's 2011 Rolex Series race.

Nope, the race's biggest surprise started coming together when No. 31 Whelen Engineering Corvette regular driver Boris Said temporarily booked it to Fairytale Land, alternately known as California or "The Left Coast," so as to compete in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

(Should anyone think Greece and the Euro to be a big deal, just wait 'till the un-Golden State implodes.)

Thus short one of its "A-Team" drivers, Marsh Racing paired John Heinricy with its "other" A-driver, Eric Curran.

An engineer and a retired GM High Performance Vehicles director who over the years has squeezed in a couple-hundred-or-so car races, The HeinRocket didn't disappoint, placing the unfamiliar Corvette on the race's second row.

Upon Heinricy's race-shift conclusion, co-driver Curran was presented with a healthy car for a finishing push that ended at the absolute front of the Rolex Series' Road America Grand Touring field.

Considering the team had in nine 2010 races (missing the Rolex 24, HMS and DIS 2) averaged a 14.4 finish and, though albeit better, a 9.6 average finishing position in 2011's five races prior to Road America, thus emerged was one of 2011's biggest surprises, barely edging "Ain't No Way!" second-place finisher Team Sahlen.

AIN'T NO WAY!

Coincidentally occurring at the same track, Road America, and the same race, the Rolex Sports Car Series Driven by VisitFlorida.com, Nonnamaker Racing's three Sahlen-sponsored Mazda RX-8 cars, lacking relative straight-line speed, had to lean heavily on carving and cutting the famed 4-mile Road America course into bits and pieces, not unlike a butcher at work.

"We came in here (Road America) concerned about our being down on power, especially with this track's long straights, so we concentrated on getting the car to turn," team engineer Catherine Wallace said after Wayne Nonnamaker and his No. 42 Sahlen Mazda RX-8 scored his first top qualifying spot since a 2004 SGS (defunct) class pole at Daytona International Speedway.

Employing a deft pit strategy during the 13-lap, 50-minute caution that followed Gunter Schaldach's No. 07 TheCoolTV Chevrolet Camaro's tangle with Joe Foster's No. 40 VisitFlorida.com Mazda RX-8, the team's newly enlisted MazdaSpeed Ladder driver John Edwards -- who too often fails to appear on "best driver" lists not because he isn't -- drove the No. 42 Mazda to a second-place finish fewer than 6/10ths of one second behind winner Eric Curran's No. 31 Whelen Corvette.

AIN'T NO WAY!

Third in the most-competitive-to-date Ain't No Way Awards (even if this be the first ANWA) is a team that over the last two seasons scored back-to-back, fourth-place GT team championship finishes but still was mostly, if not completely shuttered at 2011's end.

For 2010, James Gué and Leh Keen teamed to drive the newly formed No. 41 Team Seattle/Global Diving & Salvage Mazda RX-8.

Harbored in Norcross, Ga., along with Dempsey Racing's No. 40 VisitFlorida.com Mazda RX-8 sister car, the team was comprised mostly of new-to-Dempsey personnel who, in only their second race, would score a podium finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Though all Mazda RX-8s labored in 2011 relative to 2010's rules, a well-prepared car, devoted pit work and a mighty fine pit-side folding table, atop which the No. 41's engineer, crew chief and team manager toiled, Gué and Keen, on their way to a fifth place in the GT driving championship, delivered 11 top-10, six top-5 and four podium finishes that first season, capped by an unforgettable Crown Royal 250 win at Watkins Glen International -- Dempsey Racing's first in the Rolex Series.

After 2010's trophies were distributed in Las Vegas, 2009 GT-champion Keen, for some odd reason, opted for Brumos Racing's hallowed ground for the 2011 season.

Staying put at Dempsey for 2011, Gué was joined by up-and-coming 23-year-old Dane Cameron, who's compiled multiple rookie-of-the-year awards and as well as championships, simultaneously collecting both in the 2007 Star Mazda season.

After the Mazda RX-8 platform claimed 4-of-5 and 6-of-10 of corresponding 2010 Rolex Series GT team championship's top spots, a manufacturer's title and top driver awards, Grand-Am here and there massaged a few rule book words and, viola (Italian for "wah-lah," Menego; ask Max), a "more competitive GT environment" emerged for 2011. Restated: A similar Mazda RX-8 traffic jam atop the GT championship ladder wasn't particularly desired for 2011.

Indeed, Mazda scored only 3-in-5 and 4-in-10 of the final top-10 team championship spots, yet the No. 41 of Cameron and Gué conjured precisely the same fourth-place end of year team championship as had it in 2010.

The third-highest ranked of eight Mazda GT teams in 2010, the Cameron and Gué-led team improved by one spot to finish second best of the eight Mazdas competing in 2011.

Insofar as the 2011 drivers' championship was concerned, Gué and Cameron actually finished one spot better than did Gué and Keen -- fourth vs. fifth, respectively.

Though more occurred behind the scenes than does meet the eye above, walking papers ultimately were handed to a group of otherwise very talented people.

A necessary thing, ego, but never so important that in its maintenance all else should fail.

AIN'T NO WAY!

Honorable Mentions:

For the 2010 Rolex Sports Car Series season Autohaus Motorsports poked its GT nose out of the shop door only five times -- a few as a Pontiac GTO.R; a couple as a Camaro.R -- and finished a best 11th place at the season-ending Tooele, Utah race.

Something good must've happened in the offseason -- perhaps the team acquiring the driving services of Jordan Taylor and Bill Lester -- because the team by the 2011 season's end was leading a tight championship battle having only a five-point spread among the top-3 contenders as the Rolex Series arrived at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

The championship was Autohaus' to lose which, in a gut wrenching single-car spin at Mid-O's wicked, three-turn complex just before pit straight, it did.

Autohaus, Lester and Taylor would lose the team and driving championships by two points, respectively, to Brumos Racing and its drivers, Andrew Davis and Leh Keen.

No matter who; no matter how, it had to hurt, and badly so.

Speaking of First-Year, Championship-Winning Teams . . . They aren't supposed to accomplish as much; "developing" for "next year" usually being the song sung.

Sure, any race team wants to win. A race car driver worth his or her salt truly believes such will happen, in fact.

The reality is that a first-year team has a lot of kinks to shake out and while one might do well here and there, the idea of winning a championship mostly is fodder for jokes and sarcasm because few debuting teams will climb so high as the pinnacle in Year No. 1.

Or, so such is supposed to be and which the Brumos Racing team evidently ignored, never mind altogether disproving in 2011.

Yet, early in 2011 it was a point this writer hardly had considered yielding, especially after the season's third race at Barber Motorsports Park, before which Brumos scored fifth and seventh-place finishes at Daytona International Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway, respectively.

After the Rolex Series had called it a day, Ol' DC remained afterward to watch Friday's final Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge practice from BMP's picturesque Turn 2-3 complex.

Upon its end and a return to the Rolex Series' paddock Ol' DC found himself surprised to be strolling along a string of mostly closed haulers, excepting one.

Parked perpendicular to the team transporter's rear, Brumos Racing's iconic No. 59 Porsche GT3 Cup car sat in the paddock roadway, flanked on the driver's side by a shoulder-to-shoulder Brumos crew that, other than being neatly aligned and handling all manner of pit side essentials, appeared fully prepared to party hardy.

Filling the surrounding air were no fewer than a half-dozen different conversations, from which laughter occasionally arose, nearly all of the assembled crew seemingly oblivious as to the reason for their being there.

A first stab at a pit stop practice lasted all of about 8 seconds before Joe LaJoie called for everyone to get serious and at least try to make good another following attempt.

And another.

All took next-to-forever, according to Ol' DC's stopwatch -- really, it's right there on the watch's face, between "Sometime Today" and "Eternal Damnation" -- and they hadn't even attempted a driver swap.

A couple-more similar record-setting attempts set off Ol' DC's stomach, which commenced growling, "feed me!" and in the pursuit of satiating he proceeded to saunter away.

After Brumos' Saturday race finish of 20th overall and 10th in class it wasn't really too hard to imagine that the team in 2011 would do exactly what so many other teams had done in the past: "prepare" for a following year by "getting experience" and learning where to "improve weak points."

So much for "imagination."

Later,

DC

ALL(MENDINGER) OF THE STORY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“But still . . .”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Later,

DC

SPEED, WHAT SPEED?

DAYTONA BEACH – Gawd, what an absurdity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well, at least the morning started with great promise.

Later,

DC

CHANGING THE GAME

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

For now.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oops.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Later,

DC

FEAR AND LOATHING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MATING CALL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HANGING AT CONTINENTAL, BOOTH 43425

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

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

A SPONSOR PARADISE?

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

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

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

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

Later,

DC

Somewhere Over The Good Ol' US of A –

On the way to SEMA in Las  Vegas . . .

SCHEDULE TIME

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

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

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

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

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

KROHN DOES AND, MAYBE, DOES NOT DAYTONA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE NEW CORVETTE DP

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

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

MY FAVORITE ROLEX 24 PICS

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

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

Later,

DC

ON THE TRACK AGAIN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yep.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Later,

DC

DEMPSEY GONE?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So where's the team's weak spot?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Later,

DC

DAN WHELDON, RIP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And miss.

Later,

DC