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

CAN YOU SAY "OVERKILL?"

10,600-some-odd.

That's the number of occurrences, as determined by a Google search undertaken over the past weekend in which were included the terms "Allmendinger," "NASCAR" and "stimulant, defined as amphetamine, methamphetamine, Ecstasy (MDMA), Eve (MDEA), MDA, PMA, Phentermine, and other amphetamine derivatives and related compounds."

Whew!

Frankly, your correspondent thought the last in-quotation-marks "object" would've contained enough and specifically ordinal words so as to be the search's death knell, perhaps then only returning a few hits and, more likely expected a, "Huh!? 'Sup wit you, dude?"

Instead returned in the results were the equal of one story appearing on The Web every minute for seven consecutive days' worth of ‘round-the-clock hours, with leftovers.

Yet, the requested oldest of the 10,600-some-odd stories originated only four days prior to the performed search.

Granted, some of the stories may have solely arisen from one source, like the Associated Press, so there weren't 10,600-some-odd stories anew.

But there were 10,600-some-odd times the search terms simultaneously appeared within stories, along with a heckuva lot of cutting and pasting of that last defined search term.

As much as this author may think himself a speed-reader (as compared to, say, a literate tortoise of some sort) he wasn't going to even attempt reading a sizeable fraction of those 10,600-some-odd stories. Yet, a spot check revealed very rare in-story references to NASCAR's ability, as stated in the same NASCAR Sprint Cup Series substance abuse chapter (specifically, 19-4-B), that the program administrator, medical review officer and "NASCAR" can theoretically deem any substance as abused, dangerous, detrimental to the sport and so on.

This observer of the situation believes the distinction important, because commonly encountered drugs like "nicotine" -- arising from a chemical class known in general as alkaloids and in which cocaine is likewise chemically classified, if not "statutorily," BTW) -- and in which fully a quarter of the U.S. population many times daily, um, "indulges," easily is among those drugs which in its "abused" usage is considered a "stimulant."

(Nicotine is a widely available drug absent of prescription requirements.)

An excerpt from Section 19-1 of the NASCAR substance abuse policy specifically states: "NASCAR prohibits the misuse of alcohol, prescription drugs, and any other substance used in a manner that affects safety or impacts the integrity of the competition, including -- but not limited to -- illegal or performance enhancing substances." (italics added)

In Section 19-4: "Prohibited Substances - For the purpose of this policy, prohibited substances are those substances that, in the PA's (program administrator) and MRO's (medical review officer) determination, in consultation with NASCAR (nascar), may adversely affect the safety and well-being and performance of a NASCAR Member at a NASCAR Event, including without limitation illegal drugs." (italics and parenthetical notes are added)

Notice the preceding citations pretty well cover the bases on the legal and illegal sides. Thus, the reason 2012 NSCS Rulebook Section 19 is partially entitled "substance" and not specifically "illegal drug" abuse. It's a catch-all that can nail a competitor, theoretically, for having eaten too much ice cream.

"Outlandish!" you enjoin?

Not if the driver may have a contrary or "allergic" reaction to milk fat. Imagine such occurring in the middle of Daytona International Speedway's 31-degree banking.

"Stupid!" is the rejoinder.

Not should a negative reaction lead to the carnage of innocents.

This writer, hisownself, as a youngin' went into anaphylactic shock after ingesting alpha S1-casein protein. We're talking ambulances, sirens, flashing lights, hospitals and edge-of-death stuff that afterward led to years of goat-milk drinking. All from a simple swig of cow’s milk. (BTW: the preceding condition and “lactose intolerant” aren’t the same.)

"C'mon! How many times might that happen!?"

Few, if the percentage of milk-triggered negative immune-system reactions is measured against a population's whole, but one cannot entirely rule out something merely for the sole reason of a probable rare occurrence -- especially when such may involve great risk to participants and fans, alike.

Can you say, "commercial aircraft" and "World Trade Center?"

Somebody did not at one time.

How about "commercial aircraft" and "no firearms allowed" when, in the case of 9-11, razor-sharp box cutters got through airport screeners, legally?

In short, that which a general citizen may routinely employ to effect an end result -- such as grabbing a cigarette (nicotine) just after silencing an end-of-sleep alarm clock -- may no longer fly insofar as NASCAR is concerned, especially should a member of that organization fail to precisely discern such on paperwork accompanying an annual request for membership or, put more commonly, a "hard card."

The Allmendinger camp probably was ill-advised to release, even though having done so in good faith, anything that connected him and "stimulant" because its greatest "stimulation" was to cause a rush to judgment by those who were quick to place Allmendinger in some crack shack -- instead of otherwise awaiting the whole deal's conclusion.

What else is new in a society that impolitely taps its foot when someone else is using the break-area microwave for all of 90-seconds?

Later,

DC

A GIANT IS GONE

It is said that good things are built on the backs of giants.

If such be the case, the racing community lost one of its giants Wednesday -- albeit a quiet one.

Motorsports has been built through those who have stepped forward and said, "I'll do it," regardless of whatever "it" may be, have been or will be.

Many, if not most have done it not for the pay, but because of the sport. A love, perhaps an even inexplicable love for the sport.

Indeed, if not for those "volunteers" -- a descriptive word that falls way short of describing the feeling inside of those performing the service -- it's doubtful the sport would exist today, absent of some stray traffic light or back-road country lane challenge (indeed, it would be reasonably argued, it's probable far fewer of those dangerous activities occur because of organized motorsports).

One of the most interesting aspects of motorsports -- and this writer believes sportscar racing is heads-and-tails above any other activity -- is its attraction to a broad socio-economic, demographic cross section of its participants, whether in the cockpit or pit lane.

In the Rolex Series -- about which this writer writes because he knows no other as well -- just about every professional discipline, and specialists within a larger discipline are found not only in the car but toiling in sportscar racing's pits.

Indeed, your correspondent knows a doctor who has for at least a decade worked for one prominent team, taking time, multiple days, away from his practice each time a Rolex Series race is scheduled. He does whatever is needed to be done, grunt work included.

Another of those "elsewhere" professionals in the 1990's began his sportscar involvement working for Bob and Bill Riley after following in the footsteps of his older brother.

The two brothers were so doggone good at their jobs that they've seen very nearly every major worldwide racetrack from where most sportscar fans would give much to be -- from the inside.

"It's a dream-come-true," the little brother said earlier this year when asked by a reporter about working in a pressure-cooker environment, the Rolex 24 At Daytona, with his family.

"We're truly fortunate because we get to do something together, as brothers, and with my son, Ian. We're a tight-knit family."

Mark Menego, little brother to Jim Menego and a very proud father of Ian Menego, unexpectedly passed on Wednesday, July 11.

Technology sales director for Herr-Voss Stamco at the time of his death, the Penn State grad remained true blue. Period.

So "blue," though, that he also wore the color on race day while in the SunTrust pits -- his last race being this month's Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen.

This pit wanderer, who has known the Menego family for but a few years but who feels as though a decades-long part of that family, can remember Mark Menego not smiling about two or three times.

Always a smile on that man's face. Always.

It's an odd thing, but on Wednesday past, this writer, sitting before his laptop with fingers poised above the keyboard, suddenly thought of the three Menegos simultaneously, thinking "what a truly wonderful family they are."

And then he learned of Mark's death.

Three guys; all family; one following the other, all deeply dedicated to racing -- and to each other.

A family now one less, such seems so implausible when one considers Mark was all of 54 years; vibrant, youthful.

Such age seems, like, forever or, perhaps, "ancient" to someone half that age.

Myself well above that age, one almost expects everyone should live through it. Especially one of the world's genuinely good guys, from whom this person never, ever heard a bad word spoken.

May God rest your soul, Mark Menendez.

Later,

DC

ROAD TO RECOVERY, Duex

Should the reader be otherwise divorced of shocking, damn-near unbelievable motorsport news: A.J. Allmendinger has been nailed for having in some manner violated NASCAR's Substance Abuse Policy.

Before someone starts with the "crystal meth" stuff, someone else hollers back "crack" or still some other person goes ape with "Δ9-THC!" please take the time to consider that NASCAR's Substance Abuse Policy isn't quite as simple as Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No!" because there easily exists more than a few ways one can violate the "policy."

Otherwise, exactly why, pray tell, does one need to explain "Just Say No!" using roughly 6,000 words?

Yep, six big ones.

THE FACTS, JACK

An otherwise unannounced "bodily fluids" sample was taken at random from Allmendinger (and, by inferred practice, four additional drivers, 10 crewmembers and five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series officials) while NASCAR was hanging at Kentucky Speedway (June 30, give or take).

The generally accepted sampling procedure includes capturing a sufficient bodily fluid quantity so as to enable a second test if demanded by a believed policy violator.

About one week later at Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR competition vice-president Steven O'Donnell told those who would tell the world of Allmendinger's failed test and NASCAR's rendering an immediate "temporary" 72-hour suspension.

The suspected substance abuser can within that time period ("three days," Menendez) exercise a number of options, including the aforementioned secondary test (not "retest"), to executing an admission agreement and entering into treatment, Aegis Sciences Corporation "Road to Recovery," which NASCAR's Substance Abuse Policy states as being "tailored to the needs" of the inculpated ("accused" seems, well, "damning," no?). All things considered, Hosni Mubarak is more likely to reemerge as Egypt's leader than will the original test results be overturned.

One supposes also available to Allmendinger is his letting rip a rendition of a particular Johnny Paycheck song, though doubtful would be its execution given the sheer weight of involved money, reputations and that prima facie evidence -- Jeremy Mayfield -- points to futility in successfully fighting a NASCAR suspension, especially given that Mayfield's fight has succeeded to the equal extent of tossing across a room NASCAR's Mike Helton.

EXCUSE ME, BUT WHERE AM I?

Who on God's Green Earth hasn't seen "Vacation," the 1983 National Lampoon masterpiece starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid and "Aunt Edna" (Imogene Coca)?

Still, somewhere along the "Griswold" family's journey to fictional Walley World, patriarch "Clark" (Chase) makes the first of many seriously wrong turns into a ghetto, within moments changing a fresh-off-a-dealer-lot "Family Truckster" automobile into an everyday graffiti-riddled, hubcap-less ghetto chariot.

The incident merely served as an introduction to many more, um, uncomfortable moments to come inasmuch as announced on the eve of his 72-hour response period's end -- and probably not before tens-of-thousands in attorney fees were already spent -- was Allmendinger's desire to have the second sample tested. Allmendinger was described as "dumfounded" and "shell-shocked" in the aftermath of NASCAR's action, Allmendinger's business manager, Tara Ragan, told the AP's Jenna Fryer late Monday.

"Vacation" kinda reminds of where Allmendinger is now; somewhere between the ghetto gangstas and the, er, "enhanced" Truckster's return to earth after later launching from an asphalt highway's abrupt termination.

For sure, the Griswold car's axle-bending, suspension twisting impact wasn't the end of their "adventure" any more than the end of this week -- presumably when the B-sample results are made available -- will close Allmendinger's woes. The sad part about the comparison of the two is that "Vacation" was fictional but Allmendinger's is a bad, bad dream to which he'll repeatedly awaken in the real world for an indeterminate time – one that’ll time and again feel like an eternity to he and those around him.

And before Allmendinger's blind-faith defenders get in a wad, there really is a moment in time when it's best to accept reality and move along -- which Allmendinger is hopefully doing while the second test is being undertaken in the lab.

If played correctly, Allmendinger's exercise of the second-test option will allow a fuller exploration of his options and, most importantly, a cooling of emotions because that initial three-day "temporary suspension" period hardly affords sufficient time to catch one's breath when life itself has suddenly jumped from one lane to another quicker than a race car heading northeast at full-tilt-boogie on Daytona International Speedway's SuperStretch.

POLICY MATTERS

Section 19 of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2012 Rule Book is the part dealing with substance abuse and tells its readers a number of things over its nearly 10 pages of figurative and literal "fine print." (By the way: "Grand-Am Substance Abuse Policy 2012" is found here.)

Sub-section 19-3 defines those who are subject to the policy, stating that, "Although this Policy is intended to apply principally to drivers, mechanics and crew members (hereinafter 'Competitor' or 'Competitors') as well as NASCAR Officials as determined by NASCAR … all other NASCAR Members are required to adhere to NASCAR's Substance Abuse Policy and are subject to reasonable suspicion testing . . ." (italics added). In short: Those who hold NASCAR hard cards beware.

Add to the above Section 19-3A, which adds that "NASCAR will regularly test any Competitor or Official whose performance at a NASCAR Event potentially affects the safety of themselves, other NASCAR Members, spectators and guests, including but not limited to: NASCAR Officials and Competitors . . ."

More or less continuing the theme is Section 19-3-B, but which slightly switches gears and provides for "the testing of those competitors ". . . whose use of illegal or performance enhancing drugs (PED) or substances could alter or enhance . . ." a competitors ability " . . . to create an unfair advantage or impact the integrity . . ." of the competition. (italics added)

Well, given the inclusion of not necessarily illegal "performance enhancing drugs," there goes the steroids or, perhaps, available-almost-everywhere milk thistle. Really. Milk thistle is a herbal product touted, among 23,437 other things, as “enhancing brain function.”

How can NASCAR ban an otherwise licit substance along with the illicit or, for that matter, any substance at all?

On the simplest level -- the one at which are found those whose life goal is to damn any capitalistic enterprise for any number of reasons -- because NASCAR allows itself sufficient latitude to do as it will so as to protect and defend the "franchise."

Oh, NASCAR will at times use the term "stakeholder," here, or "stakeholders," (the plural form, Menendez) there, but it's "the business" as a whole that is and should be getting protected.

"Stakeholder," though, has a stuffy feeling to it when the folks who have an interest in NASCAR's success go well beyond just Richard Childress, Jack Roush, Coach Gibbs or the capitalist's capitalist, Roger Penske.

All things considered, NASCAR not only has the right but responsibility to protect its business because of the tens-of-thousands, if not hundreds-of-thousands and, probably, millions of people dependent on those cars making left turns at the sanctioning body’s points-paying races each year.

Yes, the Family France makes money. Good money at that. But so, too, do a lot of others: hoteliers, restaurateurs, the grocery stores who supply food for those who wish not to eat at the restaurants, or the campground owners who cater to those who like to "rough it" in $250,000 RVs purchased from some dealer somewhere and built by men and women who, in turn, wish to attend the very same race as that made possible by the expertise of the Family France.

The whole gig is one seriously huge circle and one guy shouldn't be allowed to screw it up.

Now, such is not to say that Allmendinger has attempted to do so, consciously or subconsciously; whether with malice and forethought or entirely absent of malice and having no forethought of anything other than showing up and racing.

However, there are a whole bunch of folks who, after having recklessly caused a life-ending accident, invariably will say, "I didn't mean to" or "I didn't know . . ."

Those words, however true -- and they certainly can be -- or sorrow filled and deeply felt, have ever repaired damage incurred before having been said.

Maybe NASCAR is wrong here . . . but maybe it isn't.

Those who aren't disposed of finding conspiracies around every corner will likely think it altogether doubtful that someone within NASCAR or its "drug police" awoke on or about Saturday, June 30, and said, "Let's take out A.J., today! He's such a likeable guy!"

In the end, NASCAR is trying its best to do the right thing. In the end, all will work out if those with good intentions -- and, thankfully, there are many in this world having such -- will focus on doing the right thing by helping those who not only need help, but who sincerely want that help.

Remember: May he who has never missed a shift cast the first transmission.

Later,

DC

ROAD TO RECOVERY, Part One

MOSTLY QUOTES

AN UNPARALLELED PERSON

"A.J. has driven for me for seven years, I stand behind AJ 100-percent . . . I . . . I . . . just don't how to put it," said an emotional Mike Shank (at far right, below, with Allmendinger behind) who was trying his best to put into just a few words all of what flooded his mind about a friend, a driver and, at still other times, a business associate.

A.J. Allmendinger, who with Shank, Ozz Negri, John Pew and Justin Wilson earlier this year teamed to win the 50th Rolex 24 At Daytona, is in trouble of a kind that only would a true friend care to belly-up and help shoulder a burden, whatever that burden may be.

"He's been a vital part of my business for seven years and a large reason behind our winning the 24 hours," Shank continued, talking about what is the most important win to date in Michael Shank Racing's history.

"Time after time, for years we came so close to winning that race only to come up short, but A.J. was loyal, wouldn't leave the team. Even when I told him there wouldn't be any hard feelings if he left. A.J. stayed with me. He not only stayed with me, he bucked me up when I was down, said we'd get it someday.

“Well, I don’t care what’s going on, I’m not leaving him."

But did A.J. at any time give any reason to believe, any indication that he was somehow transgressing?

"No. And I say it with 100-percent certainty, and I have been around him a lot; I mean a lot," Shank parsing and emphasizing each of his four preceding words.

"I've been around him in all scenarios, from race day to flat-out having fun on a Friday night, and I've never, ever, ever seen A.J. do anything, overtly or otherwise, that would even remotely give me any sort of suspicion or clue that A.J. was doing anything wrong. This guy has never, ever lived anything but a clean life, in what I've seen, in what I've heard, in what I personally and professionally know about him."

"A.J.'s made a huge positive contribution to my business, to my personal life and to the lives of those he's known."

"No matter the outcome he will always be my friend. Always."

LOOK AT ALL THE PEOPLE

"AJ's an amazingly talented guy. I'm not sure what happened or why," John Pew, reached while in British Columbia, said.

"But I can't help but think about all the people who are hurting right now because they love A.J. because of what he's done for them. He's done a lot for me, taught me a lot, helped me win the biggest race in my life," Pew said, recalling the 50th Rolex 24 At Daytona and the winning Michael Shank Racing entry the two shared (pictured above flanking Rolex 24 trophy: Pew nearest left; Allmendinger, nearest right) along with longtime co-driver Oswaldo Negri Jr. (far right) and open-wheel, IndyCar Series star Justin Wilson (left).

"A.J.'s got a wonderful heart and remembers where he came from, a working-class background with parents who sacrificed a lot to help get him into racing's highest ranks. You know, to that end A.J. set up his Walldinger (Racing) scholarship to help those in similar situations.

"Kyle Kirkwood (recipient of an A.J. Allmendinger Karting Scholarship) was in Indiana for the MKP Nationals this past weekend because of A.J.'s help. I know his family, too, they're all wonderful people. They just think the world of A.J., as we all do. A.J.'s got a lot of people in his corner."

"I care a lot about A.J., he's a great guy and I would do whatever I can do to help him.

"Right now only A.J. truly knows what's going down. But if it's really as bad as it appears, if it turns out that the test was accurate, then when he comes out of the other side Roger (Penske) should give AJ another chance. I know I won't hesitate to do it."

HE AIN'T HEAVY, HE'S MY BROTHER

"First and foremost, I'm nobody to judge anybody. Second, I am a friend and a fan of A.J.," Ozz Negri (pictured at far left with John Pew, right) said from his Miami-area home.

"I'll will never drop a friend because I am a friend both in good times and bad.

"That does not mean I agree with all the things that a friend may do, but I am here to help my friends because my friends help me. That's what friendship is all about. It's not about (being) 'convenient.'”

"There are some people who can, who are able to bear a heavier cross than others; people who can tolerate stress better than others. It's not to say that I believe A.J. is in such a situation, but we don't know, we just don't know what kind of situation he's going through.

"I know I'm sad, not for myself, but for A.J. and what he's having to go through. I'm not talking about who is right or who is wrong, but the situation itself. I wish A.J. didn't have to go through it, no matter the reason.

"When you don't know the circumstances it's very hard for me to judge others. So, we cannot judge; we can only help."

"The thing that makes relationships stronger, any relationship whether marriage, or family or friends, true friends, isn't the good times, it's being able to get through the bad times as a husband and wife, as a family and as a friend.

"Third, and this is one of the highest compliments, I think, I can pay to anyone: A.J.'s a guy I would have in my car at any time.

"I've known AJ (above left with Wilson, right) since he first jumped into Karting. I watched him and came to like and admire him; his ability; his love for racing.

"A.J. has a talent few others share. One of the things that I most worry about now is A.J.'s love of racing. If racing is taken away from him, well, I just don't know what'll happen . . .

"But A.J. is my friend. He is my brother. I am here for him."

                 

Later,

DC

THROUGH THE NOTEBOOK DARKLY

 

DOUBLING UP

The Watkins Glen International post-Sahlen’s Six-Hour media-room news conference was positively bubbly, darn-near giddy when was the subject of tires arose.

Usually dreaded by some and feared by others, the rote question inevitably comes when a tire manufacturer’s PR flak arises to ask those present a question whose answer is specifically intended to generate positive comments no matter how poorly a race car’s tires may have performed.

In defense of tire manufacturers, much of a tire’s (or shock absorbers or widget’s) performance, good or bad, is found the manner in which the tire is used: an engineer can establish right or wrong numbers; a mechanic can set the wrong numbers; one driver may be particularly adept with a setting, while his cohort may hate it. Like the drag-racing, brake-stomping wannabe street racer who complains his purported 70,000-mile tire got only 10k (or that his gas mileage isn’t anywhere close to CAFE standards), one doesn’t know what a driver will say until it is heard. Of course, the odds of something positive coming out are vastly improved when faced is a winning race car driver. (At above left: Gratuitous Patrick Dempsey picture. But, really, he is a handsome chap.)

Much like a revolver’s spinning cylinder in a game of Rooskie Roulette, when the tire company’s PR flak puts the subject on the table by pulling the question’s trigger, one doesn’t quite know what the report may bring.

Usually disposed of giddiness whether from too much carbon monoxide, the lingering aftereffects of massive testosterone dosages or having actually consumed champagne between sprays, winners have been known to become whiners when the subject of tires is broached and the simple task of getting positive tire comments rarely goes beyond monotones that, when actually heard and not read (rhymes with "red"), sound something akin to a dental patient’s moan.

At The Glen, the question quickly turned into an orgy of, "I wanna answer first!" the comments, coming fast and furious (oops, now a bad phrase, huh?) as everyone on the podium wanted to answer at the same time, were effusive in praise of Continental Tires having often lasted two stints, having grip and so on - none of it being trash talk or monotone praise.

For Sheri Herrmann, The Glen ‘twas a good day. Then again, just about every race day is a good day this year for Herrmann.

BIG HEARTS BEWARE

Crusty and proud of it is Brad Francis, a motorsports hall-of-famer who has been overseeing Jack Roush Junior's racing efforts since the chip off of "senior's" block got deeply involved in the sport.

After the heavily penalized (not points; just an ability to gain those points) Roush Performance No. 61 Ford Mustang Boss 302R (below, left) fell well short of taking the checkered flag in the CTSCC race at The Glen a week after scoring a second place at Road America, Francis noted that this sport can have its ups and, especially, downs.

"Don't be in racing if you don't have a big heart," Francis said when nearly all around him were wailing the blues.

SEE THE FUTURE

Speaking of Roush Performance . . .

Billy Johnson is a name some may have heard by now and, likely, even more haven't.

Such condition really shouldn't last long, especially since Will Turner started using Johnson services at this year's Rolex 24.

Things kind of went awry at the Rolex 24 when Johnson's car, shared with Bill Auberlen and Paul Dalla Lana (who as an "amateur" ain't that bad) died hardly after sundown Saturday.

A rarity for a BMW (unless it's a BMW-March GTP) or, more so, a Turner-prepared BMW, the threesome came back at Watkins Glen in the second leg of the inaugural North American Endurance Championship, at the end of which (Indy, in fact) some serious money will divvied between the top finishers.

Scoring a third place in GT,

Before that, however, Johnson's been teamed in a Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge GS Ford Mustang Boss 302R with Jack Roush Jr. since middle-2009.

If you need any proof of this Cal-Tech degreed youngster's abilities, just take some time to watch the No. 61 Roush Performance Mustang sometime, usually during the second shift of the CTSCC race.

There are some in this business who have a pretty good track record of identifying talent and, to a person, they like what they see in Johnson.

CHALLENGING PEW

Now that Enzo Potolicchio, who with Ryan Dalziel,co-drives the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Ford-Riley, has overtaken John Pew in the race for the season-long Jim Trueman Award for the best "amateur" race car driver.  Pew, who along with Oswaldo Negri Jr., drives Michael Shank Racing’s No. 60 LiveOn.com Ford-Riley and is the awards defending recipient, even if he doesn't wish to be. (Below right, L-R, Negri, Pew, Shank)

Pew's an odd soul who doesn't want, doesn't like to be compared on an amateur level as much as a professional level.

“I could go elsewhere and drive something that has some level of competitive compensation or, put another way, that gives amateur drivers an advantage a pro doesn’t have (such as tires having more grip) but I’m not interested in competing on a ‘special’ level. To me, a win is hollow if I get different equipment than the others get. I want to be able to compare myself, to test myself directly against a Scott Pruett or an Alex Gurney,” Pew said.

Yet, for the preceding two seasons Pew kept winning those doggone Trueman Awards -- a nagging reminder that he made his financial mark other than in a race car's driving seat.

As of the Watkins Glen checkered flag, though, Potolicchio is 72 points ahead in the 2012 contest.

Readers might recall the Pew v. Potolicchio Mid-Ohio door-to-door action that, on the race's first lap, put Pew and Negri in a huge hole from which they wouldn't, really couldn't escape.

Over on the Bob Akin side of the awards spectrum, Emil Assentato is leading second-place Wayne Nonnamaker by a hefty 227 points.

Driving the No. 69 FXDD Mazda RX-8 to the 2010 championship, Assentato has been there before, along with co-driver Jeff Segal, who joined Assentato this year in switching from SpeedSource's all-but-2011 team championship dead Mazda RX-8 to an AIM Autosport-prepared and fielded Ferrari 458 Italia (at lower left) of the same number and sponsorship.

In their successful 2010 GT points championship season Assentato and Segal would lead the championship early then yield mid-season and, in the season's last race, could only watch as fate took command of other contestants’ steering wheel in that season's final race at Tooele; winning the championship by five points over SpeedSource's Sylvain Tremblay.

CHARLES ATLAS CANDIDATE

This writer a once-heavy consumer of comic books (yes, it’s supposed one could say such is the reason this writer is warped), one of the most frequently seen advertisements of decades ago was that of former world-champion bodybuilder Charles Atlas suggesting insisting he'd make a man of anyone who wasn't.

No, it had nothing to do with Renée Richards (ask your great-grandfather) but it did have everything to do with the now iconic "99-pound weakling."

You know, the skinny dude at the beach who was bullied (yes, true, 'tis not a new thing) by a, well, bully who, in his zeal to win the affection of the skinny dude's accompanying "hot babe," kicked sand in the aforementioned skinny dude's face.

It was all just hoo-hah, of course, excepting those possessed of too much testosterone and too little matching muscle mass.

Which brings us back to race car drivers (um, just kidding lads, heh, heh).

Mark Wilkins (left), who made a rare Rolex Series appearance as third-man-out with Scott Mayer and Colin Braun in Starworks Motorsport's No. 7 Ford-Riley DP2 (at right, below), was assigned various other duties besides driving.

In an imaginative way to gain time from a presumably slower Gen-2 DP (owner Peter Baron's mind is, well, really, really unique), when not sweeping the pit (heh, heh, just kidding again, Mark) Mr. Wilkins was assigned the task of quickly extracting one driver so as to make room for the incoming fresh driver.

In the case of the No. 7, Mr. Mayer was the outgoing driver; Mr. Braun the ingoing.

So, here's Mr. Wilkins, all 145 or 150 pounds of him (and such probably is giving him a stone or two) (ask Jeremy Clarkson) trying to yank a fellow who easily had 50 or 60 more pounds on his frame than did Mr. Wilkins.

We're talking, well, a serious thrash as "David" thrice mightily pulled "Goliath" (it's all relative, gents, no offense intended).

Wilkins is due an "A for effort," though.

GT GONE?

In theory, a sanctioning body can have a class full of available spots for manufacturers and teams but if no one shows up to race then, in practice, the class doesn't really exist.

The above is a bottom-line opinion for a few GT teams and at least two manufacturer representatives who are chafing under the results they claim are thus far exhibited in the Class of 2012.

A close 2011 championship fight that went down to the wire and a final four-point spread over the top-3 spots containing three different car builders this year has yielded a "blow-out" and "those two teams (champs Brumos and runners-up Autohaus) are nowhere close today to where they were then" insisted one team owner.

"One team can screw up and not do the same (a following year) like they did (in contending for a championship) but to have both do it (tank) at the same time (the following year) just isn't something that happens."

In 2011, Brumos Racing's Andrew Davis and Leh Keen got off to a rough start in their No. 59 Porsche but started clicking with a third place at Lime Rock and a win the following week at The Glen.

Autohaus' Camaro did similarly, scoring a first at Virginia International Raceway, followed by consecutive second-places at Lime Rock and The Glen.

In all, though, team and driving championship winners Brumos finished on the podium all of three times in 2011, with Autohaus claiming but one additional podium in 12 races.

Third-place 2011 team championship winner SpeedSource snared four podiums, total. Currently holding fourth place in the 2012 team championship standings, it already has three podiums through eight races with five to go.

"All we want is equal footing," one source said while refusing to be publicly identified, insisting retribution would likely follow otherwise.

"Let the teams fight it out," the manufacturer representative continued. "If a driver or a pit crew member screws up, so be it! But just leave the fight to the individual teams. That's all we want."

Still, one can't help but wonder if those complaining would be inclined of such if they be on top?

For complaining most often is reserved for those who always would if only could.

Later,

DC

Images by Brian Cleary, who retains copyrights. See more, buy some of his work at http://www.bcpix.com/.