FORGET HISTORY - IT'S OLD AND MUSTY, ANYWAY

 

THE REALLY BIG SHOW

In 1963, World War II was yet to be a distant memory for nearly anyone alive. For those not having experienced it personally, Hollywood readily fulfilled the void with movie epics like "The Longest Day," released in late 1962. Indeed, in 1961, 1962 and 1963, a new "war" movie was released roughly every seventh week.

Europe as a whole had yet to rebound fully from WWII's nearly total devastation (which had a lot, if not nearly everything to do with the U.S. becoming an economic powerhouse in the 1950's and 1960's) and Germany in 1963 had yet to reach its halfway mark in that effort, not declaring the process completed until 1985.

What's WWII got to do with anything?

Well, besides "a whole bunch," sports car racing's birth in the U.S. is largely attributable to WWII's United Kingdom-based U.S. military personnel, most particularly of the Eighth Air Force, many of whom returned with and, even if lacking "wheels," at the least promoted the idea of racing two-seat sports cars.

Using the Sports Car Club of America (-25 pts. for anyone missing the "SCCA" thing) as the benchmark for U.S. sportscar racing's birth, the club had yet to turn 20-years old when Ferrari neared the end of its sports car racing dominance in the mid-60's.

It was WWII which would spur the United States' launch into super-power status and while it had demonstrated a clear, indisputable mastery of military might then and since, Europeans at best considered U.S. manufacturers, race cars, drivers and the like as boorish -- the Automobile Club L'Ouest today still believing the same (except of Patrick Dempsey and Jerry Lewis, of course).

For its part, the U.S. saw mainland European sportscar types as effete snobs and, particularly with respect to the ACO, still do -- excepting those connected with a certain U.S.-based sanctioning body who have carried too far their abject appreciation of Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roche Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.

JUST TELL "U.S." WE CAN'T . . .

Beforehand and nearly unnoticed in the world of racing (excepting in the early 20th Century when Henry The First used racing to market and help develop his production cars), Ford engines began significantly impacting motorsports in the early 1960's.

Using an English Ford Kent engine massaged by a couple of fellows named Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth, together as "Cosworth," teamed with Lotus and Jim Clark in 1960 and pretty much changed the world.

At first based and developed purely on the Kent 1000cc engine's displacement, following larger-bore versions of that engine found their way into sports car, F1 and, for the street, the Ford-turned-Lotus Cortina (a well-maintained, original 1965 Lotus Cortina today sells for, roughly: US $45k; UK £30k; Euro €34k; and, assuming Greece abandons the Euro, Drachma 3,329,583,865k, give or take a Drachma or two).

Even though the Cooper Climax shocked the senses in the 1961 Indianapolis 500 and before that could lay claim to having laid the groundwork for what Lotus founder Colin Chapman would achieve, if not perfect, the "Garage Owner" (as Enzo Ferrari once derisively termed chaps like Chapman and Cooper) phase of formula racing, in which racing chassis were built in a myriad of mostly British household garages (among them retired racing great Morris Nunn, who says "Hi," Tony) independent of in-house engine programs -- the latter aspect shifting completely to engine-building entities like Cosworth and, later, Ilmor.

That a racing-chassis constructor would build cars without also building the engines fitting within plainly was a watershed moment in F1, if not motorsports altogether.

Running counter to that trend, Ferrari was starting to take knocks from all sides of racing, as was another Italian carmaker, Maserati. The latter would provide headaches galore to future car historians ("matching numbers" being of higher stature than most church statues, um, saints), Maserati's mechanics at one point relegated to assembling engines and cars using new, used, borrowed and shifted parts to field its racing cars. (Maserati would be sold in 1968 to French car manufacturer, Citroën.)

Save someone tied to Ferrari through production, sales, ownership or a devotee, most folks tend to think Ferrari and "automobile factory" as synonymous.

In many respects the company is that, of course, but because Merriam-Webster doesn't include hard numbers when defining "factory," vast gulfs can exist in production capabilities and, ultimately, quantities between those entities which produce "cars" for public consumption and, yet, still be classified as a "factory."

Somewhere between Webster's Collegiate Dictionary definitions, Karl Marx On Economics (surely we don't have Commies in motorsports, do we?) and Real-World Capitalism (sorry, I'll try to restrain the use of "bad" words like "hard work," "innovative," "industriousness" and "capital"), Ferrari's economic situation was worrisome at best.

Perhaps more true of Ferrari than many -- even American manufacturers upon whom the phrase was most often hung -- "win on Sunday; sell on Monday" was crucial to Ferrari being able to put food on the employees' family plates.

More so to the late Enzo Ferrari, "winning on Sunday and selling on Monday" was crucial to his personal pursuit of "winning again the following Sunday," because while crafting cars for public consumption was among Ferrari's loves, racing cars was his life's passion, as represented in Enzo Ferrari's eventual use of famed "Prancing Horse" symbol on Scuderia Ferrari cars long before Ferrari, the car company itself, began production.

(BTW - According to one version of lore regarding the Prancing Horse design: A badge displaying a prancing horse on a shield, originally the insignia of a WWI Italian fighter squadron, was given in 1923 to a young, bold, race-car driving Enzo Ferrari by Count Enrico Baracca, father of dead Italian fighter ace Count Francesco Baracca, the elder Baracca having taken admiring notice of Ferrari's hang-it-all-out racing bravado and seeing much of his son. A second variation of the above has Francesco Baracca's mother as the badge's presenter. A third has Enzo Ferrari's mother, Adalgisa, buying the badge's airplane remnants from Francesco Baracca's crashed SPAD S.XIII biplane, then giving it to her son as a birthday present. Yet another: given that the Prancing Horse supposedly didn't appear on a Ferrari race car until about 1932, some claim all of the preceding is horse-hockey, that Enzo Ferrari based the Prancing Horse emblem on Stuttgart, Germany's city crest and, given the presence of Mercedes and Porsche in that "stadtkreis," Ferrari was reluctant to admit to Stuttgart being the inspiration for the Ferrari emblem.)

Back to the real world, well, the 1960's at any rate: In a Catch-22 existing between carmaker Ferrari and Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari's principal conundrum was the company's physical constraints in splitting artisans' time between fulfilling a consumer demand that exceeded allotted production and that of fielding a winning race enterprise.

When product sales lag, cash flow lags. A lagging cash-flow then constricted racing funds or, alternately, "advertising" which prodded consumer purchases that in turn funded the racing that in turn . . .

And while Scuderia Ferrari did very well in Formula One racing, winning six championship titles of the 16 contested from 1950 through 1964, many insist sports car racing was his favored racing pursuit -- Le Mans being at the top of that list.

John Surtees, OBE, and 1964 Formula One championship winner for Ferrari, was later credited as saying, "At Ferrari in those days you started with a handicap; until Le Mans was over you couldn't really do the work you wanted to do, and needed to do in Formula One."

The simple answer (particularly those possessing the "God Complex" referenced in Part I) was "hire more people," but which likely would've consequently required more factory space, both of which cost additional capital.

Unlike Carroll Shelby's Ford association, Jim Hall's thing with Chevy and, to a lesser extent at the time, Roger Penske with whomever, Enzo Ferrari didn't have an interested "Big Brother" to lean on when he needed a new widget or thingamabob. While it's probable Enzo Ferrari had a back door, he darn sure didn't need one to sneakily pass anything through it.

WHAT TO DO? WHAT TO DO?

Though Ferrari today employs many modern techniques in its vehicle construction, remember that Ferrari enjoys, if not downright promotes a reputation for having hands-on "artisans" craft its cars from bumper to bumper front to rear, such being even more the case in 1963 when Enzo Ferrari reportedly squelched, some say at the last possible moment, a deal to provide needed capital to Scuderia Ferrari and sell the Prancing Horse's commercial sales side lock, stock and carburetor to the Ford Motor Company.

The supposed Ferrari take on the soured deal was twofold: Enzo Ferrari wished to continue at the head of an essentially independent Scuderia Ferrari; and, "Scuderia Ferrari" wished to compete in the Indianapolis 500.

Though Ford reportedly wasn't uptight and out-of-sight to the first part; the second was seen as problematic inasmuch as Ford engines had just begun a soon-to-be domination of the Indy 500 grid.

(A manufacturer's universal desire, whether then, now or probably well into the future apparently is to dominate a racing series, often through means beneficial to one manufacturer but to the detriment of others, often leaving unsatisfied a race fan's desire for straightforward, on-track competition.)

Whoever, whatever, however, it is clear "Ferrari" was a deal that suddenly wasn't, leaving the head of Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford II, less than a happy camper.

The repercussions of the imploded Ferrari deal were about to change the face of sports car racing far and wide, the egos of manufacturers, racers and even sanctioning bodies about to be tested as never before . . . while fans would eventually take it on the chin.

END OF PART III

It’s likely the next part of this series won’t hit until after the conclusion of The Miami Grand Prix at Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend. HMS is going to be a pretty busy place this weekend, what with the Rolex Series, Continental Series and the newest kid on the block, the Showroom Stock, er, Sportsman Showcase series. Also Known As the “Run What You Brung, Within Limitations, Of Course” Series, it actually has an outstanding future. For one, I’ll be watching with interest. Hope to see you there.

Later,

DC

THE DISCOVERY OF LIFE’S BLOOD

PART II

As the immediately above coyly suggests, this a continuation in a series which Ol' DC's God Complex emergences.

Formerly believed to be the exclusive domain of those in the medical establishment, should the reader not yet have heard of the condition, no worries, you've already got it. Indeed, just about everyone suffers from it; if not constantly, then intermittently.

The term’s origination is attributed by some to Ernest Jones, whose psychoanalytic first take on the idea was a person believing themselves God was therefore suffering a God Complex. One supposes, it was kind of like a superiority complex on high. Then again, maybe “acid,” too. No, probably not. Jones was dead by the time Timothy Leary declared himself God during a “business trip.”

The idea has since evolved a little and, simply explained (at least to those given of God Complexes): "I can do (fix, correct) it!"

A slightly more complex (uh-oh, the "c" word is starting to multiply) explanation but not quite as complex (see!?) as that which more substantially imbued others may offer: The God Complex is an unshakable belief that one can simplistically solve a complex problem if only given free rein to do so.

"Afghanistan's Taliban Man? Nuke him," e.g., "Transform the country, via a release of the nuclear genie, to glass."

No more Taliban Man; done; troops home; happy days are here again.

The problem? The resultant, not just nuclear fallout (get it? "fallout?"; "not just?" Oh, I just slay myself sometimes!).

The idea is that the undertaking of a simplistic solution actually tends to splinter into many more problems of equal and, perhaps, greater negative consequences.

Example: “Put Barrack Obama in the White House, he'll fix everything, oh, by the end of his first term and happy days will be here again.”

Well, for whatever reason, it didn't happen that way. In fact, it wouldn't have happened that way because an economy, any economy, is so complex that no one person can understand it, let alone "steer" it -- in any direction. (I ain’t gonna go any deeper.)

INTO THE FAST LANE

After decades of thought -- the bulk of it clearly to the contrary -- the conclusion now reached from this quarter is that "sports-racing prototypes," of any ilk, suck the big one.

"Nay, a travesty! Heresy!" the reader exclaims.

The preceding perspective arises from a fellow so enamored with sportscar racing that in his awkward latter teen years he built and then attempted to race a Cox Chaparral 2C slot car (left).

The L.M. Cox Manufacturing Company put out, perhaps still does, all manner of cool but more mature "toys" like the German Stuka dive bomber.

No, purchasers of the Cox Stuka didn't hop in and fly to some ghetto whereupon loosed was ordnance upon hapless souls.

But it did fly, in a fashion, its tiny single-cylinder, two-stroke, naphtha-fueled engine churning out a wonderful castor oil aroma that also reminded of hard-accelerating Ferraris and Alfas.

People peripherally aware of such flying machines tended to identify them only as "model airplanes" when, in reality, most any male child of that time period built models of many things, all of them using that wonderful new-fangled plastic stuff, all involving the careful application of some great-smelling glue, and darn near all of 'em involving military objects having decals carefully arranged.

DC The Younger, being of advancing post-pubescent age, had gone beyond the static, forging into self-powered models.

And, as explained in Part I, DC The Younger wasn't having much luck with the other gender (not that he was having much luck with the same gender, either. Then again, he wasn't trying to have much luck with that same gender. Oh, never mind).

So, given DC The Younger's advanced age and model-making skills developed during far more youthful times, he proudly took his electric motor-powered (way ahead of the curve on this deal; think about it) Cox Chaparral 2C to the slot car track which, mind you, was a scaled replica of Daytona International Speedway's 3.56-mile road course -- even complete with 31-degree banks -- and promptly, thoroughly got his butt kicked. Embarrassingly so. Then again, what butt-kicking ain't embarrassing?

MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO 'ROUND

How to reverse embarrassment? (Bob Stallings knows the answer to this one . . .)

More knowledge and more money.

Principally, though, one inherently knew that money trumped all things. For if one has enough of it, one can purchase knowledge -- even should it reside in someone else's head.

DC The Younger's father, DC The Elder (at right, on left with Gen. Curtis Le May, right), some years earlier refused to be the source of funding the "frivolous" activities of youth, suggesting DC The Younger venture into "the real world and get a job," which DC The Younger had by age 11.

(Of course, no one, but no one has ever likewise been so abused and, to this very day, deep psychological scars remain from the denial of my doing whatever desired at whatever time wanted.)

The wonderful side benefit, said DC The Elder, would be "more women, too."

(Yes, dear father, that point got me rolling because Cathy Sheppard was chiefly on my mind in 5th grade but, also, dear father, then learned were lessons that revolved around oddly coincident "dry spells" in which if no money were in the pockets, no "women" wished to be seen on my Schwinn bike's handlebars, it complete with plastic, fantastic multi-colored tassels).

("Car?" you inquire? Ha! In those ancient times guys, and only guys, mind you, were outright incredibly "lucky" to have a motor vehicle of any sort by age 18. Even Jim France had to borrow his big brother's Volkswagen in those times now since long passed. My older brother, likewise many years ahead of me, had already altogether booked it to South Florida for formal education's sake and took "LuLu" with him. Today, though, nearly everyone gets a car at 12 -- and a cell phone at six. Think exaggeration is at hand? Just look in any middle-school parking lot. Shoot, in prehistoric times it was little ol' ladies who couldn't see over a car's dashboard).

Such a relative POC was the Cox Chaparral 2C slot car -- it's hard plastic veritable unibody overburdening a woefully underpowered motor -- that soon learned was the art of tubeframe construction; the "winding" and "rewinding" of electric motor armatures; gearing; the shaving of tires; and, lightweight livery.

Still, at the base of acquiring the knowledge and the parts was money -- a pump-jockey's 90-cent-per-hour job providing such.

Mastering the racing skills in the garage and on the track, DC The Younger soon became the functional equivalent of Reinhold Joest, who still was a decade-or-so from outlasting, outrunning, besting and embarrassing the uppity Porsche factory team.

(Now, how can such success be a "bad-sign thing?" Trust me, anything at all can become such if placed long enough in the hands of Ol' DC).

Yet, emulating within the small-world ranks the cars Jim Hall built and raced in the real world simply wasn't enough.

OFF TO THE RACES

As a side benefit of living his life within Florida's "ground zero" racing boundaries, DC The Gettin' Older personally witnessed Hall's Chaparral (eventually including the 2F) along with witnessing the craftsmanship of drivers like Mike Spence, Phil Hill and, the best of the best "gentleman" drivers, Hap Sharp.

Peter Revson, heir to the Revlon fortune before passing along, was cool, but he was a jet-setter. Indeed, Revlon probably was the one who invented "jet-setting." But, once again owed to the "money" thing or, perhaps more appropriately, most others' lack of it, Hap Sharp contrasted Revson's suave, debonair style.

Sharp, like Jim Hall, in fact, was a Texas oil man, much like Tracy Krohn (at left), only friendlier (Tracy, such ain't to say you can't be fun. It's just that Sharp was "funner." Oh, never mind.)

Sharp didn't inherit anything other than the time of day. He (like Krohn) started with little and roughnecked his way into financial security -- and in his later years got to go racing, only the powers that be at the time didn't have a "Sportsman" trophy to give to guys, like John Pew (at near right w/ Grand-AM’s Gary “Bigbabu” Cummings, photo by Vickie Miller, courtesy of JohnPewRacing.com), who eschew such. Like Pew, Sharp's measure of himself was one taken against the likes of Dan Gurney, Spence, Hill and, earlier, Roger Penske.

Seen, heard and smelled also at the same time were Holman and Moody's Ford GT MkII; NART's Ferrari 330/P3; and, at Sebring, Pedro Rodriguez proving a Ferrari Dino 206s could go off-roading at the real hairpin.

Furthermore competing before this writer's eyes at Daytona and Sebring were drivers like A.J. Foyt, (left) who over the course of three decades drove four different generations of cars in sportscar competitions: a Pontiac Tempest (also at left); a couple of Ford GT40 MkII's; a Porsche 935; and, a Porsche 962 or three, as well.

Once seen on a prototype car at Daytona was a duct tape demonstration of such measure that its creative-use applications blew minds everywhere for months, if not years afterward, while the Ferrari 512's two drivers -- Mark Donohue and David Hobbs -- soldiered to a third-place finish. That car was the very antithesis of Penske's squeaky clean immaculate image, as found in a previous season's sparkling clean, neat-as-a-pin Sunoco Blue Penske Racing Lola T-70.

Indeed, in Central Florida alone, Hurley Haywood (at right, on 2012 Rolex 24 podium, again) competed in so many different cars over such a considerable time frame that it's entirely possible no webpage exists with enough space to list 'em. (Now Hurley, before your bowels uproar and you cancel my $16,000-under-invoice deal on that new 2012, gray 911S, I'm likewise admitting to having seen you drive all those cars over all those years. I'll cite you as "still the most handsome race car driver, ever" in a future work. K?)

Yet, a review of all those years, heck, of all those decades even unto the very present, yields three constants: 1) The "factory" cars depart racing more quickly than they emerge; 2) Privateers like Hall or, even, Enzo Ferrari, could at best only momentarily compete with the factories; and, 3) the GT class cars are what is constant.

END of PART II

Oh, and should you know the contents of Part III, give me a ring, please.

Later,

DC

HUMPTY DUMPTY

DAYTONA BEACH (19April, 2012) –

Yes, it’s time to update some rather longstanding but old copy. It’s hard to imagine, but in the intervening time period one other race has transpired since the previous post. Wow.

Here’s why.

This is my hand after peanut oil fried part of it:

 

 

 

 

 

This is my hand after the skin started coming off sometime later (No, Dr. Lowe, I haven’t rushed a thing):

Need more be said?

Now, back to the world of Grand-Am, finally.

Having long ago learned one tends toward "manufacturing" luck -- good or bad -- it's time for yours truly to make like a ball and get rolling straight into some good ol' self-made trouble.

So, hang in there; a wild hair is a-growing.

Long before most 'lectric guitar listeners knew of Eric Clapton, he, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce as the rock group "Cream" once wowed yours truly with a song featuring "Slow Hand's" guitar, along with Bruce's vocal and a (natural) henna-haired Baker pounding his drums (one might fairly inquire: "Did Baker know any other method?").

The band's cover of a William Bell-written blues song, "Born Under A Bad Sign," spoke to DC The Younger, screaming (as best as could stereo speakers of that day), "This is you, boy!" -- the song's strains converging just slightly beyond the hour when Ol' DC's Leydig cells cranked-on-high and "la femme" was simultaneously discovered.

"Bad luck and trouble's been my only friend,

I've been down since I was ten,

Born under a bad sign

I've been down since I began to crawl

If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all."

Following on the footsteps of rejection by every woman chased, miraculously coming when diversion of mind was most needed, "sports car racing" arose.

Yet, in an age when a $6,700 Shelby GT350 (yes, I’ve seen an invoice) was clearly an expenditure to be absorbed by only the most frivolous of frivolous playboys, DC The Younger was left pining for yet another object beyond his immediate grasp. (Does the preceding, combined with that which preceded the preceding, indicate an "objectification" of women?)

Proving still far more elusive were the absurd fortunes spent on a newfangled type of sports car, a "prototype," for how could anyone afford a state-of-art $100,000 race car!? One could live an entire life on such money!

‘ROUND, ‘ROUND, I GET AROUND

Kevin Doran, in case you don't know him, is a respected, successful sports car racer -- especially as viewed from this quarter.

Raised by a "racing father," James Edward Doran (the first two initials of whom, "JE", prefix the four in-house race car designs of Doran Enterprises), Kevin Doran likewise has a talented “little” racing brother, David, who still competitively drives all manner of racing creations. (David is one of those whose talent exceeded sponsorship) (Now, what in heck is the difference between "those" and "whose" -- one letter? One lousy letter! The first letter! And yet the two words' pronunciation is entirely different. Little wonder the English language is the world's most difficult).

Um, sorry. It's just one of them Ol' DC deals.

Doran, hired by the likes of Al Holbert specifically to go Indy Car racing, was later convinced by Holbert (who said something along the lines of, "Well, if you want to keep your job . . .") to take a path Doran has mostly pursued since, but was a part of the team earlier enough to be in its pit for Holbert's first Rolex 24 At Daytona win -- the first of many Rolex 24 wins in which Doran would have a direct role.

Indeed, it's beyond luck's scope to think a guy like Doran was "just hanging around" sufficiently enough to have collected the plethora of Rolex 24 At Daytona wins in which he's been involved -- from chief wrench to car constructor and nearly each position between (including floor-sweeping, though Doran's probably done more of that as a team owner than "officially" so). Why, if Doran was a driver, he’d have almost as many Rolex 24 wins as Scott Pruett (at right).

Along with championship and race wins scored for other folks, Kevin Doran has won his fair share of both for hisownself.

Kevin Doran's racing genius even helped fashion at least a couple of racing's more iconic race cars, one being the Ferrari 333 SP. Yep, Doran (in picture at right, on far left in headset, looking downward) was on the ground floor of that car's creation and, with the late Gianpiero Moretti, campaigned the famous No. 30 MOMO Ferrari 333SP.

Years later and for the umpteenth time, Doran would head yet another victorious endurance team -- Didier Theys, Fredy Lienhard, Mauro Baldi and Massimiliano "Anti-Ax The Max" Papis -- winning the 2002 Rolex 24 At Daytona -- with a Chrysler. (at left, with Theys driving)

Well, kinda sorta.

Yes, yes, we all know the record books have the car listed as a Judd-powered Dallara, but it also had a lot of "Chrysler" in it.(The “real” Chrysler at lower right, pictured with Yannick Dalmas and Olivier Beretta, L-R)

The Chrysler sports racing prototype's original mission, undertaken in conjunction with eccellente Italian race-car designer Dallara and a quite successful Viper-racing Hugues de Chaunac (Oreca; to which David Donohue had considerable ties), was so far in front of the race-engineering world that "so far" actually is a hugely inadequate descriptor of what the triumvirate attempted.

"Hybrid," though, gives the reader an idea of the car's originally intended direction, albeit one plagued with embryonic hassles, before Chrysler dumped the project and sportscar racing altogether in 2001 but emerging in NASCAR the same year. (Mere coincidence or effectuated Mayan apocalyptic presaging? You be the judge).

To thus say Kevin Doran has fairly well "seen it all," at least insofar as racing is concerned, would be accurate if not entirely understated and, without doubt, qualifies Doran to ask a question posed of this writer just days ago:

"Would G/A drop DP for 2013-14 due to poor participation, or do they run it out until only 2-3 cars show up? Let me know your thoughts on this one."

Well, Mr. Doran, having already given the subject three or four years of thought and, given the amount of work pouring into the answer while hoping yours was not a rhetorical nor sarcastic question, the following is only my opinion and my opinion, only.

The simple answer: "Don't really know."

But such hasn't previously prevented Ol' DC from containing hisownself.

And it is in the details to follow where Ol' DC expects trouble to arise (if such hasn't already with Mr. Doran) . . . you know, being born under a bad sign and all.

But such will only continue with the next installment, inasmuch as the lawn needs mowing right now and it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

END OF PART I

Later,

DC

MORE POST-24 NOISE

TAKING IT TO THE LIMIT

"The only person I know who can just look at a car and tell if it'll go fast is Bob Riley." - John Maddox, Roush Yates Engines' sportycar program manager.

Eight times and three different models and the Riley clan still remains supreme as the top Daytona Prototype chassis maker.

A GOOD GUY WINS

No, it shouldn't be news to folks reading this that Jordan Taylor is heading for regular endurance race duty in a Corvette C6.R - especially given the news was released just before the 50th Anniversary Rolex 24 At Daytona.

"The Professor," a University of Central Florida engineering student, is only one of 23 drivers to ever have officially don a Corvette Racing driving suit.

For the 2012 season Paul Edwards has joined Taylor to drive Autohaus Motorsports Camaro GT.R in the Rolex Sports Car Series and in which, with 2011 co-driver Bill Lester, Taylor fell just two-points short of claiming the GT driving title won by Andrew Davis and Leh Keen.

Taylor joins elder 'Vette statesmen Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen in the pretty darn near iconic No. 3 Corvette C6.R.

Longtime followers of The Family Taylor are aware that Shelley Taylor is the family matriarch and provided Jordan and his older brother, Ricky, with their racing DNA, Jordan getting 250,000 more relative racing strands than did Ricky and thus is the reason the former is quicker than the latter.

SECOND IN PERPETIUITY?

Perhaps excited by the prospect of finishing second on a regular basis; perhaps "Knowing" a cryptic something in a constantly repeating "2," Starworks Motorsport -- 50th Anniversary Rolex 24 At Daytona pole sitter and 2nd-place (see?) race finisher -- announced last week it will likely contend for something other than first place as long as it runs a WEC P2 (and there you have it, again) program.

Then again, and even though a WEC P1 program, Peugeot booked it, huh?

So, perhaps, there's one or (dare it be said?) two chances in Hades that the Starworks team might get some well-deserved glory over in the WEC, where P2 ain't exactly at the top of the exposure pyramid.

And that's too bad, because when four of five drivers in one car (not at the same time, Menego) lead a race it tends to speak well of a team -- from shop to checkered flag.

Starworks No. 8 Ford's Ryan Dalziel, Enzo Potolicchio (above, respectively, after 2011 Mid-O win), Allan McNish and Lucas Luhr each would lead one of more laps of the Rolex 24, leaving fifth driver Alex Popow as the only one to be sitting on the edge of that leader pool.

The WEC-only program ". . . all started when Enzo asked Dallara for an out-the-door price for three new cars," Baron said.

Italian design firm Dallara was said to have responded with full-prices and another €1 million-or-so for Gen3 design "services."

If accurate, and though one can understand Dallara's wish to be profitable, that they'd heap upon one buyer a developmental program for prospective future customers without offering a corresponding share of profits is a real head-scratcher.

The other side of the coin might also be that Dallara possibly doesn't feel it can adequately compete against Riley and in an adroit face-saving move (wouldn't be a first) would rather appear to price itself out of the market rather than fess up to an inadequate ability.

Unfortunately, there exists no "Viagra" for chassis designers. That is, that which would be used for the sole purpose of designing a competitive DP chassis.

THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN STRIKEN FROM THE RECORD

According to Baron, Starworks business partner (and Ryan Dalziel's season long co-driver) Potolicchio believed the demanded price was of such magnitude that the team could instead order two Riley DPs and do a WEC car for an entire season.

And that's what they did, while also supposedly ordering another (a third) Gen 3 Riley DP for the 2013 Rolex 24.

"We're not leaving Grand-Am," Baron said, "We'd be crazy to do that in the middle of a points fight."

“THE ABOVE HAS BEEN STRIKEN FROM THE RECORD.”

EDITORIAL NOTE One often hears the preceding – “Strike it!” or variations upon it, like “Move to strike,” in TV and movie legal dramas. You know, where the judge has a cow because a witness or, perhaps, legal counsel went off the deep end and/or inferred, implied, stated hearsay, restated hearsay or, perhaps inappropriately picked a nostril. Then again, maybe such “procedural matters” don’t much happen anymore. After all, your scribe hasn’t seen a legal drama since TV’s Perry Mason (ask your grandfather) and Technicolor (ask the same guy) brought the world Al Pacino’s character, attorney “Arthur Kirkland” in “. . . And Justice For All,” who at one particularly frustrated moment started yelling, “You're out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order! They're out of order!” and etc., etc., etc.

That’s what Peter Baron did to your now thoroughly humbled scribe, as well as rebuffing the latter’s plea of needed “drama” in an otherwise presently dull motorsports game (really, just how long can we, should we provide exposure for Henri Zogaib?).

Thus, stated anew and, hopefully, in a manner that will make all this a tad more palatable to those directly concerned:

According to Baron, Potolicchio (who is Ryan Dalziel’s season-long co-driver) believed Dallara’s demanded price was of such magnitude that the team could instead order two Riley DPs as well as fund a WEC car for an entire season.

And that's what they did, while also supposedly ordering another (a third) Gen 3 Riley DP for the 2013 Rolex 24.

"We're not leaving Grand-Am," Baron said, "We'd be crazy to do that" inasmuch as the team is in the midst of a points fight – Dalziel, Potolicchio and Popow with 32 points are ahead of (an essentially) third-place David Donohue and Daren Law (26 pt.) by six points, but second to Ozz Negri and John Pew (35 pt.) by three points.

Um, let's see, one race down and already in the midst, huh? Squarely so.

That's one way to look at it. (But, really, any other perspective escapes at present.)

Baron said he believed there was only one end-of-year race conflict and that what the team does at that point will be determined largely by the team's points positions within the respective series.

"We'll just have to see where we stand in the points at that time and figure out what we need do," Baron said.

BACKING UP WITHOUT REVERSE

Yes, yes, everyone might well be getting a tad tired of hearing about A.J. Allmendinger's fabulous 50th Anniversary Rolex 24 At Daytona. Yet, when one does something extraordinary, well, the accolades are deserved.

If any example exists of the kind of zone in which Allmendinger operated during the Rolex 24's waning hours, then it was surely exemplified over two back-to-back laps occurring 20 and 19 laps from race end.

If the reader will remember, a first-place Allmendinger and Michael Shank Racing's No. 60 LiveOn.com Ford was being stalked by Ryan Dalziel and his No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Ford.

Anyone who's watched Scotsman Dalziel since he crossed the pond west to east whilst still wet behind the ears knows the nearly 30-year-old (12 Apr., 1982) and 2012 Rolex 24 polesitter ain't a slacker when at a race car's wheel.

On Lap 730, race-leader Allmendinger was fast approaching the 2.5-hour mark in his three-hour, race-ending shift when while on a green track he was called into the pits to take on enough fuel to make race end, as did a second-place Dalziel.

(By the way: Had the MSR Foxhole Boys -- easily absent of more sleep than anyone else on the team -- missed one little beat, inappropriately dropped something, committed a rules infraction or, perhaps, even tripped over shoelaces during the stop, it's reasonable to assume the LiveOn.com car wouldn't have won.)

Following the stops an eight-second gap between Dalziel and race-leader Allmendinger had quickly narrowed but then stabilized to between five- and six-seconds.

Allmendinger, presumably aware of the narrowed gap, on Lap 741 turned a 1:41.853 (125.83 mph) lap.

He was traveling through Turn 3 (Pedro Rodriguez International Turn) when team leader Mike Shank was radioed for the lap time just cut.

Given a simple answer -- "a 41-853," Shank had shot back -- the 'Dinger was already traveling through Turn 4 (The Kink) when he said, "I'm gonna back it up."

A tired, confused and very old reporter at that moment scratched his head and (thankfully) asked only himself, "What good is it to slow down with Dalziel only 5-seconds behind?"

It took the completion of that consequent lap and a simultaneous though befuddled close study of Grand-Am Timing and Scoring's data feed to understand that Allmendinger's intent was to turn a second, back-to-back lap consistent with its predecessor: a 1:41.659 (126.07 mph).

In the course of two laps roughly 23.5 hours into the Rolex 24 and making like Babe Ruth calling a homerun, Allmendinger would cut back-to-back laps that were fewer than seven-tenths of one second off the race's pole-qualifying time.

Righteous, brother!

(Which is how the Righteous Brothers got their name, by the way . . . though such having nothing to do with lap times, or Allmendinger, for that matter).

Later,

DC

ROLEX 24 BACKGROUND NOISE

“The reason I’m here is because I can go toe-to-toe with guys like Chip Ganassi, Roger Penske, SunTrust and all those guys who have far bigger budgets than me and I can still win. If you want to race and win, this is the place.” – Mike Shank, a regular guy (even though a huge The Ohio State fan) who grew up in a fairly regular home and whose dad – one who lovingly gave his son a start in racing – didn’t get to see his son win a really big one.

Anyone notice SunTrust's "official" race time, which came in at 29:55.123?

Put in another, perhaps more impactful way: 4.877 seconds shy of 30 minutes, that magical round-number mark that, under Grand-Am's General Sporting Rules (GSR), Section 10, sub-section 5 and mini-section 2, defines a time period in which is stated, "A Driver must drive at least 1 lap under green flag conditions within 30 minutes." Never mind the sentence is, um, "lacking," grammatically speaking, because the boys over at One Daytona Blvd. have what's known as "Sole Authority" or, a.k.a., G-A GSR Section 10, sub-section 1, which allows them to do as they wish, when they wish and however they wish (was any angle omitted?).

All considerations of a simple, safe life being put aside your intrepid reporter made inquiry of La Carrera Queso Grande (The Race's Big Cheese), Mark Raffauf, who explained that the time in question was sampled from the start/finish line and that after the SunTrust car passed such line it then traveled very nearly another lap before abandoning the track and pulled into its garage, thereby more than adequately fulfilling the “30-minute rule,” so to speak.

The 2011 Kevin Buckler and Andy Lally split had more than one tongue wagging over the last couple of months at Daytona. Given their combined successes, a lot of people figured they'd have patched their differences come race weekend and again team for the classic endurance race -- one which they, respectively, as owner and driver together twice won in GT.

They didn't patch what became a grudge match (or so said others), the finish of which was close at race end -- a partial tick of just over 9 seconds -- with Lally and his new team, Magnus Racing, claiming GT's first place over a second-place TRG No. 67.

Mindful that misdirection can be a part of strategy and that sleeplessness can impair judgment, it nevertheless is astounding as to how some team members, having formerly taken all manner of closed-mouth precautions, will diagram a race strategy before the world merely because present is a TV lens and a microphone, wielded by someone in a tightly fitted fire suit. Or would that be the reason behind Mata Hari’s success?

"The new Gen3 DP is basically just your old DP" is part of a chorus line making the rounds. Overlooked, for some reason, are areas like the front suspension, where mounting points were moved and therefore require different parts. Or that the wheelbase has been slightly adjusted so that a Gen2 body, even without the cockpit, um, oh, that's right, the (politically correct?) "greenhouse" wouldn't neatly fit a Gen3 chassis. Now, having noted at least two of still further differences: Change ain't no big thing, it's called "evolution." Something the Earth has practiced, well, until 1940-or-so (at least, in the U.S.), for a few billion years. However, some people call a $19,000 Gen3 (not Gen2) splitter “highway robbery.”

ALMS' Scott Atherton put in a full day on the ground Thursday at Daytona, presumably because he liked the racing. No? Then what else might he be doing there? Could it be yet another round of phantom buyout talks? Or, perhaps, just some good, old-fashioned "Good luck!" chatter with former ALMS and present Grand-Am competitors? Oh my gosh! You don't think . . .? Cajoling for the sake of regaining or, perhaps, just stealing about?

David Hobbs finally pronounced the Daytona Prototype a proper-looking race car, "very sleek" and "looks like a modern race car."

Maybe that's why the 197-seat DIS Media Center went into overflow mode on Friday, additional nearby rooms being made available to photographers, media representatives and the ilk. Yet, a good dozen-or-so media types were still seen working from randomly occupied chairs here and there, media lunchroom tables and outside on Fan Zone tables and benches.

The conditions under which we journalists sometimes must labor for our loyal readers . . .

Later,

DC

JUST THE FACTS, JACK

The 50th Anniversary Rolex 24 At Daytona (This is a proper noun, the owner of the name having chosen the name and to which doesn’t apply are grammar rules other than the “proper noun” rule; the reason the “At” is capitalized. K?)

Time of race: 24:00.36.793

Laps completed: 761

Miles covered: 2,709.160

Average Speed: 112.834 mph, 181.588 kph

Fastest Race Lap/Time/Average Speed/Driver: 497, 1:41.470, 126.003 mph (202.782 kph), Ryan Dalziel

Margin Of Victory: 0:05.198

Caution Periods: 13 for 64 laps

A total of 10 cars would lead at least one lap (car Nos. 76 and 6), four cars posted double-digits while two cars, No. 60 LiveOn.com Ford and No. 8 Starworks Ford, would account for the greater number of collective laps led, 249 and 295, respectively.

In their shared ride, Starworks Motorsports' No. 8 Ford, Scots Ryan Dalziel and Allan McNish topped the race's 22 overall lap leaders with 146 and 137 laps, respectively.

Four of the No. 8 Starworks Ford's five drivers claimed leader laps, adding Lucas Luhr (9 laps) and Enzo Potolicchio (3) to the aforementioned.

With 92 laps, Justin Wilson was at the top of the No. 60 LiveOn.com Ford drivers' lead-lap chart, followed by A.J. Allmendinger (90) and Oswaldo Negri Jr. (67).

A total of 22 drivers in 10 cars exchanged the lead 53 times during the 24-hour race -- or, slightly greater than two lead changes occurred on-average each hour of the race.

Justin Wilson (No. 60 LiveOn.com Ford) compiled the most consecutive lead laps with 84, followed by Ryan Dalziel (No. 8 Starworks Ford) with 75 laps, and Allan McNish (No. 8 Starworks Ford) 64 laps.

Each having eight times crossed the finish line ahead of all others, two drivers shared having most often led the race: A.J. Allmendinger (No. 60 LiveOn.com Ford) and Scott Pruett (No. 01 Telmex/Target BMW). Allan McNish (No. 8 Starworks Ford) led on five different occasions.

In Grand Touring, Andy Lally, in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche, topped the most-laps-led column with 132, followed by Andrew Davis' 124 and Leh Keen's 100, the latter two in the No. 59 Brumos Porsche which led the race on 22 separate occasions, followed in that category with 19 by the GT-class winner, No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche and, trailing well behind with seven different lead changes, the No. 67 TRG Porsche.

The No. 60 LiveOn.com Ford (DP) completed 761 laps, tying 1990 race-winners Davy Jones, Jan Lammers and Andy Wallace's No. 61 TWR Jaguar XJR-12 (GTP).

The winning MSR team fell one-lap short of equaling the Rolex 24's record 762 laps, set in 1992 by Nissan Motorsports' No. 23 Nissan R91CP (Grp. C), driven by Masahiro Hasemi, Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Toshio Suzuki and D.C. Williams (nah, not really, but got ya for a microsecond, huh?).

Ruminations of the Rolex 24 are coming . . . just not today.

Later,

DC

FALSIES II

ROLEX 24 FALSEHOODS

MOV(e it on over)

"It Was So Much More Competitive 'In The Day'" and "Racing Was So Much More Exciting!"

Um, exactly what "day" might that be and, further, do some define "exciting" in a manner other than, say, does Webster?

The 2009, 2010 and 2011 Rolex 24 At Daytona races produced a combined margin of victory of 0:54.746 -- well under the 3.56-mile track's fastest recorded lap time, regardless of year or vehicle. Averaged, each of the three races' MOV is 0:18.25-seconds.

Given the nature of averages -- with which two or three measurements a 10-ft.-deep pond can be conveyed as something that "on paper" appears far shallower -- it's only kosher to note that the 2010 Rolex 24 At Daytona recorded the highest MOV, 0:52.303, of the three races.

Of those three races, the 2009 Rolex 24 provided the narrowest first-over-second-place gap at 0:0.167 (167-thousandths of one second).

How does one compare or describe a gap of 0.167?

In that time, an otherwise unencumbered light beam traverses a little over 50,065,340 meters or, distilled, 50,065 kilometers -- about a 20-percent greater distance than the Earth's 40,075k equatorial circumference.

A little more down to earth: at 30 mph one travels 7.35 feet in 0.167-second.

In 0.167-second at 200 mph, a car will span 48.99 feet -- or about five feet more than the distance of three nose-to-tail DP's.

First-through-fourth-places in 2009 were separated by 10.589 seconds. The funky part: the 2009 race's final caution period ran through Lap 705. The winning No. 58 Brumos Racing Porsche-Riley, with drivers David Donohue, Darren Law, Antonio Garcia and Buddy Rice, covered 735 laps. The 2009 race finished with a four-car, pedal-to-metal, 30-lap scramble for first.

After a late-race, three-lap caution, the 2011 Rolex 24 At Daytona's five up-front competitors had only a single green-flag lap in which to sort their final finishing order.

Reaching the checkered flag in fewer than two minutes, only 3.572 seconds separated the top-four finishers, at the front of which sat the No. 01 Telmex/Target BMW Riley of Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, Joey Hand and Graham Rahal.

"It was an awesome way to finish a race," race leader and eventual winner Pruett said.

"Even though we were in the lead, I was hoping we wouldn't finish the race under yellow. The fans won in the end because they got a race that was determined by what happened on the track."

Wasn’t there another relatively recent race, say, in 2009, give or take, that finished with four-hours to go after about five hours? Something like that; officials deciding the race, too.

Meanwhile, back in Daytona: Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix (con me amigo José) Sabates No. 01 Telmex/Target BMW Riley had the race in hand. With pit-road souls disposed of celebrating having already started their flow into the team's pits, Chip Ganassi wasn't at all in a similar mood. It's something he'd seen before -- celebrating before a victory had been locked up by a checkered flag -- and it usually didn't bode well.

On Lap 690 and a part of the Ganassi team for the first time, talented young British driver Justin Wilson called over his radio that while traversing the chicane something had gone wrong with the car's front suspension.

In the East Bank and rapidly closing on pit entrance, a decision was made to bring the driver and car in - straight the garage.

While the Telmex/Target car's front clip was replaced and car refueled, Pruett jumped in for the final run.

With fewer than 65 laps remaining in the race the No. 9 Action Express Racing Porsche Cayenne Riley suddenly was out front.

Two of the rookie team's four veteran drivers, Ryan Dalziel and Mike Rockenfeller, were late in joining team regulars João Barbosa and 2004 Rolex 24 champ Terry Borcheller.

For Dalziel it was a chance at getting a paid ride and such wasn't much different for Rockenfeller. Perhaps neither felt the race was theirs to win . . . until the race's last 90-minutes.

Of the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Rolex 24 At Daytona races, the 2010 race would provide the largest margin over a second-place car -- the No. 01 Telmex/Target -- but the winner's dark horse win was no less surprising than any other in recent memory.

WHAT ABOUT MAX?

"Close finishes happened all the time back in the GTP days. I can remember that Daytona race when Max Papis finished second," so goes the refrain.

Max Papis never competed at Daytona in a GTP.

In an inspired performance that has a far better, first-Daytona background story that preceded Papis' famous 1996 ride in a Gianpiero Moretti-owned Dallara 333SP (neither a misprint or miscue, ask Kevin Doran about it, sometime), a second-place Italian-driver actually named Massimiliano Papis finished 64.099 seconds short of first place after 2,481.32 miles of racing.

Other people remember it, too, and most particularly, the race winner, um, er, uh . . . now who was that guy?

Oh yes! Wayne Taylor!

(You know, the always impeccably dressed, like Warren Scheckter, head of SunTrust Racing. That is, Taylor is the head of SunTrust, not Jody Scheckter's nephew or, for that matter, Ian Scheckter's son nor, for the same matter, Tomas Scheckter's cousin. The race team; not the bank; Taylor owns the race team. David Pijot owns the bank. Right? Well, maybe not, but he's sure been there a long, long time.

("Oh, you mean the tallish, bald, sort of old guy who has reading glasses and wears golf shirts?" No, if anyone on the SunTrust team might fit that description it is Simon Hodgson, the real brains of the outfit and who wrenched Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya to open-wheel championships. Hah-hah, just kidding, Wayne. That is, about Simon being the brains and such, after all, he really did wing the championships’ thing.

(And it's not that Simon doesn't have brains, either. It's just that he doesn't look at the world through rose-colored glasses. Which I see you've finally given up . . . for blue glasses! Nevertheless whatever makes your car race, Wayne).

"It's probably the only race, ever, that more people remember who finished second than remember who finished first," Taylor said of 1996 Rolex 24 race (said other ways in various ways at various times, some being monosyllabic, unprintable and likely quite close to what he's thinking of me this very instant).

"With two and one-half hours to go we had a four-lap cushion," Taylor, who drove the race's final 70 minutes, told a Daytona Beach News-Journal reporter about three years after "Back In The Day" actually ended with Dan Gurney's GTP team taking the cake in 1993.

"Max Papis was lapping at six seconds a lap quicker than us. We calculated that by the final lap he would be on the lead lap with us -- which he was."

"He would've passed us had I crashed the car, or pulled over and parked it, or did something really stupid, which included fighting for a lead which we securely held," Taylor recounted years later during a golf club locker-room interview, "So, I let him go 'round."

"The point was to win Daytona, not to keep some backmarker from overtaking. At that point I knew all I needed to do was keep him in sight and win the race."

And he did, well, win the race, along with co-drivers Jim Pace, Scott Sharp; Doyle Racing; Oldsmobile (ask your grandfather); and, some outfit known today as Riley Technologies.

(The '96 race's overall third-place finisher? Only 48-laps behind were drivers Jim Downing, Butch Hamlet, Tim McAdam and Barry Waddell (who IS this Waddell guy?) in a Kudzu DLM Mazda.

TIME 'GOLDENS' ALL WOUNDS

Or MOV Revisited, Reexamined

During the oft-cited, so-called “Golden Era" of "Back in The Day" prototype racing -- roughly 1985 through 1993 -- in those nine races the single closest Margin Of Victory was a 0:1:49.150 recorded in 1986 when Al Holbert, Derek Bell and Al Unser Jr's No. 14 Porsche 962 beat the No. 8 T-Bird Swap Shop 962 quartet of A.J. Foyt, Arie Luyendyk, Danny Sullivan and Preston Henn.

Second-closest MOV in that time frame was the 1989 Daytona 24, with a 0:2:06.597 MOV, in which the No. 62 Porsche 962 of Bob Wollek, Derek Bell, John Andretti and Jim Busby came in first place, followed by the No. 61 TWR Jaguar XJR-9 of Price Cobb, John Nielsen, Andy Wallace and Jan Lammers.

Three-race, consecutive close-finish comparables to that of the Rolex 24 At Daytona's 2009-2011 stretch couldn't be found in the 1985-1993 time frame. Indeed, even consecutive year-over-year tight finishes weren't to be found, the 1985-1993 first-to-second place MOV's most frequently not being measured in seconds or minutes as much as quantities of laps:

1985 - 17 laps

1987 - 8 laps

1988 - 1 lap

1990 - 4 laps

1991 - 8 laps

1992 - 9 laps

1993 - 10 laps

Yours truly chose the 1985-1993 time period as being most representative of the "The Golden Age" based on the following considerations:

In 1985, due to a westward shift of the Pedro Rodriguez International Turn ("East Horseshoe" or "Turn 3"), the track's overall road-course length decreased from 3.870 to 3.56 miles;

Porsche's 956 prototype never competed at Daytona International Speedway. A one-off Porsche 962 was introduced in the 1984 SunBank 24 for testing purposes, only, and it broke, um, was "voluntarily retired" after 127 laps (well, at least Mario Andretti claimed the race pole for the 962 with a 1:50.989). In 1985, six of the world's eight 962s at the time, started that year's SunBank 24 At Daytona;

With the conclusion of the 1993 SunBank 24, also concluded was the GTP, or Grand Touring Prototype, designation to the favor of the "World Sports Car" concept -- in simplistic terms an open-top, flat-bottom race car -- which in a collaborative effort was mandated by IMSA primarily because the GTP handwriting had been on the wall for years, the 1993 race closing out the "era" with all of eight GTPs in the field.

Should anyone care to squawk, though, IMSA's "GTP" designation was first used in 1982, when at race-end the MOV was 9 laps. In 1983, 6 laps; 1984, 9 laps.

The dawn of the World Sports Car concept, which began at Daytona in 1994, took three years to take hold before the first win, achieved by the aforementioned Wayne Taylor, Jim Pace and Scott Sharp.

In the meantime, Scott Pruett, Butch Leitzinger, Paul Gentilozzi and Steve Millen in their Nissan 300ZX GTS car won the '94 race, ushering in the WSC form of racing -- by a piddling 24 laps.

In 1995, driving a special-exception "LMWSC" Kremer K8 Porsche Spyder, Christophe Bouchut, Giovanni Lavaggi, Marco Werner and Jürgen Lässig, won with a 5-lap margin.

If a special "era" exists -- that is, a consecutive number of years having competitive racing -- it is “now.”

Later,

DC