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Well, there’s enough to tell that a Pre-Petit column seems like a good idea.  Murphy didn’t know whether to call it a Paddock Poop or a People and Places.  It started out as more of the latter. But then his assistants started calling with rumblings around the paddock, so we’re going to make this Paddock Poop 23.  We’ll get to those rumblings in due course.

The Bear took a trip earlier this month, east to Colorado, then back to his cave East of Eden via Phoenix and Los Angeles.  It was time to visit mama Bears before the snow flies in the Rockies.  Sin city – Las Vegas – is a one day drive from Monterey Bay, about seven hours, and most – but not all – on freeways.  Our route took us south to Paso Robles, then east on California State Route 46 past the James Dean monument at Chalome, the James Dean Memorial Intersection at State Route 41 and through the oil fields in Kern County.  Once upon a time, an independent oilfield operator called Belridge Petroleum was acquired by Shell Oil Company for $3.6 billion.  That was criticized as an unbelievably high cost at the time.  Quaint, isn’t it?  Driving through those Kern County fields brought back memories for Murphy’s friend, who worked in these fields as a management consultant in the eighties.  Forests of horsehead pumps, some idle now, in the Lost Hills field, in Midway-Sunset, in Kern River, and in Elk Hills produced one percent of the world’s oil output as recently as 1999.  These are high-cost steam injection fields.  You have to wonder if today’s high crude prices will lead to the re-opening of capped wells.  Anybody out there know what else Elk Hills is famous for?  Oh, and about James Dean’s last drive.  Murphy was wrong when he wrote that the actor was on his way to Laguna Seca.  He was actually on his way to a race at the Salinas Airport.  Laguna Seca hadn’t yet opened. (more…)

Murphy is back home in the land of fruits and nuts, though he’s thinking after his trip and some of the goings-on elsewhere that others could lay claim to that title.

First, with 3,400 road miles on the little furry one, he’s got to say he’s seen some crazy things, not least of which are gas prices.  What?  Who’s surprised by those?  Consider, before Murphy left he paid 3.07 for the good stuff that Prancer needs (regular was 2.87).  Here in the golden west taxes on a gallon are sixty cents, and everywhere he was going they taxes were least ten cents, and as much as thirty cents less.  So, with it being after Labor (Labour, you Canuckistanis and Limeys) Day, and wholesale prices around $1.85 and falling, the Bear naturally expected to pay less on his trip than at home.  Did he? Noooo.  He mostly paid more, once got down to $3.04, and in one place, Aspen (OK, they can afford it) saw regular at $3.75!  That’s your friends and neighbors screwing you, not big oil, or the Mullahs.  He had to get back here East of Eden to find premium below three bucks, and yesterday finally bought some for $2.70, in Eden itself for crissakes.

OK, that’s out of my stuffed head, what about some scurrilous stuff.  The Bear is working to beat the release – which should be within 24 hours of this column – but he’s got a line on the Petit Le Mans entry.  Look for twenty-eight total, of which exactly half are prototypes.  There will be eight P1 entries, and P2 will be six.  Only one real surprise there, and that is the a team that’s running an Acura next season.  Have they decided they can use a bit more team practice, and will they be in their new silver and blue colors? (more…)

The car is all gassed up and Murphy’s hitting the road for Las Vegas and Aspen tomorrow, but thought he should put out a bit of Paddock Poop before he left.  Every time the Bear thinks things might have simmered down a bit, they all blow up. 

First, others have weighed in on some things Murphy heard – and then wrote – in his last installment.  For the most part the new stuff “improves the record,” so to speak.  There won’t be a 997 RSR on an American Le Mans Series race track this season after all, in spite of mentions in this space to the contrary.  There will be one “on show” at Petit Le Mans in conjunction with announcements by teams who have ordered the new racers for 2007.  It seems that production – beyond the cars involved in the Spa outing – hasn’t started yet.  Not only is the car not yet ACO homologated, but specifications are not yet “final.”  Here’s some good news for ALMS fans, though – included amongst those who have purchased 997s for next season are teams new to the American Le Mans Series. (more…)