murphythebear.com

Murphy went out to Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill to check out the Crosby this week. It’s now the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am but it will always be the Crosby Clambake to the Bear. Perhaps that traditionalist’s point of view is why he has been ambivalent about the idea of title sponsors in sports. That’s a bit of a sore spot for the American Le Mans Series, with even the most highly placed of officials admitting that such an agreement is overdue. It’s well to remember that some agreements are good and some are not so good. With that thought in mind here are some more Murphy’s Rools, this time for title sponsors:

1. No dumb names. Candlestick Park, home of the San Francisco 49ers, is now Monster Stadium. Geez.
2. Be sure the shoe fits. If you’re proudly pretentious, (as is the ALMS) so too should be your title sponsor. Dom Perignon will get it. Old Milwaukee won’t.
3. Get some dough. Purses would be nice, because at present they’re not World Class, they’re embarrassing.
4. Get visibility. TV and such stuff. Lots of it. Secret might work as a babe’s deodorant, but not as a title sponsor.

While we’re getting instructional parallels from golf, it was announced this week that The International at Castle Pines Golf Club, a PGA Tour event since 1986, will not take place in 2007, marking the end of the 21-year event. Reason? “Unfortunately there is one dominant player. When we need rivalry, we don’t have rivalry.” Tiger hadn’t been showing up for the tournament, and pundits pointed out that when Tiger isn’t around, attendance and TV ratings tank. For you bears who have been in your cave, the new-papa-tiger-to-be has won seven consecutive Tour events, challenging Byron Nelson’s record eleven set sixty-two years ago. So Audi’s R10, which has drawn fire for winning eight straight, isn’t the only sports entrant creating a problem. Perhaps Dr. Ulrich and Herr Woods should compare notes.

While it’s true that Murphy’s heard the guys in Ohio threw the New York Lola into the pot within the past few weeks, he doubts that will change the outcome. The team is still likely to field the CA/06H-01 with the same Judd motor that powered it in 2006. After getting an idea of lunch in Dublin, the Bear’s got a question. You guys sure that Judd’s got enough torque?  And now that Dad has discovered the Outback Steakhouse on the Sebring midway, will the team have to retrieve him from his “Bloomin’ Onion,” for his stint? Since the Ohio interest in the Lolas is recent, it doesn’t account for earlier speculation, does it? Florida, perhaps?

That new sports car racing series has surfaced, with the announcement a week ago of  the North American Modern Endurance Challenge, a V de V based prototype racing. Small prototypes, including Radicals and Wests, will join NASA’s six-race Western Endurance Racing Championship’s schedule as included classes. That will be capped by the 25 Hours of Thunderhill in December, twelve hours for points, and the remainder for the sheer joy of it. There’s a rumor that West will support the new series while reducing participation in IMSA Lites, and that the regional distributor for Radical, which had planned a one-marque series, will instead support the new endurance challenge.

The fifth Porsche Spyder was purchased by someone we didn’t know (or expect), but that doesn’t mean there aren’t folks associated with the program that we do know. It seems reasonable that such a race car would employ a known and experienced team manager, doesn’t it? Murphy also hears now that the car is going to someone in Florida. With the announcement that Derek Bell has become a partner in a Naples, Florida, Porsche dealer some folks are putting 2 and 2 together. Whether they are coming up with 4 or 5, the Bear isn’t quite sure.

The good Doktor der Technik and his mates did it again this week. Braselton’s boss was in Ohio at Bobby’s shop to announce that ethanol will be the standard fuel for the series, a story that should have gotten some positive attention. No such luck. Within minutes of wrapping that up, Audi’s motorsport’s czar was all over the internet, threatening to take a walk unless the guys up the road in Stuttgart get throttled back again (der Bär denkt, daß der Doktor nicht sehr um den Japaner gesorgt wird). Guess what got the press play? At Road Atlanta last year, the boss was extolling progress and new programs in his annual “State of the Series.” There was the German grinch, saying it would all be “the death of the series.” At the Awards Banquet in Monterey, while everyone else was celebrating – or hoping to – the grouches showed up again, this time flaming pretty much all of sports car racing and the auto industry.  Every time the boys from Braselton think they found something to smile about, the same sourpusses show up. Engolstadt isn’t the first to shake down a sanctioning body, and won’t be the last. Behind the scenes and in public, extortion has become as much of a sport as the racing itself.

The Rolex 24 at Daytona scored a solid .9 rating and 2 share for the Fox part of the telecast. For context, five ALMS races on CBS in 2005 and 2006 were all also 2 shares with ratings that ranged from a .5 to a pair of .8s. Those numbers are favorably comparable with ChampCar and IRL ratings on network telecasts in 2005. The largest North American sports car rating was the 1.2 ALMS scored at Sears Point in 2004, undoubtedly boosted by Junior’s attempted self immolation. Since the American Le Mans Series has been building its business case on sponsor value, it will need to crank up the promotion of its telecasts, which have generally been sliding since 2004. It’s another reason that title sponsor thing might be getting ever more important.

Will British GT finance the ALMS Ford GT? It seems the plan is to sell a GT3 version to that series to finance the later development of the ACO-rules GT2. Murphy says, “if you say so,” but he thinks he’ll not hold his breath for this one.

Ridiculous quote if you are an employee-of-a-really-really-big-car-racing-company department. “If you’re a real race fan, you like all kinds of racing.” Really? Skateboards? The Bear doesn’t even like all forms of car racing, say nothing of other contraptions.
Where were we? Oh, yes, the Bear was out at the tournament. It was a big kick being out on the links, but  now he’ll settle in and watch the CBS coverage over the weekend. It’s been a pretty good string for the couch potatoes, hasn’t it? The college Bowl games, the Rolex, Super Bowl, the Crosby, and the Daytona 500 yet to come. Yes, Murphy does watch the 500, and the Indy 500, and F1 at Monaco. He likes events, and those are worth watching, whether one follows rest of the season or not. Here’s a little challenge. Tell us in the comments, if you can, who the two golfers pictured here are. Murphy thinks one is a “gimme” and one is definately not.

Golf is a more genteel sport than racing or football, isn’t it? Well, the Bear thinks it is, so his recipe for this weekend is a bit more haute cuisine than either buffalo wings or cheese dip.

Murphy’s Crosby Clambake Cioppino

Cioppino is a dish made famous by Italian fishermen on the California coast. The idea is to toss whatever is at hand into a tomato-based seafood stew. Imagine a stormy night by the sea, a warm fire, a hot bowl of this delicious soup, wine, and thou. This recipe is generous for 2 or even 3, modify for larger numbers. Start with a light tomato sauce base. Heat a good sized skillet, and add

1 Tbl Butter
1 Tbl Olive Oil

When butter sizzles, add:

1 clove garlic, chopped
¼ medium onion, chopped
¼ green pepper, chopped
½ stalk celery, with leaves, chopped

Saute, then add some fresh chopped parsley, a small bay leaf, and basil, oregano fennel seed, a clove (or a bit of ground clove), black pepper, and chili powder, all just a pinch or a shake, sauté.

Add a splash of white wine, dash of Tabasco, a shot of red wine vinegar and a similar amount of Worcestershire Sauce. Stir and simmer for a couple of minutes, then add a small jar (about 8 – 10 oz.) of any marinara or tomato sauce and a can of chicken stock (about 14 oz.).

Warm for a few minutes, then add about 10 oz. of mixed seafood, whatever is easily available, clams, crab, shrimp, fish pieces. Murphy buys a frozen seafood mix (pieces of mussels, clams, octopus, squid, and shrimp), adds a cup of that, and then some fish (cod is good, catfish is fine, too), a bit of crab, and a few peeled shrimp. 

Simmer for about twenty minutes, then serve in bowls with sourdough bread and a favorite red wine. If you don’t have a Joseph Drouhin Musigny Grand Cru 1996 handy, a Two-Buck Chuck - Charles Shaw - Shiraz will do just fine.

 

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 10th, 2007 at 9:31 pm and is filed under Paddock Poop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.