murphythebear.com

As Sebring looms (this Bear’s a pretty sofisicated wordsmith) most of the stories are out there already, just waiting for the news. Since news ain’t Murphy’s thing, he’s been sittin’ about watchin’ taxi racing, and considering the great questions of our times. Well, maybe not. Here’s some stuff that’s gone though his stuffed head lately.

Bubba and the Bear

Murphy’s read that the COT (that’s Car of Tomorrow. See? The Bear knows this stuff.) will be more stable on high speed ovals, meaning less crashes. Hmmmm… Four hours of freight-train left-turn oval racing without a wreck. That will test some theories about why Bubba (and the Bear, sometimes) tune in on Sundays, won’t it?

Porsches Piddling ‘cross the Pond

Murphy hears that there is still a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR unaccounted for that might – or might not – be delivered in time to make the Sebring grid. The same seems to be the case with that fifth Spyder. Since it’s not done yet, Hartmut’s “five cars from Porsche for the beginning” may not mean Sebring – or it might.

The Unfair Advantage

After seeing stories from Daytona this week of fuel additives, drilling holes to affect aero performance and the like, Murphy decided to check it out.  Is the spirit of Mark Donohue still with us here? Well, just looking at 2006 infractions, he found modifications of vents to improve aerodynamics, a too-low roof height (not something that a low tire will cause, is it?), tire warming with a portable heater, devices in air intakes, and lots more. It seems to be business as usual. But not in sports car racing, right? Well, at least not race-to-race. Some will tell you that’s because the rule violations are designed-in by certain big-time builders from the start, and the ACO later changes the rule to match, or simply ignores it. The Bear’s not sure if Mark’s frowning or smiling.

Paparazzi Needed

Julie and Randall are getting married June 1. Bryan and Jamie will tie the knot July 28. The Bear will pay big dough for event photos. Well, no he won’t. But he’d still love to have snaps of the nuptials for summer Paddock Poops.

Team Building

The other day the Bear was on the phone with various forest creatures trying to come up with a “going rate” for an ALMS seat in GT1. Tough task. To know that, there would have to be such a thing, and there hasn’t been one for so long that no one had the foggiest idea. Maybe one of the Bear’s readers can help, though. Here’s the question. If there was a two-car GT1 team with equipment that had matched the pace of the Corvettes the last time out for both, what might a funded driver be able to contribute to a second-car drive?

I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me

Murphy’s heard about a couple of motorsports publications that might soon launch on the world wide web. One will be a translation of a well-read foreign-language site, but doesn’t – at least initially – provide any American Le Mans Series coverage. The other will launch with ALMS coverage and add other racing later. The latter is aimed at literate bears, like Murphy, even if like his friend Pooh, “long words bother…”

Hooters

Murphy watched the Daytona 500 on Sunday. Clarkson, Hooters…can ALMS do Hooters? Big & Rich.  The Bear likes Hooters. Fly-over, four F15s, cool. When was the last ALMS fly over? Helicopters at Utah? Murphy has fond memories of Hooters across from Daytona International. Nicolas Cage says, “Start your engines.” Did the Bear mention he likes Hooters?

What’s in a Name? That which we call a rose…

Acura has rebadged the Courage LC75 chassis acquired for its Highcroft and Andretti Green teams as Acuras. That’s nothing new, of course. The 1985 Civic was restyled, given bigger brakes and five more HP to – voila! – become the Acura Integra. Perhaps someone – Nissan, for example, or even Hyundai – should consider rebadging a Creation-Judd combination. Perhaps they are.

Team Building Part Deux

Also just the other day, White Lightning Racing said it would use a single over-the-wall-gang to support the Corsa and Petersen Ferraris. Some have been quick to conclude that such an approach will degrade the performance of both entries. The Bear’s not so sure. There’s the obvious parallel in Formula 1, of course. Sure, there could be an instance in which it might be better to bring in both cars at once, but more likely their performance will be just fine.

Scraps

Over on speedtv.com, Robin Miller gave us a look at purses and other winnings in North American motorsports. Just last week, the Bear called American Le Mans Series purses “embarrassing.” That’s still an apt description, but the boys in Braselton have a lot of company. Drivers purses alone were $219 million in Nextel Cup’s 36 events. Then there are team points payouts, bonuses and other stuff. Wonder why Champ Car will fill most of its seats with funded drivers? The cost to field a team is about $5 million, and there’s only about $8 million to win – all year. It seems that someplace on the order of $4-6 million is about right for most motorsports – even the good ole boys of NASCAR were put by Miller in the $6-9 million range. (Yeah, yeah, the Bear knows that those good ole boys include an owner from Detroit and a driver from Columbia.)  ALMS will pay out $3 ½ million, and although neither Murphy nor Miller came up with a total for Grand Am, it’s likely not much different, given that team champion Ganassi won $150,000 over the course of a season. If Jörg didn’t have his checks from Tracy, he’d have to pawn the watch to feed his new family. Actually, training-wheel racing in Formula Atlantic and IRL Pro Series pays more than American Le Mans. The combined purses of IRL (boosted substantially by the Indy 500), CCWS, Grand Am, ALMS, Atlantic, and Indy Pro doesn’t amount to one-fourth of that $219 million, which itself doesn’t include Busch, the pick-em-up-trucks and gawd knows what else. As long as the lemmings in corporate marketing departments keep running over the NASCAR cliff, there won’t be much money left for any other kind of racing on this continent. Let’s put that another way. The real difference between racing markets in North American and racing markets in Europe might be NASCAR.  Given that behemoth, it’s pretty damn amazing that the American Le Mans Series is doing as well as it is.

Thirty and thirty-five

The number of entries you’ll normally see on American Le Mans Series’ grids this season, and the number that will likely be on the Sebring grid. Let a little Bear tell you that’s way out of whack. Sebring is one of those classic races that should draw a significantly larger entry. Some are fond of saying in regard to the Series and Le Mans that “the problems of a single race are different than those of a series.” Well, yes they are. Sebring is one place there might be more classes, not less. Nobody has suggested a free-for-all. We’re talking about Sebring; no precedent is set here that would apply anywhere else. Certainly some equivalent of GT3 wouldn’t cause a disturbance in the force? The 12 Hours of Sebring is an historic treasure that requires nothing less than extraordinary stewardship.

Purse, entries, so-called star drivers. Whatever. One thing in which Sebring takes no back seat to Daytona on any weekend – nor perhaps any sporting event – is the party. To help you get started Murphy’s passing along this little recipe from his friend Gus.

Gus the Gator’s Sebring Hooch Juice

1 gal cut-up fruit – apple, pineapple, watermelon, pear, peaches – anything you want, fresh or canned
4 oranges (quarter, squeeze, put peels in hooch)
4 lemons (quarter, squeeze, put peels in hooch)
4 limes squeezed (quarter, squeeze, put peels in hooch)
1 jar maraschino cherries w/o stems
1 Liter Bacardi 151 rum
1 Liter Everclear (ethanol, in honor of ALMS’s new fuel)
1 Liter Vodka – any flavor
1 46 oz. can or 2 liter bottle of fruit punch
2 2 liter bottles lemon-lime soda (sprite, 7up, etc.)
1 bag – or block – ice

Mix in large cooler, wash tub or anything else that will hold about five gallons

Gus recommends that some fruit gets into each cup. He admits he missed the race and a lady he knows embarked on a new career. The Bear thinks this is a great way for the gals to get warmed up to go out and collect a few beads. Neither Gus nor Murphy assume any responsibility for blindness, getting run over by a Panoz, drowning in a mosh pit or anything else.

 

This entry was posted on Monday, February 19th, 2007 at 8:42 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.