murphythebear.com

Awards Sunday. The two biggest awards shows on the planet – on the same day. The Academy Awards and the Dailysportscar Awards. Six hours of the famous and the not-so-famous. The famously entertaining and the infamous. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. (The Bear can never get too far away from his neighbor, can he?)

Down the coast in tinsel town’s Kodak Theater, Ellen Degeneres took her turn as the Mistress (Master? Or is that more than the Bear wants to know?) of Ceremonies for the 79th Annual Academy Awards. Earlier in the day, in a first ever live broadcast, John Hindhaugh and Graham Goodwin did the honors for the 3rd Annual Dailysportscar Awards in the UK’s Mulsanne Ballroom.

If you missed the show on Globecast Radio – or even if you didn’t – you can read all about it at dailysportscar.com. Naturally, Murphy also has some comments.

If this is a fricken truck, then Lordy, Lordy, what’s that thang?
The Dailysportscar voters named Audi’s R10 diesel North America’s and Europe’s Car of the Year. That’s race car, of course. What a long way from the diesels the Bear grew up with. Trucks. Big trucks. Not even in pick ‘em up trucks in those days. Later – much later – passenger cars, lots in Europe, just a few here. Now a race car, of all things? There have been diesel race cars before, but they didn’t win much, or if they did, no one noticed. This time a lot of people noticed, which is why this is the car of the year. In the meantime, some other racin’ folks, known also for white lightnin’, ham hocks ‘n collard greens, are going to introduce something they call “The Car of Tomorrow.” (Note the capital letters, meaning it’s a very big deal.) I mean, the Audi is supposed to be “the car of today,” because it incorporates and promotes – and in a few particulars pioneers – automotive technology relevant to today’s transportation and energy environment. The COT on the other hand, has a bigger, stronger roll cage, a smaller, stronger fuel cell, no more OEM floor pan (the last piece of Chebby, Ford, Dodge, and the car that’s built in America), steel plate in left side doors (the “Days of Thunder modification”), still 3200 lbs., matched with a 358 cubic inch, 4 bbl carburetor V8, four-speed manual gearbox combination not seen in thirty-five years or so. But hey, the Car of Tomorrow will use unleaded gasoline. That’s pretty revolutionary. The Bear hears the COT didn’t get a single vote from the DSC scribes and photogs. Maybe next year.

But we wanted it to go on Forever, James
James Weaver told Graham Goodwin at the DSC Awards show that retirement first occurred to him after his pole-winning qualifying drive at Houston. We remember being struck by his words at the press conference that night. They seemed important – heartfelt – even at the time, and Murphy’s friend used them to sum up dailysportscar.com’s qualifying report. “It does not matter how long you have been doing this, it never gets old,” James said. “The thrill of rolling down pit lane for qualifying with a new set of tires and a great car under you. You are feeling confident and there is a lot going on and it just gives you a tremendous buzz. If anything, it gets better. Since I must be getting close to my “sell by” date, you know it is not going to go on forever. You just savor it and enjoy it every moment you are in the car. It is just fantastic feeling.”

Who would’ve thunk it?

Penske, Dyson, Champion Racing, Pratt & Miller/Corvette, Prodrive/Aston Martin Racing, PTG, Multimatic, Alex Job, White Lightning…ok, you get the idea. So Intersport Racing of Dublin, Ohio, was the Team of the Year? A father and son, a California girl who does English horse stuff, about three employees, and a huge distraction. All that, some perseverance and some luck, and we had an unlikely and unexpected challenge for the LMP2 championship. Now the girl is gone off to race in Europe and the Ohio team is making a move to LMP1. Having challenged Porsche last season, next up is Audi.

The Limeys are Coming! And the Boche, the Frogs, the Wops…

With apologies for the derogatory terminology, the Bear is making a point here. Murphy got a pretty good chuckle when a thread over on the series’ own forum wandered off topic from “ALMS teams going to Le Mans…” to “American teams going to Le Mans…” There is the not-so-funny-xenophobia at work here of course, but it really does take some mental gymnastics to figure out what might constitute an “American team.” The gringos and crackers have already shown unexpected mental acuity in concluding that Toyota Camry, the only NASCAR-eligible make and model actually built in the United States is an unwelcome furrin’ car. They should be sentenced to marathon viewing of “Letters from Iwo Jima.”

The Bear looked at the likely Sebring entry and couldn’t find a single car – say nothing of a team – that was entirely “American.” Chassis, engine, drivers, they’re Italian, English, Scottish, French, German, Mexican, Canadian, Japanese, Slovak, Dutch, Swiss, Belgian, Finnish, Brazilian, Australian, Swedish, Spanish, Czech, Danish. Murphy’s noticed that the flags of the driver’s nationality will no longer be required on American Le Mans Series cars this season. He’s not sure what to make of that. The Bear thinks the whole international thing should be celebrated. The whole theme got emphasis when the Academy Awards trumpeted this as a year of diversity. Dame Helen Mirren won for the United Kingdom (and for Russians), Babel put Mexico front and center, Germany’s “The Lives of Others” garnered a statuette, and Ennio Morricone, the Italian who scored “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” tearfully accepted an Honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement. Acting wins for Jennifer Hudson and Forest Whitaker gave the Oscars a racial diversity that racing doesn’t share, but for nationalities the Academy might want to come on up to Laguna Seca in October.

Simmering

It’s not just Murphy’s recipes that seem to simmer interminably. Sooner or later, though, stories “will out,” as they say. By the time Mazda got around to an announcement, the only thing not yet known was whether the Manager of Motorsports Team Development for Mazda North American Operations was a briefs or boxers guy. (Murphy’s gonna get an e-mail…) Lexus hoped it would all go away by ignoring it, which it did. The Acura and Porsche prototype programs were paddock stories long before the announcement, and on and on. There are reasons to pick your time, but that time is often sooner than you might like. The Bear wrote in mid-January that “some certainly won’t think so,” when he asked rhetorically whether an as-yet-unannounced driver change would be “a good thing.” Later that month he heard we “should expect two Favorite Drivers to swap places, and one of them to get his very own ‘signature trim package’ on a very popular sports car, while increasing his non-driving duties.” Some readers noticed the capitalization of “Favorite Drivers.” Now, finally Corvette has announced that Jan Magnussen replaces Ron Fellows as Johnny O’Connell’s full time partner. Going quietly has its grace, but the Bear knows some who were deeply disappointed at not having an opportunity to say farewell and “thanks for the memories” to James Weaver. Perhaps Ron will get the sendoff he – and the sport – deserves.

The General might not be done with driver developments. Fellows will drive at Mosport, and it seems unlikely that he will replace anyone in this year’s pairings. So who will partner him there? There might also be a story brewing over at Cadillac.

How good is this gonna be?

The closer we get to Sebring, the more interesting the prototype race looks. Is the R10 really a “shoe in” against the LMP2 cars, augmented by a strong Intersport Creation entry? The five percent restrictor reduction – in use at Sebring in January – has been rescinded by IMSA, and the diesel will carry less fuel. Porsche admits to twenty more horsepower than last season and increased aerodynamic down force. Murphy’s heard some very interesting things indeed in the wake of a certain central Florida faux race. Recent races have been characterized as “good, not classic.” That could be different in 2007.

Meanwhile, based on testing alone (which for a new car, a new driver, and a still-developing team might be pretty important) the Bear doesn’t expect Mazda to be ready to run with the big dogs at Sebring. Sure, Marcus probably has ‘em doing calisthenics after shoveling the snow out of the parking lot, but that will only take you so far. Right now the large canines look like four Porsches, three Acuras, two Audis, and one Creation. Those ten could be further sliced and diced, but that’s for another time and place.

Spyders: what webs we weave

Murphy’s seen Hartmut quoted various places lately, including sportscarpros.com, and projectlemans.de. In the latter of those articles he seems to rule out any Spyders other than the two already underway, and suggests those two are destined for ALMS grids some time this season, both in the hands of the same team. Should that be the case, there could be some very surprised and very disappointed people out there with strong and long-standing ties to Stuttgart.

The words above (italics) were written last night. Now dailysportscar has broken a story about a team and a car, Conzus Motorsport and a Porsche RS Spyder. And as the Bear said, there are still some parts of this story that are not correct. First, unlike the report tonight, Conzus Motorports is not the purchaser of the Spyder pictured, a car which will soon be delivered to another team. Conzus has just broken ground on a new shop in Homestead, Florida, and since they will not make an initial payment to Porsche until May, no build-up of their Spyder has yet begun. This is the team that Murphy said would be disappointed if Hartmut’s comments about the two pictured chassis going to the same team, and being the last to be built this year were correct, because they (Conzus Motorsport) are not that team. That is what the Bear hears, anyway. So we still don’t know what team will debut at Miller Motorsport Park. The saga continues.

It’s a little late for this year’s award shows, but these tasty treats will go well with upcoming TV events, including the 12 Hours of Sebring.

Grilled Steak Bites with Red Wine Sauce

3 cups red wine
3 tablespoons cognac
3 shallots, chopped
1 teaspoon thyme
4 cups beef stock
2 lbs. steak of good quality, cut into cubes
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
5 tablespoons butter

Whisk first four ingredients in large bowl. Cut steak into 1 inch cubes and marinate overnight. Pour marinade into saucepan, boil to reduce to about a cup, add beef stock, return to boil, reducing again to about 1 ¼ cups. Remove from heat, fold in 5 tablespoons butter, and serve as a dipping/topping sauce.

Put steak on wood skewers, sprinkle with balsamic vinegar, and grill (indoor and grill pan works fine). Remove steak fro skewers, spoon red wine sauce over top and serve on platter or on individual hors d’oeuvres plates.

That first one is a little “highbrow.” Recognizing that not all sports car fans are in the wine and cheese set, here’s a little something for those for whom “or derves” just naturally brings to mind stabbing toothpicks into those little weenies.

Bourbon Bits

1 12 oz. bottle chili sauce (depending on your taste, Louisiana, Mexican, or Asian)
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup bourbon whisky
2 lbs. little weenies

Bring first three ingredients to a boil, add weenies, and simmer for one hour, or slow cook in a crock pot for two hours.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 4:01 am 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.