The paddock was the usual noisy place here at Miller Motorsports Park, and after he had a chance to admire this cool silver car in the Dyson Racing paddock – where he learned that the rumored (elsewhere, not by the Bear) visit of a recently retired driver isn’t expected. The English gardener is – or was – in Jacksonville, Florida, and someone just added two and two and got five, it seems.
Elsewhere, he heard that the Tafel team has a handle on this PR stuff, having garnered a major front-of-sports-section bit on the horse and car both. This time it’s about Porsches and ALMS rather than about NASCAR. Kudos from the Bear. Likewise, Murphy’s pretty impressed with Ryan Briscoe’s drive in Indy qualifying, and hopes that Roger and company will ID the Aussie as an important cog in the ALMS team. And Acura’s buddies at Honda do the Indy engines, so the Bear thinks there are stories to be exploited here. Git on ‘em, guys.
Oh, that fourth Ferrari is on Michelins – but not for long. They were able to arrange a “one off” with the French tire guys for this, their “home race.” After Utah, it will be something else – perhaps – Murphy also heard tires may not be necessary after Utah.
The Kumhos did better at Mid-Ohio testing recently. “2006 front row time,” according to someone who should know. Two teams were there, of course.
There’s been a bit of planting here at Miller, we’re told – but the Bear’s got poor eyesight, he couldn’t find any of it. Off there – in the distance, on the other side…oh, well, it’s the desert, just get used to it. Still, Murphy’s happy to be back to a “regular” road course after the street stuff, but he sure could do without the dust storms that skipped through yesterday afternoon.
Yup, it’s pretty early to for schedule stories, but what about another urban festival for 2008? “What happens here, stays here.” Close to the time of this race, though. Six races before Le Mans and thirteen in total is a really, really different kind of schedule than just a few years ago, isn’t it? There’s something of an assumption here that a certain OW series will still be around in 2008 – not certain by any means. Could the ALMS be positioning itself to headline a festival or two? And is the ALMS itself headed for a buyout? A very well-informed someone here said it might be, “perhaps even before the end of the year.”
For those of you who caught it, the error that Heidi photographed at Houston hasn’t been fixed yet by the series. Perhaps by Lime Rock?
We saw our Utah skier yesterday. The only certain plans are for more racing in Europe this season, though he admits there are a “couple of things in the works for NA.”
Meanwhile, there have been stories about entries at Lime Rock and after. Two more Porsches Spyders of course, and perhaps lose one Ferrari, but it still seems certain that there will be thirty or more on that grid. Yes, we’ve heard the stories about Saleens and MC12′s but can’t add anything new here – at least this early in the weekend. But you should look for a fun-loving, well-fed European team to return to the ALMS fold, perhaps as early as Lime Rock. Murphy’s told the deal is just about done.
That’s all – for now, anyway, from Utah – but Murphy will be back with more next week.
So what was the error that Heidi photgraphed, I can’t find it.
Look closely at the photo of the team paddock flag in Paddock Poop 44. What’s the team name? It isn’t the team that made the mistake, by the way.
The error has been fixed. The team had the correct flag this weekend in front of the garage.
Like it never even happened.