The Bear’s stayed away from the swirl of Acura rumors while others have been diving into this cesspool with apparent glee. This week, the forums went all abuzz once again, and a SpeedTV.com columnist contributed to the frenzy with yet another theory about what’s going on – or not – inside HPD and the two Acura P1 teams. Murphy doesn’t pretend to know what of all this is correct; but it’s time someone just summarized what’s out there and let y’all figure out what it means – if anything.
Homestead
Murphy’s been hearing disquieting things about the Acura P1 program since Homestead, where a withdrawal in favor of IRL was first rumored by sources within the P1 teams. That was followed by Robin Miller’s comments on SpeedTV’s Wind Tunnel that Acura was on the way out of the ALMS. The Bear was told later that Acura was more than a little exercised at Mr. Miller, the reason for that ire that – at least at the time – no such withdrawal was contemplated.
de Ferran and the IRL
Subsequently, in response to repeated questions, Gil de Ferran suggested that fielding an IRL team (ostensibly in addition to continuing the Acura prototype program) would make sense economically by leveraging resources. The Indy 500 was mentioned as a near-term possibility.
Sebring
The story was quiet at Sebring , until the Acura’s substantial performance deficit to the two diesels was exposed in the race, and until the Nick Wirth design’s strengths were demonstrated to be very much at odds with the characteristics of Le Mans – an objective often mentioned in this program.
A Week of Buzz
As soon as Monday – barely enough time to get home from Florida – the rumor resurfaced, this time reportedly from within HPD’s California campus.
Wednesday of this week, Miller “clarified” his SpeedTV comments. He now reports that development of the ARX-02a will cease immediately – kind of a no-brainer with no one to race – and they’ll pull de Ferran from the Series in 2010. That’s not a heck of a lot better, and certainly not good enough news for IMSA to sit on its hands (which is precisely what it will be doing if it plows on through 2009 with the same rule and business structure).
On Thursday, there were again calls from usually reliable (that does not mean always right) sources that the P1 program would be ended soon, or at least put on a one-season hiatus from active racing. As Robin Miller speculates, the lack of competition after the withdrawal of Audi and Porsche is a serious irritant for the folks at HPD and elsewhere in Acura and Honda.
Duncan and Tony?
The same day – Thursday – Murphy heard (but has been unable to confirm) that Duncan Dayton had recently met with Tony George. If so, Kerry Morse can lay claim to being the most prescient journalist around – or he knows more than he’s letting on – having suggested just this morning in a sportscarpros.com piece that Patrón Highcroft put its resources to work during the interminably long Le Mans break by entering the Indy 500. That, of course, has little to do with actually withdrawing from the American Le Mans Series (other than requiring a “skip” of Utah, if there is a Utah), assuming, of course, the rumored discussion with George had only to do with a one-off Brickyard attempt.
Just Wait a Minute
On the other side of the coin, from within HPD late Thursday, the view, paraphrased, that “there’s no reason to think Acura won’t finish out the season.” Further, if R&D is stopped, as suggested by Miller, there should be “personnel actions” at HPD. Thus far there are none.
Braselton?
Braselton does not seem to be worried that there will be an immediate Acura withdrawal. Should we take that as a clear signal that Acura will “stay the course?” We should be able to. After all, given that such a withdrawal would have such a huge impact on the series’ prospects, it would necessarily be in very close contact with its most important remaining participant.
Smoke or Fire?
So what does Murphy think? He can’t make any judgment, except to say that there is usually some fire under such a large volume of smoke. Given the risk posed by any further withdrawals, he thinks Braselton should have moved to shore up its fields immediately after Audi’s announced curtailment by taking steps similar to those suggested here [link] by Last Turn Clubhouse in December. At this point, if the Acura P1 is removed, a single prototype class will “happen” on the track without any action from IMSA. The strengthening of the GT ranks should be done without delay. Rumors were rife on Thursday and Friday at Sebring that they were about to do just that.
After Long Beach
It’s unlikely that we’ll know anything further about Acura’s intent until after Long Beach – officially, anyway – but then Indianapolis looms, and the two P1 teams and their corporate partner will be facing some hard choices.
We assumed the same, watching the slow Acura P-1 cars in the TV section at Walmart.
Now we were sure that certain other pit crews were seen asking drivers when they came in
for tyre changes, if they wanted a rear tyre up front, just like the Acura cars….
Acura should go back to P-2 and as mentioned earlier by myself, AMLS should
Relax the rules and let older dated proto-types run. We know those guys don’t
Have any aspiration of going to France in June.