More
Layoffs have continued in downtown Braselton. Paddock Poop’s proprietor just watched – he takes no pleasure in such things –while the Series’ salesman was let go before Long Beach, a few more since, including one associated with the Series’ IP, and the last – or nearly so – internal accounting person. That function will be done elsewhere in PMG? In total, we hear there have been seven more souls on the bricks in Northeast Georgia since the Christmas Massacre.
And at the top
This morning Murphy heard a big change – the PMG boss has been calling team owners ahead of the announcement – is imminent. It’s not a general layoff, or even a layoff at all, just a “departure,” and Murphy won’t give you a name (you could read the headline, of course), but if you polled a hundred fans (even the so-called insiders) yesterday it’s likely this name wouldn’t have made a single ballot. Does the grass suddenly look greener somewhere else? The Bear will leave the implications to those without stuffed heads.
IRL grid gain
Murphy’s heard that Honda’s is taking financial steps to facilitate a Yankee team’s move to IRL next season. It’s widely believed that Acura will only return if there is major manufacturer competition, and that it currently assumes that will not be the case.
On the seventh day – or later
E-I got us a confirmation that Creation will be on the ALMS grid soon. “We plan to return to the ALMS Series, when we are ready,” said Andy Woolgar. That’s pretty certain, isn’t it? (Murphy still believes he has good reason to believe, “when we are ready” will not likely be sooner than 2010.
An ECO echo
What we read about racing plans now is what we’ve read before…many times. How is it different this time? Really. It’s all just a waste of ink until they actually show, isn’t it? There should be some kind of “announcement to action” index measuring the number of announcements we can get for each actual entry.
Getting it right
In a fallout from the time-out at Long Beach, it seems the Bear’s friends over at Last Turn Clubhouse got this one right, but it’s IMSA that gets the congratulations. A competition memo today revised penalties to better align them with infractions.
Primetime out of time
Don’t look for a Viper on the Miller grid. Murphy hears it won’t be there, and there’s some doubt it will be around for races later in the season, too.
Personal Banker
The results just released of the Supervisory Capital Assessment Program (SCAP), a.k.a. the “stress tests”, put Grand Am’s Sugar Daddy, Sun Trust Banks, sixth worst, needing 2.2 additional capitalization to meet minimum requirements. Still “easy money” for prototurtles? Probably not.
A little note from the Bear: Sure as tootin’ as soon as Murphy posted this Poop, in rolls an A.C. column, with stories from Thunderbolt and some other stuff, too. Look for it soon.
Murph – I don’t want you to drop names….
But the killings didn’t include any UGA fans did it?
Not any famous ones. The most prominent (and current) departure is a Mountain Hawks fan. Murphy thinks the “known Dawg fans,” are still at the galley oars.
To quote a famous animated TV show, whose name escapes me at the moment….ah….there it is…way back in the far reaches of my soggy brain…South Park…way to go magic fingers….
“OMG! THey’ve killed Kenny!”