Braselburg Happenings
No sooner than the cats left town than the mice were out. Actually not out, but “in” a meeting. With the RRIC underway in Phoenix on this past Tuesday – that’s where the Bear was – Murphy’s mole (the Moroccan Mole, some call him) reported a ‘big, big meeting’ at 1394 Broadway in Braselburg. The Bear doesn’t know if it was a sanctioned meeting or an incipient revolt, but he’s heard the subject matter was anything but trivial.
Panoz Motor Sports (PMS) Group has a new CFO/accountant. The new guy has been described to Murphy as a ‘slash and burn’ artist. The problem? Not much left to slash. The Bear’s been told the only profitable thing in the company is T-shirt sales – Anna Mae’s Trinket Truck. Nice stuff, but not a big division. In fact, profit or not, it might be on the chopping block as ‘not important enough to mess with.’ Murphy hopes like hell that’s wrong. He likes trinkets.
Cuts in other areas continue – on the pit lane and even in the safety car. Due to illness of the incumbent, new guy Jim is taking over Timing & Scoring (Murphy has been corrected, the job being taken over is Simone’s as Chief Communicator in Race Control; he’s also told she’s recovered very well - well enough to perform – not that anyone on Broadway cared enough to ask…), at least temporarily.
You need a measure of how well things are going? You saw the press release on a Haas “distributor deal.” First question – sent along by one of the elves – “what do you need a distributor for in your home market?” According to some, the real story is Champ Car – the failed racing series just keeps right on giving, doesn’t it? Murphy’s been told Haas loaned Panoz three million to build the Champ Car DP01, and was still owed a million. Cash-strapped PMS Group offered its parts business and a little cash instead, and Carl took it. According to just about everyone in the race car biz, that is pretty much the end for Panoz as a race car constructor.
As if to confirm that, just today the Bear was told the Abruzzi lives – yes, Murphy’s gagging, too. This time though, it’s as a GT2 (Autosport and autoblog.com reported that this past October), and the new story is it’s not PMS Group and it’s not Danny doing the building. It’s Tom Milner being paid by the Don to build the racing Esperante replacement (that had to go, anyway, since its road car certification was based on a Mustang platform no longer in production).
So, how does that work? The Abruzzi is supposedly a modification of the Esperante GTLM (that’s sort of déjà vu, given the constantly morphing history of the Panoz LMP). But what’s the homologation of the Abruzzi without a street car?
Radisson Road Racing Conference
The nine tracks that host ALMS events met with the Series and with each othern the Canyon I room at the Radisson Airport North in Phoenix. The Bear was there. 
Murphy was parked in the next door lobby bar when they broke at 5 pm for a reception in the 44th Street Café, and still there when they finally trickled away near 7 pm, nearly an hour later than scheduled. It seemed convivial, if subdued, in the café. Did the promoters (as predicted by as source) get “reality, no more BS, real solutions?” Time – and the International Moles’ Secrets Association (IMSA) – will tell. The Bear is disappointed to have to report that the recently appointed committee had no representation in sight. Given the current problems of the Series and of PMS Group, they could seize the initiative. Murphy hopes they aren’t solely a creature of the proprietors.
Porsche
The Warsteiners – oh, sorry, that’s the beer, Murphy means the Weissachers – announced eight werks pilots the other day; missing were Emanuele Collard and Sascha Maassen, as the Bear told you a while back. The story is in the remainder, though. It seems there’s not even enough work (werk?) for even eight. Wolf Henzler is assigned to a seventh-place (at best) ALMS entry. Ace drivers (there’s no doubt about that, is there?) Timo Bernhard and Romain (Lettuce) Dumas are assigned to, pretty much nothing. Sure, they make a big deal about the Nurburgring 24 hours, but big car and fan turnout aside, it’s a run-what-you brung event, not exactly Le Mans. Odd, isn’t it? Something has to be planned, doesn’t it?
That’s a matter of debate, some saying they’ll land in a Porsche AG (or NA)-financed Cytosport entry, others saying “ no way, they won’t lay out that kind of money, and if they wanted to, why not just hire Penske again?” Those in that “no way” camp suggest some kind of combination deal with Audi (a car for Timo and Romain at Le Mans, as there was last season), and a few “place-holder” Porsche races (one-off seats at Petit Le Mans, perhaps?). So why keep even those eight on board if there really isn’t that much work? Over-active imaginations will suspect the gestation of a new Porsche LMP to the 2011 rules (which, after all, won’t be much of a stretch from the Spyder, particularly its 3.4 liter V8). The cynics will suggest it’s much simpler; if you’ve got ‘em under contract (and have to pay them), you could just as well try to use ‘em.
Balancing Act
What’s next in the brave new world of performance balancing? Falken seems to be angling for rules to help them run their 2008 Porsche? Not just run it, of course, they can do that if they like, but to make it competitive. That’s nonsense – and besides, it won’t exactly do good things for Porker race car sales, will it? Next, Randy Wars and Grady Willingham will be back in Dick Barbour’s old R. IMSA let a couple run in 2001 after the introduction of the RS, but they didn’t change the rules to make it faster, did they?
Extreme
Or not so. Scott Sharp’s Extreme Speed was planning to run a GT Challenge Porsche along with it’s two GT2 Ferraris. Now it’s dropped the Challenge program. Some say it’s a good idea for the team to concentrate on its Ferraris.
Intersport Raids Comprent
Sources say the Dublin, Ohio team has taken two of Comprent’s former IMSA Lites customers. Meanwhile, the proprietor of the Georgia company is rumored to be buying out his partners in a 5 axis milling machine.
Spiraling Down
Declining attendance is likely reducing ALMS sanction fees, on top of outright loss of sanctioned series (BMW’s training wheels racing), and declines in entries (and consequently revenue) from other sanctions (Cooper Atlantics had 8 entries last the Bear heard, possibly Patrón GT3 Challenge, cannibalized by ALMS’ Challenge class). Declining and stagnant television viewership is reducing ad rates, and making annual support of the series look less attractive to manufacturers and other partners.
The Rolex
Look for Murphy’s annual Rolex preview early next week.
Twitter
When rumors surface, the Bear tweets at http://twitter.com/Murphythebear
Tags: Abruzzi, Audi, Carl Haas, Comprent, Dick Barbour, Extreme Speed, Falken, Intersport, Le Mans, Nurburgring, PMS Group, Porsche, PTG, Rolex 24 at Daytona, Romain Dumas, RRIC, Scott Sharp, Timo Bernhard, Tom Milner, Weissach, Wolf Henzler
I think the ALMS has hit rock bottom and can’t get any worst.
At the front LMP might not be that great, but I have a feeling it might be a bit close at some of the sprint races, that is if Corsa and Intersport can get their act together on tire wear.
But full stop the battle, the war will be GT2
The rest of it is just fluff, I mean GTC? With is just a glorified Porsche Cup race and LMPC, I think they’ll end up getting in the way of the GT2 battle…
Sebring might be a yawner unless Wheeler focuses on GT2.
The Sprint Races will be where most of the fun is and 6 hour race, we’ll see.
We need to lobby I think its CBS for full coverage.
Hey Murph, on the issue of smaller attendance at ALMS races last year, the way they were down, didn’t that reflect the economy more-so than the loss of entries in the ALMS. Let’s face it of the 76 000 at Mosport, how many actually knew going into the weekend Penske and others had withdrawn? How many knew, leaving the weekend even, that P1 and P2 no longer had rules where they were able to fight each other? I think 2010 will be more of an indicator as to how the public views the series in both spectator counts, and television viewership. Not saying things are rosier than you might be saying, but we don’t know the extent of how bad it is yet. However, if the unified P class can provide great racing, and GT(2) is the gunfight we expect it to be, the ALMS can do a lot to impress the average Mosport or Lime Rock, or Long Beach event spectator. It will be interesting to see how the series looks going into ‘11.
Sorry for the bad grammar. I’m doing three things at once and I just woke up after a late night.
Hello Mr. Bear
Mr. Scott A. was in Toronto this weekend.
He was attending the Canadian Motorsports Show,
participating in a chat on “Alternative Fuels” and to kick-start
the 50th Birthday of Mosport Park. He was move then pleased
to talk to fans and gave this annual show some credibility.
In your blog/column/op-ed/editorial/twit/orwhateverthesethingsarecalledtoday #150, you mentioned possible “Good Sebring News”. Autosport.com is reporting that AF is close to a deal to run a wo(e?)rks AM LMP1 at the ALMS big boys and Le Mans. Is this the news to what you referred? Regardless, what are you hearing about this actually happening?
Talk to us Mr. Bear.