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Grand Am Throws a Party

Grand Am had a team owner’s meeting and cocktail reception on the 8th floor of the new ISC/NASCAR digs on International Speedway Boulevard last Thursday afternoonand evening. It’s probably where A.C. saw FIA chief Jean Todt accompanied by fiancé Bond Girl (Wai Lin, Tomorrow Never Dies) Michelle Yeow (right, at Cannes, credit Georges Baird). Todt is heading an FIA delegation, including American Nick Craw, on a “good will” tour – shoring up support amongst racing series and motoring club after AAA’s recent resignation.

With Bernie’s payments for F1 rights about to end with 89 years of exclusivity left (what dumbo wrote that contract?) the Frogs are facing a big ($35 million) hole in the budget. If others follow AAA out the door, things will be dire indeed.

As if to illustrate how dire, Grand Am told the assembled dignitaries they are in negotiations with DTM for a tie-up that will bring DTM to the USA. Some think a NASCAR-DTM alliance could get along quite well without the FIA.

Will the tube-frame silhouettes replace the ungainly DP’s at the top Grand Am, just be added to the field, or run in joint weekends? We are getting to the end of the DP’s  “10 year guarantee,” aren’t we?

The good will tour is expected to continue to Georgia (or perhaps Miller) and Indianapolis, among other stops.

Peugeot’s Relief

Peugeot Sport took apart its three failed diesels and were relieved to find they had not been shot by an Audi ray gun, as was suggested by a regular contributor on americanlemansfans.com. The best news for the rest of us (including Murphy, who has his plane ticket) is that the French announced they’d contest the remaining races of the Intercontinental Le Mans Challenge, including a two-car entry at Petit Le Mans.

Ingolstadt on Hold 

After Herr Doktor Ulrich told a respected radio personality earlier in the spring that a GT program in the American Le Mans Series is “probably the way to go,” Ingolstadt won at Le Mans and continued to talk about the R18 as if there were such a thing. Though a few parts and pieces and some engine development can go forward on whatever “slush funds” Ulrich can tap, major advancement of the program depends on funding approval by Volkswagen’s Management Committee. Dr. Ulrich can’t even ask the board until he has a rule set to build to. The ACO hasn’t yet provided one, and that’s the problem, of course, just as it was in 2008 and 2009. 

Murphy hears the ACO’s in some disarray over the 2011 rules, with raging internal conflicts over details and the potential impact on the 2011 Le Mans entry. They’ve told teams one thing, then released drafts that did something quite different, and, ironically the on-going confusion is doing just what the Frogs fear – impacting the 2011 field. At least one project has been stopped dead in its tracks by the release of the most recent draft.

The GT comment was a bit offhand, a general kind of comment that didn’t necessarily represent a “program in being.” However, continuing rules prevarication from the ACO has caused a GT program to become a much more attractive option to Audi. One source says that the R18 – if it does go ahead – is now a “Le Mans only” car; not LMS, not ALMS, not LMIC – Le Mans ONLY.

Against that background, Murphy heard (and tweeted), “A familiar team is said to be currently setting up shop in Braselton from which it will soon begin preparing an Audi R8 for GT2 in 2011.” The rumor said the ‘familiar team” was Champion Racing, but the Bear decided to dig a little deeper, and discovered the ex-Farnbacher Loles shop is now occupied by Eric Barrett, formerly of Miller –Barrett Racing, and for now it’s all quiet in those digs. Barrett is in Europe; it’s believed he’s trying to lay his hands on one of Zak Brown’s GT3 Audi R8’s. What will he do with it is anyone’s guess. Mild it back to GTC? (Edit: A friend of the Bear’s passed on this note from Eric Barrett:”Please tell Murphy I was on vacation (not on an Audi R8 quest). I retired four months ago.” Consider it done, Eric. The same friend clarifies that Barrett is the owner of the building in which Farnbacher Loles was once a tenant. Murphy hopes that business relationship worked out better for Eric than many deals did for others.

No one in the business who Murphy talks to thinks Volkswagen will eagerly field a competitor in the middle of Porsche’s very profitable 911 GT3 Cup business at a time when Porsche is working to expand those sales. Especially one so expensive as to have to be subsidized by its Audi brand.

If Audi decides on an ALMS GT campaign, it won’t be with an “independent” design. Not that they need to, but Audi sees the Jaguar disaster (and the Chrysler disaster before it) just  as clearly as stuffed animals do.

Murphy doubts Zak Brown will ever end up in the ALMS, anyway. Ol’ Zak’s a NASCAR and Grand Am guy through and through. If you don’t believe him, just ask; John Dagys, of Speedtv.com did. In an interview, Brown said (about racing in FIA GT), that he enjoys being with “the big boys.” In racing, an admitted sycophant will always kiss up to a France and ignore a Panoz, and Zak pretty much laid it out that way. If he races GT cars in the US, it will be in Grand Am, “where there are commercial advantages.” Period.

Zak  would get along just fine with Kevin Buckler, who sidled over the table at which execs for Cort Wagner’s sponsor New Century Mortgage were sitting during the 2004 ALMS Banquet. “You want to play on the big tracks with the big boys next year?” he asked, pitching a Grand Am program with Wagner. They took him up on it. That was just two and a half years before the sub-prime mortgage mill, the subject of numerous Cease and Desist orders from states Attorneys General and a US Justice Department criminal investigation, went broke and was liquidated. The Bear remembers the ALMS New Century “FastQual Awards.” “Fast Qualifying” is pretty easy on liar loans, of course.

Kinetic Motorsports

Murphy was told the Russell Smith and Nic Jonsson racing shop laid off five employees last week. The Kinetic Kia Koup deal apparently isn’t enough to keep everyone gainfully employed

Speaking of Koups

The Bear hears it’s decided. The new Audi R18 will be a closed cockpit.

Nissan iie

Though it’s been quietly considered, no North American Nissan GT racing program for 2011.

Riley the Cat?

There was some sniffing around RSR’s shop by parties interested in fielding a Jag-powered DP, odd to say the least, since the direct injection motor will require significant modification to be Grand Am legal. It’s understood any Cat motor has come from Paul Gentilossi’s shop, so the Indians haven’t thrown Rocket Sports under the bus yet. No interest yet from anyone who would run it in ALMS. Folks following that series has probably seen enough.

The Jag’s electrical problems at Le Mans are being blamed by the team on the Zytek-built (edit: not Zytek, “Stack,” apologies) box the ACO installs on each entry as an engine monitor. According the rumor around Indianapolis, the Jag’s Motec system and the Zytek box couldn’t be made to work together.

The New Indy Car

The IRL’s ICONIC  committee responsible for recommending the new Indy Car have been more secret than an Elk’s Lodge, but Murphy’s heard there will be more than one chassis maker chosen, or perhaps a common tub/undertray chassis that other builders will be able to construct their cars onto. 

The Bear heard Robin Miller knows what has been decided but is keeping his mouth shut. (Since when has that ever happened?) Allegedly, one of the seven ICONIC members told him. Cottman? Long?

X Games

Murphy supposes it was just a matter of time with drifting and all, but Rallycross will be part of the Summer X Games in LA, with Subaru a participant.

Hoosiers Suck

No, not the UI (edit: ”IU” not UI, thanks to Privateer Motorsports) football team (on second thought…), or the whole state, but the tire soon to be rebranded Continental and become the Grand Am spec shoe.

Weekend tests after Daytona at Homestead for the Grand Am teams were a disaster. One prominent team went home early and very dissatisfied. A pro driver did a couple of laps and pronounced the rubber “a good way to kill myself.” Best times were 5 seconds off the March pole. In a long run test, a prominent Mazda pilot ran 1:22/1:23 for 16 laps – about a half stint – before the tires fell off by seven seconds and he finally spun.

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Tags: AAA, ACO, Audi, Bernie Ecclestone, Continental, Dr. Ulrich, DTM, Eric Barrett, Grand Am, Hoosier, ICONIC, Jaguar, Jean Todt, Kevin Buckler, Kinetic Motorsports, Michelle Yeow, Motec, NASCAR, New Century Mortgage, Nick Craw, Nissan, Paul Gentilossi, Peugeot, Porsche, R18, R8, Rocket Sports Racing, Tomorrow Never Dies, Volkswagen, X Games, Zak Brown

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 at 12:14 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.