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A while back, an important person wrote a piece for Last Turn Clubhouse under the nom de plume Katrina Flood, “Rating North American Sports Car Racing Events.”  Murphy highly recommends – in fact, it’s a course requirement – that you read it. If you haven’t already, that means now.

OK, class, that’s Kat’s view, and Murphy’s sure you’ve got your own “best.” But first, there’s one more item in our “Events 101” course syllabus, the Bear’s very own “Best North American Road Racing Events,” below. (more…)

Murphy’s lost his adoptive mother and best friend Jean Marie, who died the evening of November 29, 2007. Murphy was on her bed.

She found Murphy, a small Gund bear, alone and naked, in a Sonoma bed and breakfast in 2004, and immediately adopted him. His first race was just a week later at Laguna Seca, though he didn’t write his first column until July 2005. (Jeannie’s contributions to race coverage over many years is described here, at Last Turn Clubhouse.)

Murphy’s not sure what will become of him now, but he’s certain nothing ever again will be quite the same.

Farewell, Jeannie.

January 2, 2006, Salinas, California – Murphy’s sufficiently recovered from his New Year’s revels to get back to work, so he’s pulled up a chair and cracked a bottle of a 2000 Saint-Emilion Grand Cru to share his first fuzzy-headed thoughts of the new year. The Bear’s holiday was like yours, out on the town for the last gasp of 2006, then spend the first day of 2007 recovering on the couch. Murphy suspects the popularity of New Year’s day football has as much to do with providing cover for indolence than with the sport itself. We warmed up for the weekend with the don’t-call-it-the-Peach-Chick-fil-A Bowl. If you wear a dawg on your head, or you are one of the residents of the Poultry Capital of the World for whom your vacation ends in one of the sponsor’s stores, you might really care, I guess, but otherwise? That one was a day after the Golden Rodents set an all-time record by blowing a thirty-one point lead in a quarter and a half. Goldy’s footballers are unique in accomplishing such swan dives, having previously performed similarly spectacular collapses at Michigan in 2003, to Wisconsin in 2005, and to North Carolina State in another of those countless and eminently forgettable bowl games. (more…)

“Car Week” on Monterey Bay got Murphy thinking.  This is an experience that all his gearhead friends should be able to have, but cost – in cash and relationships – can be formidable.  Let’s face it, our “significant others” put up with our automotive obsessions, but they rarely share them.  So you can’t just run off and drop a couple grand all by yourself…not without becoming a single bear again, anyway.

Well, the Bear was paying attention last week and he realized there are ways to take your squeeze along and manage the time and do-re-mi in such a way as to make everyone happy.  The trick?  Find the less expensive car events, use the money you save to do some serious partying with your better half, and you’ll come away with her (or  him, not to be sexist here) remembering a great romantic time in one of the most beautiful places on the globe while you go home having had that awesome car experience. (more…)

Burnsville, Minnesota, USA – Back from “winter training” in Florida, and this Bear is “pumped”! What a rush to see two entirely new LMP1 cars, along with a pair of nearly new LMP2s! The new Audi may be quiet, and the brake glow may be gone, but trust Murphy, this car will send chills up your spine. The Bear’s telling you, when the new Lola, in the hands of James Weaver and his mates, goes head-to-head against the R10, while Clint and company take their Lola out against the Porsche on a more suitable track for them than Laguna Seca, you’re going to be in real danger of soiling your laundry. Is it any wonder the Bear doesn’t usually wear pants?

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