There’s a rumor out there that the ALMS is “close” to an agreement to return to Infineon Raceway (Sears Point for you purists and old folks) in 2011.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma City’s council has authorized “negotiations” to obtain a 2011 ALMS street race – following in the tradition, Murphy supposes, of Miami, Trois Rivieres, Houston, Detroit, and St. Pete. More about such things from the Bear’s friends here at The Last Turn Clubhouse. 

When the Bear wrote in Paddock Poop 136, back on August 19 that, “St. Petersburg will be missing from the 2010 schedule, but (surprising even to the Bear) it’s rumored that Infineon will be back.” St. Pete officially disappeared soon after, but the Infineon deal didn’t come together in time for the California track to make the 2010 schedule. It still hasn’t, but it’s rumored that it  will, soon. Perhaps.
But perhaps not. Grand Am is also intent on returning to Sonoma. In fact, the Daytona Beach series, in another rumor, also it will be back at Sear Point soon.

But take heart, Braselburgers. Grand Am may be about to catch the street race disease. In Daytona’s case the idea seems to have taken root in the disappointment over its anemic race attendance. In the all-too-common “it-can’t-be-our-product” delusion that management in all endeavors suffers from, the theory is circulating in Florida that fans don’t want to travel to traditional road course tracks. It’s “just too far.” The solution? City-center street courses for Grand Am. Some at the World Center of Racing even think the Prototurtles might eventually return to Long Beach. The Bear’s convinced that there’s nothing like a string of “Festivals of Speed” to screw up a race series.

In the heart of Cheese Country

The Bear mentioned the ALMS’s “official cheese,” Yancey’s Fancy, in Paddock Poop 157. Since, then, Murphy (and his readers) has been eager to know how this important new would be received by the press and the racing community. The immediate reaction was ambiguous, to say the least. At the announcement press conference at Sebring, heard in the cheap seats occupied by the assembled  sports car racing journalists (hand picked for their loyalty) was an incredulous whispered, “Did he say official cheese?” That was before the unveiling of the cheese sculpture of our dearly-departed Panoz LMGT.

The real cheese aficionados, to be found, ironically , around Road America, long a host (although not very enthusiastically) of the series, were miffed, to say the least. They accuse the “official cheese” of not being real cheese at all, but rather cheese curds, a creamery by-product, even though they grudgingly admit it’s a tasty morsel. A native of Dairyland USA affectionately refers to them as cheese turds.

It all sets up for a big dust-up come August, since the Bear’s been reliably informed by a source who grew up playing with toy sports cars virtually on the shore of Elkhart Lake it’s illegal to be in possession of non-Wisconsin cheese north of Waukegan, Illinois or east of Minneapolis. Don’t be surprised to see Wisconsin cows (they’re the ornery ones; the happy cows are in California) picketing the Road America gates.

So has the wine and cheese series become the tequila and milk by-product series?

Not that George and his band of merry boys (and girls) at Road America are much affected by any of this. Big George’s marketing campaign last year consisted of a video that spent ten minutes on the attractions of golf cart scavenger hunts (seriously) and club racing events before it ever got around to mentioning there were actually spectator events at North America’s most revered road racing track. The season ticket mailer featured photos of little SCCA racers that looked like Malibu Grand Prix cars, doing nothing to convey this was a place where one might actually find professional racing. The Bear got his 2010 mailer a couple of weeks ago. The feature this time? NASCAR. Seriously. On the other side it’s got a 1969 Can Am picture of a dead guy and Augie Pabst, Jr.

Murphy got his second mailer, with ticket prices, today. The American Le Mans Series is still buried in the “also running” column. But it always has been. The dead guy Mustang reunion at the urinal weekend seems to be the feature event. The only thing about the ALMS weekend that’s big is the price. The most on the Series’ schedule, more than Sebring, way more than Laguna Seca. The same as Road America’s NASCAR Nationwide, and more than the big faucet weekend featuring the dead guy’s reunion. And they wonder why they don’t draw flies?

With the Wisconsin track drawing a paltry 40,000 in three days last season – only Utah was worse – can it last long on the ALMS calendar? The geniuses at Grand Am will tell you it’s hopeless – too far from Chicago. Murphy will be there in August, anyway. Look for him at the track, at Siebken’s or, if you want to steep yourself real cheesehead culture, at the Commercial Break in Neenah.

Audi Angst

The Bear’s Thesaurus lists “tormet” as an “angst” near-synonym, which is the least fans at Sebring are going to feel with new Audi R15’s, ready for the 2010 season, on track in Monday-Tuesday test sessions at Sebring. It turns out that Murphy’s source that they would actually enter was closer than we thought. In fact, given the build-test schedule there’s been every reason to think they could and should. Fans of a sport are usually benefitted by bitter rivalries, but not when they can just not show up. Most sports have enough leverage through their organizing bodies – leagues, conferences, etc. – to enforce participation. That’s even true in motorsport at the highest levels.

The Bear’s friend Marshall Pruett says over on speedtv.com that he’s be “saddened” to see them on track at Sebring but not racing in the 12 Hours. Murphy would use a different word to describe this circus.

Jaguar building

Rocket Sports’ shop was pushing hard – working long hours –  to complete a second Jaguar before Sebring, but the best guess is that it won’t make it.

Lola Ferrari

Murphy hears Lola’s building an LMP 1 to be powered by a Ferrari engine from the defunct A1GP series. Bunches of the powerplants are available at South African businessman Tony Teixeira’s liquidation sale. The Bear’s trying to figure out how the motors will work, since they’re 4.5 liters. Will they be destroked to 3.4? Did they originate in a non-racing Ferrari, so they can be homologated under the GT loophole?  Or will the Lola actually be powered by the 3.4 liter Zytek used in A1GP’s inaugural season? Don’t look for the new Lola to make it to the USA, though; this is an LMS-oriented project.

In other Ferrari news, a new Grand Am GT looks more likely to debut in Virginia than in Alabama. To further confuse the anoraks, it’s a Prep 2 with a Ferrari-built unit-body chassis (making it a real Ferrari to collectors). So much for simple definitions of the Grand Am rules.

Driving Corvettes

With changes in Team Corvette’s chauffeur ranks widely expected in 2011, the Bear is looking beyond “the usual suspects.” A new whole-schedule Team Corvette driver may be known at  the highest levels, but remains “under the radar.”  He (or she) may not be among those identified as a 2010 enduro “third.” 

Who is Scott Tucker and What is Westfund?

Murphy has no idea.

The Color of Money

A color no one is seeing much of in road racing these days. The Bear’s pretty sure that ALMS – after a real good season as recently as 2008 – is flirting with red ink. Loosing series sanctions doesn’t help, and the manufacturers that once played Sugar Daddy are gone, replaced by cheese, tequila, pearls, and personal lubricants (ok, G-Oil is for motors, but Murphy just can’t help himself). Meanwhile, he’s hearing that the boys in Daytona were $2 million upside down for 2009. IRL is believed by many (including some who should know) to be a financial disaster hanging by a thread. Is everything going to be silhouette roundy-round racing?

Dithering

The gang that can’t shoot straight finally got around to issuing a butanol bulletin today, and they approved it provisionally, with a 30 kilo penalty for the firs two races…that might be continued…or might not.

If they really wanted an alternate fuel they’d have made a definitive decision soon after the close of the 2009 season, allowing teams and manufacturers to make plans, obtain sponsorships, and test. Who the hell needs teams to have sponsorships, anyway? Who the hell wants to promote alternate fuels? Not the “Leader Green Racing.”

Anyone give Dyson Racing’s Mazda a chance at Sebring? Or perhaps they won’t be running butanol after all, since the boneheaded treatment of the fuel in the last two races of 2009 has already driven off BP.

(Murphy adds a note: As has become usual, this bulletin was reissued the next day, adding language after “approved for use” in LMP-LMP1-LMP2 only.)

Dead Horse Department

The Bear sadly watched (and provided some insight into) USF1’s failure. He’d rather now let it go, but Mr. Anderson’s interview requires some comment. The captain of this ship is blaming the FIA, FOTA, Bernie, Max, an unknown lost sponsor and just about everybody except himself. Nonsense. He says the car was “on track” until mid-January. Hogwash. He thinks USF1 has a chance to be on the 2011 grid. Horsefeathers.

Look for the Bear’s Annual Sebring Punter’s Guide soon.

Follow Murphy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Murphythebear

USF1 closed the doors without paying its employees at noon today. Ken Anderson slunk out the back door without a word to those headed for North Carolina’s unemployment office…but that could be problematical.

The staff was told this was a “furlough while a reorganization” could take place. So, don’t pay the staff? Strikes the Bear as the same kind of manure Anderson and company’s been shoveling all along. Windsor was also nowhere to be found around the Charlotte facility when the staff was given the bad news. Perhaps we’ve seen the end of both of them?

Consider this: Murphy believes that by putting its employees on “unpaid leave,” while claiming they are “technically employed” USF1 makes them unable to collect unemployment compensation from North Carolina. It also saves USF1 from being responsible for those payments. The Bear’s waiting to hear how those applications for compensation are treated.

Murphy was quiet after his comments February 23, mostly because this train was on the tracks. The short version is that Charlie would report complete disarray in Charlotte (hell, he might just have read the Bear and saved the airfare), and the FIA would pull the entry, with only a glimmer of hope that a bond might secure the team’s grid spot for 2010. Now that latter seems to be the “official story” – that the staff is only being furloughed, and will be called back. Murphy really believes that’s true – he’s got friends in Charlotte – but doesn’t believe it will work out that way.

During the Bear’s holiday from this story, he was entertained by F1 bloggers who claimed all kinds of nonsense, the best of which was that “Hurley was being blocked by Anderson.” Murphy’s just a stuffed animal, but he knows enough math to know that 1 vote doesn’t beat 4. The same bloggers cooked up a long list of “agreements” to  merge with Campos, or Stefan F1. It’s always been hard to make sense of those things. Possible? Maybe, since Campos is still looking for a way to cure its default on the Dallara. But none of it likely. Deck chairs on the Titanic.

 There’s an assumption, it seems,  that dreaming up an idea to put video on the web makes one a competent businessman. It clearly doesn’t. The principal dithered, sending his friend hither and yon when action to fix the core problem was long overdue. The time to fix this was in October, and was long since past by December. Sending poor Parris to Italy and Spain in February didn’t even have the advantage of nice Mediterranean weather – the time for that was October.

Murphy made the case for the major management change public in February, but it was already a forlorn hope. There was no Obi-Wan waiting in the wings.

 Complicating whatever comes next is that Frank Williams and his friends in the middle of the grid are as likely to invite the left-over Toyota program join them as chickens are to invite the cat into the henhouse. A little understanding of the concorde – short version again, money is distributed on the basis of the season’s total points scored – is all that’s needed to know that Stefan F1 might cost Frank tens of millions of dollars.

Fiction: Where is T-Mobile?

So far no VICI for Sebring. The so-called “T-Mobile deal,” never made much sense to stuffed animals, even if it was popular in forums as an excuse for VICI “no-shows.”  Whether or not VISI shows up, with or without T-Mobile, corporations budget for the immediately following fiscal year, normally in a cycle that begins will submissions no later than September and decisions early in the fourth quarter.

Irrelevance: Audi disses ‘the platform’

Since we’re on the subject of Sebring, Audi will test for four days immediately following the 12 Hours. Not with a ‘transition’ car, but with an R15 version that’s fully compliant with 2010 ACO rules. So the ‘blame’ (Murphy did his share) on Peugeot for blocking a transition car at Sebring seems to have been overtaken by events. The fact is that during the week when the American Le Mans Series in on the track at Sebring, a pair of fully functional, shaken-down, brand new, ready-to-race R15’s will be sitting inside a transporter nearby. Now Braselburg looks stupid, or irrelevant, or both. In any case, Audi doesn’t give a flying eff to show up for the biggest race on the ALMS schedule. Some ‘platform.’ Explain that, Braselburgers.

‘Whatever’ Department

In response to a forum assertion that a friend of the Bear’s was a “good friend” of the Braselburg boss, the Bear’s been told that “Through the 2006 season, perhaps it was ‘friendly acquaintances.’ If memory serves, the last thing Mr. Atherton said to me, at the 2006 awards banquet, was ‘Are those real, or are they just for looks, like a doorman?’ (About United States military medal miniatures properly worn on a tux lapel.) It’s been pretty much downhill since then.”

Grand Larceny: Loles

United States Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware has published the list of creditors of now-defunct Farnbacher Loles Partners, LLC, including dollar amounts for the ‘20 largest.’ Here are the ‘highlights’ of the 88 total unsecured creditors:

As reported here before, Pratt & Miller, $930,000. Others of note, Christian Zugel, $390,000; Dick (sic) Werner $120,500; Jon (sic) Tancredi $350,000; PMNA (whoops, they’ve done it again, does Solo Al ring a bell, guys?) $190,000; Christopher Lux $500,000, Michael Marsal, $175,000. Good grief, when would-be drivers want to go racing they park all their business sense at the door, don’t they?

Citibank is out a quarter million on a line of credit, and $120,000 on a credit card, of all things! Even the Porsche Club of America gave this turkey credit. He owes poor Marion for his meals, and Murphy’s friend Sylvia for his 2008 PR work (he could use a bit of that, now, couldn’t he? Even Sylvia, the best in the business, couldn’t do much with this crook).  The top twenty creditors sum to the far side of $4 million.

Hype: Patrón

Nineteen days to Sebring. Any sign of life from that ‘presenting sponsorship?’ The Bear’s just askin’.

 “I am Henri Zogaib and I am a Grand Am Driver”

Ponzi-perpetrator Zogaib was finally arrested the other day on fraud charges. As Murphy reported last year,  it’s believed Zogaib took  money from 19 investors with the promise of large returns. Instead, he used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle that included racing in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. He is being held on $100,000 bail. “I have a judgment against him for more than $600,000,” former Champ Car driver and Zogaib driving partner Ryan Dalziel said, “but that doesn’t mean I’ll ever see any of it.”

 Zogaib’s claimed  his close friendship with an iron ore magnate would help his victims make a quick 38-percent return. Law enforcement thinks Zogaib cost his customers at least $5 million, but Dalziel said he expects the figure is closer to $30 million.

Others who invested include NASCAR driver A.J. Allmendinger, Samax team owner Peter Baron and fellow Grand-Am driver J.C France, son of Grand-Am founder and NASCAR executive Jim France. Zogaib co-drove with France, and with Paul Tracy, Allan McNish, Mike Rockenfeller and Lucas Luhr. He was listed as the car owner for the Michael Shank Racing Riley-Lexus.

Cutting the Cheese

The American Le Mans Series announced an “official cheese” the other day, when New York-based cheese giant Yancey’s Fancy. No word if Yancey’s will have the impact of G-Oil and Mikimoto.

Speaking of “impact,” this paragraph in AutoWeak’s on-line story about Patrón’s new ALMS “presenting sponsorship” disappeared mid-morning Tuesday:

“The ALMS did not disclose financial terms, though one source suggested the series will receive $250,000 per year paid in several annual installments. However, as with many such sponsorship agreements, its true value will be measured by the way Patron markets the series and its involvement.”

Other Bear sources said a $500,000 figure had been mentioned, but didn’t know the duration of the payments. Either way, it’s not an agreement that will directly support teams or increase purses, as does the IRL’s deal with Izod. (In fact, this season’s Sebring purse is smaller than last, while entry fees are substantially increased.)

Murphy hopes the vague references by Series officials to “agressive activation” mean we’ll see a more effective marketing program.

US F1 “In limbo” says source

Murphy’s learned that US F1 management was told as early as October the team would be hard-pressed to field a car by F1’s March 14 deadline. Ken Anderson’s continued “micro-managing the smallest of details, second guessing production and design department staffing needs, calling for endless design revisions, and simply not letting the design staff get on with the task at hand,” is a key cause, the Bear’s been told.

Some employees and managers have lost faith in Anderson’s ability to manage the company, and the team has ground to a halt with no work currently on-going. The attitude on the shop floor is said to be “listless and just short of mutiny.”

Unfortunately, potential investors may be hesitant the provide needed support absent a management change, and principal Chad Hurley has not intervened to rescue his investment.

“But because of the stubbornness of one individual, USF1 will continue in limbo until it dies,” said a source on condition of anonymity. “It has no chance while Anderson is still here. And it’s shame, the team has really come together and there’s a sense of camaraderie throughout the organization barring one person. This will be the greatest disappointments of my career if that’s the way we go down. I think some soul searching needs to be happening in the front office. Falcon 2 this is being called.”

Earlier today, Motorsport Total.com, in Germany published an extensive anonymous interview with a source inside US F1 at Charlotte that supports what Murphy has learned in every detail. Here is the Google translation.

It seems whatever future US F1 has without Mr. Anderson, it has none with him.

If Peter has a problem it’s naiveté; he’s been around the sport long enough that he should be able to recognize a train wreck when he sees one. Even more to the point, long before that, he needed to find a partner able to manage the tough job of building an F1 car. Poor Peter never did. (He might have taken a look at the project behind the Falcon 01-A for a clue, though.) And in the time since, he’s clearly been spending too much time as the “face of the team” (a role for which his broadcasting experience makes him well suited), because if he’d visited the working floor at the team’s Charlotte facility, he’d have easily seen that things were badly off track. Managers and executives have always needed get onto the “factory floor,” an idea that oddly seems to have to be learned and relearned. A ‘drop in’ by an FIA official who has no idea what he’s looking at is no substitute, either.

Good managers aren’t often the same people as good engineers or good designers. The skills are entirely different. Successful managers know to hire good people, set a direction, then let them work, following up on progress, but not interfering in the detail. That’s not what’s been going on in Charlotte, Murphy hears.

Effective managers certainly don’t draw something on a napkin (ok, that’s an exaggeration, but you get the idea) then kibitz the design, demanding some undefined ‘simplicity’ from a complex piece of work. ‘Simplicity’ won’t pass a crash test.

The result of all that is an organization that’s floundering. One source told Murphy that there’s “no ‘organization’ worthy of the name” – and you can read that as a noun or a verb. Good people have been working their hearts out ‘insane hours’ because they care, staying just one step ahead of financial disaster. The result, unfortunately, will not put a car on the grid at Bahrain in less than 24 days.

The stumbling around at US F1 (or US GPE…whatever) has become so obvious that badly needed new investment is sitting on the sideline, only willing to move ahead if there’s a management change – not just any management change, and not Peter Windsor. It’s not Peter Windsor that’s responsible for the lack of progress in Charlotte, nor will his departure get an investor off his duff and into the action.

Murphy hears one moment that principal Chad Hurley won’t put more money into the Charlotte operation, then the next that he’ll continue – for now. He sent his friend to Italy to try to get a chassis. That seems to have come to naught, but the Bear hears there are other such options out there. There may be an ‘angel’ on the horizon or there may not.

Some will say (are saying, actually), that a United States-based F1 team was – and is – an mistake, a venture doomed to failure. The Bear doesn’t think so. Smarter folks than Murphy say this might have succeeded, that in fact it still can even at this late date, if it can get proper management and proper funding, the first being a prerequisite for the last.

Of one thing there seems to be widespread agreement, however: With Ken Anderson in charge, there will be no rescue of America’s first F1 team in over thirty years. Perhaps it’s time for him to step down and give this historic racing effort a fighting chance.

Follow the Bear on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Murphythebear

Then grab a beer, take a sip, and wait for the Aston Martin. After that, take a little roll on the air mattress with the Significant Other, have a brat, open another beer, take a hit (of the beer or something else), count to ten, and here comes the third “pod,” Autocon, Intersport, and Drayson. (If you didn’t bring a S.O. – or rent one – have another brew, or maybe some of Gus the Gator’s Sebring Hooch Juice.) Really, since they’re creating new classes, ALMS ought to award three trophies in LMP1.

Murphy’s not sure LMP2 will be behind LMP1; actually, you’ll probably miss the LMP2 parade on the mattress, if not during that first beer. Highcroft, Cytosport, and Dyson promise to give us a pretty good race. Here’s hoping some “C”doesn’t take one or more out. If so, use it as an excuse for another trip to the mattress.

The Bear has no idea where the “C” protos will end up. A tire barrier? The paddock? One of his elves says these cars haven’t been run on anything like Sebring (Euro tracks are smoother and slipperier than…oh, never mind) so don’t assume they’ll be all that bullet proof. Six seem to be “official,” and “ready” (meaning they’ve got a car, drivers, and cash) – Primetime, Intersport, Genoa, Level 5, Green Earth Team Gunnar, and PR1.

Others might have a car – or not. Drivers – or not. Cash – or not. (The cash would be related mostly to the driver thing.) Those include Alex Job Racing, rumored to have a car in the shop and Comprent, which went fishing for funded drivers a while back (no sign they’ve landed one).

GT2 is as good as it’s ever been (in Bear memory, anyway). That would be in large part because this is the first Sebring for Corvette Racing, and pair of BMW’s with a season of development. They join Risi Competizione Ferraris (Tracey Krohn might be there with a Merc, instead, but Murphy thinks the odds are that’s later in the season), one of which will compete at the sharp end, and Flying Lizard Porsches – again, one will compete, one will drive around. AF Corse will contribute a competitive Ferrari.

Then it gets a little dicey. The Bear doesn’t think Extreme Speed’s Ferraris are good enough to be in the mix at the front; they may mix it up with the Jag for as long as the Cat lasts. In some order, Robertson, Black Swan, and Falken will bring up the rear.

Murphy knows Alex and Holly will be on hand with a pair of “C” class Cup cars. Expect single entries for P7, GMG (the Bear did a double-take, thinking maybe a ‘professional grade’ truck), Kelly-Moss, and Velox. There’s hope Melanie and Martin will be on hand, but they didn’t participate in support series testing, nor are they on the ALMS winter test entry. Of course, they’re pretty good on this track, having won (among other races) GT1 in the 1999 Florida debut of the American Le Mans Series. With six already accounted for, Murphy thinks you can count on eight GT Challenge entries.

In terms of total entries, the Bear accepts that the two Challenge classes have rescued the ALMS from embarrassingly small grids. They’ll account for 14 of 38 Sebring entries, if Murphy’s right. Attendance slipped last season – worse as the season went on – leaving the Bear to wonder how a field heavily dependent on spec cars will ‘sell.’ It seems contrary to the interests of ‘traditional sports car fans.’ Murphy remembers Roger using that phrase introducing Daytona Prototypes.

What will the entry look like in the rest of the season? With no unexpected losses, there will be six prototypes after Long Beach (Aston Martin stays for that one). The Bear’s not yet convinced that there will be two Jags, but he’ll count two here. He also hears Krohn will be around for the whole season – in something. So add a Jag and subtract the AF Corse Ferrari – it stays at 15 after Sebring, and likely through the remainder of the season. Add fourteen challenge entries; expect a grid of 35 at Laguna Seca and beyond. That’s exactly the number that Atherton’s been using in interviews. If that doesn’t turn your crank, there’s Petit Le Mans, where you can expect a substantially better entry for a designated Intercontinental Cup stop.

To help you get kill time between prototypes at Sebring Murphy’s passing along this little recipe from his friend Gus.

Gus the Gator’s Sebring Hooch Juice

1 gal cut-up fruit – apple, pineapple, watermelon, pear, peaches – anything you want, fresh or canned
4 oranges (quarter, squeeze, put peels in hooch)
4 lemons (quarter, squeeze, put peels in hooch)
4 limes squeezed (quarter, squeeze, put peels in hooch)
1 jar maraschino cherries w/o stems
1 Liter Bacardi 151 rum
1 Liter Everclear (ethanol, if you want to be official)
1 Liter Vodka – any flavor
1 46 oz. can or 2 liter bottle of fruit punch
2 2 liter bottles lemon-lime soda (sprite, 7up, etc.)
1 bag – or block – ice

Mix in large cooler, wash tub or anything else that will hold about five gallons.

Gus recommends that some fruit gets into each cup. He admits he missed the race and a lady friend embarked on a new career. The Bear thinks this is a great way for the gals to get warmed up to go out and collect a few beads. Neither Gus nor Murphy assume any responsibility for blindness, getting run over by a Sebring buggy, drowning in a mosh pit, or anything else.

If it wasn’t on Friday, a missed payroll will likely be made up soon, Murphy hears. But it seems a long shot for the team to make any of the first three races, at least with a car of their own design.

The big rumored is that controlling owner Chad Hurley is disappointed with the current team management, and will provide significant additional funding only if the team is able to meet agreed-to progress targets. Of course they’re in a bit of a Catch-22, given that the current cash starved position makes it difficult at best to perform. According to rumors there was a “sweat equity” deal with current team senior management, and that deal includes progress clauses that would allow for their (forced) departure. Murphy can’t verify that (unless it happens), but it’s widely enough believed that others in the sport are positioning themselves to become a ‘rescue team’ on the assumption it’s true.

A US-based group is preparing to propose a ‘take-over’ of the project, as is a British. The latter would move the operation to the UK, throwing most current staff overboard. Any change has to come with the acquiescence of Hurley.

Both those groups and the current USF1 management are battling to acquire the complete and crunch tested Campos/Dallara chassis to cover those early events. (Clearly there are many in the sport – from Bernie on down - who don’t believe Campos is going to make it.) Meanwhile, Stefan Grand Prix (Serbian Zoran Stefanovich, previously referred to here as ‘the Russians’) is sitting on the sideline with the ex-Toyota F1 stuff (Zoran might want to check that accelerator) hoping a failed team drops a pair of grid spots into its lap.

Krohn Racing

Murphy’s heard that Tracey Krohn informed the head shop (pun unintended) on International Speedway Boulevard that he’s ending his Grand Am adventure. That might mean a second full-time Ferrari in the Risi stable. Might it also might mean a whole new marque for ALMS GT2, from a Stuttgart – Woking axis?

Alex Job Racing

Murphy heard last week that Alex Job Racing would field an LMPC, likely at Sebring. Other sources have been saying the same thing as far back as the open LMPC test at Petit.

AJR announced two GTC’s yesterday…(Murphy tweeted the news). It’s been rumored lately that Alex has an LMPC in his shop. His new GTC’s do not included AJR 2009 Patron Challenge client Mitch Pagery, but neither will that rumored LMPC, since Mitch will be elsewhere in the paddock – with Intersport.

A hint that LMPC entry might not be likely is Butch Leitzinger in a GTC for the team. If it was fielding an LMPC, wouldn’t Butch be better suited there? Or will that LMPC have two “gentleman” drivers? The Bear would like to say  Alex will run three cars in two classes, but it’s only just “possible.”

GAINSCO

The Cogs are mad at the Bear again for passing on a rumor about their little racing club (that’s spelled r-u-m-o-r). Here goes again. GAINSCO is one of six DP’s on the initial entry for Homestead, but rumors about the team and its drivers persist, and Murphy will report them as he hears them – that’s kinda what this little blog is all about, ya know. This week the Bear  was told Rahal Letterman is talking to Alex Gurney about an Indy drive in May, with perhaps Kansas as a ‘warm-up.’ Doing that along with Grand Am is possible; he’d only miss the Grand Am Lime Rock round for certain.

The top two at the Rolex once again came from Murphy’s top 5. After putting both Ganassi cars on the list (a bit of a no-brainer, even if your head is stuffed like a mattress), plus Brumos and two-time Grand Am Champion GAINSCO, the Bear mused in Paddock Poop 152 about the fifth, finally settling on the No. 9 Action Express because it fit all three Bear rools. Including the one about established teams, since in crew, staff, and owner, it was largely the “other” Brumos entry, the one vacated by the accused Daytona Beach druggie.

One Ganassi car blew an engine, a rarity in recent years; it had 8 hours on it at race’s start. Is it a measure of the economy that Ganassi’s ran a well-used motor? Even if his race engine was replaced because of an oil leak, no fresh engine was available?

Readers wondered about the Bear’s bullishness on the BMW M6 entries, but they’re thinking like ALMS fans, where ‘new cars’ are new cars. In Grand Am, tubers shed their skins like snakes, yesterday’s Pontiac becoming today’s Chebby, and tomorrow’s Bimmer. Finishing 8th and 11th, they didn’t have any more trouble than any other make in the field – less, in fact.

Two of Murphy’s five favorites finished in the top five, one on the podium; among the 30 GT entries, the Bear’s Five were 2nd, 5th, 8th, 9th, and 12th.

Saab-Spyker Saga

So Spyker’s ‘buying Saab?’ Everyone knows that the one-time Dutch F1 team masquerading as an automaker doesn’t have a guilder to its name, so how does this happen? The devil’s in the details. The Dutch want their pet car company, as do the Swedes, so the Dutch arrange a $562 million loan for Spyker and get the Swedes to guarantee it. GM will ‘sell’ Saab to Spyker for $74 million in cash and $326 million in Spyker-Saab preferred stock (what’s that worth, given neither has made a guilder or krona in living memory?).  Spyker pockets $488 million in cash (perhaps some of that will buy out the 30% Spyker holdings of Vladimir Antonov, suspected (by Swedish Intelligence) of money laundering and links to organized crime.

Rolex Rumor

Northeastern Florida isn’t exactly populated by ALMS well-wishers at this time of the year, so Murphy has learned to anticipate one or more pretty nasty rumors. Some have a kernel of truth, some are just off-the-wall. The 2010 annual ‘Daytona ALMS Rumor?’ Widely circulated in the paddock on International Speedway Boulevard was the story that ALMS has not yet paid 2009 prize money, so teams, in a kind of “strike,” are sending in their 2010 entries with no money. Of course the Bear is more than a little suspicious of the whole thing, but the “fact of the rumor” is surprise – just a measure of the ‘bad blood’ between these two competing sports car racing series.

Murphy’s sources indicated that at least the ‘strike’ part of that is untrue. If any team was withholding entry funds it wasn’t in concert with any other teams, and likely wasn’t in any ‘retaliation’ for nonpayment. Prize payments have dragged in a bit late – sometimes in installments – in recent seasons, and apparently this one is no different. The Series has suggested that prize money be credited against the new season’s entry fee, which seems perfectly reasonable to the Bear.

Defecting

Expect more than one Grand-Am team to “defect to LMPC” after Daytona. Alex Job is said to be one of them (interest by AJR was expressed early) along with Level 5, and at least one other. The LMPC count for Sebring will be 4 or 5, with 2 or 3 to join the series after that – consistent with ALMS Supremo Scott Atherton’s recent pronouncements.

From one quarter Murphy is told, “the Grand-Am fields will be horrific after Daytona,” and that “NASCAR upper management is fed up with Grand-Am.” If that’s true it didn’t keep Jim-Bob from winning the Rolex with his own entry. Close connections to Action Express’ owner Bob Johnson – along with other information – would suggest so. Mr. Johnson is Jim-Bob’s personal CPA; the company funding Action Express is something called High Rev Racing. Entering your own race series isn’t exactly revolutionary (Don Panoz being another example); the Bear takes it as a vote of confidence rather than something nefarious.

GAINSCO Gone?

The Bear’s been told that the Rolex was GAINSCO’s last race. Miami hotel reservations have been cancelled.

Audi In, Peugeot Overboard?

The Bear hears that Braselburg is considering allowing Audi to enter Sebring, pending the outcome of the new car’s testing, now underway. If the entry accepted is the “transitional” car, and not the “new rules” R15, then there’s little doubt the effect will be to toss Peugeot overboard. Peugeot may jump anyway, of course. The new Audi just might be ready for Sebring, anyway, since Audi Sport Joest has turned up as a “full season” LMS entry. That would mean the car is now believed to be ready by April…March 20th isn’t all that much earlier, is it?

There’s Cars and…

…then there’s cars. Ferrari can’t be happy about the two street-car based (barely more than that) Ferrari 430 Challenge cars entered at Daytona. One was turned away (‘not ready to race’ is a kind description) the Bear hears. The other muddled around, thoroughly uncompetitive. Look for entries from Tony Dowe later in the Grand Am season to be much more representative of the iconic marque.

Inlimbo Racing League

Izod is the IRL’s new title sponsor; you’ve probably seen the ads. Other noises from the surviving – for now – North American open wheel series aren’t so good. Ganassi is just the latest to join the ‘new car’ discussion, having produced a mock-up – a sign, according to one source, that the series is “just blundering around.”

The addition of Lanigan to Newman Haas was the work of the late Paul Newman; Carl’s family’s not on speaking terms with the new partner. Are we seeing the unraveling of Newman-Haas-Lanigan? That’s one opinion Murphy’s heard.

Unemployment Line

Here’s a measure of the weakness of the racing industry world-wide: Butch Leitzinger, Lucas Luhr, Mike Rockenfeller, Sascha Maassen, Emanuele Collard, Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty, all ‘available and looking.’ And that’s just a few.

USF1

What the Bear is hearing is pretty grim. The chassis hasn’t been ‘crunch tested’ yet. There’s no motor on hand, payments to Cosworth reportedly now in arrears. The team has applied to the World Motorsports Council for dispensation to miss the first three races without penalty – more a courtesy than a rule, since guaranteed participation is not a part of the new concorde, as it was in the old.

It’s  not over yet. USF1 owner Chad Hurley (one of Youtube’s three original founders) could rescue the operation – with new management – if he so chooses. Meanwhile, Bernie is in his element, the eminance gris trying to arrange an interim chassis, but that’s wrapped up in a ride for Bruno Senna. If Bernie can’t get USF1 onto the grid, he might be stuck with the Russians, who’ve grabbed the rights to the ex-Toyota chassis (someone will have to check the accelerator pedal).

Lou News

Murphy’s friend Lou Gigliotti is running for Congress – here’s his web site. Meanwhile, he’s charging ahead with his Grand Am Corvette entries. 

Unlike others in Grand Am GT, Lou tells the Bear that, “Our Corvettes are ‘Prep 1’ using stock frames like ALMS cars. We learned a lot from that car and we are moving the technology over to Grand Am.” It makes particular sense for Lou to stick with ‘the real thing’ because Lou’s business is selling Corvette performance parts. Lou says a result of the new program will be   ‘really nice Corvette parts’ that will one day make their way into LG Motorsports’ catalog.
 
Eric Lux and Kelly Collins are set for the season in the first Corvette, with a hoped-for second car possible as early as Birmingham, depending on finding a good driving partner for the Boss.

Pssssssst…anyone interested in a nice ALMS Corvette? Murphy knows where to find one.

Follow the Bear on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Murphythebear

For the third year, the Bear’s picking five entries likely to contend for the win in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. In 2008, his list of five captured 1, 2, and 3. Last year, they grabbed the top two steps.

Before he picked, Murphy gave away the five rools that will let his friends pick the Daytona Prototype winners, too. Not much has changed, so here they are again:

1. Riley only. The first non-Riley in 2008 was 15th. Last year, a Dallara snuck into 4th, a Crawford into 8th. That’s not enough to change the rool.
2. Teams you’ve heard of. Ganassi won its third in a row in 2008, another of Murphy’s teams,  Brumos won in 2009 – and took third, too. Ganassi was second and fifth, Penske sixth, GAINSCO seventh. The Bear didn’t mention SunTrust, which was fourth; they’ll replace the departed Penske among our picks. Murphy thinks “nicely turned out” counts for a lot. It’s a team that does that.
3. No oil billionaire drivers, no scrawny girls. No drivers with the same name as the team. No brain doctors or heart doctors. In other words, absent an LMS-type ‘gentleman driver rool’ DP is a “pro only need apply” class.

Rolex Favorites

The Bear had no trouble picking four, but his fifth turn out to be ‘a bear,’ so to speak. After Ganassi (2), GAINSCO, and Brumos, it came down to SunTrust Racing, a familiar (and successful) team (see rool 2.) but with a Dallara (rool 1.). It was the SunTrust Dallara that snuck into 4th last year, too. On the other hand, there’s Action Express Racing, a “rookie” team (that runs afoul of rool 2.), while meeting rool 3. (drivers), and rool 1. What to do? The elves told the Bear it was time to do a little research.

A little digging uncovered that Action Express is the ‘second Brumos entry,’ owned by long-time Brumos associate Bob Johnson, with a number Brumos staff and crew, and with drivers Barbosa and Borcheller. So, with good leadership, it might meet rool 2. after all. SunTrust’s 4th was a break-through for the non-Riley Dallara, three of four drivers return – Ricky Taylor (son of team owner Wayne) replaces veteran gentleman Brian Frisselle. Is that an improvement? Was last season’s Dallara break-through a trend or an aberration?

Here are Murphy’s by-the-rools five favorites for the 2010 Rolex. Last year we asked if this ‘Looked familiar?’ This year, it’s ‘Look familiar – again?’

01 Ganassi  Papis, Wilson, Pruett, Rojas – BMW / Riley
02 Ganassi  Dixon, Franchitti, Montoya, McMurray  – BMW / Riley
  9 Action Express Barbosa, Borcheller, Dalziel, Rockenfeller – Porsche / Riley
59 Brumos Donohue, Haywood, Law, Leitzinger, Matos – Porsche / Riley
99 GAINSCO   Fogarty, Gurney, Johnson, Vasser – Chevrolet / Riley

If anything, Ganassi is fielding even better driver lineups. Brumos returns without the drug felon, and with Leitzinger and Matos – a huge upgrade in talent (and sense) if a Bear ever saw one. Two-time Grand Am champion GAINSCO returns with drivers as good as anyone – intent on capturing the prize that’s eluded them. Action Express – as we’ve explained – is ‘Brumos Lite’ with a better roster of pilots.

Murphy makes SunTrust his “dark horse.” Level 5 having morphed into NPN Racing might have made the Bear’s favorites list, until Tucker, the designated rich guy, listed himself in both cars, diluting otherwise stellar driving lineups. If you can figure out which car will not get Tucker’s driving help, pick the other one.

Taking a Flyer on GT with the Bear

The Bear decided it’s time to pay some attention to the GT field. Just in time for the faux Mazdas to drop from contention, now having fallen to second tier teams and too many otherwise-employed drivers out for a weekend fling. That doesn’t rule out other bodies on the tubers – the odd BMW and Corvette look-alike.

So, what are Murphy’s GT rools?

1. At least 3 pros to carry a weekender. If so, doctors and CEOs are O.K. here.
2. Teams with experience and talent. Some of these are easy to pick out: TRG and Turner Motorsports, for instance. Others aren’t so obvious.
3. Current or former ‘factory’ drivers. They don’t go – or aren’t sent – where they have no chance.

23 Alex Job Baldwin, Burtis, Farnbacher, Pagerey, Ragginger – Porsche GT3
44 Magnus Bleekemolen, Lietz, Potter, Stanton  – Porsche GT3
67 TRG Bergmeister, Long, Neiman, van Overbeek – Porsche GT3
71 TRG Bernhard, Dumas, George, Labonte, Pumpelly – Porsche GT3
94 Turner Auberlen, Dalla Lana, Hand, Said – BMW M6

07 Godstone Ranch Corvette is the Bear’s GT dark horse. Young up-and-comer to watch is Thomas Merrill, Salinas California, Corsa Team PR1 BMW.

Murphy’s Predictions

A smaller field gets less opportunities to hit the favorites, so the good ones will mostly be there at the end. If it rains – and it seems it might – all such bets are off.

Matt Connolly Motorsports will be relevant in Matt Connolly’s mind and among the cogs.

We’ll see more of McDreamy than we do on Grey’s Anatomy.

No one will mention that Krohn Racing is in a dust-up with Lola. Krohn, who shouldn’t want to bend the Lola with few spares (and none in the pipeline) will drive anyway, and bend the Lola.

Sebring and Le Mans will disappear into a parallel universe for the duration of the coverage.

Jack Baldwin and Hurley Haywood, separated at birth in May 1948, will insist senior discounts at Hooters on International Speedway Boulevard. Well, Jack will, anyway.

With only six NASCAR drivers on hand, that story line should be a bit more subdued in this year’s telecast. Those seats are filled by current and former German factory pilots.

Kia Goes Grand Am Racing

When it came time to pick a ‘platform,’ the fast-growing manufacturer ‘passed’ on the Global Leader Green Racing to field a new factory team. It’s particularly interesting that a manufacturer intent on building a new ‘luxury’ image would consider, then reject, the American Le Mans Series.  Wouldn’t it’s market strategy have fit ALMS’ ‘World Class’ image?  Too bad it was abandoned to chase a green strategy.

Perhaps the Braselburger boss has been too busy with alternative energy mucky-mucks to waste time with automobile manufacturers. After leaving Phoenix, he went hobnobbing in Toronto chatting up “alternative fuels” this past weekend.

Follow Murphy’s tweets at http://twitter.com/Murphythebear

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

With the big enduro less than three weeks away, I must admit the anticipation is just overwhelming. At least I got a fix at the Bore before the 24, where I had a chance to preview some exciting new things awaiting the hundreds of thousands of fans who will be attending the Rolex 24.

Yes, there are only 29 entries (plus 13 field-filling GT3s). The DP category has been steadily declining, and even Andy F. would acknowledge a lack of diversity, let alone numbers (well, actually he probably wouldn’t). But this is part of NASCAR’s strategy.  The three main elements of this strategy are declining fields, dwindling sponsors/manufacturers, and a fancy new office building! In Braselton, they only have two-out-of-three of those elements!

NASCAR is going all-out this year to prove Grand-Am and the Rolex 24 will be the success their press releases claim. From race operations to fan activities, and everything in between, NASCAR is taking Grand-Am to new levels.

While at the test, Mark showed me the new scales to be used this year. After the debacle last year’s 24 when the Brumos car shed pounds faster than Jenny Craig during the race, they realized a new technology was in order. The new scales contain a special computer chip that detects just how important the team owner is, thus adjusting the weight as needed. Pure genius.

For fans, a new concept is the Daytona Speedway Security Department’s Gauntlet of Abuse©, in which every spectator will encounter three stimulating experiences when entering the track: First, it’s the “You Can’t Park Here” Greeting; next, the popular “You Can’t Use this Gate” argument, and finally; the “Let Me See Your Credential You Asshole” confrontation. But its all in good fun, and a unique way for fans to bond with the World Center of Abuse.  Best of all, on the way out you will receive a 10% discount for NASCAR merchandise.

In the Fan Zone, look for the new exhibit paying tribute to the third generation of France children titled “Don’t You Know Who I am.”  And the eye-opening “Why Le Mans Sucks” display will educate those who dare to even consider going to Sebring. And best of all, Scott Pruett plans on personally greeting every single spectator entering the track prior to the race.*(see note)

But those are just minor things. The big news is what NASCAR and Grand-Am bring to the track this year. Fourteen thundering DPs and a boatload of Mazda RX-8s and re-bodied Pontiacs. Is that exciting or what?  Riley-Riley-Riley-Riley-Riley for 24 Hours on a banked track surrounded by 180,000 empty grandstand seats. There is nothing like the Rolex 24!

Of course, the elitist ALMS fans are laughing at NASCAR’s 29 entries for Daytona.  So how many entries will there be at Sebring?  How many Rileys?  True, Sebring may have the U85-powered Radicals, but what else? It’s the same old tired argument that NASCAR wins every time.

The media who are in the know are firmly convinced that this year’s Rolex will be the best in the history of endurance racing, both on and off the track. As you watch this year unfold, you will see A.C. is right. 29 is just fine.

A.C.
_______________

*subject to not happening. Weather conditions or lack of spectators may force cancellation. No autographs. Do not look him in the eye or ask questions about Paul Gentilozzi or Jaguar. May be replaced by Henri Zogiab or J.C. France. Offer not valid on days that end in “y” or if a Coyote qualifies on the pole. No rain checks.