August 25th, 2011
Andy Lally Challenge
Since New Hampshire, after which his season’s winnings totaled $1,608,881, Andy has since raced four times (the Brickyard, Pocono, the Glen, and Michigan) and won $391,000 for himself and Kevin Buckler.
The American Le Mans field through Lime Rock totaled $1,046,000. Since Lime Rock, the thirty-odd ALMS entries have raced three times (Mosport, Mid-Ohio, and Road America) winning between them $319,000, and bringing their total earnings in the 2011 season to $1,365,000. With Andy’s total now $1,999,881, the American Le Mans Series field now trails Sprint Cup’s Street Luger by over $600 thousand dollars. Time is not on the ALMS’ side, since Andy has 13 races remaining; North America’s premier sports car road racing series has just three. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Andy Lally, Autohous Racing, Baltimore Grand Prix, Corvette, Grand Am, Greg Pickett, Intersport Racing, Jim Derhaag, Kevin Buckler, Panoz Auto Development, Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta, Rob Dyson, Roberson Racing, Sebring, Simon Gregg, Sprint Cup, Trans Am, WEC
Posted in Paddock Poop | 67 Comments »
July 18th, 2011
Porsche and Audi Racing
Porsche announced a prototype to race at Le Mans in 2014. That took even the Bear by surprise. Oh, there had been rumblings, but Murphy – and just about everyone else – filed them away for future reference; what debt-burdened Porsche does with a few hundred million Euros is not (regardless of protestations) independent of Volkswagen Group in general and – if in racing – of Audi in particular. Nor is it this time. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Abruzzi, ACO, American Le Mans Series, Andy Lally, Audi, Austin F1, BMW, Colin Kolles, Corvette, Edward Sandstrom, Ferrari, Flying Lizard Motorsports, Formula 1, Gary Horrocks, Hispania Racing, Jaguar, Jerry Pyman, Nick Wirth, Porsche, Renault, RLR, Rod Benoist, Signature Motorsports, The Boss, The Cat, The Don, Tommy Milner, Toto Wolff, TWR USA/Jaguar, Williams, World Endurance Championship
Posted in Paddock Poop | 43 Comments »
June 16th, 2011
Déjà vu all over again
“American Le Mans is the global benchmark of professional sports car racing.” –Scott Atherton to the Austin Statesman, June 9, 2011–
Professional Sports Car Racing (PSCR), Andy Evans’ renaming of IMSA, was – according to management – more descriptive of the content of the product. When Don Panoz bought PCSR, his American Le Mans Series adopted as its motto “For the Fans,” arguably an improvement in that it directly addressed the constituency that would sustain it – or not. Later, that was not good enough (and perhaps not so descriptive anymore, either) to describe its “aspirational” content, (and after spending a few hundred thousand on a consultant) the American Le Mans Series decided it was “World Class.” After a run of a few years, in which “World Class” attracted nothing but a parade of watch makers and a few pearls (and another consultant for another few hundred grand), and yielded more stagnating fields and fading visibility, Scott unveiled a new motto, Global Leader Green Racing. Fields dropped further, Ethanol sponsorship came and went, fans tuned out. If Global Benchmark Professional Sports Car Racing is indeed upon us, we’re nearly back to where we started, aren’t we? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Audi, Chris Dyson, Corvette, Delta Wing, Elan Composites, Elan Power Products, Elan Precision Products, Elan Technologies, Humaid al Masaood, IMSA American Le Mans Series, JJ Lehto, Mosport, Panoz Auto Development, Panoz Motorsports Group, Peugeot, Portland International Raceway, Sebring, Toyota, Van Diemen, Yancy's Fancy
Posted in Paddock Poop | 73 Comments »
May 19th, 2011
There’s not much action out there, racing or otherwise, but there’s still much being decided behind the scenes. Here’s Murphy’s synthesis of rumor, fact, and speculation about North America’s two principal sports car road racing series. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Acura, ALMS Grand Am, AMR One, Aston Martin, Audi, Autocon, Bill Auberlen, Dyson, F1, Ferrari, Ford, Ganassi, Generic Racing Team, Highcroft, Honda, ILMC, Intersport, J R R Tolkien, Jim France, John Evenson, Le Mans, Mazda, McDreamy, Miss 12 Hours of Sebring, News Corp, Nissan, Oklahoma, Peugeot, Porsche, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Shinden Mooncraft, Toyota, Wankel
Posted in Paddock Poop | 29 Comments »
May 12th, 2011
To be honest, Murphy had just about dispaired of ever again hearing from A.C. The Bear passed along the many messages begging for the great journalist’s return. Those from northwest Florida were particularly troubling, the Bear fearing that some of A.C.’s biggest fans might hurt themselves if A.C. didn’t soon again grace these pages. So, with an immense feeling of relief, Murphy is happy to welcome the world’s greatest motorsports journalist back to Murphy the Bear’s blog.-MHB-
by A.C. Guillermo
The storm clouds are gathering. 2012 is shaping-up as a showdown year between the NASCAR Rolex Grand-Am Series presented by Chip Ganassi and the floundering American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: ALMS, Baltimore, Bin Laden, Brumos, Chip Ganassi, Dale Earnhardt, Daytona, DTM, Grand Am, Homestead, J.C.France, l Hooters, NASCAR, Rolex, Scott Pruett, Sebring, SunTrust, Tim Richmond, Wayne Taylor
Posted in A. C. Guillermo, Parody | 4 Comments »
