Posts Tagged ‘Abruzzi’
Thursday, October 13th, 2011
Schedule Follies
Just minutes before it was announced, Murphy was told the two TBA’s were Detroit and Texas. Subsequently, other candidates have made the routine rounds of the rumor mill. Boss Scott confirmed the Detroit TBA in a rather odd and self-serving press release after Grand Am confirmed it would have that June 2 Detroit Race. Now it seems likely nothing will fill that ALMS April/May TBA. (more…)
Tags: Abruzzi, ACO, Andy Lally, Baltimore, Billy Joe "Red" McCombs, BMW, Circuit of the Americas, Crocodile McFly, Detroit, ECO Racing, ESPN International, FIA, General Motors, Gold Coast, Grand Am, Ian Dawson, Jean-Claude Plassart, Kevin Buckler, Laguna Seca, Lotus Evora, Maranello, Mazda, Montreal, Motors TV, Norwegian Blue, Oklahoma City, Pirelli World Challenge, Pratt & Miller, Rogers Sports Net, Salt lake City, Scott Atherton, Sears Point, Sebring, St Petersburg, Taurus, Thunderbolt, V8 Supercar
Posted in Paddock Poop | 188 Comments »
Monday, 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. (more…)
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 »
Saturday, April 9th, 2011
Mobtown
A rumor of layoffs in Baltimore Grand Prix, LLC. circulated last week but proved to be false. The Bear suspects it was an “echo rumor,” (that’s a story based on an earlier – but different – set of facts) of the February dual firing of the public relations and advertising firms. Ad firm GKV, was replaced by the Leffler Agency, Mobtown’s big agency. Baseball-focused Maroon PR, (the Cal Ripken baseball empire is their cash cow) bowed out, in favor of Edie Brown is the doyen of Baltimore PR. (more…)
Tags: Abruzzi, ACO, Andy Hall, Andy Lally, Audi, AutoWeek, Baltimore Grand Prix, Cal Ripken, Dave Spitzer, Daytona Prototypes, DTM, Edie Brown, Ferrari, GEICO, GKV, Hermie Sadler, Kevin Buckler, Leffler Agency, Level 5 Racing, Long Beach, Maroon PR, Martinsville, Matt Tarleton, Mercedes, New England Grand Prix, Reg Tarleton, Richard Petty, Signature Motorsports, Sonoco, TRG
Posted in Paddock Poop | 24 Comments »
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
Real Cost of the Abruzzi?
What’s the Abruzzi worth to you? Evidently it’s worth the loss of television coverage to the Don. Murphy’s learned that the cost of the latest monument to the Panoz ego is about $5 million – so far. Coincidentally, that’s about the cost of televising the 2009 American Le Mans season, as the Bear’s friends over at Last Turn Clubhouse pointed out in their seminal 2009 series, Operating Revenue and Costs of the American Le Mans Series and IMSA (more…)
Tags: A.C.'s ex, Abruzzi, Aston Martin, Disney, Firestone Firehawk, Highcroft, Honda, Magnus Racing, Mickey Mouse, Riley Technologies, Scott Tucker, Sebring, Signature Motorsports, Tarleton
Posted in Paddock Poop | 25 Comments »
Saturday, February 26th, 2011
The Abruzzi Archives
It’s not like it’s a big recall. You are dealing with two copies built on left-over Canadian-built race-car chassis. A torch, order some glass, and viola! (The body panels never did fit, anyway.) The bookkeeping makes the Bear a bit crazy, and leaves him wondering how this project can ever produce a competitive race car. Winchester need a part from Hoschton? The Don writes a check in Braselburg, mails it to Winchester, then Winchester writes a check and mails it to Hoschton. Meanwhile, Gordon’s got a consulting job with the Abruzzi at Sebring. Murphy expects he’ll be in charge of the tent flap.
It’s all pretty odd. The Bear remembers a big dust-up 2001 when not enough Bavarian touring cars were built. That led to our first ALMS one-make racing class. (more…)
Tags: Abruzzi, ACCUS, ACO, ALMS, Archimedes, Audi, babysitters, Bahrain F1, CART, Charlie Whiting, Corvette, Doug Fehan, DTM, FIA, Gil de Ferran, Highcroft, ILMC, IMSA, Intersport, Jay Penske, John Dagys, Katherine Legge, Kirk Russell, Lord Drayson, Lou Gigliotti, Luca Moro, Luciano DaSilva, Paul Collins, Petit Le Mans, Rahel Frey, restricted events, Road America, Road Atlanta, Scott Elkins, Signature Motorsports, Tony Kanaan, Trevor Bayne
Posted in Paddock Poop | 7 Comments »