Audi  was running at Sebring this week. According to the best minds that analyze such things (Mulsanne Mike, for instance), the 2012 R18 really quite a different car than last year’s R18. Hopefully, the changes will improve the outward vision. A pal of a friend of the Bear drove the R18 a couple of months ago, and reported an “absolute blind spot out of the right hand side.” “It explains the McNish crash at Le Mans,” he said.

In other news from the Bear’s Chief European Correspondent, Romain Dumas is headed back to Porsche soon, there’s a big tug of war over Timo Bernhard, and Oliver Pla was quick at a secret Peugeot test.

Insiders in Europe believe ALMS will have Audi, Mercedes, and perhaps others not fully homologated by the ACO in some form of local GT class – but it’s unclear when that gets done.

The ALMS Field

The American Le Mans Series LMP1 and LMP2 fields, are slowly getting sorted out. In the premier class, it looks like Dyson will field two cars, though we don’t know yet who provides the second. It could be Humaid al Masaood again, or it could be someone else. A third entry seems a stretch, but remains possible. Cytosport is committed, but it now appears likely Mike Lewis’ Autocon partners won’t be able to save the entry and are looking for rides with others. The likely outcome for the class appears to be about what we had last season: two Dyson and one Muscle Milk prototypes.

LMP2 will be a bit stronger (that’s an ursine joke) than it was in 2011. Level 5 is reported to be a two-car entrant. Readers don’t have to be reminded that was last season’s expectation, too. Murphy’s is thus restrained in his excitement for Level 5 in 2012. Rumor has Newman Haas in the field, but if anyone’s seen any firm evidence, give a “holler.” The firmest entries appear to be Conquest and Black Swan. The Bear expects to see at least two LMP2 entries at every event, and as many as five at a few.

LMPC has six confirmed entries. None of those include Intersport, whose drivers and team employees seem to have fled to new team BAR 1 Motorsports, which the Bear believes is a probable entry. For those concerned with this and other LMPC teams obtaining funding, Murphy reminds you that in this class the drivers are the funding. With one more possible, the prototype Challenge class will be s-8 in 2012.

GT will struggle to reach 10 entries this season. The Lizards will return to try to recapture the hardware they believe they deserve – with some justification – every year. Extreme Speed is likely, but has one foot in Grand Am, and that might extend past Daytona. Falken is back and expecting to improve on  its 2011 – which will make it a contender for some of that end-of-season bling. BMW wants a splash for its M3 ahead of its motorsports reorganization that will put that venerable racecar into DTM and hand the keys to GT/sports car racing to the Z4. Corvette has had a disappointing start to its GT(2) program, but is always in the mix (if not mixing it up). Driver changes are in the offing, primarily driven by a desire to provide more stable factory driver support to privateer Corvette teams in Grand Am and around the world. As the Bear tweeted, Antonio will take a full-time seat. Expect Olivier Beretta to be full time with Jack Laconte’s Larbre Racing. Other Corvette Racing drivers will moonlight at Grand Am’s “major” events (Daytona, the Glen, Indy), but will not routinely partner in Grand Am DP and GT entries as they did last year. Grand Am teams are demanding “dedicated” drivers, and to the extent it can, the KGeneral is obliging. The Bear believes the other three Corvette “regulars” – Gavin, Magnussen, and Milner – are set, though there’s been a bit of rumble around a Magnussen move.

The winter’s most popular parlor game has been “Where’s Risi?” in which players try to come up with the most convoluted 2012 racing solutions for America’s premier Ferrari team. A kind of “Where’s Waldo?” for Ferrari fans. 2011 wasn’t a good season for the Houston team, and they’ve responded with some big changes, including substantial personnel turnover. Included in that is driver Jaime Melo, who won’t be back. The early season is pretty well fixed. Risi will field two new 458’s at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona in January, replacing one previously entered under the Ferrari of Ft. Lauderdale name (you didn’t fall for that little ruse, did you?), then one at Sebring in March. It’s not so certain after that, but some Waldo players are putting their chips on Grand Am. In the end, the only player who counts is Guiseppe, and he hasn’t shown his hand – yet.  There was momentary excitement, a kind of ripple in the force, when Canadian Scott Maxwell a journeyman driver at best, tweeted that he’d landed a drive with Aston Martin. ALMS was the assumption, the hope being it portended another GT entry; Grand Am’s Continental series with Multimatic’s Aston Martin Vantage is the reality.

Grand Am

Grand Am unveiled the Corvette-bodied Daytona Prototype, the first of its new “DP3’s”. Its initial pace at Daytona wasn’t very impressive, lagging behind the DP2’s. Was it just new car teething? Sandbagging? At the time the Bear dismissed its importance, but then heard differently. The Corvette is seriously slow, unable to crack 190 anywhere on the DIS layout. There might be some other “good news,” though, in that a rumored an insurer is weighing in with a desire for slower top ends. That will give the series “cover” to slow everyone else down without it looking like a blatant move to put the Corvette in the game. Murphy guesses that no “balancing” will be quite enough, however, so he’s putting his money on Ganassi Racing to dominate in 2012, just as it did in 2011, 2010…

Scheduling Struggles

While Grand Am announced a 2012 schedule with not much fuss (though it did add its Lime Rock date later), the American Le Mans Series has struggled to pin its calendar down. Not all of that has been the fault of the Braselburgers, the comedies at Baltimore and Texas being the principal culprits, with the ACO’s June big black hole blowing out any chance to get Detroit. It does demonstrate the lack of options the series has been left with, however.

Bernie and Red finally settled their differences, confirming Austin for November, but not before a self-imposed construction delay. The result of that is the ALMS date remains unannounced, its early October date in limbo – for now, at least – pending some assurance the track will actually be complete enough to host a “trial” date ahead of the F1 circus.  Meanwhile, as if the current Baltimore (9/1) to PLM (10/20) gap isn’t enough, the Keystone Kops routine in Charm City has left that event with empty coffers and a $12 million debt. It has just two weeks to remedy that situation. Someone is going to have to come up with some serious cash or it’s buh-by to Baltimore. Necessarily, another Braseburg Two-Step – or perhaps a Cotton Eyed Joe – is underway, the dance partner this time being Virginia International Raceway, Murphy tweeting on December 7 that talks were underway, and AutoWeek chiming at about the same time. No announcement has been forthcoming, though, so as it stands now, the ALMS calendar could well have two gaps, eight weeks from May 12 to July 7, and nine weeks from August 18 (Road America), to October 20 (Road Atlanta).

There are real concerns about Bahrain’s appearance on both the F1 and WEC calendars. Regardless of the insistence by the FIA, ACO, and Bernie that everything is just hunky-dory, a bomb outside the British Embassy and rioting on the Pearl Roundabout doesn’t exactly contribute to any confidence amongst observers that either event will – or should – take place. More than 35 people have died in clashes and protest-related violence since February. Bahrain’s protests are the largest and most sustained to have hit the Arab monarchies and sheikdoms that line the Persian Gulf. There hasn’t been much progress on reforms promised after the February-March protests, contributing continued protests and clashes with security forces as recently as Thursday this week.  Murphy is among many who think that both Bahrain race dates are questionable at best. The status of its putative replacement makes the dropping of Petit Le Mans as a round of the World Endurance Championship a real head scratcher, doesn’t it? There’s good new in this for the civilized world (lately that doesn’t seem to include much ground between the Mediterranean Sea and Delhi). If Bahrain’s WEC round is cancelled, where does that series go? If the FIA and ACO get their act together before March’s Sebring opener, perhaps Petit Le Mans is back. Otherwise, probably just a hole in the schedule between Japan and China.

The Andy Lally Challenge

At Murphy’s last report, the American  Le Mans Series field had already closed out its 2011 with a total of $1,795,000 paid to all competitors.

When we last left Andy Lally, he had six races remaining on the Sprint Cup schedule, and he unfortunately struggled to the finish. For Sprint Cup’s Rookie of the Year, leading a lap at Talladega might have been a highlight, but his race ended in an accident after 162 laps in 39th place, with a purse of $81,300. In the previous race, at Charlotte, a brake problem ended his race after just 20 laps, but the 42nd spot still paid $64,825. At Martinsville, Hermie Sadler filled in, as he had earlier in the season, but then Andy bounced back for a finish in 29th and a $101,475 purse at Texas Motor Speedway. That was it for the season; Andy failed to qualify at Phoenix, and Mike Bliss drove at Homestead in the season’s final race. The $246,800 earned in three races in which Andy drove brought his season total winnings to $2,865,656. That final total almost doubled the earnings of the entire American Le Mans Series field for 2011, and brings the Bear’s Andy Lally Challenge to a close.

Kevin Buckler’s No. 71 entry gave up the 35th spot in owner’s points at Talladega to Bob Jenkins and was unable to gain it back. Buckler’s driver, whether Andy or someone else, will start next season having to qualify to make the grid.

The Bear wishes you all a Happy Christmas and a Wonderful 2012.

Murphy H. Bear

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.

Since when has Porsche announced a program three years before its launch? How about never. Since when has Porsche fielded a car without knowing it would be capable of winning? Not in Murphy’s memory. How likely is Porsche – a company that insists on continuing to race the rear-engine layout 911 because that fits its marketing objectives – to field a diesel-powered prototype? Not in this lifetime.

How likely is Audi to continue to field a diesel prototype that might be beaten by Porsche? When that happened in the ALMS, the Porsche threat wasn’t serious in the first year of three, Porsche grabbed the brass ring, winning overall in 2007, and Audi took back the season overall championship in 2008. Then Audi left. Don’t forget they were independent companies then. Murphy’s friends at Last Turn Clubhouse awarded the one really important prototype championship in 2007 and 2008. Here are the results: 2007, 2008

What the Porsche announcement really does is begin to validate what we’ve been hearing from multiple sources: that Audi is headed out of sports car prototype racing. Only a few that follow this sport noticed that Colin Kolles is headed out of F1’s Hispania Racing (HRT). (Plus the team’s owner convicted of fraud, only to be replaced less than two weeks later by the third owner in its short history.)

Some in F1 say that Kolles is acting as Audi cat’s paw, and when he soon takes a position in Williams F1 along with his buddy (another Audi ally), Dorothy’s-Dog Red-Riding-Hood’s-Nemesis (a classic Murphy-ism, but an easy one), that presages a move by Audi on Williams.

Big Bad, who now has an equity position in the publically-traded Williams, quickly denied Williams needs “a great fireman to rescue it from collapse,” just the sort of narrow, slightly-off-topic reply that leaves Murphy still wondering what’s afoot.

How does the recent Renault/Williams engine deal fit this? When we checked after that announcement, no one was backing off the story. The engine deal is for just two years – 2012 and 2013 – with an option for a third. That clears the way for a “new rules” Audi F1 engine, and for the introduction by Porsche of a new Le Mans, coincidentally (or not) scheduled for 2014.

The recent FIA tie-up with the ACO for the World Endurance Championship doesn’t end with a championship sanction; it will soon include common – or close enough – engine rules.

The Cat

Though Nick Wirth’s involvement remains uncertain, the rest of the Jaguar LMP story is pretty solid, including the involvement of John Piper, (XJR 14 and Reynard) along with Rod Benoist and Jerry Pyman, both former TWR Jaguar hands. This is a project headed for the WEC – likely not before 2013. The back story here is that this project exists in substantial part because Coventry is fed up with the failed ALMS GT program, which is on “contract life-support,” headed for the dustbin as soon as that deal expires, reportedly after the 2012 season.

Whither the American Le Mans Series?

There’s never been more paddock buzz about the future of the series. The key word is “change,” and like its use in politics, the key question (sometimes overlooked in the excitement) is “What change?”

A week or so ago, Gary Horrocks, who’s covered the American Le Mans Series over the past decade for dailysportscar.com, penned a commentary at DSC titled “What’s Next for ALMS?”

In part, he writes, “Some things never change, but change is coming…Change for the ALMS is a complete unknown at this point. Some say it won’t be around at all. I’m not sure if I’d go that far, but it is apparent that changes are coming. They almost have to.  Will the changes mean a complete step away from the ACO dictated regulations? Time will tell, but if they do, all I can say is that it’s about time.  Since the series essentially kept ACO type events afloat through the 2000’s, the French management have done nothing but dump on their American “partners”.

He concludes: “If the ALMS is to thrive or even survive, maybe it is time to seriously look at their past and towards their future and re-examine their relationship with the ACO. Any future directions and changes must be done with consideration towards the presence of the Grand Am. It’s not an easy situation to be in, but it looks as it is indeed time for change. The next few months will likely prove to be interesting, beyond whatever happens on track.”

Some of you may say that reads like little more than idle speculation, but Murphy being a bit of an expert on both idle speculation and on DSC (he was more or less in charge of Idle Speculation at that publication from July 2005 to April 2006), the Bear takes such ruminations quite seriously. In short, Gary’s commentary doesn’t make it into print unless there’s some serious angst behind it, and Murphy’s hearing many of the same rumbling.

The tone of that paddock noise is not whether there will be significant change, but when and what that change will be. The lid on this stuff in Braselburg is as tight as it has ever been (that’s not a really high bar, actually), but here are some of the possibilities being knocked around this the paddock:

ACO “Trial Separation?”

The Series will modify its rules to move further away from an ACO clone than it ever has. A single LMP class is possible, as is an “open” GT class. The ACO divorce rumor is so pervasive that it’s also thought in some quarters that Braselburg is considering  bringing the Professional Sports Car Racing moniker back. A significant split from the ACO might actually require such a move. Murphy’s been digging in the closet for his old IMSA hat. He’s got a Camel GT hat, too, but that’s probably against the law.

(More) Open GT?

That Open GT class is interesting because that’s the only way (except “unclassified” as will be the case this season) The Don’s beloved Abruzzi will be able to race. It’s suggested that the Abruzzi could be homologated, including the required 25 road cars (though building and selling are different propositions), but there are now no plans to do so. The previously-rumored homologation project is now on hold. An open – or “more” open – GT would also allow the series access to many more race cars than the current rather restrictive – and expensive – ACO GTE rules. And really, The Don got into all this because he wanted to race a car; the Series was little more than an afterthought to make that happen.

One Prototype Class?

This makes some sense, given that there aren’t enough cars out there to make up two classes, say nothing of three. Of course, that’s been true for about a half decade, and the Series actually did it for a single season (2010). How it gets done this time, with LMPC in the mix, the Bear has no idea, but that’s one of the rumors.

More “Spec” Classes?

A rumor directly in conflict with the single prototype/open GT stories is an expansion of spec racing in an effort to continue down the path of “affordable racing.” Perhaps the LMP1 and 2 classes are combined, and LMPC is left intact? Or LMP1 and 2 go away, leaving LMPC – or something similar – as the premier class? Grand Am, anyone?

Shorter Schedule?

The schedule will be shortened and compressed. This year’s huge Le Mans break will be shortened, though it’s hard for Murphy to see how that happens, especially since the loss-of-Long Beach rumor persists. (The fact there’s a long term contract in place for that race is irrelevant; if the parties want out, they’ll get out.)

WEC in North America

There will be two WEC races in North America, Sebring and Petit Le Mans. There will be one WEC race in North America, Sebring. There will be one WEC race in North America, Petit Le Mans. There will be one WEC  race in North America, Austin. You get the idea, don’t you? However, there is some rationale that attaches to the Austin idea. The FIA has a vested interest in making the Austin track financially viable to ensure its F1 date. That became tougher with the compromise the promoters had to make with the Austin City Council – effectively increasing their financial burden.

Management?

Further senior management departures are rumored. There’s even a bet in the paddock that there will be big moves before September 1. Murphy sources who might previously have defended the decisions of the Braselburgers have recently turned negative. Will “The Boss” be amongst the casualties? There are rumors. Perhaps Murphy will apply for the job.

The Wilting Core

So why all the turbulence now? Certainly the advent of the WEC is a big factor. It provides a “big stage” for the ALMS’ traditional core constituents – the manufacturers. It’s often said the “privateers are the backbone of sportscar endurance racing,” but there is no doubt the American Le Mans Series was built on the back of Audi, Porsche, BMW, Ferrari, Corvette – and of course Michelin.

Prototype WEC Programs

It was the only game in town for the big boys that needed some place to go with their expensive machinery beyond that “one-off” race in France. No longer. Even ten-cent players like Scott Tucker are taking their racing – and cash – to the ILMC-soon-to-be WEC. Audi’s long since gone there. Porsche’s future LMP1 is not identified in any way with the ALMS, and even if Penske gets the deal (as it is widely believed in the paddock he will), it will be another WEC program. As Murphy explains in this Poop, Jaguar’s prototype will be a WEC entry, and will correspond with the end of Jaguar in the ALMS. The only sign of a new ALMS prototype program is the Tarleton’s Signature Motorsports, which recently announced another change of plans: to P1. Murphy’s not aware of anything beyond talk with any manufacturers (like maybe a contract), though. It’s way beyond late to build a new car for any part of the 2011 season, and nothing the Bear has heard suggests buying something used, so this entertainment is “to be continued” in 2012.

GT: BMW

BMW has a lot invested in the future of DTM, both worldwide and in this country in association with Grand Am. Look for an increase in BMW’s Grand Am presence. Murphy heard second hand from within RLR that, “No one at ALMS has given the slightest indication that they are either concerned about our (RLR) going or interested in our staying.” That’s against persistent rumors that BMW is on the way out after this season or next.

GT: Ferrari

Ferrari officially announced a Grand Am GT racer. They’re going to make sure they’ve got competitive teams over there. Look for entries before the end of the current season. Will Risi Competizione move? What if Maranello asked Giuseppe to field a team? He’s been there before. Michael Waltrip Racing is reluctantly headed to Grand Am, convinced the ALMS offers too much risk and too little upside for the investment. It’s no secret that Scott Sharp would like to take his Extreme Speed Motorsports to IndyCar.

GT: Porsche

Porsche will be in ALMS as long as the series – or its successor – exists. That’s the Porsche way. They have race cars – and plenty of racers – to fit whatever format is there. The question is whether Flying Lizard or some other team with significant factory support remains. The Lizards have run at Daytona, most recently with a Daytona Prototype. As with Risi, they’ll go where the racing is, something to keep in mind with just about any team; there’s really not much loyalty. Racers like to race.

GT: Corvette

There’s potential for trouble ahead at Corvette, or at least a big decision. There is very strong support for the factory program within GM’s highest management ranks but does it make sense to continue racing in the USA if there’s nobody to race against? They’ve been in that position and nobody wants to do it again. If the ALMS moves solidly toward a privateer, open GT field, as is rumored, that is exactly the position in which Corvette is likely to find itself; race nearly alone in a depleted “pro” category or beat up on an amateur field.

But the WEC isn’t certain, either. North America funds the racing program and it’ll be a tough sell for them to fund a program that spends 80 or 90-percent of its time outside of North America. It isn’t likely that Chevrolet Europe has the resources to fund the factory team alone, so perhaps it becomes a joint effort?  A Murphy source says, “There are various good outcomes – ALMS somehow gets a second wind, GM finds ways to fund a WEC factory program, etc. but there are also obviously various bad outcomes – ALMS goes away, ALMS goes in a direction that GM won’t participate in, etc. I think that at this point there are too many unknowns and it’s too early in the complex process for Chevy to know what it’s doing next year.”

Murphy’s Favorite Topic

The one bright spot within GT is – oddly enough – the Abruzzi. Homologation aside, The Don is determined to race the car, and Prototype Technology Group has been working hard to make that happen. Those who dismissed 32-year-old Swede Edward Sandström as a “rent-a-ride” badly missed the mark. Sandström has been a regular in the FIA GT3 championship in Europe, and partnered Tommy Milner to a win at the 24 Hours of Dubai this year, giving PTG good insight on his driving skills. There have been some problems with this program (and Murphy’s no fan of the styling, to put it mildly), but he doesn’t think The Don’s entry will be the GT backmarker at Mosport. This time it’s possible as many as four entries could finish in its wake. For more on Edward, go to Speedhunters

The Television Sucks

The Series mismanaged its television coverage for years – it was the product that sucked all along, losing viewers nearly every season – leading to the inability to make a deal for 2011. The spin was “new media,” but that’s nonsense, of course. Murphy sources tell him that the Series went shopping for a renewal of the kind of coverage it had in previous years, and couldn’t find a taker. So it got jobbed by ESPN and had to swallow and spin.

The current media package is even worse than it looks, according to those who know the details. It’s badly underfunded, with a single producer to cover a workload that has normally required multiple staff. The Bear was told t-race staffing is kindly described as lean, a shoe-string operation. The production company has not changed, but observers could see the lack of resources in the product that came out of Lime Rock. Today, the ALMS posted this on its house website:

“Thanks to a groundbreaking and comprehensive digital and television broadcast package with ABC and ESPN, the Series boasts a 71 percent increase in the number of U.S. households that have watched ALMS events than at the same point in 2010.”

They’re still a bit math challenged over there in Braselburg, apparently confusing web hits with households. But whatever they’re doing it’s apples and oranges, chalk and cheese. It’s just plain not credible that the cobbled-together 5-inch picture on my computer is a more popular way to watch racing than live, full-length, full-screen on my television. Chuck Farrell covered the topic nicely in”Chuck Checks the Maths.” More importantly, amongst Murphy’s sources not a single individual responsible for funding or fielding a racing team believes it.

In its early years, the American Le Mans Series media coverage was a contributor to its value. When it started down hill, it became a liability. Without marketing value to manufacturers, the series has to change. The premise on which it was built is gone.

The Andy Lally Challenge

With so little going on in the American Le Mans Series, Murphy has had limited opportunity to bring his readers up to date on the Andy Lally Challenge.

First, the Bear announces that Andy has won NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year. No contest, wrapped it up. Way to go, Andy!
Murphy last updated the Challenge after Dover, where Andy’s purse brought his season’s total winnings to  $1,020,811. Murphy figures the American Le Mans field won $126,000 at Lime Rock, bringing the season total to   $1,046,000, including his estimate of the privateer bonuses to be calculated and paid at the end of the season. (Teams that have been classified as “factory,” or “factory supported” are not paid purse money. The next privateer(s) does/do not “move up.)

Andy’s first big set-back was at Charlotte, where he failed to qualify for the Coca Cola 600. Since then, however, he collected finishes of 31st at Kansas, 32nd at Pocono, 36th at Michigan, 35th at Infineon, 27th at the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, 32nd at Kentucky and 28th at New Hampshire. Andy’s winnings over those seven events were $588,070, bringing his season’s total to $1,608,881.

“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?

Phallus

Reception of the Dayton/Panoz/Gurney (with the ACO as facilitator) “Delta Wing” has been as bad as the Bear has ever seen for any racing-related endeavor (puttering around as a demonstration is an “endeavor,” not a race). Much of the opinion of racing fans is unprintable in the Bear’s blog. Of course the principals (and their advisor) in this adventure have paid little attention to fans before, so why should they now?

The derision in this case is well deserved. Not only does it look bad, it’s not by any definition a sports car, even  if one stretches the definition of prototype to a breaking point. It’s an IndyCar (or a copy of one), and a rejected one at that. The excuse for this nonsense is to demonstrate “new (green) technology. And what technology is that? Here’s Murphy’s summary: 1. Lighter cars use less fuel. 2. Lighter cars require less horsepower to move. 3. Ground effects tunnels are an effective aerodynamic device. Aren’t you glad we’ll have a chance to see those things demonstrated at Le Mans next year? That will be a fair trade for a well-funded ALMS, won’t it?

Tracks

Murphy got a press release today from Lux Performance telling him Black Rock Coffee Bar is sponsoring Cindy in the 51st Annual Rose Cup Race. The Bear had to look up the Cup and found the forty-five minute event is “one of motorsports’ last run what you brung events.” That’s great, but it did remind Murphy that Portland International Raceway has dropped entirely off the national racing radar. Kind of sad for a track remembered fondly for the great GI Joe events of past years. Most recently there was that epic JJ Lehto – Chris Dyson ALMS battle…sigh.

You all know Mosport has been sold. According to a trusted source, whatever was gotten from its sale, its loss to annual Panoz cash flow will be substantial. Mosport is said to have paid IMSA a $400,000 sanction fee for the ALMS event plus a $150,000 contribution to PMSG overhead. Still not enough, the Bear’s source says. “Excess cash” – as much as $200,000 in some years – was annually repatriated to Braselburg to fund The Founder’s whim du jour.

So now two tracks remain, and if the rumor of just a single North American World Endurance Cup round is true, Braselburg may face another decision – should it be Sebring or Petit Le Mans. (The Bear is assuming – without knowing for sure – The Don still draws enough water in Le Sarthe to influence such things.)

When the tracks have been for sale – pretty much all the time over the past three years – the bulk of the value was assigned by the seller to Road Atlanta, because of its value for residential development. Though tumbling real estate prices have decimated that value, there’s the hope of some recovery. Besides, whatever cash flow the track throws off all goes to the Empire. Not so for the Sebring lease. According to the Sebring Airport Authority Financial Statements and Auditor’s Report For the Fiscal Years Ending September 30, 2010 and 2009, Sebring International Raceway paid a (computed) annual rent of $335,000 in 2010 and $306,000 in 2009 (Pages 6 and 22). Since the Airport Authority directly collects and separately accounts for “Test track rentals” as “Operating Income” not as part of “Rentals,” (page 22), they do not accrue to the benefit of the Panoz-leased SIR.

If financial considerations are important, retention of Road Atlanta is more likely than Sebring.

Cheese

Regular readers know that the Bear got a much-appreciated Christmas gift from Scott – Patrón and a bit of very good cheese. That was after Murphy had poked fun at the Series’ “official cheese,” New York’s Yancy’s Fancy, then was bowled over by a tasting at Petit Le Mans. The cheddar and  “Peppadew” in Scott’s package were thoroughly enjoyed. Setting out to find a Phoenix-area source, the Bear found Yancy’s Fancy at “Sprouts,” a local food emporium. Unfortunately, the selection was all “flavored,” from the Peppadew (which was good) to Wasabi Horseradish. That’s fine for cheap cheese, but good cheese should be, well, cheese. So you can imagine Murphy’s pleasure when he finally found Raw Milk Double Cream New York Cheddar!  The Bear’s been trying to lose a few pounds, so there was some internal conflict, but the Double Cream won. The Wasabi would not have.

Rats?

Bob Dickinson, VP of Public Relations/Media Services, is departing ALMS for Kevin Buckler at end of business Friday. Given that Buckler is believed not to pay particularly well, the move looks lateral at best. The Bear can’t help but think of that old sailor’s line about rats…

Grand Am at the Brickyard

Speed and Racer have now joined Murphy (June 6 tweet) in predicting Grand Am at Indy for the 400 next season. The two rumored street course to be added aren’t yet certain, but those named by sources include Houston, Long Beach, and Baltimore. (A trusted source has thrown St. Pete into the Grand Am hopper. It certainly would be an upgrade over Homestead, and a geographical and competitive “natural” in proximity to Daytona Beach and Sebring. Also of note, some ask “Why would ALMS give up Long Beach?” Some sources say the deal is “cash flow negative” for the series, that they bought their way in. If so, it’s possible Braselburg may no longer be able to afford Long Beach. MHB)

Le Mans

A real classic. Murphy, who’s sensitive to archaic animal sports (bear baiting gives him shivers), was happy to see the Hare prevail in a re-run of the Hare and the Hounds. Audi’s 2011 win is the brightest gem in its decade-long collection. Until Peugeot came along, BMW’s defeat of Toyota in 1999 was the last  against a truly formidable opponent. Unfortunately, the intervening years were Audi walkovers, and even more unfortunately the Peugeot-Audi years will properly be remembered for the gerrymandered rules that kept the diesels safely in the ascendency over all others. In the sixth race since the 2006 debut of the R10, the slowest diesel  race lap was over five seconds faster than the fastest petrol-powered lap. Given that IMSA was able to balance not only the petrol and diesel entries, but even the two LMP classes into one championship at one stroke, Murphy doesn’t believe the French were incapable of doing the same. They’ve simply been unwilling, much to the detriment of a great race.

Robertsons showed the world the resolve they’ve shown in the ALMS over the past half decade. Agree it has been a good idea or not, racing the Ford GT – even with rules help – has taken dedication bordering on stubborn and lots of cash.

Corvette lost its dominant race leader, then won anyway, and the Bear’s friend Turbo Tom had a lot to do with it, too. Ah, remember those halcyon days of our youth in the first IMSA forum, Bethany trying to keep order?

Arabian Antelope

The No. 20 Dyson Lola Mazda LMP1 will debut at Lime Rock.  Humaid al Masaood’s Team HMR, with aspirations of a Le Mans entry perhaps as early as 2013, will race under the name Oryx Dyson Racing. The oryx is an antelope once close to extinction in the Arabian Peninsula.

Dyson and al Masaood were reported to have “hit it off” at a recent Lime Rock test, and (have) “much in common”; no surprise, since both families control conglomerates that in turn hold multiple divisions and companies.

Oryx will get significant technical and racetrack resource support from Dyson. The market has moved on from “seat buying” to “car/crew/truck buying.” (Not that that’s a bad thing.)

Decline and Fall

What’s left of Panoz Auto Development and Panoz Motorsports Group?  Last Week Murphy reported a layoff at Panoz Auto Development, the Panoz road car company, which according to some, will effectively end any further in-house production of either the Esperante or the Abruzzi. Few have been built over the past five years, anyway. Following on the disposal of Mosport, the Bear took a look at what’s become of the once-mighty Panoz automotive empire.

PMSG, in addition to the IMSA and the American Le Mans Series, included Elan Technologies, Elan Composites, Elan Precision Products, Elan Power Products, and Elan Van Diemen, together intended to comprise a complete and powerful race car design and build empire.
We know distribution of cars and parts was spun off to Haas in 2010. Many believe that deal had more to do with the settlement of a large personal note rather than the “synergy” represented in the press release.

Elan Van Diemen has been licensed to new principals in the UK. At the time, every Van Diemen employee in the UK, save two, was laid off by Elan.

Elan Technologies, the design company, (Indy 500 winning chassis in 2003 and 2004, IRL Championship 2003, Le Mans 24 GT2 winner in 2006, full Champcar grid in 2007) now has no aerodynamicists, no designers and but a single draftsman, plus two young entry level engineers, and one engineering manager whose qualifications is in dispute amongst the Bear’s sources. (Some say he’s one and the same with the draftsman.)

Elan Precision Products possess a handful of decade-old machines and two employees. Elan Power Products loss its last zero engineers with the departure of Chip Lewis. Relative to the rest, Elan Composites is the most successful element, but  is half its 2008 size.

So all that remains are these rump companies, two tracks and IMSA/ALMS struggling to survive with one healthy class plus a few entries in a pair of spec/club classes. If there is only a single world championship round in North America in 2012, one of those tracks is in danger, as is the viability of the series and its sanctioning body if its grids remain weak.

It’s not as if there’s a lot to prop up the automotive and racing properties. After sinking $120 million into Diablo Grande, The Don and his partners saw it sold out of bankruptcy for $20 million in 2008. St. Andrews is long gone, the Georgia Chateau’s ownership is diluted, and the Sebring resort is burdened with debt. The Don’s holdings in Elan Corporation PLC, where it all started, were reduced to 57 percent in 1984 and to less than 10 percent in the mid-1990’s, and in any case has since gone under its own reorganization.

Regardless of all that, The Don is apparently off on his next great adventure: The Racing Dildo.

Honda Takes a Powder

Honda’s North American sports car racing program has passed on, the agonizing seppuku of its dying finally ended with one final swift stroke of the kaishaku. The beginning of the end that was announced today was in 2009 when three Acura-supported teams were cut lose. In 2010, the Acura brand was replaced by the HPD non-brand, and reduced to a single LMP2 entry. A tentative 2011 plan with token support, limited to Highcroft field trips to Sebring and Le Mans, was ended today.

Will Honda continue to develop and support the LMP2 V6? Will it simply transfer the center of gravity of its sports car racing to Europe? It’s clear it’s done paying for chassis, and equally so any significant engine program – the V6 is a half-hearted effort, at best. And it is very, very clear – even before this announcement – that Honda is not interested in the American Le Mans Series.

Taken in isolation, Honda’s departure is bad enough, but a wider survey of manufacturer’s plans, some announced, some rumored, should worry sports car racing fans around the globe.

RIP Wankel

Mazda will make radical cuts to its racing budget for 2012, something Murphy reported via Twitter on May 5. Now he’s learned a bit more. With the Wankel finally headed into the dustbin of history, the Grand Am GT program is in its last season, but Murphy hears Mazda North America likes McDreamy’s marketing value, so much so that it has contracted the development of an entirely new turbo 4 cylinder for the TV doctor’s step up to LMP2 in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup in 2012. So a McDreamy Mazda skips the ALMS’ minor events in favor of the big show with just two North American appearances. The Bear’s 64 dollar question: does Mazda continue its other turbo 4 program, the branded AER motor used by Dyson Racing? Or does Dyson have to move to the new engine to stay in ALMS prototypes with Mazda?

Datsun and Toyoda

Two engine programs burst onto the scene this year, exciting fans hungry for any good news, particularly since these companies fielded the R390 and GT One not so many years ago. Not to be a wet blanket, but the Bear thinks there is less here than meets the eye. Both appear to be doing little more than attempting to squeeze a little marginal revenue out of existing 3.4 liter V8 motors developed for the All-Japan Super GT series – Nissan’s from the Skyline GT-R, and Toyota by its Cologne, Germany-based group for the Lexus SC430. Neither appears to be headed into sports car racing as anything more than engine suppliers with limited budgets, and neither seems to have any plans to participate in the American Le Mans Series. For Nissan in particular, be some pressure in the past two years for racing in North America seems to have largely dissipated in the face of ambivalence from Japan and a “beleaf” the future of racing is electric.

The Four Rings

No, not J.R.R. Tolkien, but the Decade’s Lords of Le Mans. Audi NA decided three years ago a North American LMP racing program was not a good marketing investment. It subsequently proved that by the results it measured after diverting those millions to other advertising.

It’s rumored that Audi AG wants to take a controlling stake in an existing F1 team, something it could do easily at a cost not much more than its on-going prototype program. If it does, instead of old prototypes moldering in a museum, its investment would give it hundreds of millions in F1 concorde distributions, the continuing revenue of an engineering business, and in one rumored case, leadership in flywheel KERS systems. All-in-all not a bad exchange.

And F1 adventure would be the end of campaigning the R18, except for Le Mans; otherwise Audi will continue in the ILMC. There is no possibility of returning to a full ALMS schedule.

Porsche and Peugeot

Murphy doesn’t know if Porsche will step into the gap left if Audi leaves ACO’s prototype ranks, as has been rumored. On balance, what he hears leads him to conclude it will not; the lucrative GT business is just too good not to remain the core of Porsche Motorsport. In any case, if there is a Porsche prototype it seems certain – like Peugeot – to compete in the ILMC events, and not contest the ALMS. The French will continue in the ILMC and at Le Mans for the “service life” of the current 908. Neither Porsche nor Peugeot will contest a full ALMS schedule.

Grand Am

As the Bear noted above, Grand Am GT will be without Mazda next season. Unfortunately Murphy hears there are bigger problems than that. Things aren’t improving in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup. It should be a wake-up call that Clint Bowyer may be done for lack of sponsorship in weeks, maybe sooner.

Teams and others in the NASCAR family are again pressuring Jim France to focus on the company’s premier series, questioning the “diversion” of resources to the “house” road racing series. We’ve been down this road before, but then it was in a context in which Sprint Cup’s weakness was largely seen as recession-caused, and would recover quickly as soon as the economy improved. That’s simply not happening, as anyone looking at the grandstands at Dover Sunday could readily see. What the recession (yes, business and employment is recovering, albeit very slowly) did do was break the love affair between corporate America and racing sponsorships. It’s hitting NASCAR, and has hit road racing much harder.

What does that mean to Grand Am? In the near term, it means that if purse increases recently discussed on International Speedway Boulevard happen, it will require contractions elsewhere, likely to Jim’s support of DP teams, including those “captive” or nearly so, to the France largess. (It was a chuckle at VIR that the “Beat Chip Bounty” was paid from one France pocket to another.)

Further out, Murphy can see a loss of momentum in the transformation of the series and particularly of the Daytona Prototype. However, the Bear isn’t as convinced as some that the “new look” will fall short. After all, a few inches here and there can account for the difference between a Ford and a Ferrari. We won’t know how these cars look until we actually see a car, or at least a to-scale drawing. But lessening financial backing will increase the series’ fear of driving away current entries by forcing too large an investment in new hardware. Similarly, new entries – Ferrari and others – in GT will increase cost by raising the bar for current competitors, again reducing entries. All that will likely make Grand Am more timid in implementing the changes that sports car fans (the traditional kind) have wanted to see in the Grand Am product.

Proposed DP Revisions

We always knew that the (cash) impact on current participants of new DP rules would be minimized, didn’t we? It’s a consequence of having “cheap” as your principal product attribute.

With that in mind, the kinds of changes – mostly bodywork – floated last week weren’t a surprise. Those who are critical might consider that it really does take only an inch here and there to hugely impact appearance. Consider that this look was achieved largely by raising the sidepod profile without any greenhouse reduction at all.

Bounties

With Grand Am paying the $25 grand bonus to itself, the only out-of-pocket payment was the $25 put up by Magnus for beating Bill Auberlen and Turner Motorsports (who none-the-less again landed on the GT podium).

The “Best television coverage in racing”

(As odd as it may now seem, that’s quote from a “State of the Series” presentation at a previous Petit Le Mans.) In a press release announcing the promotion of an underling, the ALMS confirmed the departure of Senior Vice President of Television Production Services John Evenson. He’ll “remain as a consultant to the series.” Pretty soon the series will have more “consultants” than employees. Murphy told his Twitter readers Evenson was shown the door at close of business Friday. The Braselburgers get credit for hiring Miss 12 Hours of Sebring 2008 in the same week.

The most important fans – the ones that bother with such things as forums – had been telling the series almost from the beginning that its television package was terrible. It chose not to listen.

Media Mogul Moves

Don’t be surprised if News Corp. makes a move to acquire the F1 commercial rights.

GRT

Generic Racing Team launched a website last week, then quickly shut it down. The prime suspect called Kevin and pled “Not Guilty.” The NASCAR brass was publically peeved, but privately amused. The search for a disgruntled former employee with advanced website design skills continues…

ALMS Prototype Summary

Muscle Milk will complete the season, as will one Dyson Lola AER (Mazda).

A Dyson second car announcement remains possible.

Autocon is “in” beginning at Mosport, though the “new direction” stuff is a bit overblown – same car, same motor, same drivers, some reorganization of the “partnership,” car upkeep moved to a new shop. No, it did not get “significant upgrades” at Lola.

It seems Intersport will “Field” an LMPC – but no LMP1 or 2.

If they can get the AMR One to run, Aston Martin will make a single ALMS foray, at Laguna Seca, in addition to the Petit Le Mans ILMC round.

Tucker will campaign one LMP2 for the remainder of the ALMS schedule.

Murphy’s seen no evidence that Signature has a car, or an engine, or a crew. (When they do, perhaps they’ll be kind enough to post a photo? Even Solo Al was able to do that.) The team says it’s in the “re-evaluating” mode. It’s getting a little late for this season, isn’t it?

Most likely ALMS (non-ILMC) LMP1/2 entry: Lime Rock 3, Mosport 4, Mid-Ohio 4, Road America 4, Baltimore 3, Monterey 5.

Oklahoma!

Still a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, but not yet a racing event. The “announcement” did not announce an event, but a promoter’s intent to get an event approved. The mayor is for it, the state is for it, yadda, yadda…but no mention of the OKC council, which defeated it last year. With a hoops playoff underway, auto racing isn’t even close to the community’s consciousness.

South America for the ILMC?

They’re floating the idea, along with an assumed constraint of seven (and no more than eight) events, including Le Mans. Drop one of the three European events? Perhaps, but most of the entries are from that continent. It seems equally likely that North America will lose one of its two, doesn’t it?

Andy Lally Update

Andy failed to qualify at Darlington, but won $80,825 at Richmond, and $88,875 at Dover for GRT, er..TRG, which brings his season winnings to $1,020,811. The entire American Le Mans field has won $1,093,000, less $173,000 withheld, the total due to participants to date is $920,000. Teams that have been classified as “factory,” or “factory supported” are not paid purse money. The next privateer(s) does/do not “move up.”  The Bear has already credited the privateer bonus fund that will actually be paid after the season. That may also not reach the $540,000 he has allowed, in which case the total will be adjusted downward as necessary.

The Boss said at Long Beach that Autocon and Intersport were “aiming for” Lime Rock. Murphy’s been told that Autocon will do four or five races beginning with Mosport and ending with Petit Le Mans. Based on team and driver geography, Laguna Seca will be in. The Bear can report that the “upgrade” of the Autocon Lola will not turn it into a coupe. In fact, it isn’t really much of an “upgrade” at all. Lola is repairing the firewall and suspension pick-up points.

What about Intersport? They have crew, car, transporter, shop…all they need is the funding.

Nothing from or about Highcroft indicates they will contest more than Petit Le Mans, and that’s uncertain. The team wasn’t included in The Boss’ speculation at Long Beach, and elsewhere Murphy has heard that the Indianapolis 500 was a priority target for Duncan, particularly since the earthquake in Japan seems to have taken partner HPD out of the picture. Unless there’s a unpublished partnership the Bear isn’t aware of, Highcroft has no entry at Indianapolis. Simon Pagenaud filled in for the injured Ana Beatriz in a Dreyer & Reinbold entry at Barber Motorsports Park. Perhaps there’s a “get the feet wet” deal with one of three Deyrer & Reinbold entries, or another Indy 500 team?

For Dyson Racing a second car likely – but not certainly - depends on funded driver(s). Murphy doesn’t know where that stands, and suspects neither does Dyson. The Bear’s friends who have been salesmen will know exactly what that’s like…”Have you gotten that order yet?” “No, boss, but they promised they’d decide any day now.”

Aston Martin Racing announced they’d participate in Petit Le Mans (a given, of course) and Laguna Seca, so that’s one additional “pure” ALMS round.

There will be no additional LMP2′s  this season. The best The Boss could do at Long Beach was that he’s talked to “more than two” (is that an alternate way to say “three?”) teams, and that one “could come as soon as the season-ending Petit Le Mans if the program is finalized in the coming days.” In other words, one outside chance for one new P2 at Petit (but no help for the non-ILMC rounds). Murphy’s conclusion? No chance.

The Bear recaps, other than Petit – he’s already designated that as a “must attend” event: Autocon will enter 3 or 4 events. Mosport and Laguna are definite, Baltimore is unlikely. AMR will enter Laguna Seca. A second Dyson Lola is possible, but uncertain, as is an Intersport entry.  There will be no additional P2 at any non-ILMC round.

Two Questions

Does Rebel Rock plan on entering GTC in 2012? Do you care?

Get Out There and Spin

The Boss lectured the PR reps at Laguna Seca for 35 minutes that they need to put a more positive spin on the “TV deal.”

Most Important

The Boss of this vibrant racing series could think of nothing more important to do with his time this week than to address geeky high schoolers. That will undoubtedly improve ALMS grids…in 2025.
 
BMW

It’s widely believed that BMW will end its ALMS GT2 program after the 2012 season. Unless it ends it after the 2011 season.

Andy Lally Update

At Taladega, Andy broke out of his thirty-something rut, finishing 19th on the super speedway and earning $100,050, bringing his 2011 earnings to $851,111  The ALMS field  was eligible to earn $209,000. Total to date for the entire entry of the American Le Mans Series (if it was all paid out – and it wasn’t, since factory-supported teams are ineligible) is $1,093,000.

Audi End Game

It’s rumored the R18 will be the last Audi sports car prototype. What’s next?

Oreca Bearish

According to an “insider,” Oreca is not bullish on the ALMS – and certainly not building its business plan on the expectation of future FLM sales to ALMS teams.

Four things…

…The Bear will not write about this time: Abruzzi, Micheal Waltrip, Level 5, and Signature Motorsports.

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.

Almost simultaneously with the lay-offs rumor, BGP announced a clutch of sponsors, an “official airline,” (something Murphy’s never heard of) “official auto insurance” (GEICO, who else?), the “official gasoline” (Sonoco, of course), a bevy of hotels. Small potatoes. The Bear expects this race to take the green this season; after that remains in doubt.

The mea culpa

Signature’s principals went ballistic over Murphy’s doubt they will have an LMP on the Lime Rock grid. In fact, the Bear got a love letter from Reg and Matt reading in part “the responsibility is upon you to correct and/or retract statements which are misinformation, slanderous, libelous and defamatory both on this forum (that would be americanlemansfans.com) and on the blog Murphy the Bear.”

Murphy went back and checked. According to Matt, the Bear omitted Reg’s 1980’s Formula Ford Performance Driving Academy at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and wrote that Signature’s plans included two prototypes, when it’s just one. Murphy regrets those two errors.

Murphy would like nothing more than to see another prototype in the ALMS, so whenever Reg and Matt can confirm they have a binding contract to buy or build a prototype or a motor to put in it, the Bear will take that to be good news, indeed.

Grand Am Update

The rumor that Mercedes and Audi will contest the 50th 24 Hours of Daytona was greeted by the Cogs with a “ho-hum, we knew that.” Anything from the Bear will get that response, but though there’s been no official announcement, those additions, particularly if they turn into full-season entries, will likely be just part of the story coming out of Grand Am this summer that will keep the American Le Mans Series in the hole it’s dug itself into.

Look for more GT announcements as the field for 2012 is filled with Audis, Mercedes, Porsches, Ferraris and others. The Bear’s been told there have been some upper management personnel changes following a winter in which development of new rules “bogged down.” On the positive side, one of those changes – a sideways move by Dave Spitzer – would seem to have increased the series focus on its “international alliances,” important to the nascent alliance with DTM. If Grand Am is smart (and Murphy thinks the new management over there is) they’ll announce new DP rules before mid-summer. Having hung onto the current rule set for a decade, they surely won’t get themselves into the same “late to the party” fix that’s become standard for the ACO, will they?

The Bear hears a draft of the 2012 DP rules was circulated a week ago. Do they include a shrunken green house? Murphy hears that’s the case, and sure as hell hopes so.

Media Failure

Data and analysis keeps trickling in on the Sebring viewer count. Last Turn Clubhouse’s Mediterranean correspondent  Chuck Farrell broke it down, and AutoWeek followed. Between them, they pretty much blew up the fiction that Sebring represented any better  – or more valuable – exposure for the series and it’s entrants. Murphy did, however, enjoy the irony of ESPN PR guy Andy Hall (unconvincingly)  keeping the wraps on the detail of the ALMS media disaster.

The On-line Fan Experience

Since the recent dust-up between American Le Mans Series management and certain of its teams over its putrid media presence, the Bear’s dug up an items or two.

First, looking backward (though Murphy doesn’t really want to, there’s the matter of context) there was an extensive but unsuccessful effort to land a “traditional” television contract. Regardless of self-congratulation, the Series’ brave new leap into the future of media, right or wrong, was very much under duress.

Looking ahead, the Bear’s been told the channel is fixed for the remainder of the year, likely longer; that is, live delivery will be to your computer – period. While accepting that – as they must – some in the series have demanded at least an upgrade of that delivery, using the resources of the teams, plus a more robust platform technology, to improve the fan experience. Murphy can’t share details, but if the series – they could simply ignore it – accepts this challenge, fans should expect some exciting additions to the on-line coverage beginning with the New England Grand Prix in July.

Given the magnitude of the undertaking, Braselburg will find it necessary to launch a project using at least some outside resources. So far, there is no indication they have done so. Along with that, on the table is a request for the series to allow its teams to use race video without the current fee of thousands of dollars. The Bear intends to follow progress – if any – over the next three months.

Abruzzi Adios

The Don’s Abruzzi is gone until Mosport or later. Sebring failure was paddle shift, then “internal engine” (likely due to a missed-shift over-rev). Did someone say “$5 million rat hole?”

Andy Lally update

Andy spent Martinsville on the bench. Kevin decided to start Hermie Sadler, for whom Martinville’s “home track,” and who tested well there for TRG. Hermie garnered a finish of 29th, putting TRG (listed as “Richard Petty” in the owner’s column…don’t ask) in a tie for the all-important qualifying-exempt 35th place on the season. Not sure if the tied teams both get the exemption, neither does, or whether there is a tie-breaker. Hermie and Kevin won $81,325, but that’s just an FYI from the Bear, since Andy’s DNS leaves his earnings at $654,911 to the ALMS field’s $844,000 (the latter including credit for its privateer bonus program. Murphy’s now updated the Challenge for Andy’s result at Texas Motor Speedway, in which he finished 32nd (again) and earned $96,150. That makes his earnings total $751,061. Owner’s points are 36th, so he’ll have to qualify to make the field in upcoming races. Here’s the table.

Press Releases

Most of the motorsports press is little more than a daily repository of unedited team, manufacturer , and driver press releases. If anyone needed evidence, they got it this week when one such site published an “article” with this lead-in sentence: “Level 5 Motorsports hopes to maintain its momentum coming into round two of the American Le Mans Series this weekend on the Streets of Long Beach, California.”

Hopes? The rest of the article tells us how great a challenge it is for Level 5 to compete against….no one?

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.

The Baby Sitter Chronicles

[Redacted] If this rumor is true, it will be in the public domain soon enough.

Le Grand Petit

There’s another dust-up of late – this one in the media and in sports car fan forums – whether the entrants at the joint Intercontinental Le Mans Cup round- ALMS Petit Le Mans will be limited by the Road Atlantic track capacity.

Those who dig into such things looked at the Sebring entry plus the ILMC cars that received waivers from the ACO to skip, the possibility of one or two post-Sebring ALMS additions and concluded the Petit entry will go into the low sixties. It’s possible there will be some attrition in ILMC entries, but what we’ve seen so far appears to be only the exercise of waivers offered by the ACO for a few that can’t have a car ready for Sebring, and ALMS entries seem more likely to grow than shrink, with Autocon doing selected events, and Intersport, Highcroft, and Signature “in the wings.”  SpeedTV columnist John Dagys picked up on the problem, concluding after asking Scott Elkins that PLM would be able to accommodate as many as 60 cars.

Meanwhile, Murphy was doing a little digging of his own.

If you apply the FIA formula for track density for an event in the FIA calendar, then you can only start 46 cars at Petit. That’s what a professional track designer with first hand intimate knowledge of Road Atlanta came up with. And it’s what Murphy’s friend, Canuckistani engineer Paul Collins, came up with.

Here are Paul’s calculations:

N = (0.36 x  L x W x T x G) where the letters are all factors based on tables found on pages 12 and 13 of this document. (Appendix O to the International Sporting Code, Procedures for the Recognition of Motor Racing Circuits.)

L is related to length
W is related to minimum width of the track
T is related to time
G is related to the car classes

In this case L = 13 (track is 4.1km long)
W is 10 (width is 40 feet, or 12.3 meters, rounded to the nearest whole number)
T is 1.4 for a race up to 12 h (the value of T only goes up to 1.5, so you won’t gain a significantly larger number of cars by going longer than 12 hours)
G is 0.7 because the cars are sports cars with big engines (this value would go up to 1 if ALMS was GT only – if you got rid of the prototypes, defined as “sports cars” in Appendix O)

That means N = roundup (0.36 x 13 x 10 x 1.4 x 0.7) = 46 cars. If the minimum width of the track were 13m, N would be 53 cars. If the minimum width remains unchanged but we had IMSA GT instead of a mixed field that included prototypes, the number would be 66.
All that is actually irrelevant, however, because the same Appendix O  specifies that the minimum track length for any race that exceeds 6 hours in duration shall be no less that 4.7 kilometers. Road Atlanta is 4.088 kilometers.

There’s even more reason to stop worrying and get on with life. The FIA might never have inspected or rated Road Atlanta anyway. FIA technical chief Charlie Whiting has only made one visit to the track that the Bear could uncover, in the company of CART’s Kirk Russell, at the time Vice President of Competition and Technical Director, in late 1998 after the Don’s upgrades for the first Petit. Reportedly, all Charlie had to say at the time was “I did not expect to see a track like this in America,” taken at the time as a compliment. But that wasn’t an official FIA inspection, Charlie was just along as Kirk’s guest. This was the final inspection for CART, but by then the Don was put off by the constantly increasing CART sanction fees (at that time beyond $3 million) and no deal was made.

ACCUS, the FIA ASN for the USA (go look it up), can inspect a track to the FIA, and might have done so, but, again, the Bear couldn’t find anyone to say so. And Murphy’s learned that you really don’t have to be an FIA licensed track unless you’re holding an FIA championship event, and neither the ALMS nor even the ILMC is that. Not that it would make any difference, there’s really no way around Appendix O, is there?

Wonder where Scott Elkins gets “60?” So did Murphy, but then it occurred to him that since Road Atlanta is a non-conforming track anyway, its capacity can be anything the ACO and IMSA want it to be, and that will likely be somewhere around 60 in October.

There’s money at stake; certainly no one wants to send a team home – contracts were signed with sponsors and drivers based on nine events, and losing Petit Le Mans wouldn’t be a small thing for anyone. The FIA wants PLM to happen, the ACO does, Don Panoz does.

So what now? Then Murphy checked the FIA calendar and saw that Petit Le Mans is a “restricted event.” What was that? Back to FIA documents (this time, to the International Sporting Code, paragraph 19. Restricted Events, and eureka! There it was! (With thanks and apologies to Archimedes.)

In certain exceptional circumstances, the FIA may grant authorisation for restricted international events, which on account of their specificity may be organised as a dispensation to Appendix O of the present Code, to be entered by an ASN on the International Sporting Calendar.

A “dispensation” is an “exemption or release from a rule or obligation,” and Appendix O is “Procedures for the Recognition of Motor Racing Circuits.”

The bottom line is clear. Come October, if 63 cars show up, and all of them survive practice, 63 will race. The rules allow 20% more than the grid limit to practice, anyway, so there’s a big fudge factor up front.

Odds and Ends

As the Bear asked in a Tweet, the other day, if Tony Kanaan, Gil de Ferran, and Jay Penske together can’t raise enough sponsorship money to field one IndyCar, who the hell can? Is it any wonder that Highcroft, Intersport, and others in sports car racing are finding it difficult to raise enough money to race?

For those who don’t follow the Bear’s Tweets, here’s some other stuff that’s happened in motorsports:

* Lord Drayson off to play with electric cars.
* Intersport off the Sebring entry.
* Luca Moro returns to Sebring, rumored to have been there in 2007 as “Luciano DaSilva.” Another indication that the sport can “overlook” something when it suits them.
* Rahel Frey replaces Katherine Legge at Audi for DTM. Murphy wants another hug from Katherine; maybe now he’ll get it.
* Trevor Bayne won “The Great American Race.” Who?
* Bahrain F1 was postponed. Dodged that one.
* Roger Penske turned 70. Happy B’day, Roger.
* Lou Gigliotti sues GM, Michelin, Corvette Racing, Doug Fehan. Win, lose, or settle, this can’t be good for Gov’t Motors.
* Racer names American Le Mans at Road America the 2010 “Race of the Year.” Who knew?

And now, back to our story…The Bear’s still recovering from his trip to the World Center of Racing. Circumstances beyond his control kept him from his favorite places – Down the Hatch, Racing’s North Turn, and the Boondocks – to say nothing of Molly Brown’s, even though Molly’s was right around the corner from his Wednesday and Thursday night digs. He finally did get to Hooters on International Speedway Boulevard.

Story Lines

On a pure racing basis, if you came to the Rolex with no biases or favorites, there was a lot to like. But “cars racing close” isn’t really much of a story line. However, here are some possibilities:

Blundell and Brundle – the elderly Brit story. They gave it a good go, right down to a last lap challenge.

Ganassi – if you’re in the BMW CCA or a sadist.

Anti-Ganassi – everyone else. The sadists carried the day – again.

There was Flying Lizards to pull for if you’re a Porschephile or a wayward ALMS fan.

For the 3 NASCAR Jimmy Johnson admirers there was GAINSCO to cheer for.

Ferrari fans could have checked out early – there was only one Ferrari that was ever going to be competitive, and that was withdrawn without turning a wheel.

How about  Dempsey Racing for the McDreamy fan club and the Mazda Club of North America? Well, from what Murphy can tell, Patrick’s fans are on board (there’s even a “McDreamy Racing” fan site in France), while the Mazda bunch could give a damn, preferring stories in their magazine like “On the Track with the Mazda Speed 3,” and “Newest Member of the Family,” about a 1999 B3000. Grand Am – Whazzat? Dyson Racing – Whozzat?

Murphy at the Wing House

He only made it to Hooters after hanging out at the Wing House just outside the door of his Friday-Sunday room. What to say about this Hooters clone? Huge thinks it’s the greatest place on the planet. It’s not hard to see what attracts the snapper brigade. This place is the “gentleman’s club” of the restaurant world. Hooters’ girls are way overdressed compared to the Wing House babes. The service wasn’t great, even when the place wasn’t real busy. One kind of cool thing (pun intended,) there’s a chill core in the beer pitchers. The wings? Connoisseurs tell Murphy – and he agrees – a great wing has to have a crispy skin; these didn’t. Medium sauce shouldn’t be sweet, either. The Bear made a beeline to Hooters from the Turn 4 tunnel on Saturday night. Overdressed Hooters girls or not, he was happier there.

A Silly Season Story

Atlas eFX Team FS has done precious little racing (three entries, two finishes in last season’s LMS). Murphy thinks that’s fine as far as it goes – that abbreviated schedule even accounted for 25 points and a season runner-up in GT1, more a comment on GT1 than on Atlas eFX. Since then, however, these guys have embarked on a run of pure PR fantasy, getting their rather dubious press releases turned into articles by otherwise legitimate (but often fawning) racing news outlets and eliciting excitement amongst the most gullible of racing fans. First there was the “Official Abruzzi European team,” which was “set” and “likely” to contest the 2011 season in the ILMC at a time when an Abruzzi racing anywhere was – and remains – anything from certain. If that plan seemed at least marginally plausible, paired as it was with running a Creation in LMP1 in the same series put the whole thing out there with aliens in Roswell, since Creation Autosportif is moribund at best,  and more likely the racing version of Monty Pyton’s famous Norwegian Blue.

So the Bear ignored both stories and wasn’t surprised when those “plans” came to naught. Surprising was that the same media mavens – fans get a pass here, the word is, after all, a contraction of “fanatic” – published articles based on yet another specious announcement, this time that the team would campaign Lou Gigliotti’s ALMS Corvette in that same ILMC. That’s the series that now includes Le Mans, and which we already knew was unlikely to allow the entry of the car by the ACO, and in fact the car had been previously rejected for that very same event, even though the entry was requested by a far more viable team than this one. The Montenegrin (not German) Atlas eFX-Team FS illustrates again that you can’t believe everything you read – even when presented as “news.” This little bear’s rumor site filtered these stories out as improbable…is it too much to expect the same care from the biggest of the sport’s media outlets?

Murphy in the Infield

The Daytona Beach News-Journal put the “media consensus” attendance at 50,000 for the Saturday afternoon start. That probably nearly doubled the actual total, but never mind, the infield was full, and not with the redneck beer-swilling crowd that the Grand Am stereotype might suggest. In fact the whole thing was not only “Un-Daytona” (of a decade ago), but “Un-Sebring.” Families tended fires, played bean bag toss, watched Speed TV’s feed of the race from satellite.  All very suburban.

Class A motor homes were much in evidence, side-by-side from the International Turn through the Kink, and on around the Rodriguez Turn. They lined Lake Lloyd (except for the carnival), they filled the area behind the garages. FYI, for those used to the American Le Man Series easy access, a garage pass (called a paddock outside NASCAR) cost extra – $25 extra, Saturday afternoon and Sunday, when the garages were empty.

fútbol de Colombia

Montoya had a great time punting folks off the track. Should there have been rough driving or careless driving tickets? Not in Florida, where they’re picky about jurisdiction and we’re pretty sure that the Tri-oval is outside everyone’s except the Daytona Brown Shirts. Speaking of J.C., he was back on track after his little layoff.

Paddy’s in Daytona

Murphy was at the Daytona Ale House Friday night. So were Gill, and George, and other North American racing officials, representing tracks, teams, and other parts of the vast racing infrastructure. At the end of the bar was a scene eerily like that at Paddy’s last October.

They’ve all got interests here, and having good business sense, know they have to cultivate those interests. George had tended that garden well, bringing NASCAR on board at the Wisconsin track to replace the departed open wheel series. Gil’s Laguna Seca keeps its ties to Grand Am and to ALMS while building its bike business. And club weekends at the California track? Get in line –literally – they’re drawing numbers to assign priority for the available weekends.

Looking Ahead to Sebring

The Bear gets that Sebring will be a great show – 2 Audis, 2 new Peugeots, 1 old, maybe one faux Aston Martin (old vintage or new), one for-sure old faux Aston Martin – yadda, yadda. By all means spring for the ticket and party your brains out in Green Park, because after that, until Petit in October, they’re nearly all gone. In LMP1 you can only be sure of seeing Dyson and Cytosport. Only Tucker’s pair of Lolas are likely to “race” in LMP2. It’s another easy championship for Tucker. Reg and Matt Tarleton (Signature Motorsports) could add a P2 during the season, but they’ve not made it official yet…so the Bear won’t, either.

There’s a real show in GT, though, as long as that sorry LMP entry can stay out of its way. One perspective the Bear heard today: Other than the Audi-Peugeot head-to-head, the best thing happening at Sebring will be repeated at every ALMS stop – that GT battle. In that sense, you’ll do as well attending any other ALMS stop.

Back on July 7th, Murphy told  you about talks between NASCAR, the FIA, and the folks who run DTM. The Bear’s comments reflected  what was said at a little get-together in Daytona Beach that week. Soon thereafter, Grand Am published its “GT3 Memo,” reported in detail by Murphy’s friends over at Last Turn Clubhouse.

Now ITR – the promoter of DTM – announces that they are working on a joint schedule with NASCAR and Grand Am that would bring 12 races to North America in 2013. Some question the story, one critic writing it’s “BS,” trumped up solely by Hans Werner Aufrech of ITR. If that were so, would Grand Am President Tom Bledsoe (said to be very close to Jim France) have released a statement confirming the general outlines of the on-going discussions?  Murphy suggests you shouldn’t ignore that these talks were announced at that same reception for Grand Am and other NASCAR team owners in Daytona in July.

What’s being described publically by both  sides is the introduction of a separate DTM series of races in North America, that will share weekends with NASCAR-owned series. A few in the paddock speculate that by the time we get to 2013, the DTM cars – some variant – will replace the highly unpopular Daytona Prototypes and thus be “integrated” into the Grand Am show. While it’s not certain that an agreement will finally be signed, everything Murphy hears indicates that the discussions are quite real, and the sides close to an agreement.

Murphy is only a purveyor of Scurrilous Stuff; he certainly can’t compete with the Unvarnished Truth, can he?

At Petit 2010

Thursday evening after night practice, the Bear was at the annual party in the woods above Turn 10; old friends and new stopped by. It was the usual good time, with barley pop and other beverages in abundance. The Bear and friends have spent most of the last decade in that very spot on that very night solving the problems of the sports car racing world.  Now…if someone would only listen…

When Good News Maybe Isn’t

Don’t get too carried away about that prototype HVM says it will field in the ALMS next season. So, HVM is going to do a Lola ALMS prototype program? Are y’all forgetting this is the team that didn’t have the scratch to run a whole Indy Car season? (Edit: The Bear has been corrected. HVM actually made the last race at Homestead after being locked out of its own shop. Apologies for the misinformation. That this is a team “shopping for funding” is still true.) Murphy told you about that last month. This is one of those “we’ve got everything but the funding” deals.

Zytek

Lawrence Tomlinson’s public statement (published widely) would seem to indicate Zytek’s or Ginetta’s involvement in the prototype business will be pretty much “on ice” for the foreseeable future. To Murphy this looks oddly reminiscent of the Creation Autosportif mess, and will likely similarly end badly.

Porsche on the Prowl

Hints of change in the sports car racing world keep trickling out. Grand Am’s approval of single nut wheels and other changes will be applied to Porsche, bringing the Stuttgart company closer to its objective of one race car it can sell in multiple series around the globe. Brumos will race Porsche GT’s in the coming season, and all indications are that the team will get significant factory support.

The Great GTC Scam

The Two Scotts have spent nearly two years telling us the Porsche-only-GTC class was just a matter of convenience. When launched, it was claimed to be the only practical solution for a quick fix of the series’ inability to attract enough entries.

So, of course you thought you’d get something beyond a Porsche club race in 2010. No such luck. When the 2010 season rolled around, it was still too hard to do, Porsches again…but y’all could be excited because some of those Porsches could be different, from different series (though you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at them).

It had to be a sure thing that you’d get more cars in 2011, right? Then you learned that only one car was being considered, Audi’s R8, already a fixture (and a successful one) on the world GT3 scene. That wasn’t good news, but many seized on it as fait accompli.
Will it happen? Nope, too hard, can’t balance performance, yadda, yadda, yadda…but all bull turds according to Murphy’s sources. Was there a tactical error in Braselburg? Have you seen the GTC entry at the ACO’s Zhuhai Le Mans Intercontinental Cup? Four entries: Audi R8, Audi R8, Audi R8, and Aston Martin DBRS9. What was it the Scotts said? Couldn’t make it work?  Sure.

Count the legs, divide by two, multiply by the event days…

“More than 300,000 fans attend GRAND-AM races in person each year, and millions more watch on television,” said Kevin Hindson, Grand Am’s VP of Marketing and Communications. Interesting stuff. You don’t say “more than 300,000” if you had “more than 400,000,” or even something like 350,000. The Bear’s no math whiz, but 300K at 12 events is an average of 25,000. According to figures Murphy’s seen, the ALMS claims “over 700,000” for nine events, an average of 78,000. That includes two “signature” events (Sebring and Petit) for the Braselburgers, and one for NASCAR’s series. ALMS has one shared weekend (Long Beach) at which accounting for attendance is problematical, as it is for events Grand Am shares with its NASCAR big brothers (July at Daytona, August at the Glen, and Montreal). At best educated guess, television for both series has been stuck around 200K.

Kurt’s

Friday night was Murphy’s second annual Friday Dinner at Petit. One of the local elves suggested Kurt’s in Duluth. The Bear was very, very impressed. Kurt’s and Vreny’s is a self described “European Bistro,” but it’s German enough (as is Kurt) to have been recognizes as one of the top ten German restaurants in America. Wonderful food, excellent service…then Kurt took us on a tour of the most phenomenal collection of motorsport memorabilia Murphy (or his friends) have seen anywhere on the planet.

The Great LMPC Scam

The “Rookie of the Year” is?

Schedule Follies – Part 2

They had to get it out quick. No idea why, but there it is. Then, the TBD date was defeated in Oklahoma City. Other dates move around, or are moved. Even now Road America plans a Saturday race and Braselburg a Sunday date in Wisconsin. Murphy hopes they get together. While they’re at it, why not figure out how long the race will be. The Bear would like six hours. Very much.

Meanwhile, the lack of title sponsors for either of the Baltimore headliners puts that event behind a financial 8-ball. One item about which  fans seem now to be obsessing but Murphy doesn’t share the worry is concern that the returned-to-fall race at Laguna Seca will be shortened from its 2010 6 hour duration. It won’t be.

Anybody know what the television coverage will be in 2011? Neither does the Bear, who’s happy he doesn’t have to raise sponsor money for an ALMS team.

Sincerely dead. Now what?

With key parts now unavailable, the Porsche RS Spyder is – in the immortal words of the Munchkin Coroner – not only merely dead…really most sincerely dead. So, what to race for a team the ALMS sorely needs to return? So far, the only reasonable option is HPD – and do they want to be in line behind Duncan? Other possibilities have drawback that make them unattractive. Contacts with Audi were referred to Audi NA where they dead-ended. A call to Peugeot is likely, but pro forma,  not offering much hope for a program of reasonable cost.

And Dyson? Will Mazda offer enough to make another season like the last two acceptable? Is there hope for any better without an enginectomy? Can the Roush-Yates deal for Grand Am be leveraged into something for ALMS?

Murphy’s Stop-a-Clock Ugly

With the unveiling of the Abruzzi, the talk at Petit Le Mans naturally turned to the ugliest automobiles of all time. There was much conflict but a fair amount of agreement, too. Others mentioned included the Ford Expedition (doesn’t fit in a garage), the Excalibur Phaeton (cheesy copy category), Mercedes Benz Maybach (conspicuous consumption category). Pontiac’s Aztek was on everyone’s list, and somehow dropped off between the Turn 10 woods at PLM and this column. Let’s give it the “Shooting Fish in a Barrel” award, as “too easy,” and allow one more to make the Bear’s final list.  Here are the Bear’s picks:

10.    AMC Gremlin– Took cheap boxy designs to the pinnacle of putrid. Runner’s up here are Chebby’s Vega and Ford’s Pinto. Add Datsun’s B210, Yugo, and Fiat 124 to the Bear’s “catchall and runner-up last spot. Cheap cars that looked the part. 9.    1975 Triumph TR7 – Who knew you could make a sports car look really, really stupid?

8.    1961 Ferrari 250 GT ‘Breadvan’– It turns out a Ferrari got there over a decade before Triumph with ‘La Camionette,’ though it wasn’t Enzo’s doing.

7.    1958 Edsel – No one bought the Edsel because no one wanted to be seen in one.

6.    Tucker Torpedo – Whatever the movie’s script, the Tucker was dead on arrival.

5.    1951 Studebaker Commander – At Studebaker they like the Torpedo so much they decided to build their own.

4.    1958 Oldsmobile 98 – The car that took chrome so far it happily killed the whole idea.

3.    Citroen 2CV Charleston – The 2CV was bad enough, then they gave it this two-tone in a swirl.

2.    1980 Cadillac Seville (Full Cabriolet Roof) – Baroque bad taste taken to a whole new level.

1.    2010 Panoz Abruzzi – The unholy offspring of hippopotamus and a Dyson vacuum cleaner. And the doors don’t fit.

 Numbers

Murphy wrote his first Paddock Poop in July 2005; that’s 64 months ago. With 176 and a few ”specials,” that’s a about three a month, so the Bear hasn’t been as derelect as some of his readers think.

The night of October 3, Murphy and Last Turn Clubhouse passed 2,000,000 visits. That was just 15 months after the two sites logged their first million. Thank you all.

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

The Bear’s hearing precious few rumors – and that’s a worry. It’s a worry because this is usually the time of year when stuff is happening. Hearing good news (or not so good) from sponsors, putting together budgets, talking to drivers, suppliers, engine and car builders. But there’s little of that going on, and little has gone on over the summer. To borrow a rather overused term, there’s not much “buzz.”

Engines

Some asked why Murphy wasn’t “on the case” for the engine announcements. Remember the Cosworth sports car engine? Right. Engine announcements are just that; announcements. Judd announces they’ll be in the next sports car engine market. Surprise, right? Right. The real question is who starts “kicking the tires.” (Ok, not the right metaphor, but it will have to do.) And that’s exactly the problem with the crickets thing.

Civility

It seems certain Braselbergers who should know better (because it’s their job) have a problem with civil communication. That’s not escaped the notice of the paddock, where it’s “just one more thing.”

Disappointment

Disappointment with the Schedule? Of course. Whatever the spin, that huge gap in the middle is a disaster for sponsors (and for getting sponsors). All you have to know is “activation.” In simple terms (that’s all the Bear knows) that means a sponsor wants (no, needs) to supplement his “direct” racing exposure with other related marketing. Remember Office Depot’s full sized cut-outs of Tony Stewart? Or this classy little item? A big gap ruins that related marketing program.

Farewell, we hardly knew ya. (No Saleen)

Sadly, there will be no Saleen to see at Petit. Not a big surprise – though we started with the expectation of two Saleens – more a disappointment, a chance lost for North American fans to say farewell to one of their own. Come to think of it, this car was so rarely raced in North America, we’d forgotten it.

What’s the team? (No Abruzzi)

Late last week, “PTG” was dropped from the Abruzzi PLM entry; “Team Panoz PTG – as it was in past years and in the first two PLM entries – became just “Team Panoz.” Was it simply a change of language, or does it portend a (last minute) change in the program? One of Murphy’s forest creatures said he heard “a couple of weeks ago” that Krohn would run the Abruzzi, so perhaps Braselburg’s entry sheet is just catching up with “old news.” Another friend of the Bear’s thinks Krohn’s involvement is unlikely. Still another rumor has a prototype in that Krohn shop, while earlier Krohn was connected to the new McLaren sports car.

The entry name change may be just the tip of a Titanic-like iceberg.  “They are well behind in the car build; it’s the typical Panoz/EMT corner-cutting operation,” the Bear was told. In confirmation of that comes a report that even Braselbergers admitted at a South Carolina event that the rebodied Esperante wouldn’t make it to the grid. It’s now likely there will be a static display at Petit; might that be better than a moving chicane?

Body by Comprent, chassis by Multimatic, assembly by PTG, and raced by Krohn (or no one)? There’s not much Panoz in there. There’s about that much left of the Panoz automotive “empire.”

Murphy hears that David Price will be a guest of the Don at Petit; just renewing old acquantances, or something more?

Where’s the business case? (No Audi)

Marshall Pruett reported today that Audi wouldn’t be back in the American Le Mans Series in 2011. That can’t have come as a surprise to Paddock Poop readers, though, can it? As Murphy wrote on June 25th, “If it (the Audi board) does (say Jawohl), Murphy expects to see the new prototype in the Intercontinental Cup events and nowhere else.”

There were always two steps in Audi prototype programs: (1) approve and fund the car, a corporate decision at the highest level, and (2) fund the operation of racing programs. The first of those was done this summer, and the second has just failed after Dr.Ulrich’s public plea for funding from North America. Mr. Pruett puts it down to a “rift” between Ingolstadt and Audi North America, but Murphy’s sources don’t see it that way. Audi’s “national” divisions have always paid the bulk of the bill for racing the R8, R10, and R15.

After years of funding the American Le Mans prototype racing program – including significant payments for television sponsorships and other “promotional considerations” – the North American sales division concluded that the ALMS “platform,” though helpful, was not pulling its weight in the marketing program. In fact the quality of exposure was slipping. So it was an easy decision to follow Porsche out in 2009. Proof that it wasn’t a cost, but rather a decision on return has been seen in Audi’s expanded advertising in other sports since, including Super Bowl buys, about which Murphy wrote in February 2009.

When Audi didn’t return in 2010, it had nothing to do with rules, and everything to do with hard-nosed marketing decisions. Audi had the R15 pretty much ready to race at Sebring, but passed. The Bear wrote then that Audi had pretty much given up on getting value out of an ALMS campaign commensurate with its cost.

Hoping all that means an R8 will be on the GTC (or GT2) grid? The Bear’s take remains that a Grand Am GT R8 is far more likely than an ALMS entry of any kind.

State of the Series

In the absence of the announcement of next year’s schedule – the main reason we’ve sat through the talking heads in past years the Bear is wondering if there will be a “State of the Series” on Friday at Petit Le Mans. Wonder no more. Acting on a tip from the Braselburg mole, the Bear Brigade captured a clandestine courier en route to France, Murphy has come into possession of a document he believes to be the outline of the much-anticipated speech.

 S.O.S.

• Down is the new Up
• Television: Less is More
• Seven traditional tracks that still want us
• Why Baltimore is a fine place and Oklahoma City isn’t
• Audi who?
• Future entries (If you knew what I know)
• New Class: Legends (EFR)
• Don’s winter vacation plan

The Italiams are on the Case

According to the Wall Street Journal, in Triest, for a game against Padova, and “for the first time in four years, nearly every seat appeared to be taken. On television, the crowd looked impressive. But in person, the scene looked a bit strange. The fans were clad in scarves and winter coats—unusual for a balmy September afternoon. They failed to make a sound when the home team ran out on the field and didn’t budge when the match ended in a scoreless draw.” 

These “fans” were actually two-dimensional images of fans printed on a giant sheet of vinyl and stretched across the empty seats according to the  article. So Braselberg – and Daytona – take heart. The Italians are on the case.

American Open Wheel 

Murphy’s chief elf in Indy reports that the landlord for HVM Racing’s shops showed up last night to change the locks, and security personnel were stationed at the facility.  The gates were locked up this morning to their parking lot and the team apparently “got today off.” All less than a week before they would be loading up to go to the finale at Homestead on oct. 2.

What happens to Simona di Silvestro?  She is second behind Alex Lloyd for Rookie of the Year.  She also was very competitive on the road courses with an underfunded team. Will an ALMS team bring her aboard for 2011? She quickly became a fan favorite in IndyCar and she has more talent and potential than any of the other women in that series.”

 Another source hints that following the finale in Miami, Sarah Fisher will retire as a race driver to become a full-time team owner. Sarah has said in the past that at some point she would retire from driving to start a family. Will there be a “little Sarah” driving sometime in the future?

Politics

The Bear’s been told the Elkhart Lake Town Board voted to approve a 6 hour, into dusk, event at Road America. Now it remains to be seen if the promoter choses to use the permission.