Flying Lizards to Daytona

Before Seth Neiman and Flying Lizard Motorsports leased a Daytona Prototype from Brumos, he talked to Penske about one of the Captain’s cars. Near term, it was decided a lease was more attractive than an outright purchase. Seth will be one of at least two ALMS stalwarts we’ll see at the Rolex 24; what happens after that is still unknown.

Chip to Ford

It’s possible that Chip Ganassi will go with Ford in NASCAR. If he does, it’s likely his DP’s will also be powered by Ford. (Edit: Murphy tweeted an update on November 2: At a team celebration this week, it was announced Ganassi will stay with GM motors. Presumably, that will mean the BMW power in Grand Am continues also.)

Peugeot Power

The test of Peugeot’s new prototype exclusively reported by Autosport was sans engine – the new one, that is. Bruno Famin, Peugeot Sport’s Technical Director, claims it hasn’t even made that decision yet. A hybrid power unit has been rumored, and one of the Bear’s correspondents was convinced of it by the new roof air intake. “A new-rules 2 liter turbo, with KERS,” he wrote. One of Murphy’s technical wizards acknowledged the air intake but pointed out the 90X also has the fender intakes used with the turbo diesel. “They’ll stick with the diesel,” he said. “It still makes better technical and marketing sense.” The Bear has decided it will be one or the other. (Edit: One of the Bear’s favorite tech gurus points out that a diesel/KERS combination remains in the mix, and might even be likely. Whoops! Murphy now believes it will be one of those three. Any other ideas?)

Television and Alternative Media

The American Le Mans Series still doesn’t have a “broadcast” (obsolete word, isn’t it?) package it can announce. What gives? The Bear heard at Petit that the “traditional broadcast” (and its on-air talent) would be history, that 2011 would be docudramas on Versus with live coverage via web streaming. Murphy knows some will cheer that, but he’s not one of them.

So do we get Hindy and crew? Probably, but the Bear hears sponsorship and contract issues remain. (If that is “unhelpful,” Radio Show Limited can issue a statement – again. Murphy’s not in the “helpful” business; plenty in the media have accepted that charter.) A SpeedTV deal is crippled – in terms of value, at least – by the ACO’s grab of the rights to Sebring and Petit. A professional sport needs the revenue that’s possible only with “big league” television coverage. It’s not certain that’s going to happen. Among teams and drivers in the paddock who race for a living, this is a topic of great concern.

Japan to Join GT Ranks?

That’s what the world’s leading sports car racing blog wrote, admitting it was a “rumour.”  (What’s with all the poaching on the Bear’s territory lately?) Two manufacturers mentioned – Toyota and Honda – have had on-again-off-again programs over the past couple of years; nothing new there.

Honda told the ALMS two years ago it would like to field an NSX-based GT1/2, but only after the then-planned new model was introduced – soon after, they cancelled the new car. That would seem to have ended the idea, except that Honda got special permission to race the not-to-be-produced design as the HSV-010 GT and promptly won the Super GT championship in the GT500 class. Since the ACO is similarly perfectly willing to wink at its rules when it suits (see, for reference, the magic homologation of the Abuzzi), don’t be surprised to see an “NSX-something” somewhere in ACO racing.

Toyota might be working on something with the LFA – then again they might not. Old story again.

There is nothing ACO-oriented going on at Nissan that either NISMO or NA knows anything about.

The 2011 ALMS Prototype GridMurphy summarizes what he is hearing around the paddock about the likely 2011 entry for races not part of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup.

LMP1
Highcroft – Expect Duncan to continue with HPD for another season, but don’t take his dalliance with IRL too lightly.
Dyson – Not happy being let down by Mazda just weeks before the 2010 Sebring Winter Test, Dyson will start 2011 with “a foot in each camp.” Though they repeatedly say they want to be in the American Le Mans Series, where the team goes from here is largely funding-dependent.
Cytosport – If no good hardware option is found (Porsche is out of the picture), Cytosport could stay on the sidelines. For now, at least, they aren’t happy with the options.
Intersport – We don’t know why, but someone will come up with just enough cash for Intersport to run about half the season’s miles. In a tough 2010, they had to finish Petit to get near that magic “halfway.”
Drayson –  If the announced ILMC full schedule becomes certain in 2011, this team is much more likely to contest that than a full ALMS schedule.
Autocon – Zytek is likely not an option. If the only thing on the table is a return to the Lola AER, will Autocon race, take some time off, or drop to P2?
ARES (nee Corsa) – No activity on facebook, nor in a race shop, since April.

LMP2
CORE – More likely to be an LMPC entry.
HVM – Broke and looking for funded drivers.
Level 5 – ILMC is likely, ALMS less so.
Libra (nee Taurus, nee ECO) – Libra, Ian Dawson’s act 3, is on track to be as successful as acts 1 and 2.
Signature – The team’s own hope is only for the second half of 2011. This reality show won’t make prime time.

LMPC
Dick Barbour – Katherine Legge? Not likely.  Terri O’Connell (nee J.T. Hayes)? The Bear likes real girls. Too much hype, too little substance (or cash). Reminds Murphy of DBM in 2001: Elford, Panoz, Mugen, Holt, Duno, Graham, de Radigues. Sounded good, didn’t it?
Green Earth Team Gunnar – The real 2010 LMPC champs say they’ll be back.
Intersport – The Ohio team’s cash cow.
Performance Tech, Genoa, and Mathiasen – All possible
CORE – They’ll be here if anywhere.

Once again, the series will struggle to field a dozen prototypes in three classes outside of the two ILMC events.

No sooner than the cats left town than the mice were out. Actually not out, but “in” a meeting. With the RRIC underway in Phoenix on this past Tuesday – that’s where the Bear was – Murphy’s mole (the Moroccan Mole, some call him) reported a ‘big, big meeting’ at 1394 Broadway in Braselburg. The Bear doesn’t know if it was a sanctioned meeting or an incipient revolt, but he’s heard the subject matter was anything but trivial.

Panoz Motor Sports (PMS) Group has a new CFO/accountant. The new guy has been described to Murphy as a ‘slash and burn’ artist. The problem? Not much left to slash. The Bear’s been told the only profitable thing in the company is T-shirt sales – Anna Mae’s Trinket Truck. Nice stuff, but not a big division. In fact, profit or not, it might be on the chopping block as ‘not important enough to mess with.’ Murphy hopes like hell that’s wrong. He likes trinkets.

Cuts in other areas continue – on the pit lane and even in the safety car. Due to illness of the incumbent, new guy Jim is taking over Timing & Scoring (Murphy has been corrected, the job being taken over is Simone’s as Chief Communicator in Race Control; he’s also told she’s recovered very well - well enough to perform – not that anyone on Broadway cared enough to ask…), at least temporarily.

You need a measure of how well things are going? You saw the press release on a Haas “distributor deal.” First question – sent along by one of the elves – “what do you need a distributor for in your home market?” According to some, the real story is Champ Car – the failed racing series just keeps right on giving, doesn’t it? Murphy’s been told Haas loaned Panoz three million to build the Champ Car DP01, and was still owed a million. Cash-strapped PMS Group offered its parts business and a little cash instead, and Carl took it. According to just about everyone in the race car biz, that is pretty much the end for Panoz as a race car constructor.

As if to confirm that, just today the Bear was told the Abruzzi lives – yes, Murphy’s gagging, too. This time though, it’s as a GT2 (Autosport and autoblog.com reported that this past October), and the new story is it’s not PMS Group and it’s not Danny doing the building. It’s Tom Milner being paid by the Don to build the racing Esperante replacement (that had to go, anyway, since its road car certification was based on a Mustang platform no longer in production).

So, how does that work? The Abruzzi is supposedly a modification of the Esperante GTLM (that’s sort of déjà vu, given the constantly morphing history of the Panoz LMP). But what’s the homologation of the  Abruzzi without a street car?

Radisson Road Racing Conference

The nine tracks that host ALMS events met with the Series and with each othern the Canyon I room at the Radisson Airport North in Phoenix. The Bear was there.

Murphy was parked in the next door lobby bar when they broke at 5 pm for a reception in the 44th Street Café, and still there when they finally trickled away near 7 pm, nearly an hour later than scheduled. It seemed convivial, if subdued, in the café. Did the promoters (as predicted by as source) get “reality, no more BS, real solutions?” Time – and the International Moles’ Secrets Association (IMSA) – will tell. The Bear is disappointed to have to report that the recently appointed committee had no representation in sight. Given the current problems of the Series and of PMS Group, they could seize the initiative. Murphy hopes they aren’t solely a creature of the proprietors.

Porsche

The Warsteiners – oh, sorry, that’s the beer, Murphy means the Weissachers – announced eight werks pilots the other day; missing were Emanuele Collard and Sascha Maassen, as the Bear told you a while back. The story is in the remainder, though. It seems there’s not even enough work (werk?) for even eight. Wolf Henzler is assigned to a seventh-place (at best) ALMS entry. Ace drivers (there’s no doubt about that, is there?) Timo Bernhard and Romain (Lettuce) Dumas are assigned to, pretty much nothing. Sure, they make a big deal about the Nurburgring 24 hours, but big car and fan turnout aside, it’s a run-what-you brung event, not exactly Le Mans. Odd, isn’t it? Something has to be planned, doesn’t it?

That’s a matter of debate, some saying they’ll land in a Porsche AG (or NA)-financed Cytosport entry, others saying “ no way, they won’t lay out that kind of money, and if they wanted to, why not just hire Penske again?” Those in that “no way” camp suggest some kind of combination deal with Audi (a car for Timo and Romain at Le Mans, as there was last season), and a few “place-holder” Porsche races (one-off seats at Petit Le Mans, perhaps?). So why keep even those eight on board if there really isn’t that much work? Over-active imaginations will suspect the gestation of a new Porsche LMP to the 2011 rules (which, after all, won’t be much of a stretch from the Spyder, particularly its 3.4 liter V8). The cynics will suggest it’s much simpler; if you’ve got ‘em under contract (and have to pay them), you could just as well try to use ‘em.

Balancing Act

What’s next in the brave new world of performance balancing? Falken seems to be angling for rules to help them run their 2008 Porsche? Not just run it, of course, they can do that if they like, but to make it competitive. That’s nonsense – and besides, it won’t exactly do good things for Porker race car sales, will it? Next, Randy Wars and Grady Willingham will be back in Dick Barbour’s old R. IMSA let a couple run in 2001 after the introduction of the RS, but they didn’t change the rules to make it faster, did they?

Extreme

Or not so. Scott Sharp’s Extreme Speed was planning to run a GT Challenge Porsche along with it’s two GT2 Ferraris. Now it’s dropped the Challenge program. Some say it’s a good idea for the team to concentrate on its Ferraris.

Intersport Raids Comprent

Sources say the Dublin, Ohio team has taken two of Comprent’s former IMSA Lites customers. Meanwhile, the proprietor of the Georgia company is rumored to be buying out his partners in a 5 axis milling machine. 

Spiraling Down

Declining attendance is likely reducing ALMS sanction fees, on top of outright loss of sanctioned series (BMW’s training wheels racing), and declines in entries (and consequently revenue) from other sanctions (Cooper Atlantics had 8 entries last the Bear heard, possibly Patrón GT3 Challenge, cannibalized by ALMS’ Challenge class). Declining and stagnant television viewership is reducing ad rates, and making annual support of the series look less attractive to manufacturers and other partners.

The Rolex

Look for Murphy’s  annual Rolex preview early next week.

Twitter

When rumors surface, the Bear tweets at http://twitter.com/Murphythebear