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

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

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

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

In the heart of Cheese Country

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Audi Angst

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

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

Jaguar building

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

Lola Ferrari

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

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

Driving Corvettes

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

Who is Scott Tucker and What is Westfund?

Murphy has no idea.

The Color of Money

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

Dithering

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

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

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

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

Dead Horse Department

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

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

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

Alfie, the Alpine Field Mouse, resides in Switzerland. Murphy hadn’t thought much about his old friend in a long time, when along came a note. It seems ol’ Alfie’s right in the middle of the F1 tif. Actually, it was quite a bit more than just a note.

On Tuesday, June 16, the boys from FOTA (based in Geneva, where Alfie hangs out) sent along a three-page letter to Bernie and Max (that’s exactly the salutation, too, “Dear Max and Bernie,”). A nice personal touch, Murphy thinks, in the middle of a Mexican standoff (apologies to our south-of-the-boarder buddies, substitute Polish parliament, if you like). Attached to the letter was a newly revised Concorde agreement, ostensibly language proposed for the FIA, but just as easily a document on which the FOTA teams might structure their cooperation with each other in a new venture.

As usual, the media (these days the web, at hyperspeed) has been buzzing – and it really is fascinating how wrong most of that buzz is, full of words like “posturing,” and “fault.” That quite misses the point. A few out there do seem to understand that this is about governance. (Satorian, for instance, over on the ten-tenths motorsport forum.)

In that sense, this little fight is very, very relevant to sports car fans, but not for the reason you might think. If there is a break-away “F1” it won’t lead to a sports car launch by Ferrari or anyone else, but it just might begin to unravel the business model of motorsport, which nearly alone amongst professional sports maintains an administrative structure that’s a profit center in competition with its participants. American football and baseball are examples of the alternative, in which the league structures are creatures of the owners, who provide a budget for those functions but do not allow them to independently compete for funding. That doesn’t mean those “governing bodies” don’t wield a great deal of power – they do. But it’s at the leasure of owners, who cede that “self policing” function, much as that new Concorde agreement would. (The Bear won’t get into FIFA, which appears to operate much as does the FIA in regard to F1, and, not surprisingly, has been tainted by acusations of financial impropriety.)

Anyway, this has nothing to do with “cost caps,” with television coverage, or with “the fan experience.” It has to do with returning the sport to the control of its participants, while ending the “rake off” of hundreds of millions by a powerful competing entity.

Almost as an afterthought, FOTA’s letter offers to extend negotiations by pushing the deadline for setting the 2010 grid from June 19 to July 1. Murphy’s correspondents won’t make book on whether that will happen, but about this they are certain: the eight signatories of FOTA’s letter of the 16th are ready, able, and willing to launch a racing series of their own in 2010, and that includes a substantial enough “war chest” to operate through the 2010 season and beyond.

Max is sending proposals to five FOTA members he thinks are “wavering.” The Bear’s sources say that’s a mistake. Tuesday’s letter was signed – John Hankockian bold – by all eight active FOTA members, Brawn, McLaren, Toyota, Ferrari, Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Renault, and BMW Sauber.  They’re ready to go.

Lola presser

Lola announced the withdrawal of its F1 application. Lola’s press release, according to the Bear’s best sources, supports Alfie’s understanding. Lola withdrew because it has agreements with the FOTA Eight – with whom it expects to participate in 2010 – and doesn’t want to appear on the list of accepted entries that Max is likely to publish Friday.

Panoz LMP something

Well, that damn dumb idea is back again. Murphy reported on this mucking around (fiddling while Rome burns?) months ago, and thought the whole goofy idea was mercifully dead and buried (May 13th) with the virtual shutdown of Elan Motorsports Technologies. The Bear has been told this is not a “new design” to be raced by the Winchester, Virginia team, but rather the old Panoz with the roof put back on by the same guys who campaign the current Esperante. (Reynard –> Esperante GTR-1 coupe –> Panoz LMP 1 Roadster S –> Panoz LMP 1 coupe?) Those old chassis bones are getting a bit worn, aren’t they? Since EMT no longer has the capability to build a Radio Flyer, say nothing of an LMP, this is the only route available. (Or did Carl “pass” after his “due diligence?” That would hardly be an endorsement, would it?)

While the entire series is in serious financial straits, one has to be pretty clueless to take this kind of  irrelevant adventure as good news. Murphy’s asked this before: “Is this the best use of funds?”

Murmurs and Rumbles

So far it’s more a murmur than a rumble, but ALMS teams are talking about longer (not shorter, as at Road America) races. It’s pretty certain they know little about this inside the walls of the Braselton castle, they’d have to come outside and ask, right?

On the rumble side the algarve planters might not be very happy either. It seems they like their little Porsche series so much that they’re working to adopt it and find it a new home.

Another one circulating – it seems to have lept the Atlantic after fading here – is a Muscle Milk branded RS Spyder. Now the UK’s leading publisher of rumor (Murphy long since threw in the towel on keeping up with rumor mongering champ) writes that a “new” LMP2 will debut at Mid-Ohio. The Bear suggests a simple tests for such stuff. If the first race to be contested is not the next race on the schedule for a rumored entry, make its probablity 50-50; if it’s two races after the next, make it 30-70, three, 10-90 against. You get the idea.

Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood (or The Smiling Optimist). ALMS’ supremo was circulating at Le Mans with a consistant message: “the worst is behind us.” What? Meanwhile, the Don was on hand, but staying out of sight. When’s the last time that’s happened?

Did you notice that Road America’s slashed its advance raceday ticket price from $75 to $50? Sales a little slow? Wonder why the Brian Redman is cheaper, even though it’s claimed attendance is higher? Wonder who picked the “feature photo” for the Road America promotional mailer, the one that features D Sports Racers that look like Malibu Grand Prix cars? That will bring them in, won’t it? Anybody been able to find a photo of an ALMS prototype or GT car anywhere on the Road America site? (Murphy finally found an AGR Acura.) Want to know why Road America can’t draw fans? Check out their 2009 promotional video, here. Go-karts, ATV’s, golf cart scavenger hunts (?), good grief.