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.

The top two at the Rolex once again came from Murphy’s top 5. After putting both Ganassi cars on the list (a bit of a no-brainer, even if your head is stuffed like a mattress), plus Brumos and two-time Grand Am Champion GAINSCO, the Bear mused in Paddock Poop 152 about the fifth, finally settling on the No. 9 Action Express because it fit all three Bear rools. Including the one about established teams, since in crew, staff, and owner, it was largely the “other” Brumos entry, the one vacated by the accused Daytona Beach druggie.

One Ganassi car blew an engine, a rarity in recent years; it had 8 hours on it at race’s start. Is it a measure of the economy that Ganassi’s ran a well-used motor? Even if his race engine was replaced because of an oil leak, no fresh engine was available?

Readers wondered about the Bear’s bullishness on the BMW M6 entries, but they’re thinking like ALMS fans, where ‘new cars’ are new cars. In Grand Am, tubers shed their skins like snakes, yesterday’s Pontiac becoming today’s Chebby, and tomorrow’s Bimmer. Finishing 8th and 11th, they didn’t have any more trouble than any other make in the field – less, in fact.

Two of Murphy’s five favorites finished in the top five, one on the podium; among the 30 GT entries, the Bear’s Five were 2nd, 5th, 8th, 9th, and 12th.

Saab-Spyker Saga

So Spyker’s ‘buying Saab?’ Everyone knows that the one-time Dutch F1 team masquerading as an automaker doesn’t have a guilder to its name, so how does this happen? The devil’s in the details. The Dutch want their pet car company, as do the Swedes, so the Dutch arrange a $562 million loan for Spyker and get the Swedes to guarantee it. GM will ‘sell’ Saab to Spyker for $74 million in cash and $326 million in Spyker-Saab preferred stock (what’s that worth, given neither has made a guilder or krona in living memory?).  Spyker pockets $488 million in cash (perhaps some of that will buy out the 30% Spyker holdings of Vladimir Antonov, suspected (by Swedish Intelligence) of money laundering and links to organized crime.

Rolex Rumor

Northeastern Florida isn’t exactly populated by ALMS well-wishers at this time of the year, so Murphy has learned to anticipate one or more pretty nasty rumors. Some have a kernel of truth, some are just off-the-wall. The 2010 annual ‘Daytona ALMS Rumor?’ Widely circulated in the paddock on International Speedway Boulevard was the story that ALMS has not yet paid 2009 prize money, so teams, in a kind of “strike,” are sending in their 2010 entries with no money. Of course the Bear is more than a little suspicious of the whole thing, but the “fact of the rumor” is surprise – just a measure of the ‘bad blood’ between these two competing sports car racing series.

Murphy’s sources indicated that at least the ‘strike’ part of that is untrue. If any team was withholding entry funds it wasn’t in concert with any other teams, and likely wasn’t in any ‘retaliation’ for nonpayment. Prize payments have dragged in a bit late – sometimes in installments – in recent seasons, and apparently this one is no different. The Series has suggested that prize money be credited against the new season’s entry fee, which seems perfectly reasonable to the Bear.

Defecting

Expect more than one Grand-Am team to “defect to LMPC” after Daytona. Alex Job is said to be one of them (interest by AJR was expressed early) along with Level 5, and at least one other. The LMPC count for Sebring will be 4 or 5, with 2 or 3 to join the series after that – consistent with ALMS Supremo Scott Atherton’s recent pronouncements.

From one quarter Murphy is told, “the Grand-Am fields will be horrific after Daytona,” and that “NASCAR upper management is fed up with Grand-Am.” If that’s true it didn’t keep Jim-Bob from winning the Rolex with his own entry. Close connections to Action Express’ owner Bob Johnson – along with other information – would suggest so. Mr. Johnson is Jim-Bob’s personal CPA; the company funding Action Express is something called High Rev Racing. Entering your own race series isn’t exactly revolutionary (Don Panoz being another example); the Bear takes it as a vote of confidence rather than something nefarious.

GAINSCO Gone?

The Bear’s been told that the Rolex was GAINSCO’s last race. Miami hotel reservations have been cancelled.

Audi In, Peugeot Overboard?

The Bear hears that Braselburg is considering allowing Audi to enter Sebring, pending the outcome of the new car’s testing, now underway. If the entry accepted is the “transitional” car, and not the “new rules” R15, then there’s little doubt the effect will be to toss Peugeot overboard. Peugeot may jump anyway, of course. The new Audi just might be ready for Sebring, anyway, since Audi Sport Joest has turned up as a “full season” LMS entry. That would mean the car is now believed to be ready by April…March 20th isn’t all that much earlier, is it?

There’s Cars and…

…then there’s cars. Ferrari can’t be happy about the two street-car based (barely more than that) Ferrari 430 Challenge cars entered at Daytona. One was turned away (‘not ready to race’ is a kind description) the Bear hears. The other muddled around, thoroughly uncompetitive. Look for entries from Tony Dowe later in the Grand Am season to be much more representative of the iconic marque.

Inlimbo Racing League

Izod is the IRL’s new title sponsor; you’ve probably seen the ads. Other noises from the surviving – for now – North American open wheel series aren’t so good. Ganassi is just the latest to join the ‘new car’ discussion, having produced a mock-up – a sign, according to one source, that the series is “just blundering around.”

The addition of Lanigan to Newman Haas was the work of the late Paul Newman; Carl’s family’s not on speaking terms with the new partner. Are we seeing the unraveling of Newman-Haas-Lanigan? That’s one opinion Murphy’s heard.

Unemployment Line

Here’s a measure of the weakness of the racing industry world-wide: Butch Leitzinger, Lucas Luhr, Mike Rockenfeller, Sascha Maassen, Emanuele Collard, Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty, all ‘available and looking.’ And that’s just a few.

USF1

What the Bear is hearing is pretty grim. The chassis hasn’t been ‘crunch tested’ yet. There’s no motor on hand, payments to Cosworth reportedly now in arrears. The team has applied to the World Motorsports Council for dispensation to miss the first three races without penalty – more a courtesy than a rule, since guaranteed participation is not a part of the new concorde, as it was in the old.

It’s  not over yet. USF1 owner Chad Hurley (one of Youtube’s three original founders) could rescue the operation – with new management – if he so chooses. Meanwhile, Bernie is in his element, the eminance gris trying to arrange an interim chassis, but that’s wrapped up in a ride for Bruno Senna. If Bernie can’t get USF1 onto the grid, he might be stuck with the Russians, who’ve grabbed the rights to the ex-Toyota chassis (someone will have to check the accelerator pedal).

Lou News

Murphy’s friend Lou Gigliotti is running for Congress – here’s his web site. Meanwhile, he’s charging ahead with his Grand Am Corvette entries. 

Unlike others in Grand Am GT, Lou tells the Bear that, “Our Corvettes are ‘Prep 1’ using stock frames like ALMS cars. We learned a lot from that car and we are moving the technology over to Grand Am.” It makes particular sense for Lou to stick with ‘the real thing’ because Lou’s business is selling Corvette performance parts. Lou says a result of the new program will be   ‘really nice Corvette parts’ that will one day make their way into LG Motorsports’ catalog.
 
Eric Lux and Kelly Collins are set for the season in the first Corvette, with a hoped-for second car possible as early as Birmingham, depending on finding a good driving partner for the Boss.

Pssssssst…anyone interested in a nice ALMS Corvette? Murphy knows where to find one.

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

It’s conjectured that arguments between the “diesel big 2” and the ACO have delayed the rules, and in the end  the 2009 R15 is entirely illegal (it’s not included in the “waiver list,” although the R10 is, with restrictions on who can enter and who can drive one). Thus Audi wouldn’t have a ready-to-race Sebring car if they wanted one, but could have one ready to race at PLM if they begin testing in Florida in March. Though there is no shortage of conflicting stories, Murphy believes both Peugeot (and just possibly Audi) will be at the Paul Ricard test in March, Peugeot (but not Audi) will race at Paul Ricard in April, and both will race at Spa. Audi will test at Sebring the week following the 12 hours, and at Paul Ricard the week after the April LMS race, then contest Spa, Le Mans, and PLM.

Unfortunately, the other Audi rumor item is that Mike Rockenfeller and Harold Primat will be dropped from the werks team.

That event – Murphy hears now the ACO will participate with Audi – is scheduled for 2045 CET, just a couple of hours from now.

More Bad News for the ALMS?

When Murphy reported the replacement of BP sponsorship with that of subsidiary Castrol just a week ago, he speculated whether Mazda would ‘step up,’ as hoped by the team at the end of the 2009 season. I seems from a new rumor from two quarters that question has been answered: They will  not.

The Bear heard two days ago that Dyson Racing will field a single entry in 2010 for Chris Dyson and Guy Smith. Newlywed Marino Franchitti will move to Highcroft for enduros, while Butch Leitzinger, Dyson’s ‘senior driver’ will take the year off.

If that’s true (and it remains only a rumor), it says much more about Mazda’s commitment than it does Dyson’s. We know the latter has been there through the years, ‘thick and thin’ as they say. As for Mazda, they chatter on about ‘more Mazda’s racing than any other car,’ meaning of course that there are a whole bunch of your neighbors wrenching and flogging Miatas around local tracks on weekends. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean much for racing as a spectator sport, does it? It’s been nearly 20 since the 787 and the only Le Mans win by a Japanese auto manufacturer.

Going, going, gone  – but Where?

Rumors continue to swirl around the Grand Am successor to the former Farnbacher-Loles team. (Farnbacher having left that partnership at the end of this past season.) Now media reports – and a 2007 SEC action that we all missed (or ignored) – have overtaken the rumors. A story published yesterday by the New Haven Register  regarding St. Barbara’s  Greek Orthodox church in Orange, Connecticut would seem to be enough – if true – to signal the end of those racing adventures. It’s now speculated that an earlier reported medical event might be cover for “a runner.”

One of Murphy’s elves has just sent him an update, from today’s New Haven Register:

“The investigation into a potentially massive embezzlement of St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church funds is centering on the man placed in charge of the church’s investments, who has been identified by multiple sources as Gregory Loles.

Loles was in charge of managing the church’s building fund and endowment, and several church members allowed Loles to handle their personal retirement and college investments, several sources within the church community said.

As the federal investigators begin looking at the case, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said his office is reviewing facts to determine whether state laws were broken. But the U.S. Department of Justice has the lead in the investigation, he said.

“Sadly and tragically, this potential fraud seems to be of massive magnitude — making the federal investigation and involvement very appropriate,” Blumenthal said.”

With funds “in the millions” reportedly having gone missing, will (should) Porsche recognize the winner of Grand Am GT at its upcoming annual “bun fight”?

Murphy notes that St. Barbara is the patron saint of artillery and other “things that go Boom!”

Lou to Grand Am

Pencil our friend Lou out of ALMS and into Grand Am. He’s building a pair of Grand Am Corvettes, and rumor would connect those to Black Forest Motorsports. Lou may be more than just a supplier to Black Forest in the coming Grand Am season. The ALMS GT2 is for sale with no bites yet. (We all know who “Lou” is, don’t we?)

More ALMS for Cytosport?

The Muscle Milk moniker is gone from SCCA Trans Am. That increases the probability that Cystosport will run more aggressive ALMS program than they have in past years. The team’s relatively quick success with the Porsche Spyder last season and IMSA’s coming equalization of the prototypes should make that likely, right? Another rumor has Pickett working on a project so secret that even the Bear’s elves haven’t been able to pick up more than a scent.

Murphy’s breaking a long-standing rool by doing so, but he thinks this item is interesting enough to pass along from the americanlemansfans.com forum: Poster sullystable reports he was told at a visit to Lou’s Wylie, Texas shops that the No. 28 Corvette is being prepared to compete at Petit Le Mans after testing at Watkins Glen. Murphy has just one question. Why will the Texas-based team test in New York before a race in Georgia? Perhaps Lou will drop the Bear a line. He’s got the address.

Rug Rats

Guy and Alicia welcomed Priya Mae Smith, and Butch and Kirsten brought home Henry Christian Leitzinger. All cute, happy, and well behaved, of course. Each was also welcomed by a big sis (and Henry by a grinning Grandpa Bob Leitzinger).

Where’s Waldo? (or Chapman)

The Dublin, Ohio team ran with two drivers. The kid started and finished, Dad in the middle, which will usually get the best result  – in Murphy’s opinion, anyway. The Bear didn’t see anything of Chapman Ducote. There was advertising for a funded driver a couple of weeks ago. Will this become another argument for a new sports car racing business model?

Wedding bells and other stuff

It was wedding bells and a Carmel honeymoon for an ALMS exec – with whom the Bear had a Lime Rock chat. Yes, they’d heard the “rumor” that Jim from Daytona was telling folks at Barber they were “close to a deal to acquire the Sebring lease.” This was clearly ( in the opinion of our ALMS exec) an instance of disinformation. Sure enough, Murphy later heard the same story from Barber. Does it make sense? Not really. The Bear thinks Sebring is a cash cow for the PMG if there is one, so how can you peel it off? Either there’s nothing here or there’s more than meets the eye, so to speak.

On the Road with Jim-Bob

Big boss Jim (not J.C., he’s there every time noodling around in a prototurtle) shows at an occasional Grand Am race, waving the flag for a series that badly needs it. Let’s face it, it’s a hell of a cash drain that Sprint Cup teams are none too happy about, and with eleven Daytona Prototype entries on his personal life support system, he and the family have plenty of skin in the game. One of the ways to push the guppie gang forward is to get NASCAR drivers the seats. He’s been working his backside off to help get a star in a seat in a Ganassi second entry. Ryan Newman was a no-go, as was Kyle Busch, who pretty much summed up the history (and business model) of sports car racing in one sentence. “Way too much effort for way too little return.” They’ve actually got some pretty smart cookies over there don’t they? (Not that you’d have to look much further than the bank accounts to figure that out.)

Guppies in the mix?

Adding to the dissonance is recent rumor that ALMS will create an equivalency rule that will add DP’s to the prototype ranks. Gordon Kirby threw that idea into an otherwise good article on Acura’s ARX-02a program and got a lot of attention, when he wrote that, “a veteran team owner and manager with close to forty years experience said at Lime Rock that if no new manufacturers front up with P1 cars for next year IMSA will create an equivalency formula to encourage Grand-Am Daytona prototypes to race in the ALMS.”

How will they do that, put drag chutes on the LMP’s? Turbos on the DPs? Murphy’s not sure how rational any of this stuff is, but the noise continues unabated. As the series’ CEO told Speedtv.com’s Marshall Pruett,  “this year they (rumors) have been more frequent and widespread than in the past. This is a byproduct of the worst economy we have seen in decades and the unprecedented instability that unfortunately surrounds most industries including motorsport at this time.” In that he was right, of course.

What equals two?

Putting two and two together is the way the old saying goes, and in this case the sum is still two. As in two classes. There’s a lot of background noise that the American Le Mans Series may make two classes an official thing. Or maybe just semi-official. But definitely more than just de facto. Murphy’s a bit of an expert on rumors, and you can believe him that there are all kinds. One is the “over the top” rumor, something that doesn’t seem quite logical. Sometimes, though, there is so much volume and repetition that the Bear can’t ignore it. Sometimes there’s a suspicion that a rumor has been ‘planted.’ Even beyond that, some unattributed stories (aka ‘rumors’) seem to be orchestrated. They come up in an interview…kind of out of the blue. An article appears in a place not known for speculative pieces. You start to hear some “what if” discussion. Two classes are like that now.

ALMS’ boss has found yet another way to say “If you knew what I know,” the new version being, “When we announce our plans for 2010 and beyond – you’ll know what I am talking about.” That just after a reference – common lately – to “rules and regulations that work best for our (presumably North American) circumstances.” Read those comments and tell Murphy again that we aren’t headed for two-class racing – perhaps even including DP’s? But of course, the Bear knows nothing!

Sometimes “bad luck” is an excuse

The Challenge Porsches contributed excitement in much the same way that rocks, water, and fences contribute to a steeplechase. On the other hand, Martin and Melanie Snow have paid their dues over the years, and even have a Sebring class win to show for it. They captured the first outing of the Challenge class at Utah and had this one wrapped up until they came in for a splash about seven minutes short of the checkered flag…and the starter failed. Bad luck. On the other hand, if they can conserve a bit more fuel…

Red Molly

Murphy spend Sunday with Red Molly at Bodle’s Opera House in Chester, New York. Laurie MacAllister, Abbie Gardner and Carolann Solebello are Red Molly, playing Americana, which includes acoustic music from various traditions; bluegrass, folk, gospel, Appalachian, country, blues, and even a touch of jazz/swing. A key component in all of our songs is the use of three-part vocal harmonies, as well as driving rhythm guitar and Dobro. “Front Person” Laurie MacAllister describes the Molly’s night at Bodles:

“Bodles Opera House in Chester is one of our favorite local places to play.  It’s more of a pub than an opera house, really, and always seems to be filled with the most friendly, laid-back people.  I think the writers of “Cheers” actually based the show on this club.
 
In any case, it was a big night, with Carolann (Solebello) debuting her new solo CD “Glass of Desire” and singing a song solo for the crowd!  She hadn’t performed solo in about 5 years, but really nailed it. 
 
We debuted a new Red Molly song called The Last Call, written by our opener Anthony da Costa (much to his surprise!).  He played his own set introducing his latest release “Not Afraid of Nothing” and even joined us on stage playing bass on Beaumont Rest Stop.”

Murphy really liked yet another combination – Anthony da Costa and Red Molly’s Abbie Gardner performing a cut from their 2008 duo CD release, Bad Nights / Better Days.

Very cool stuff. Not just bears…people would love this Americana stuff too.

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