murphythebear.com

A while back, an important person wrote a piece for Last Turn Clubhouse under the nom de plume Katrina Flood, “Rating North American Sports Car Racing Events.”  Murphy highly recommends – in fact, it’s a course requirement – that you read it. If you haven’t already, that means now.

OK, class, that’s Kat’s view, and Murphy’s sure you’ve got your own “best.” But first, there’s one more item in our “Events 101” course syllabus, the Bear’s very own “Best North American Road Racing Events,” below. (more…)

Murphy thought he better get a little poop out there before heading off to Lime Rock Park.

We all know that through the past few years, the ALMS has been a bit “GT heavy,” or should the Bear say “prototype light.” We’ve had – still have actually, looking at the Lime Rock entry – as few as three regulars in LMP-1. And that sorry count was preceded by years in which the LM-P2 count was just as bad. (If you counted at the end of races, rather than at the beginning, that LM-P2 count was worse than awful – certainly not awesome, eh?)

Then along came Porsche, and it all started to change. The prototype count at Lime Rock will be 12, at Mid-Ohio, about 14. GT at Lime Rock, 16, and perhaps 18 at Mid-Ohio. Then it gets interesting. (more…)

Shared Events to Wane

Is this 2009 schedule stuff ALMS or IRL? Both, Murphy thinks. American Le Mans Series brass doesn’t see more than four shared events in 2009, and they aren’t bashful about identifying the races and the rationale. Long Beach and Detroit (Markets we have to be in.) Mid-Ohio (A spectacular racing show.) Tampa Bay (Some say it’s the same market, but we had a big attendance increase.). For those latter two, you can add H-O-N-D-A to the motivation. (more…)