Sports Car racing has always been the preferred pursuit of a menagerie of miscreants, so it was no surprise it took J.C. France, cocaine-using (possessing, anyway) son of NASCAR vice chairman Jim France just a half season to get back to competing in Grand Am. Though the Daytona Beach News-Journal wrote he would not, a Bear source said he was indeed at VIR on the weekend.

As soon as the family lawyers got a dismissal of drunken driving and possession of crack cocaine, NASCAR reinstated his license. It seems the arresting officer was had chased the fleeing France out of her jurisdiction before he finally pulled over. Apologists will say “he wasn’t convicted,” but Murphy’s more convinced by the fact that the arrest report still stands, and the confiscated crack still exists, the fact of neither having been challenged by La Familia’s mouthpieces. So France is back to his “lifestyle” without so much as a slap on the hand, though NASCAR said he’d gone through rehab and “rigorous” drug testing. (For six months – right.) Half bro Russell Van Richmond (or is that Reginald van Gleason III) had it a bit tougher. He had to “serve” six months probation.

Grand-Am vice president of communications Kevin Hinson said Grand-Am has no formal substance abuse policy, such as NASCAR’s, and does not expect the sanctioning body to implement one in the near future. Nope, don’t need one of those. Grand Am’s equivalent of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” Murphy thinks.

Get drunk. Race. Lead cops on a chase. Refuse breathalyzer. Have your crack seized. Get it all tossed. I am a Grand Am driver. Priceless.

Indy Keeps 1979 Le Mans Winner

Speaking of miscreants, it takes real talent to make Don Whittington – Le Mans winner, IMSA champion, and former importer of South American agricultural products – a sympathetic figure. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway pulled that one off, though, beating Don out of his famous and valuable Porsche 935 (the one that won Le Mans in 1979). Of course, if you can unceremoniously fire your own brother….

More Change at Haas

Murphy hears Carl Haas isn’t well, that he requires care. It’s rumored whomever was supposed to be doing that at Long Beach “mislaid” the motorsports icon in the lobby of the team’s hotel, and there, like a potted plant, he spent the day. Paul Newman has passed into history. Mike Lanigan is gone. Bernadette (Bernie) is in charge now. Will she move to front and center like other recent (and infamous) female sports team owners Georgia Frontiere and Marge Schott? 

Villeneuve will join the team for Indianapolis and after. Haas now owns the parts business of EMT, leaving that company little more than a shell.

Prototype Cat

Word around the paddock is that Paul Gentilozzi’s Rocket Sports Racing will supply a “free” (fully sponsored/supported) Cat engine to anyone willing to stuff it in a prototype and go racing. How this offer (and Gentilozzi) will be affected by the impending departure of Mike O’Donnell, the program’s most prominent champion at Jaguar, is unclear.

Tequila Trouble in Paddock for Patron

On the heels of the dust-up over telecast start time and display of liquor advertising, ALMS has run into resistance to the new “presented by Tequila Patron” graphics for team transporters.  After NASCAR’s Grand Am had little trouble getting compliance with its “presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16…” graphics, the American Le Mans Series is getting “push back” from major teams that don’t want the association with booze so directly made on their own equipment. Murphy doesn’t underestimate the leverage of NASCAR (or the difference in culture between it and ALMS).

Ménage à trois of a sort

With a new name surfacing over this past weekend, the count is three. Three who have been rumored at some stage of “talking” about acquiring IMSA, ALMS, the tracks, and whatever else might be thrown in. Will that be the “critical mass” that will lead to a sale? It might. You can get one suitor without at least hinting you’re “available,” but not likely three.

Each of the suitors has somewhat different interests, though there is general agreement about the highest value asset – 750 acres of land in Northeastern Georgia. Yes, Road Atlanta is valued not as a race track but as potential residential housing.

USF1 Design Lands in Serbia

When Zoran Stefanovic recently sat at a table with the Mayor of a small town a few miles outside of Belgrade, it wasn’t the announcement of his grandiose “Stefan Technology Park” that was of interest in North Carolina, but rather the large graphic on the wall behind them. Yes, there’s no doubt that rendering is of the USF1 design that graced the team’s assembly bay in Charlotte and also appeared in Racecar Engineering’s March issue.

So, how did it get there? Sold? Copied? More importantly, does it represent a transfer of the design rights?

All that’s important because USF1’s lawyers are telling the North Carolina Department of Labor it has no assets so can’t pay its former employees what it owes them. Ken Anderson is reported to retain shop space at 9900 Twin Lakes. What business is being transacted there? Meanwhile, for billionaire Chad Hurley it’s clearly “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.”

Hurley and Anderson join Murphy’s April “Gallery of Miscreants.”

Porsche Prevails

The Bear hears from VIR that the crowd was pretty good, at least a significant improvement for Grand Am. Porsche got its 3.8 engine, a 75 pound penalty on the Mazdas, and a 50 pound penalty on Leighton Reese’s Corvette and – not surprisingly – a win. Murphy watched the Speed telecast, and though it wasn’t a riveting show, it was way better than has been seen for ALMS events.

Flav and FIA settle

Flavio Briatore’s “lifetime ban” is over, replaced by a bar from “any operational role” in F1 to be in effect through 2012, and from “other FIA motorsport” through 2011. The Bear thinks the different dates aren’t likely to be without purpose. So in what FIA-sanctioned motorsport will we see Flav in 2012?

Perhaps. At least that’s the intent of Yudson Gondobintoro, a former chairman of GBG Global, a Singapore LLC whose reported revenue derives from rubber plantations in Cote d’ Ivoire and Cameroon. (Murphy remembers another would-be racing magnate with connections to Cameroon.)

Initial reports incorrectly put this operation in Texas, confusing Motorsport Technologies, LLC., Gondobintoro’s Los Angeles startup, with Motorsport Technologies, Inc., a defunct Houston tuner shop of dubious reputation.

Anyway, Yudson has hired Phil Harris (not the comic/band leader – he’s dead, anyway – but the Singaporian Ducate mechanic) to head the operation, created to develop a hybrid race car using Yudson’s electric motor and battery technology. We guess Gondobintoro, who claims a bachelor’s in physics from Cal Berkeley, stumbled on the motor and battery stuff while working on his “Super/Ultra-Capacitor” a project for which he also needs a manager. The Bear wonders, will Harris be guided by Robert Pirsig?

The story gets a little fuzzy (that reminds the Bear of a little nursery rhyme) around the details of the project, one source telling Murphy a Porsche RS Spyder will be the “donor car,” for a Le Mans hybrid, while another foresees a Judd engine purchase, then a whole now chassis designed around the Judd/hybrid drivetrain.

Yudson would appear to have a bit of cash to pursue his invention-based racing. Sinochem International bought 51% of GMG Global for $392 million, in which Gondobintoro’s direct interest was about $25 million (his relatives apparently held much of the rest). This kind of project can eat a lot of cash in a big hurry, (Yudson should ask Chad Hurley), so perhaps there’s some money the Bear hasn’t found?

Ya s’pose Yudson’s been trying to get in contract with Steve Pruitt?

Did someone say USF1?

Friends of Murphy’s hoping to get their back pay from ol’ Hurley and the boys can’t have been encouraged to see two team-owned transporters appear on e-bay after being seized by a UK court. A billionaire and his cohorts welshing (apologies to Tom Jones) on the debt to their working guys is right up there with importing ag products or pump-and-dump stock schemes to support the racing habit, and not far behind ripping off churches.

Real Estate Listings

Remember the  “we’re not for sale” button Scott was wearing at Lime Rock? The missing text was, “but we’ll give you a price if you ask.”

RIP Corsa Motorsport

Steve Pruitt’s off to something else, having created a new racing company (while his last one is kaput) to work on “alternative tranportation technologies.” There’s no hesitation there to trash the technology in Pruitt’s last hybrid in order to promote the next. Don’t look for anything on the track until 2011. Someone observed “…(Pruitt) seems to have taken a page from the Creation playbook…”

Porsche Pushes

Murphy doesn’t know if the Road Atlanta Porsche test actually happened, but the announcement of a GTC “full season” by Bryce Miller under the Orbit banner suggests the Grand Am Porsche “accommodation” won’t be enough. The hoped-for 3.8 is legal, but will it get on the grid, or have teams moved on?  (Cost was suggested to be $182K, nearly as much as the Cup car itself.) In fact, Stuttgart may now be focused on frying future fish.

Porsche’s policy perhaps portends a prospective program poles apart from the past, in which the Weissachians built special “R,” “RS,” “RSR,” Cup and even GT1 911 versions for many racing series, each with different rules, around the globe. Now that it’s safely tucked under the warm armpit of Volkswagen, Porsche is once again exercising its considerable motorsport muscle. In short, the Württembergers want to build one Cup car, and one RSR (probably the new hybrid after the Nurburgring win) and be done with it. In order to do that it needs to get the various sanctioning bodies on board with the Porsche plan. Betting around the paddock is it’s done that with everyone but Grand Am. Since they’re on the Porsche dole, ALMS is a slam dunk. Elsewhere the new GT3/Cup “world car” will be accommodated.

That puts Grand Am on the spot as the sole holdout. The new Cup has one characteristic that runs dead up against Grand Am rules…the Weissachians want a standard rear tire size, a relatively small one at that. As a practical matter that’s good for Maranello, though the Italians are fine with leaving well enough alone. The yelp you hear is from Bowling Green.

The Bear hears they’re split down the middle in Daytona. On one hand Porsche’s made it clear there will be no support in 2011 without the tire size limit, but on the other hand, Stuttgart hasn’t been around much this year, anyway, and the series has a lot tied up in its current rule philosophy. They certainly don’t want to be on the wrong side of the General, do they?

Where’s Philander Knox when you need him?

Murphy hears NASCAR teams have been colluding to keep team salaries down. They’re said to meet regularly to discuss various related topics, disguising the content by communicating through their respective PR personnel. Recent wage reductions at two very prominent teams are the result.

Abruzzi Prototype

Murphy believes the planned Panoz is to be a GT2, but since he reports what he hears around the sport, the word “prototype” is still being used around Braselburg. At least two employees who know about such things have said “prototype.” Does that mean prototype as in a “first-off” GT2, or in the sense of the sport? Whatever “it” is, they are building a show car of “it” to debute at Le Mans, so the wait isn’t long.

ALMS Trivia

The Bear is a big trivia buff. So he’s launching a new feature, a “Murphy’s Trivia Challenge.” (He’s looking for a title sponsor. Suggestions are welcome.) Murphy will ask one question in each Paddock Poop related to some racing topic. Here’s the first. How is American Le Mans Series sponsor (and official jewelry, as far as the Bear knows) Mikimoto historically connected to a famous American Festival?

All About Watches

Watches have to be the most reliable cash cow for motorsports of all kinds. Rolex sponsors every concours and historic race it can lay its hands on, and keeps the 24 Hours of Daytona more or less on the map. Interestingly, its famous “Daytona” model predates its sponsorship of that race by over two decades. The “Daytona Paul Newman” is thought by some to be the most valuable of the many collector Rolexes.

Sebring has a new watch sponsor, Alpina Genéve. At Bahrain we heard that Dutch watchmaker TW Steel is sponsoring Renault F1, has signed Emerson Fittipaldi and will produce a special TW Steel Emerson Fittipaldi watch. Hublot, part of the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey group, is the new Official Watchmaker of Formula 1. Hublot’s first F1 watch will retail at $23,000.

Tag Heuer funded Porsche’s Formula 1 motor, its “Tag Turbo” name displacing Porsche entirely. The most iconic Tag Heuer, by far, however, is the “Monaco” worn by Michael Delaney in “Le Mans.”

Breitling bankrolled Bentley. LP Italy sponsored Risi Competizione, and launched its Stratosphere Competizione model in 2006.

Girard Perregaux’s is one of Switzerland’s “Cadillac” watchmakers; its “Chebby” Jean Richard subsidiary was fittingly an ALMS (since then Autocon) sponsor. Tissot is the official watch of NASCAR (which has an “Official Pain Reliever” – no, not Goody’s Headache Powders – amongst its 50 “official” partners). Then there’s the tasteless Debaufre… 

Murphy’s trying to decide whether he’ll get a Rolex Daytona Paul Newman, or a Tag Heuer Monaco Steve McQueen. The Bear needs your advice.

Where’s the Rocket Part?

According to an unnamed alms official after Wednesday’s test, Rocketsports would sit this one out if it couldn’t get the Cat around Sebring in a reasonably competitive time – something it hadn’t yet done, struggling to a 2:29.5 in just two laps. Murphy expects the Cat has now “qualified,” managing a sub-2:05 today, running 22 laps over the course of 2 sessions, the best showing to date.

Late note: The Cat missed night practice. Will they get a free pass? The drivers haven’t all previously night-driven at Sebring, the basis for previous waivers.

In Murphy’s Mail

My name is Albert Wong, am a Singaporean citizen and a seasoned Banker in (Berhad office), A deceased client of mine died. He lost all the members of his family in the incident. He secured a contract of (10,000,000.00 million dollars) left behind in the bank. I contacted you in distributing the amount before it is confiscated by then bank. Please get back immediately to proceed.

If the Bear wants to go racing, he should call Albert, right?

Dead Horse Department (added)

The Bear’s heard that Zoran Stefanovic is headed to a meeting tonight with Hurley, Anderson, Windsor, et. al, and expects to walk out with a purchase agreement for USF1 that will put him on the grid at Melbourne with USF1′s entry.  But Todt says, “no, the entry is forfeited, and be ready to pay a fine for missing the first races.” He can’t really have it both ways, if you don’t have an entry, you really can’t be fined. The FIA (Jean Todt) says you have to attend all races, while the Concorde (Bernie) says you can miss; so we still don’t know who is in control here, and probably don’t until it all ends up in a French court – which is exactly where Zoran intends to take it. Getting the smoking hulk left by Ken Anderson at USF1 is the first step toward that.

There seems to be some belief (Anderson, the Bear supposes) that USF1 would then build its own cars for 2011 after running whatever Toyota had left over for this season. Murphy thinks that’s dilusional, and in any case is about 5 steps removed from where this thing is now.

Lost

Andy W. apologized for being “quiet” in a Feb 27 “Hi Folks…” then went on about getting “things finalized for the ALMS,” and the C10 “rocketship.” Probably got lost somewhere in South Carolina. It’s good the Bear doesn’t easily get excited.

The Stars

Michael Schumacher returned; the German average audience during the Bahrain F1 race was 10.5 million. Last season it was 5.4 million. Fernando Alonso drew 5 million in Spain. Sports car racing claims drivers aren’t important. “The cars are the stars.” Right.

The Racing Disease

Murphy’s crack staff has connected Scott Tucker to electronic funds processing services at a buck a pop, 600K pops a day. It seems he went for the Challenge LMPs to bolster a Le Mans dream, but then found he could just buy his way in – not just as a driver (perhaps $300K), but footing the whole enchilada for an Audi, more like $2 million.

Driving Mister Fehan

With Emmanuel Collard and Antonio Garcia on board at Sebring you might think future Chebby pilots are ‘set.” Yes, the Bear’s heard there will be significant change in the team for 2011, but it’s not quite that simple. Corvette Racing will stick around Sebring after the 12 Hours to test possible future drivers. Butch Leitzinger, Paul Edwards and Graham Rahal are testing.

Lotus

Lotus will launch a sports car program with Kevin Kalkhoven’s KV Racing Technology and Cosworth, another Kalkhoven company. We’ve been here before, haven’t we? Murphy says, “slim and none.”

The Perloined Part

There’s been a little mistake. A differential for a reptilian Porsche ended up with a raptor Porsche. The latter immediately jumped up the performance chart. They like the part a lot better than the one they had and have so far refused to return it.

Murphy’s Sebring Punter’s Guide

Murphy’s Le Mans Punter’s Guide is again a “simulpub” with Last Turn Clubhouse, here. Honestly, that site’s software handles tables much better than the Bear’s little blog.

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

USF1 closed the doors without paying its employees at noon today. Ken Anderson slunk out the back door without a word to those headed for North Carolina’s unemployment office…but that could be problematical.

The staff was told this was a “furlough while a reorganization” could take place. So, don’t pay the staff? Strikes the Bear as the same kind of manure Anderson and company’s been shoveling all along. Windsor was also nowhere to be found around the Charlotte facility when the staff was given the bad news. Perhaps we’ve seen the end of both of them?

Consider this: Murphy believes that by putting its employees on “unpaid leave,” while claiming they are “technically employed” USF1 makes them unable to collect unemployment compensation from North Carolina. It also saves USF1 from being responsible for those payments. The Bear’s waiting to hear how those applications for compensation are treated.

Murphy was quiet after his comments February 23, mostly because this train was on the tracks. The short version is that Charlie would report complete disarray in Charlotte (hell, he might just have read the Bear and saved the airfare), and the FIA would pull the entry, with only a glimmer of hope that a bond might secure the team’s grid spot for 2010. Now that latter seems to be the “official story” – that the staff is only being furloughed, and will be called back. Murphy really believes that’s true – he’s got friends in Charlotte – but doesn’t believe it will work out that way.

During the Bear’s holiday from this story, he was entertained by F1 bloggers who claimed all kinds of nonsense, the best of which was that “Hurley was being blocked by Anderson.” Murphy’s just a stuffed animal, but he knows enough math to know that 1 vote doesn’t beat 4. The same bloggers cooked up a long list of “agreements” to  merge with Campos, or Stefan F1. It’s always been hard to make sense of those things. Possible? Maybe, since Campos is still looking for a way to cure its default on the Dallara. But none of it likely. Deck chairs on the Titanic.

 There’s an assumption, it seems,  that dreaming up an idea to put video on the web makes one a competent businessman. It clearly doesn’t. The principal dithered, sending his friend hither and yon when action to fix the core problem was long overdue. The time to fix this was in October, and was long since past by December. Sending poor Parris to Italy and Spain in February didn’t even have the advantage of nice Mediterranean weather – the time for that was October.

Murphy made the case for the major management change public in February, but it was already a forlorn hope. There was no Obi-Wan waiting in the wings.

 Complicating whatever comes next is that Frank Williams and his friends in the middle of the grid are as likely to invite the left-over Toyota program join them as chickens are to invite the cat into the henhouse. A little understanding of the concorde – short version again, money is distributed on the basis of the season’s total points scored – is all that’s needed to know that Stefan F1 might cost Frank tens of millions of dollars.

Fiction: Where is T-Mobile?

So far no VICI for Sebring. The so-called “T-Mobile deal,” never made much sense to stuffed animals, even if it was popular in forums as an excuse for VICI “no-shows.”  Whether or not VISI shows up, with or without T-Mobile, corporations budget for the immediately following fiscal year, normally in a cycle that begins will submissions no later than September and decisions early in the fourth quarter.

Irrelevance: Audi disses ‘the platform’

Since we’re on the subject of Sebring, Audi will test for four days immediately following the 12 Hours. Not with a ‘transition’ car, but with an R15 version that’s fully compliant with 2010 ACO rules. So the ‘blame’ (Murphy did his share) on Peugeot for blocking a transition car at Sebring seems to have been overtaken by events. The fact is that during the week when the American Le Mans Series in on the track at Sebring, a pair of fully functional, shaken-down, brand new, ready-to-race R15’s will be sitting inside a transporter nearby. Now Braselburg looks stupid, or irrelevant, or both. In any case, Audi doesn’t give a flying eff to show up for the biggest race on the ALMS schedule. Some ‘platform.’ Explain that, Braselburgers.

‘Whatever’ Department

In response to a forum assertion that a friend of the Bear’s was a “good friend” of the Braselburg boss, the Bear’s been told that “Through the 2006 season, perhaps it was ‘friendly acquaintances.’ If memory serves, the last thing Mr. Atherton said to me, at the 2006 awards banquet, was ‘Are those real, or are they just for looks, like a doorman?’ (About United States military medal miniatures properly worn on a tux lapel.) It’s been pretty much downhill since then.”

Grand Larceny: Loles

United States Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware has published the list of creditors of now-defunct Farnbacher Loles Partners, LLC, including dollar amounts for the ‘20 largest.’ Here are the ‘highlights’ of the 88 total unsecured creditors:

As reported here before, Pratt & Miller, $930,000. Others of note, Christian Zugel, $390,000; Dick (sic) Werner $120,500; Jon (sic) Tancredi $350,000; PMNA (whoops, they’ve done it again, does Solo Al ring a bell, guys?) $190,000; Christopher Lux $500,000, Michael Marsal, $175,000. Good grief, when would-be drivers want to go racing they park all their business sense at the door, don’t they?

Citibank is out a quarter million on a line of credit, and $120,000 on a credit card, of all things! Even the Porsche Club of America gave this turkey credit. He owes poor Marion for his meals, and Murphy’s friend Sylvia for his 2008 PR work (he could use a bit of that, now, couldn’t he? Even Sylvia, the best in the business, couldn’t do much with this crook).  The top twenty creditors sum to the far side of $4 million.

Hype: Patrón

Nineteen days to Sebring. Any sign of life from that ‘presenting sponsorship?’ The Bear’s just askin’.

If it wasn’t on Friday, a missed payroll will likely be made up soon, Murphy hears. But it seems a long shot for the team to make any of the first three races, at least with a car of their own design.

The big rumored is that controlling owner Chad Hurley is disappointed with the current team management, and will provide significant additional funding only if the team is able to meet agreed-to progress targets. Of course they’re in a bit of a Catch-22, given that the current cash starved position makes it difficult at best to perform. According to rumors there was a “sweat equity” deal with current team senior management, and that deal includes progress clauses that would allow for their (forced) departure. Murphy can’t verify that (unless it happens), but it’s widely enough believed that others in the sport are positioning themselves to become a ‘rescue team’ on the assumption it’s true.

A US-based group is preparing to propose a ‘take-over’ of the project, as is a British. The latter would move the operation to the UK, throwing most current staff overboard. Any change has to come with the acquiescence of Hurley.

Both those groups and the current USF1 management are battling to acquire the complete and crunch tested Campos/Dallara chassis to cover those early events. (Clearly there are many in the sport – from Bernie on down - who don’t believe Campos is going to make it.) Meanwhile, Stefan Grand Prix (Serbian Zoran Stefanovich, previously referred to here as ‘the Russians’) is sitting on the sideline with the ex-Toyota F1 stuff (Zoran might want to check that accelerator) hoping a failed team drops a pair of grid spots into its lap.

Krohn Racing

Murphy’s heard that Tracey Krohn informed the head shop (pun unintended) on International Speedway Boulevard that he’s ending his Grand Am adventure. That might mean a second full-time Ferrari in the Risi stable. Might it also might mean a whole new marque for ALMS GT2, from a Stuttgart – Woking axis?

Alex Job Racing

Murphy heard last week that Alex Job Racing would field an LMPC, likely at Sebring. Other sources have been saying the same thing as far back as the open LMPC test at Petit.

AJR announced two GTC’s yesterday…(Murphy tweeted the news). It’s been rumored lately that Alex has an LMPC in his shop. His new GTC’s do not included AJR 2009 Patron Challenge client Mitch Pagery, but neither will that rumored LMPC, since Mitch will be elsewhere in the paddock – with Intersport.

A hint that LMPC entry might not be likely is Butch Leitzinger in a GTC for the team. If it was fielding an LMPC, wouldn’t Butch be better suited there? Or will that LMPC have two “gentleman” drivers? The Bear would like to say  Alex will run three cars in two classes, but it’s only just “possible.”

GAINSCO

The Cogs are mad at the Bear again for passing on a rumor about their little racing club (that’s spelled r-u-m-o-r). Here goes again. GAINSCO is one of six DP’s on the initial entry for Homestead, but rumors about the team and its drivers persist, and Murphy will report them as he hears them – that’s kinda what this little blog is all about, ya know. This week the Bear  was told Rahal Letterman is talking to Alex Gurney about an Indy drive in May, with perhaps Kansas as a ‘warm-up.’ Doing that along with Grand Am is possible; he’d only miss the Grand Am Lime Rock round for certain.

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