Murphy doesn’t want to always play the Grinch, so he dug around a bit to try to find those entries.

First, since there is always some variability through the season, he had to pick an event. St. Pete is soon after Sebring, not brutal as street courses go, and it’s not a long haul trip for teams that might drop a race or two because of lean budgets (Utah being one of those, or a race in Canada). On the other hand, it’s one of only three races (Utah and Lime Rock are the others) at which there will be no Corvette. So Murphy compromised – he’ll add a pair of Corvettes to his count, even though they have said they will not be at St. Petersburg.

Here was the Bear’s “baseline.” He had Patron, Autocon, Corsa and de Ferran in P1, a total of four. P2 had three from the start; Murphy was adamant from Laguna Seca in October that Dyson Racing would campaign a pair of Mazola coupes. (Not hard to figure out, if you know some of the paddock friends of the grizzled patriarch – and there are many.) Fernandez would return with an Acura; that’s three P2 entries.

Murphy just “zeroed” GT1, since Corvette will only be on hand in that class for two races, St. Pete not included. In GT2 the Bear had 2 BMW’s, 2 Ferraris, and regardless of good intentions, he looked at PrimeTime, Robertson, and Black Swan and decided that if we got two of three we’d would be doing well. Based on announcements and interviews, he counted four Porsches between Farnbacher Loles and Flying Lizards. A Porsche for VICI was “on the bubble.” He hadn’t heard anything good about the prospects for a Panoz. To stick a pin in a point of time, Murphy could account for ten GT2 entries.

Being a generous soul, the Bear grudgingly put down “18.” Just today, someone told him 16 might be more realistic after Sebring.

So, how do  you get to “mid-twenties,” or even higher? First you have to add the entries that any good Pollyanna would. Like ECO Racing, whose history in no way gives one confidence. After  adding ECO, even wearing his rose colored glasses, he couldn’t find another likely P1 entry – not even the most rosy assumptions would put Intersport Racing on the grid - but wait! There is a Creation at a North Carolina Junior College! Never mind that the Bear has already been identified as the principal cause of the team’s supposed imminent demise…we’ll count it!

P2 has a bit more buzz. Mazda hinted in its Dyson Racing press release that there may be more coming, so the Bear will add a Mazola. Though the source can be considered – on past history – to be mediocre, he already said a fourth Acura was rumored for Sebring. Will it be there? Will it continue after that? For this little “sunny” accounting, let’s say yes to both. Much more likely is a Porsche Spyder. Late Friday he heard that an ex-Dyson Spyder would indeed be on hand. Saturday morning, he was told that if there was such an entry, it would not be “ex-Dyson Racing.” Mid-week he was told – by yet another source, independent of the first – that there would indeed be a Spyder. So let’s go with that – whatever its pedigree. We’re up to six P2 entries, twelve prototypes.

Forget GT1 (really, so should the American Le Mans Series – as soon as possible). But let’s go ahead and say we’ll have two Corvettes on most of the grids of the 2009 season (assuming there is a GM, of course, and ignoring that Murphy was told of recent layoffs at Pratt & Miller).

In GT2 the first thing we’ll do is add one Ferrari – three “regulars” rather than two. Likewise, the Porsche brigade grows from four to six, adding the Falken tire 911, one VICI entry, and a brand new RSR sold to an unknown team that the Bear is told “will race,” but subtracting Farnbacher Loles second entry. For VICI, Murphy’s most recent information is that second car remains more hope than reality, a third being somewhere well into fantasyland. To get in line with our Georgia Pollyanna’s, the Bear will count all three of the announced Detroit-iron entries – PrimeTime, Robertson, and Black Swan. He’ll even toss in the two Cats (he knows they’re really excited about these in Jawja), though it’s pretty certain they’ll not be at Sebring and very uncertain when they’ll make it after that (haven’t we been down this road before?).

Two BMWs look solid. As the Bear said a long time ago, participation of Schnitzer/BMW factory drivers would occur if BMW scratched the WTCC, which hasn’t happened – not yet anyhow. All together, that’s sixteen.

We’ve been able to find 28 possible entries. Any major fraction of those will be pretty impressive with all that’s happening. Penske and Audi are gone from ALMS, F1 is already missing Honda, Suzuki and Subaru have exited WRC, Dodge won’t race trucks, and Honda has canned its factory team in AMA Super Bike (though it’s an open secret there are other-than-economic reasons). NASCAR, American open wheel, and Grand Am have likewise lost high-profile participants. Admittedly, grid size isn’t the only challenge that IMSA has.

With all that (and more) going on, if the American Le Mans Series can get into the mid-twenties, they will be able to say that they have done very well, indeed, given the economic landscape for motorsports in 2009.

So there’s Murphy’s little Christmas letter to all those fans who are desperately looking for good news. Don’t blame the Bear if it doesn’t all happen exactly so.

Is Candide’s enigmatic precept, “we must cultivate our garden”, the proper guide? Or is Dr. Pangloss’ Leibnizian mantra “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”?