Another NASCAR Drug problem

Isn’t it ironic? As this past Thursday, prior to the Homestead Season Finale Grand-Am race, a series owned by NASCAR… None other than J.C. France, grandson of “Big” Bill France, founder of the family Dynasty was arrested for alleged possession of Narcotics… Hmm? First Jeremy Mayfield and now J.C. France, as I just find it a bit odd that the majority of issues seem to be occurring on the RASSCAR side of the fence…

France arrested on drug charges

And thus its even more ironic that the No. 59 Brumos Porsche which is usually chauffeured by J.C. won the race with none other then the legendary Hurley Haywood at the controls, who was standing in for the suspended France, having won the race back in ’03 with J.C. as his co-driver; Hurley’s last Grand Am victory…

Patrick Dempsey and Team Seattle join forces

(Don Kitch and Patrick Dempsey)

This great news was sent to me recently by Team Seattle publicist Bonnie Yonker. )Hmm? Any relation to our local Yonker Nissan Dealership, eh?) As the Press Release notes that Patrick Dempsey has decided to enlist the services of his Dempsey Racing in a partnership with Team Seattle in their very first assault upon the Circuit de la Sarthe, in this year’s 24 Heurs Du Mans. (June 13-14)

Dempsey will partner veteran Grand Am road racer Don Kitch Jr. and 2008 Koni Challenge Champion Joe Foster aboard a magnificent Ferrari F430GT, being prepared by FIA GT Championship winning team Advanced Engineering, base in Milan, Italy, for the team’s competition in the GT2 category.

In what has become a Team Seattle hallmark over the past dozen years, the team will once again be raising funds for Seattle’s Childrens Hospital, while taking on a unique partnership with Team France’s alliance with Mecenat Chirurgie Cardiaque Enfant du Monde Organization this year.

Dempsey will continue racing for Mazda in the Grand Am Road Racing series this season, but has always been impressed by Team Seattle’s efforts and has been willing to help out however possible and jumped at this unique opportunity.

Our wonderful Vintage Racing Organization SOVREN’s annual 4th ‘O July Historic Event honours Seattle Childrens Hospital and Regional Centers...

Good Luck team Seattle!

Team Seattle to race at Le Mans

Don't Miss Team Seattle's Le Mans Race Day Party!

Open Wheel notes

this is an oversized (Turkey) stuffing of the latest news tidbits going on in the Open Wheel Racing world, just-in-time for that delectable Turkey-Lurkey holiday. (Pass me a biscuit!)

No more Surfers
Otay, this is a bit dated, but in case you haven’t heard? The Indy Car World Series and the Queensland Government were unable to come up with a resolution to keep the Surfers Paradise event on the Indy Car calendar for next season and beyond... As the Surfers Paradise event has played host to the CART/Champ Cars since 1991, albeit a non-points event in this inaugural season of unification. Thus, the event will now become home of A1 GP which has signed a five year deal to partner the V8-Supercars Down Under, beginning in 2009...

CRIKEYS!

Will KV Racing Technology survive?
And with the loss of the Gold Coast event, will KV Racing Technology also wither? Recall that the running of this event was imperative to KVRT staying on the grid this year as its major funding came from Craig Gore’s Aussie Vineyards. And although speculation suggests that Gore is pondering retirement, nothing has been confirmed to date, although both of KVRT’s drivers Will Power and Oriel Servia are currently free agents.

Miller reports on Driver market
According to a recent article by our beloved Open Wheel curmudgeon Robin Miller, the current Indy Car driver market for 2009 is currently awash with proven “Big Names” talent seeking employment, as Newman Haas Lanagin and Rahal Letterman have not picked up options on Justin Wilson and Ryan Hunter Reay, who both scored their first Indy Car victories this season, while both of the aforementioned KVRT drivers Will Power and Oriel Servia are awaiting their Open Wheel future.

Miller also throws in Paul Tracy, Bruno Junqueira, Tomas Scheckter and Darren Manning as free agents seeking rides... Hmm? I thought this unification thingy was to be the end all to the current plight of Open Wheel Racing in Norte Americano? Now explain to me why it sounds like another episode of; while the Champ Car World Series turns, eh?

No more “Corn-ee” Letterman jokes?
Also according to OWR soothsayer Robin Miller, there appears to be a 98% chance that title sponsor Ethanol will not be returning to Rahal/Letterman Racing in 2009, leaving Ryan “The Dude” Hunter-Reay without a drive next season. (Unless Penske scoops him up?)

Yet now comes word via the Blogosphere that Brazil will be helping to keep corn based Ethanol in the game next season, so why couldn’t this become RLR’s new sponsor? Heck, may be ‘Ol Emmo (Emerson Fittipaldi) will wish to install another Brazilian driver like Tiago Montero as teammate? Or perhaps “Junky” could land a ride here?

IRL gets sucker-punched

Penske’s New Year plans
And while The Captain, a.k.a. Roger Penske is still trying to decide what to do over his current Indy Car “Star” Hulio’s pending legal troubles... Hmm? Wonder if Penske will scoop up another Aussie as Ryan Briscoe’s teammate? (Can you say Will Power?) But I digress, as it was announced recently on The Speed Report that Penske will field a two car effort of Porsche powered Riley Daytona Prototype chassis in the upcoming 2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona. Is The Captain mulling a change of venue for his Sports Car operation?

Tracy legal woes continue
And while the majority of us thought that only Hulio had legal issues to wrangle with, according to crack Indy Car word butcher Will, Paul Tracy may have run into some more funny legal shenanigans’ of his own, as apparently there seems to be some sort of contention over his 2006 contract extension with Jerry “Go F-Yourself” Forsythe NEVER having been signed.

Was Tracy running without a contract?

Sully does Baja
During one of the final Wind Tunnel shows; Ye ‘Ol Windbag (Dave Despain) had Danny Sullivan as his “Last Call” of the evening, which was pretty entertaining... As “Sully” was calling in to talk about his Trophy Truck program and why he was running the Baja 1000. “Because it’s the only thing I can still race in competitively at my age!” Sully quipped.

And while I don’t know the whole story about Sully’s Baja 1000 trek, I can tell you from the results that he finished an admirable 5th place overall, which is better than Robby Gordon can say.

5. Dan Friedkin, Houston, Danny Sullivan, Vista, Calif./Steve Hengeveld, Oak Hills, Calif., Toyota Tundra, 14:34:55. (2nd highest finishing Tundra)

Baja 1000 results

Marky Mark podiums
Although it appears that Princess Danicker has decided to sit out the current A1 GP season, as she reportedly wished to be paid for her troubles...

Meanwhile, “Marky Mark,” a.k.a... Marco andretti, whom some word butcherer named Jeff is hoping to see installed as Hulio’s replacement at Team Penske, has just scored his first podium in this seasons A1 GP race held at Sepang. And although young Marco didn’t get off to a very good start, flipping and crashing out of the Sprint race, Marco atoned for his first race melee by reaching the podium in the Feature race, albeit with a little assistance from Team Malaysia's “Home-boy” Fairuz Fauzy. With Fauzy running in third place and Andretti behind him in fourth, Fairuz made a most unusual mistake, when his radio inadvertently picked up a ghost call to pit, as Fauzy heard Team GBR’s call; Box-Box-Box in his radio headset... And thus pitting behind Great Britain’s car, lost 40 seconds when he showed up in his vacant pit stall! This never seen gaff dropped Fairuz to a disappointing 10th place finish, while Marco grabbed the third step on the podium.

Marco Andretti, Andretti Green A1, A1 Team USA:
(ON THE SPRINT RACE INCIDENT) "You can say its unavoidable but at the time I thought everyone was going and I could only see two rows ahead of me. I couldn't see ahead of the whole field. I was about to grab fourth gear, and as soon as rear tires were hooking up, that was needed to stop the car. There was no hope. In the States you either go or you don't. Here, they went and then stopped. No one was to blame, it was just racing. But ultimately I crashed out two cars ."
.
Hmm? What’s that about not wishing to get in some much needed road racing experience Princess...

Doin’ the “Hulio” two-step
Ah, what better way to help digest that “Super-sized” Turkey-lurkey dinner, eh? And instead of unbuckling your belt, taking your shoes off and settling down for a little cat-nap whilst seated in the nearest Lazy Boy recliner, while some smash mouth football drones on in the background...

Why not do the Hulio two-step $heister shuffle instead? Just put your foot to the left...

And I won’t try to recap every nuance of the Helio Castroneves embezzlement shumozzle here; Castroneves indicted Hulio tear jerker, Castro-nervous bail modified, Trial date delay denied, blah-blah-blah... Nope, I’ll leave all of this hullabaloo up to the eagle-eyed Will and his crack reporting at; Is it May yet instead... And you may wish to check out his latest report; Quick Helio update, not to mention his wacky Pin-the-tail on Hulio board game.

Hulio board game

And make sure uze don’t’s steps onz ‘dem Hushpuppies, Yuh hearzs!

Le Mans postscript

Whale, it took me nearly one week to finally manage finish wading thru the ten plus hours of videotape I recorded for this years 76th running of the 24 Heurs du Mans, as although I knew which manufacturer won, I didn’t know which drivers…

As I made the mistake of trying to watch some of the race coverage late Saturday evening with my nearly 89 years young Auntie Harriet, who’s still recovering from her cracked ribs and sore lower tailfin…

When I arrived, she asked me; Are there any races on today? Yes, the 24 Heurs du Mans… Oh? Where’s that at? It’s in a place you once had an alleged beer in Sir Frank’s motor home at… You know, Le Mans, France…

As for several years it was recounted to me how she’d been invited into the inner sanctum of Sir Frank’s motor coach to indulge in a Fosters… Although the big man himself wasn’t present, nevertheless, Frank’s coach driver had given them the pleasure, but I digress…

Back to what would become a constantly droning on monologue… As “Auntie” said; Oh? What type of cars are they? They’re Sports Cars… So… What time is the race on at? 6PM… Where’s it at? Le Mans. What time is it in France? I don’t know. So, why can’t we watch it right now? Well because they’re (SPEED) showing some other racing series called RASSCAR right now and I don’t wanna watch ‘dat! So, how long is the race? 24hrs; What time is the race on at? 6PM and where’s the race at? Le Mans… Oh? What type of cars are racing there? What time is it in France? (Are you sensing a pattern here yet?)

So, we finally succumbed to turning on the Telescreen around 7PM to which I was immediately asked; What type of race cars are those? And what time is it in France? (And NO! I didn’t make any wisecracks ‘bout London and underpants… As I was starting to get a headache) When did the race begin? 6AM; Oh? You mean I could have been watching this all day? NO! Where’s the race at? Le Mans; Oh? What type of race cars are those? They’re Prototypes; What’s a Prototype? Who makes those silly ‘lil cars?

When did the race begin? 6AM; You mean I could have been watching this all day? What type of race cars are those? What time is it in France? It looks like the sun is coming up over there… You mean the race goes on all day… What time is it in France? Well, lets see Auntie, its 9PM so there’s another 9 ½ hours of race coverage. You mean it goes on all night? (SHEISA!!! Somebody get me a Fosters…)

And then it was over as surprisingly (Nod Nod, Wink Wink) Auntie Harriet hadn’t woken me up at 5AM to see the finish of the BLOODY Endurance race, go figure, eh?

And what a gripping race it was, eh? As the two main protagonists did not fail to deliver, as this epic battle of the tortoise and the hare was even more pronounced by the constantly changing weather… Although I’d hardly call the Audi R10’s SLOW! But, that said the closed coupe Peugeot’s are just simply stunning and thus we were treated to a real barn burner that went all the way down to the wire…

Yet, while all of the competitors pounded ‘round the clock, here’s just a few of the numerous tidbits I gleamed from the elongated television coverage.

Ex-endurance racer David Hobbs noted how he’d driven a Lola very briefly at the Circuit de la Sarthe back in 1967 as the British specialty auto manufacturer Lola Cars was celebrating its 50th Anniversary… As the future shape of the top echelon of Le Mans prototypes was being displayed by a very slick looking Lola/Auston Martin B08/60, which was described as all Lola from the nose back, and all Prodrive, nee Auston from the rear bulkhead, with the same massive 6.0 liter V-12 that its GT1 cousins were utilizing…

The Charouz Racing Systems B08/60 was the very first Lola produced and its three drivers; Tomas Enge, Stefan Mücke and Jan Charouz are all contracted by Aston Martin Racing. (AMR) which impressively split the Audi R10 TDI’s in qualifying with its production based gasoline engine…

Another interesting storyline was French driver Jean de Pourtales, who competes with an prosthetic left arm, which led “Hobbo” to launch into discourse about another hugely successful Sports Car driver; Archie Scott Brown, who gamed fame during the late 1950’s as an Lister “Nobly” pilot who raced with a right arm stump and needed to shift with his left hand before perishing at Spa in 1958. Even more impressive was the fact that De Pourtales Kruse Schiller Motorsport Lola/Mazda LMP2 entry was even able to compete after the massive cart wheeling escapade Hideki Noda had endured on Thursday night…

And a number of first’s were occurring, when Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnessen scored Corvette’s first GT1 pole position since 1976, although it would be for naught, as the #009 Aston Martin DBR9 would emerge victorious for the second year in a row, with drivers David Brabham and Darren Turner repeating…

Interestingly, Calvin Fish noted several times during the broadcast that “MAG’s” only has one requirement when getting a seat fitting. Can my right foot go all the way to the floor!

There was also the very first Chinese driver competing, along with the very first Spanish chassis entries since 1952 and the first husband-wife driving duo since 1993 on tap…

And talk about making a splashy debut, as Jos “The BOSS” Verstappen was interviewed about his stout driving performance, having driven approximately half of the event for Van Merksteijn Motorsport, which took its purple Porsche RS Spyder to its LMP2 class victory upon the teams, drivers and chassis debut…

And it was entertaining to hear Mika Salo vainly pleading to NOT have to go out again and drive the Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 anymore… Although the Finn claimed he’d gotten 4hrs of sleep, as Mika would indeed pilot the class winning #82 to the chequered flag in a Ferrari GT2 whitewash, seeing the Maranello brand taking positions 1-5. It was Salo’s first win in his third start…

Yet, it was amazing to think that at the 22+ hour mark, the #2 Audi was leading the #7 Peugeot by less than two minutes, before the inclement weather struck the French countryside once again… As apparently Nicolas Minassian made a strategic blunder by opting to stay on slick tyres instead of switching to intermediates as the Lord ‘O Le Mans had elected, which would see Peugeot’s chances of overall victory slip from its grasp literally… With Minassian slithering all over the 8.5 mile circuit… And then another very curious call was made when the French team elected to go onto full wet weather tyres as the track was drying!

Thus, Tom Kristensen was able to “cruise” to his record eighth overall victory at Le Mans, alongside co-drivers Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello. As it was even more impressive that Kristensen had gotten away with two mistakes of running into competitor’s and has now run his staggering victory streak to 8 wins in 13 starts…

And while I’m always suspect of publicity inspired, headline grabbing attendance figures… Nevertheless it was noted numerous times how the circuit attracts a quarter of a million attendees, with last year’s record being set at 270,000! Look for an even more epic battle between the French Blue and the Teutonic German “Silver Arrows” next year…

Da Matta hungry for more

As you’re probably aware of by now, Cristiano Da Matta recently made his return to professional racing in the cockpit of a Bob Stallings Daytona Prototype at Laguna Seca with his good friend Jimmy vasser as his co-driver. And although Da Matta didn’t compete in the Six Hours at the Glen, he did travel to Watkins Glen with the team and is hopeful of finding the necessary funding to enable him to contest more Grand Am events shortly…

Da Matta hunger’s for more racing

Le Mans

This weekend will see the venerable country roads of Le Mans, France once again closed to public traffic in order to host the annual running of the 24 Heurs du Mans, which will feature several ex-Formula 1 pilots, along with a few current F1 drivers, as well as many respected Sports Car drivers…

Just to name a few, Olivier Panis will make up part of a three car contingent of Courage-Oreca LC70 Judd’s, partnering cast-off Champ Car driver Simon Pagenaud and although the rules have been tweaked to encourage the continuance of these normally aspirated gasoline powered racecars, they’re still at a disadvantage against the turbo diesels, As this years battle for overall victory will be centered upon the two mighty Turbo Diesel LMP1 behemoths; Audi vs. Peugeot, while the LMP2 Prototype category will be a Porsche RS Spyder shootout most likely.

The Peugeot three car 908 HDi FAP armada looks very formable this year with its stellar cast of Formula 1 talent, with the likes of ex-world Champion Jacques Villeneuve along with Christian Klien, Pedro Lamy, Franck Montagny, Alexander Wurz and Ricardo Zonta.

The three car squad of Audi R10TDI’s will be anchored by ex-F1 men Alan McNish and Emanuele Piro, plus the luminescent Lord of Le Mans, seven time winner Tom Kristensen.

In the LMP2 category, Jos “The BOSS” Versappen will co-pilot a Porsche RS Spyder for Van Merksteijn Motorsport alongside A1 GP standout Jeroen.Bleekemolen

In the GT1 ranks, look for some interesting battles, as the main competition will be the Aston Martins squaring off against the Corvettes, although I’d find it wonderful if either the Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT or Saleen S7R could upset the apple cart.

The Works Auston Martin’s will be sporting Gulf Oil colours in deference to this being the 40th Anniversary of their first overall victory at the Circuit de la Sarthe, with Heinz-Harald (“Heinz 57”) Frentzen and Karl Wendlinger in the #007 “James Bond” DBR9, while David Brabham will co-drive the #009. Christian Fittipaldi will drive a privateer Aston, while Jan Magnessen. Oliver Beretta and Max Papis will compete in the powerful gm Factory Corvette C6.R’s.

The GT2 category looks set to once again be a fiercely contested scrum between the Porsche 997 GT3 RSR’s and Ferrari F430’s, with Mika Salo and Gianmaria Bruni behind the wheel of one of Risi Competizione’s F430’s, while interestingly there are two Spyker C8’s entered… Y’all remember who Spyker is, eh?

For a complete rundown of the starting grid, see; 2008 Provisional Entry List

And to watch the race, SPEED’s massive coverage begins on Saturday morning at 7:30AM, with race coverage beginning at 8:30AM. (Eastern Times)

Da Matta’s Corkscrew

As I’ve previously noted, former Toyota F1 and Newman Haas CART Champion Cristiano Da Matta will indeed make his return to competition this weekend at Laguna Seca.

Da Matta will partner with his friend and ex-teammate/boss Jimmy Vasser in the #98 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac Riley, as the Bob Stallings Racing Daytona Prototype team makes its first two car entry in Grand Am competition.

The race will be Da Matta’s first action behind the wheel since his horrible testing accident at Road America when a wayward Deer high jumped an eight foot fence topped with barbed wire and got too up ‘N close with Da Matta’s speeding RuSPORT Champ Car…

Good Luck Cristiano & Jimmy!

Double Dipping

So while I was counting down the minutes ‘til the very first IndyCar race of the season, I figured I might as well watch the Grand Am “ROVAL” road race also taking place at Homestead this weekend...

Yet I was a bit confused, since SPEED’s coverage overlapped with The Deuce’s Indy Car show live from the same race track… Ah-hah, SPEED is showing a tape delayed re-broadcast of today's earlier Grand Am event, since Homestead’s track activities were;
Firestone Indy Lights – 12:30PM (Eastern)
Grand Am – 3PM
Indy Car – 8PM

And although I just cannot seem to get into the UGLY Duckling Daytona Prototype Sports Cars, my curiosity was peaked as I wondered if Robert Nearn was racing in the GT category? Thus I dashed off to ze confuzer and scoured Grand Am's retarded website, pulling up the starting grid while the race was playing in the background...

Scrolling thru the GT field I discovered that Banner Engineering’s #07 Pontiac GXP-R was on Pole (20th Overall) with Kelly Collins and Paul Edwards. Yet the #06 sister car which Robert had co-driven in the Daytona 24hrs was in the back of the grid (44th Overall) as Robert had been replaced by GM Factory Corvette team driver Jan Magnessen.

The SPEED crew then showed Magnessen putting the block onto Patrick 946739629… Dempsey; Racin’ is Rubbin’ after all, eh? As the announcer said that’s probably the only time you can get away with hitting a Hollywood star… As Dempsey is one of the brats from the hit show 90120 from several years ago. To which Dorsey Schroeder commented that Magnessen is a real Bull Dog, enroute to moving into the fourth place in class. And before you knew it the two Banner Engineering Pontiac’s were running 1-2 in the GT class.

And talk ‘bout timing, as I returned to the boob tube. Shuh-zamm! They interviewed some guy named Leighton Reese, who’s the team owner of Banner Engineering, with the pit reporter claiming Leighton to be smiling ear to ear over getting to drive with Magnessen.

Reese said he's known the Dane since 100yrs ago when he saw him win a Formula ford race and never thought he'd get to drive with somebody he's been watching since his Formula 1 days driving for Stewart Grand Prix...

Reese will drive 3 more times with Jan, since Banner is a sister effort to the GM factory Corvette team and Reese said all he could think of while being partnered with Magnessen was’ Don’t screw up!

After a monumental pit stop strategy bamboozlement by Banner Engineering, where they left the leading #06 out for too many laps before coming into the pits during the yellow flag period, Roberts 'Ol sparring pardoner Steve Johnson, co-driving with Jan "Van Hagar" Heylend (Champ Car driver last year) inherited the lead aboard their Synergy Racing Porsche 911 and then it was time to switch over to the Deuce for the Indy Car mop-tops Flinstone pre-race excitement hour. YAWN! ALL the Stars, ALL the Cars, blah-blah-blah… Where’s Danica?

Yet, I did manage to flip back during the OVERLY numerous side-by-side commercial breaks several times to discover that the #07 car finished first in GT with the #06 third, a massive improvement over their 7th and 22nd place finishes at the Rolex 24.

Meanwhile the Cheepster’s hired gun, Scott “Juicyfruit” Pruett, a.k.a. “The Machine” scored another Overall victory for Chip Ganassi. Hmm? Wonder if “Cheep” will do a double at Homestead?

Rolex 24

So I’ve just finished watching my selected eight hours ‘O taping of this years Rolex 24 at Daytona Beach and must say it was quite a wacky race weather-wise, eh? As their were an inordinate number of yellow flags as well as precipitation, Yet in the end once again the Cheepster was victorious. As Chip Ganassi made Daytona history by becoming the first team to win three consecutive Rolex 24’s, with his hired guns behind the wheel of his winning #01 Lexus-Riley. The victory was Scott “Jucyfruit” Pruett’s eighth victory in Florida and third overall win, with MAC Montoya notching his second consecutive Rolex time piece, while Dario “Where’s my pants” Franchitti and Memo Rojas scored their first Rolex trophy as the TCGR entry finished with a comfortable three lap lead.

Team Jimmy (Vasser & Johnson, Alex Gurney and John CCR Foggerty) finished runner-up while Roger Penske’s Wayne Taylor sister effort finished third.

In the GT ranks it was a classic storybook finish of David vs. Goliath as the little car that thought it could won the race by seven laps, as the #70 Speedsource Mazda RX8 put a whoopin’ on the rest of the field. This car was co-driven by Sylvain Tremblay, Nick Ham, David Haskell and Raphael Matos who continues to make good.

Meanwhile team Banner Engineering may wish to consider changing their name as they struggled thru a harsh 24 hours, having a not so banner outing, although The Banner Engineering #07 Pontiac GXP.R co-driven by Paul Edwards, Kelly Collins and Jan Magnussen did spend quite a few hours at the front of the GT grid chasing the #70 Mazda, with Edwards even leading the race during the night, before becoming the victim of a wayward Daytona Prototype facing the oncoming four car GT freight train Edwards was part of backwards. With the two Porsches ahead of him splitting the stricken DP, Edwards was a hapless victim with nowhere to go. After repairing the damaged Pontiac, they finished seventh in class.

Unfortunately the sister car, the #06 Banner Engineering/Shock Doctor Pontiac GXP-R co-driven by Leighton Reese, Marc Bunting, Robert Nearn and Andy Pilgrim fared even worse, struggling thru a litany of mechanical gremlins,

Once again I got to witness Robert having mechanical woes, as SPEED came back from commercial break during the 6-7AM (EDT) portion of my tape, there he was coming down pit lane with the Pontiac’s flashers flashing as Robert had a minor problem with the hood coming ajar and obscuring his vision. SHEISA!!!

Which certainly got his attention, eh? But Robert seemed to do a masterful job of maneuvering into his pit stall… As SPEED’s Andrew Marriot covered Robert’s unscheduled pit stop briefly; saying that the boys had gone to work on the rear end with torches… Which in English translates to flashlights… Thinking the wide track (“Wider is better”) Pontiac was having some sort of braking issues.

And The SPEED TV guys kept jabbering on 'bout how the Pontiac is the largest profile car in the GT ranks and doesn't punch a very good hole thru the air on the banking.

Then towards the end of my selected taping they talked to Leighton Reese (team owner) who claimed that the #06 Pontiac was having issues with rear half shafts as they were swapping out the second one, but they soldier home to a 22nd place finish in the GT class.

And now having read the post race transcripts, either the SPEED crew identified the wrong driver or Robert’s cameo pit stop to fix the hood was due to Marc Bunting’s previous spin and crash upon leaving the pits on cold tires…

Sebring testing

And while the Grand Am teams were either basking in the glow of victory or the agony of defeat, the American Le Mans Series kicked off winter testing at the venerable Sebring International Raceway, where several really-really-really big announcements were made.

Not surprisingly, the Audi R10 TDI turbo diesels led the way in testing, although the Peugeot nipped at the Audi’s heels before developing an oil leak, while the Penske Porsche RS Spyders once again led the way for the LMP2 category, as ALMS teams prepare for the 56th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring on March 15th.

De Ferran Motorsports unveils ALMS plans
Gil de Ferran, the 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner and two time CART/PPG champion has announced the formation of De Ferran Motorsports in order for the Brazilian to re-enter racing. De ferran, the ex-Honda F1 Sporting Director (2005-07) will campaign a factory backed Acura powered ARC chassis in the LMP2 category, beginning later this season, De Ferran will return to the cockpit for the first time in five years as the primary driver. Other drivers will be announced shortly, as De Ferran’s entry will become the fourth Acura raced in Honda’s efforts to dethrone the all conquering Porsche RS Spyders.

Bell Motorsports announces plans
No, it’s not the Bell’s you may be thinking it is, as I first assumed that Derek and Justin Bell had gone into cahoots to form their own race team?

Actually its long time ALMS entrant Jim Bell and new business partner Michael Fux who announced at the Sebring test their new GT1 program, which they’ll contest with an Aston Martin DBR9. The Miami based Bell Motorsports hopes that the Aston Martin DBR9 can give some much needed competition to the Corvettes that have had the GT1 playground all to themselves for awhile now. Definitive driver line-up and plans will be announced shortly.

And speaking of the Corvettes that have reined supreme in the two car factory backed GM playground, more commonly known as GT1. The Corvettes will contest the 2008 season running their Chevy’s on Ethanol E85 derived from stwitchgrass ‘N stuff…

The Nearn Factor

So, just who is Robert Nearn and why all of the fuss over him, eh? Well he’s an aspiring racer whom I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying his company over the past few years.

And Robert just doesn’t putt about the local race tracks; he’s a very accomplished driver who’s raced all of the major endurance events around the globe! Robert has primarily driven Porsche 911 RSR GT3’s in both the American Le Mans Series and Grand Am. He’s driven in the Rolex 24, 12 Hours of Sebring, 24 Heurs du Man and Suzuka 1000K, etc. with stints aboard a Porsche GT1 and Saleen S7R.

Robert last competed regularly as a “Hired Gun” in 2006. Running the full ALMS season in GT2 Porsches, Beginning the year with TRG (The Racer’s Group) before switching to Synergy Racing for the remaining events; He ran a limited schedule in 2007 with the Pratt & Miller team in Grand Am.

Recently I learned that he’ll be aboard one of the Pratt & Miller’s GT Pontiac’s for this years Rolex 24 at Daytona. Robert will be part of a three driver line-up for car #06. Asking Robert how he thought he’d fair, his pre-race prognosis appears to be correct, with Robert reporting during practice; “We’re struggling a little at the moment, we're carrying more weight than the Porsches and Mazdas and it's killing us on the banking.”

24 Hours of Daytona

Now that the winter holidays have winded down, much activity has been happening in preparations for the upcoming Rolex 24 Hours endurance race, with teams putting the final touches on their respective driver/car combinations, as the Rolex 24 will kick off the 2008 racing season this weekend. And I was happy to hear that during the latest testing, Cristiano da Matta was one of the drivers walking about with helmet bag in hand, while searching for a potential ride…

In what has become a traditional All Star “warm-up” event, this year’s Rolex 24 will see a host of Open Wheel warriors from Champ Car, Indy Car and Formula 1 compete for overall honours in two classes.
DP: Daytona Prototype
GT: Grand Tourismo (Touring)

(DP)
AIM Autosport
Andrew Ranger, an ex-Ice racing star whom briefly competed in Champ Car before seeking the security of a paying drive in CASCAR, will be part of the driving strength of the #61 Ford-Riley, along with rian Frisselle, Mark Wilkins and Colin Braun…

Brumos
Long time Porsche endurance racing stalwarts Brumos will once again enter a brace of prototypes for this years Rolex 24, with the lead car #58 featuring Darren Law, David Donohue and Buddy Rice, while the sister car, #59 will once again have the venerable Hurley Haywood being partnered by JC France, Joao Barbosa and Terry Borcheller…

MSR
Champ Car drivers Justin Wilson and Graham Rahal will contest this year’s Rolex 24 for Michael Shank Racing.

The Champ Car duo will join MSR’s regular Grand Am drivers Oswaldo Negri and Mark Patterson aboard the No. 60 Ford Riley. Wilson will be making his third Grand Am start for MSR, having finished second at Daytona in 2006 with Negri, Patterson and AJ Almendinger.

Wilson has also contested the 24 Heurs du Mans in 2004, piloting a Racing for Holland Dome/Judd with Tom Coronel and Ralph Firman. You may recall that Firman finally got his break in Formula 1 driving for Jordan Grand Prix during one sorely disappointing season in 2003.

Meanwhile the Rahal youngster will be making his third consecutive Rolex 24 start, along with having driven previously in the American Le Mans Series aboard his father’s (Rahal Letterman Racing) Porsche GT3, finishing third in class at last years Petit Le Mans. Could the pairing of Rahal and Wilson be a sign of things to come in the 2008 Champ Car season?

SAMAX
Ryan Dalziel, who was sent unceremoniously packing from Pacific Coast Motorsports Champ Car team late last season, will once again contest this year’s Rolex 24 as part of SAMAX Motorsport’s two car entry.

The lead Pontiac-Riley (#2) features Henri Zogaib, Mike Rockenfeller, Allan McNish and Lucas Luhr, while Dalziel will be piloting the #11 Pontiac-Riley with Tomas Enge, Harold Primat, and Danny B’s favourite driver MilkaDuno…

Stallings/Mathews
The defending Grand Am champions have added two “Jimmy’s” to their driving line-up, as part of *Bob Stallings/Riley Matthews Racing) two car Pontiac-Riley effort. Car number 99 will see ex-CART Champion Jimmy Vasser joining defending Grand Am DP champions Alex Gurney & John Foggerty. Vasser makes up one half of the Jimmy duo. The other is some cat known as Johnson. Yeah, that’s right. Its two time RASSCAR champ-peon Jimmy Johnson…

Their second entry, the #91 will be shared by Jim Matthews, Marc Goossens, Johnny O'Connell and Ryan Hunter-Reay…

Taylor/Penske
Roger Penske has formed a partnership with Wayne Taylor Racing for this year’s upcoming Rolex 24 and will enter a second Pontiac/Riley chassis for a Penske “All Star” driver line-up.

Piloting the #9 will be RASSCAR Champion Kurt Busch, “Dancing with FOOLS,” Two time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves and latest Penske Indy car driver Ryan Briscoe, who spent the 2007 season as part of Penske’s dominant Porsche RS Spyder team…

TCGR
While the “Target’s” firmly affixed to their back’s, Chip Ganassi will field a two car entry in his attempt to set Rolex 24 history by becoming the first ever team to win the race three consecutive years in a row.

With Scott Pruett returning to the No. 01 Lexus Riley, alongside Memo Rojas for the entire Grand Am season. The two drivers will be joined by RASSCAR drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti for the 24 hours of Daytona race. Indy Racing League drivers Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon will be joined by Salvador Duran and Indy car debutant Alex Lloyd aboard car No. 02…

Vision
Ah, if only Tony George could envision a unified Open Wheel racing series, but I digress… Once again Mr. George has decided to enter the Rolex 24 “Just-in-Time,” as he’s cobbled together a entry at the last minute, having forgone testing, just expecting to show up and complete the race. Recall that last year Mr. George managed to spin the car into the wall during practice…

George will be part of the driving line-up that includes his current IRL pilots Ed Carpenter & A.J. Foyt IV, with Vitor Meira (from Panther Racing) and RASSCAR “ringer” John Andretti. The team will drive the #03 Porsche-Crawford…


(GT)
Synergy
Synergy racing will have two Champ Car drivers occupying two Porsche 911 RSR GT3’s, with 2007 Rookie of the year “Bad Bobby D” (Robert Doornbos aboard one mount, while Jan “Van Hagar” Heylen, whom also got unkindly dumped from Champ Car by Conquest Racing last season will co-drive the other Porsche.

Meanwhile Long Beach Champ Car race promoter Jim Michaelian and son Bob will share a Mazda RX-8 entered by Racers Edge Motorsports. And Raphael Matos, the newly defected and 2007 Champ Car Atlantics champion plans to drive a Mazda RX-8, keep your eyes on the mirror Rafael!

Going Dutch

Ah, what a way to start the New Year, eh? Yep, that’s right. He’s BACK!!! While the rest of us are shaking off the cold, taking down the tree and dreading the onslaught of overpriced iron going across the block in Scottsdale, AZ.

As many of you were probably watching Santa’s progress on the internets via NORAD tracking… It does indeed appear that Santa made a pit stop in the “Neitherlands” this year, giving somebody a ride aboard a shiny new Porsche RS Spyder.

Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about Jos “The BOSS” Verstappen, who’s ringing in the New Year just having been “inked” to drive for “Team het Nederlands.”
Verstappen will be part of an all Dutch sports car team contesting the 1,000km Le Mans Series events along with the 24 Heurs du Mans for Van Merksteijn Motorsports.

Verstappen, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Peter van Merksteijn will co-drive the teams prototype, as the Porsche RS Spyder will be competing in Europe for its first season, while Verstappen was last seen racing for Team Netherland in the A1 GP series during the 2006-07 season before being replaced by Bleekemolen.

Happy New Years!!!

Cordon bleu

And although I haven’t watched the first 3hrs of this years 24 Heurs du Mans. (Video tape #47 of this past weekend) I have managed to watch a significant chunk of SPEED’s “Mega” 17.5 hours of coverage. I mean what better way to cure insomnia than sitting glued to the TV into the wee hours of the morning watching Le Mans? As ironically the world feed shows nothing more than the front straight and pits during the night hours of the race. This is because the French TV crews DON’T work thru the night, opting to get some sleep instead…

And I found it fascinating as I seemed to tune in when the action got crazy. Like the leading Audi R10 being 3 laps ahead of the field when the right rear tire decided to depart the race car… This was 54 minutes into the R10 TDI’s run. And although Audi claimed it had nothing to do with the car being dropped without the wheel being fastened. Apparently it was some type of spindle failure. As birthday boy Dindo Capello was distraught after careening into the tire barrier. Yes, it was Capello’s 43rd birthday and I’m sure it’s NOT what he wished for!

Or Johnny Herbert going off track while leading GT1 in the Aston Martin DBR9. Yet apparently Tomas Enge also got a bit too carried away and put the same #007 leading DBR9 off track later in the race.

Or how about the window falling out of the leading Risi Competizone Ferrari F430GT. Yet I missed the part when 5 cars went off due to oil being down…

Or the abysmal weather conditions for the final 2hrs which saw torrential downpour. Where leading Audi R10 driver Marco Werner was seen shaking his head in disbelief over the conditions he was being forced to drive in. This was upon Werner dropping his lap times into the 6 minute range in order to keep the invincible Audi “On the Island.” Compare this to the record lap times Allan McNish was setting aboard a sister car of 3:27 in the dry!

Yet I have to say I think the new Peugeot 908 is an awesome looking chassis. And I like it a ton more than the austere Audi R8/R10 TDi’s. So it’s great news that the ACO will require a return to closed top coupes beginning in 2010 for the prototype ranks. Which I assume that the America Le Mans Series will follow suit? And I’m sure that these chassis will be way better looking than the UGLY DP Prototypes.

And I was so DAMM happy to see the Aston Martin DBR9 BEAT the Corvette! As I really tire of the Chevrolet bias of the broadcaster’s towards the GM make. So it was quite pleasing to see the lone Corvette as the meat in the Aston Martin sandwich! Along with David Richards mug on TV after taking a glug ‘O champagne upon the DBR9 breaking its Le Mans Duck! Especially since this was Prodrive’s first major race outing since David Richards & Co. bought Aston Martin from Ford.

And I find it a bit funny, but I found the 24 Heurs du Mans TV coverage far MORE Exhilarating than FOX’s pathetic USGP coverage. For that part I found the Sports Car classic far more intriguing to watch then the Formula 1 race!

Race Report

Building Le Mans

Ok, so it’s a cheesy takeoff. But if you’ve ever dared to sit thru a RASSCAR race then you’re sure to suffer thru the barrage of Gene Hackman outtakes claiming “Let’s build something Together” at Lowes.

And just where do struggling IRL drivers go when they can no longer afford to compete in the cobbled together race series? Fortunately with all of his time off. Adrian Fernandez will contest this years 24 Heurs du Mans for his very first time with an interesting line-up.

Fernandez will partner Robbie Kerr and Haruki Kurosawa in the LMP2 category and hopes to contend for the class victory after a very strong showing in final testing.

If you’re interested in watching this epic sports car classic, then you’re in luck! Since SPEED is airing 17.5+ hours of TV coverage, with the qualifying highlights beginning @ 4:30AM Pacific this Saturday. Race coverage begins @ 5:30AM Pacific…

The Flying Tomas brothers

Hoorah! “Juan ‘O” my namesakes have successfully made his return to motor racing, while the other is still on the mend. Yet perhaps the Flying moniker isn’t the best choice of words as both drivers were badly injured.

Not to be confused with the Brundell Brothers. (Martin “Billy bob” Brundle & Mark Blundell) Nope, I’m talking about none other then the Tomas brothers, err Tom Kristensen and Tomas Enge who were both injured in racing accidents earlier this year.

Enge had a major shunt while piloting the Peterson/White Lightning Ferrari F430GT at St. Petersburg. Yet Tomas has made an amazingly fast recovery and returned to competition last weekend in Salt Lake City’s ALMS event.

Kristensen was involved in a crash during the Hockenheim DTM (German Touring Car) race and is still recovering from his injuries. Which may cause him to miss this year’s 24 Heurs du Mans.

If you wish to view the carnage of Tom Kristensen’s accident, check out this U Tube clip: Kristensen Crashes at Hockenheim.

Bourdais’s speedy Peugeot

Prior to this weekends Champ Car season opener, Sebastian Bourdais took part in the European Le Mans Series (LMS) test day held recently in France.

“Sea Bass” led the way at Paul Ricard in the LMP1 Peugeot 908 turbo diesel, giving Audi notice that they’ll actually have some competition at Le Mans this year.

There were 34 cars taking part in the test day, and it also appears that the GM Factory backed Corvettes may also face some stiffer competition besides their intra-squad “scrums” from a few Saleen S7R’s and privateer Corvettes at the Circuit de la Sarthe. And the LMS appears to be more closely contested than the ALMS…

Herbert joins Aston Martin

After two years in the “Hinterlands” as Midland F1’s Sporting Director, Johnny Herbert has made the switch back to motor racing.

Herbert along with two other ex-Formula 1 drivers has been announced as part of Aston Martin’s GT1 driver line-up for its two car effort at The 24 Heurs du Mans this summer.

ACO announces Le Man Entry List

The organizers of the 24 Heurs du Mans have quietly released the 2007 entry list for this years endurance race. And there’s always MORE participants wishing to compete then the ACO (Automobile Club d’Ouest ) allows.

Yet the freshly completed revisions to the pit lane will allow a further five teams to participate. This now gives a total of 55 entries, with the favorites once again being the mighty Audi diesels…

Loeb to miss Le Mans

Reigning three time WRC Champion Sebastian Loeb has decided to skip this year’s 24 Heurs du Mans after running at the Circuit de la Sarthe the previous two years.

And perhaps it’s a good idea for Loeb to focus his efforts upon the World Rally Championship after an uncharacteristic outing of multiple crashes into snow banks in the just completed Norway Rally…

Villeneuve tests 908

Jacques Villeneuve is busy acclimatizing himself with the brand new Peugeot 908 at France’s Paul Ricard circuit and has told an Italian newspaper that he’s impressed by the diesel powered race car…

JV will team with Sebastian Bourdais and Marc Gene aboard one of Peugeot’s two entries for this summer’s 24 Heurs du Mans…

The French Connection

Peugeot has just unveiled its 2007 24 Heurs du Mans challenger; the LMP1 908

Along with the new cars launch comes the rebirth of Peugeot Sport which has been out of racing since withdrawing from the World Rally Championship at the end of 2005…

And the 908’s debut showcases Peugeot’s all new turbo diesel racer along with the announcement of the team’s six driver line-up for the upcoming 24 Heurs du Mans…

Peugeot has committed two cars to the full six race LMS schedule and will feature an all-star cast including such luminaries as “JV” and “Sea Bass…”

Yes that’s right… Now that Jacques Villeneuve’s 2007 “RASSCAR” plans seem to have fizzled, the “Kanuck” will attack the Circuit de la Sarthe in 2007 instead…

Rolex 24

Truly the real words of the New Year’s celebration to me occur every year around this time when the best 4 words of the New Year are spoken: “Drivers Start Your Engines!” As the command is given to commence the year’s first major motorsports event, the Rolex 24… (24 Hours of Daytona)

In what has fast become a yearly All Star Sports Car event, the Rolex 24 seems to gather an even more prestigious field of competitor’s each outing. This year’s stellar line-up included a dozen ex-Formula 1 drivers, 4 “RASSCAR” Champions, 6 Indianapolis 500 Winners, 3 Champ Car Champions, and 3 IRL Champions along with a host of former/current CART/Champ Champ Car & IRL competitors without mentioning a host of Sports Car standouts…

While the majority of the “BIG” name guest celebrities faltered, either due to teammates having on-track accidents or mechanical gremlins strike, in typical fashion “MAC” (Juan Pablo) Montoya came, saw and conquered.

In his Rolex 24 debut, MAC became only the second driver to have won the Rolex 24, Indy 500, Formula 1 races and a Champ Car championship, with Mario Andretti being the first…

Although a long time fan of Scott Pruett (since his Jack Roush Trans Am & Truesports CART days) I found myself rooting for the second place team instead…

This was the #11 SAMAX entry, which was a virtual unknown… And I felt it would be even cooler to see Darren Manning (England) who was unceremoniously “dumped” by “Cheep” (Chip Ganassi) win instead.

I also felt that “Pat Carpenter” (Patrick Carpentier: Canada) Was more then deserving of some long overdue international media attention. Fellow teammate Ryan Dalziel (Scotland) has steadfastly plodded along the past few years awaiting his chance of a full time Champ Car ride. And how refreshing it would have been for Mika Duno (Venezuela) to be on the top step of the rostrum… As I believe she’d been the very first female overall winner…

But alas, the combination of Salvador Doran, (Mexico) Montoya (Columbia) and Pruett (California) was simply too great as they “cruised” home to the checkers after a super hard fought final few hours of competition to record Ganassi’s second consecutive victory…

Bushwhacking Grand Am

With the Open Wheel racing season drawing to a close, drivers have begun focusing on extra curricular activates in order to keep their driving sharp over the winter break. This includes two former Indy 500 winners signing up for driving duties in the upcoming 2007 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Penske drivers Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr. will become part of a 4 driver line-up aboard Michael Shank Racing’s Lexus powered DP. (Daytona Prototype) Castroneves participated in this past weekend’s test posting the 4th quickest time overall. Hornish will join testing in Homestead next month after his second Busch Series race this weekend. Michael Shank’s DP entry finished runner-up overall in last years Rolex 24…

Jeff “Pretty Boy” Gordon will partner Wayne Taylor and Max “The AX” Angelelli behind the controls of the new Wayne Taylor Racing Daytona Prototype…

Chip Ganassi’s Open Wheel warriors (ex-IRL Champions) Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon will team with (ex-Indy 500 Champion) MAC Montoya aboard Chip’s Daytona Prototype…

Champ Cars Katherine Legge has also been spotted puriusing the DP ranks in search of a ride. Legge stated that Daytona is definitely one of those races you’d like to be able to check off your list of “must do’s.”