Author Archives: Chet

ALMS & Grand-Am Merger

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ALMS founder Don Panoz and Grand-Am founder Jim France this week announced a definitive, historic ALMS & Grand-Am merger.  The two series will run independently in 2013 and will merge in 2014.  This will be the first unified sports car series in the US since the original IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) disintegrated in the late 1990s giving way to the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and Grand-Am.

Roots of ALMS & Grand-Am

Trouble had been brewing in sports car racing in the US since the late 1980s when original IMSA founder, John Bishop, sold the series and sanctioning body.  Infighting, politics, and a series of ownership changes led to the demise of the original IMSA, which by then was named PSCR (Professional Sports Car Racing).  In 1998, the USRRC (United States Road Racing Championship) was created with support from the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) as an alternative to the weakened IMSA.  Interestingly, SCCA has strongly protested the original formation of IMSA back in 1969 – I guess bad blood runs long and deep!  The USRRC failed, but was revived at the end of 1999 with the support of NASCAR and the France family as the Grand American Road Racing Association – what’s now known as Grand-Am.  Meanwhile in 1998, Dan Panoz, dissatisfied with the USRRC, formed a partnership with the ACO (Automobile Club de L’Ouest), the sanctioning body of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, to run a race called Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta under PSCR sanctioning.  In 1999, Panoz renamed his series ALMS, and in 2001 he purchased the remaining assets of PSCR and renamed the sanctioning body IMSA.

ALMS & Grand-Am Since 1999

Over the last 13 years, ALMS and Grand-AM have evolved in separate ways.  ALMS has run to ACO rules with many teams participating in both the ALMS and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  The series has been known for technical innovation and environmental awareness. In partnership with Michelin, they have created the Green X Challenge, which measures factors such as emissions, speed, and fuel economy.  Their efforts have been recognized but the EPA.  ALMS also has attracted European teams to their major endurance races at Sebring and Petit Le Mans.  This year, Sebring was run in conjunction with the FIA sanctioned World Endurance Challenge.

Grand-Am has focused on less costly formulae such as the Daytona Prototype class, named for its classic endurance race, the Rolex 24 at Daytona.  The GT class in Grand-Am has also incorporated more American and Japanese manufacturers  such as Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Mazda, and less advanced versions of European manufacturers such as Porsche and BMW.

ALMS & Grand-Am: The Merger

So what now?  What now is that over the next year and a little bit, the two series have to sort out the class and rule structure, sanctioning, management structure, venues, schedule, and TV contracts.  Generally, the response to the announcement has been positive as can been seen on Autoweek, SpeedTV, & Bleacher Report.  An interesting angle on a class structure and schedule was proposed by Brad Brownell at 9 Magazine.   The ALMS & Grand-Am merger is also covered in detail in a lively discussion in Episode 33 of the Radiolemans.com Midweek Motorsport podcast.

I have to believe that our beloved Long Beach event will be retained with the merged entity.   If the ALMS & Grand-Am merger is handled well, it could be the best thing to happen to sports car racing in the US in over a decade.  As an example, it’s no doubt that the current IndyCar is better than the old IRL and Champ car series at the time of their merger.  Handled poorly…  Well, let’s just hope that doesn’t happen!

Hunter-Reay Win In Baltimore Sets Up Fabulous Fontana IndyCar Finale

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Ryan Hunter-Reay’s late race restart ambush of Ryan Briscoe secured a come-from-behind win at the Grand Prix of Baltimore and set up an exciting IndyCar finale at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana in two weeks.

Ryan Hunter-Reay #28 Andretti Autosport - Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

With his win, Hunter-Reay now trails IndyCar series leader Will Power by 17 points going into the final race of the season at SoCal’s Auto Club Speedway on September 15th.  With the race winner collecting 50 points, if Hunter-Reay also wins at Fontana, Will Power must finish second or third to take the IndyCar series title – fourth or worse, and Hunter-Reay takes the crown.

WIll Power #12 Team Penske - Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Will Power, who has been at the top of the series standings most of the season and was on fire early in the season with three consecutive victories, has not won since Sao Paolo Indy 300 in April.  Meanwhile, Ryan Hunter-Reay has gotten hot, winning three in a row himself and four of the last seven races, including Baltimore.

The Auto Club Speedway showdown was set up by Hunter-Reay’s fabulous timing of a restart after a late race caution at Baltimore when he accelerated from second place into the lead past Power’s teammate Ryan Briscoe into Turn 1.  Team Penske and Briscoe complained bitterly that  Hunter-Reay jumped the start, but IndyCar race control maintained that Hunter-Reay began the charge after the green flag was waved – a legal restart.  No other drivers are close enough to Power to have a chance to win the championship.  Sure is strange not to have a Target Ganassi driver in contention!

On to the IndyCar finale in Fontana…

Interestingly, SpeedTV has reported that Team Penske is courting Hunter-Reay as a replacement for Briscoe in their third car for next year.  For their part, Andretti Autosport maintains that they intend to have Hunter-Reay resigned for two years by the Fontana finale.  Briscoe’s management has also been aggressively shopping his services to other IndyCar teams as his seat at Penske has been in question for some time.  Sure makes for an interesting build up to Fontana.  Stay tuned…

UPDATE (090712): 

Autosport is reporting here that Hunter-Reay will be staying at Andretti Autosport.

Porsche Owners Club at Laguna Seca

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Wow, what a weekend!  The Porsche Owners Club (POC) made its annual pilgrimage to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca this past weekend for three great track days, some good food and drink, and a fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  Of course, the highlights of the weekend were primarily on the track with great racing in all three race classes on both days.  In fact, this was some of the best amateur racing I have seen: competitive and clean.  The Porsche Owners Club had four run groups throughout the weekend at Laguna Seca – three Race groups and a Time Trial group – and also shared the track with Speed Ventures, who had one run group.

POC Red Cup Race - Laguna Seca

POC Red Cup Race - Laguna Seca

POC Red Cup Race - Laguna Seca

POC Red Cup Race - Laguna Seca

POC Red Cup Race - Laguna Seca

If you ever have a chance to drive at Laguna Seca, the same place that ALMS and Grand-Am race today and IndyCar raced in the past, you MUST take advantage of it. There’s no track in SoCal that’s even really close to Laguna Seca.  One of the unexpected highlights of the weekend was a track walk led by Kelly Collins.  Walking the track gives a completely different feel and appreciation for the driving/racing lines, corner camber, and elevation changes than you get from driving the track.  At Turns 5, 6, and 10 you really get a sense of how the camber can help you carry serious speed thru these corners.  Of course, walking the corkscrew is something else as well.

POC Red Cup Race - Laguna Seca

POC Green Cup Race - Laguna Seca

POC Green Cup Race - Laguna Seca

POC Time Trial - Laguna Seca

In this case, add in the professionalism & organization of the Porsche Owners Club, excellent cooperation with Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca track management, and also a worthy fundraiser, and it was truly an unforgettable weekend!

Dario Franchitti & Scott Dixon at Auto Club Speedway

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Auto Club Speedway (ACS) in Fontana will be hosting the IZOD IndyCar finale under the lights in September when the series returns to SoCal, and today, Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon came to ACS to treat a small group of fans to a lunchtime visit that included interviews, Q&A, a photo session, and a sampling of their signature cuisine.

Dario Franchitti

Scott Dixon

Gillian Zucker, President of Auto Club Speedway was the event host, and she did a nice job of interviewing and engaging the drivers with audience submitted questions. Both of these guys quickly make connections to a crowd and are approachable good sports.

Scott Dixon is currently 4th in the standings and 28 points behind IndyCar series leader Will Power with three races to go.  He has a chance of winning the Championship if he has a couple of good races at Sonoma and Baltimore heading into the finale – especially if Power (1st), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2nd), and Helio Castroneves (3rd) founder.  Dario Franchitti is currently 8th with no realistic chance of defending his Champion status.  Aside from a fabulous month of May that saw him win his third Indy 500, Dario has had a tough year in which just about anything that could go wrong, did.  Aside from trying to take wins, his main role for the rest of the season will be supporting Dixon, his Target Ganassi teammate.

Dario & Scott were having fun!

During the interview we learned that Dario’s family fled Mussolini’s Italy for the ‘place with the worst weather.’  His maternal grandmother is, in fact, Scottish.  Scott Dixon’s wife Emma was a former top middle distance runner for Great Britain.  Dario favors street courses, while Scott favors road courses.

Dario and Scott are both lukewarm on the push-to-pass. In the recent race, the 5 second push-to-pass delay made it confusing and difficult to use it properly at the start. How do you time the boost that will happen 5 seconds in the future when you don’t know exactly when the green flag will drop?  Everybody got it wrong.  Supposedly the delay is going away.

Both of them felt the finale will be an interesting race with changing conditions as the sun goes down – compromising vision – and the track cools off.  500 miles around the Auto Club Speedway will be exciting and tough.

After the interview and a picture session, fans were invited to sample Scott Tots and Franchitti Ziti – really.

The guys with Scott Tots and Franchitti Ziti

Both of these guys are passionate racers, and the fans love them.  They’re great ambassadors for the sport, and I wish them well for the rest of the season.

Scott Dixon & Dario Franchitti

Monterey Motorsports Reunion

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This week begins the annual pilgrimage of motorsports fans to the Monterey Peninsula for the Monterey Motorsports Reunion.  The week’s festivities have grown and grown over the years, and now there are multiple fabulous events on each day – from marque specific shows to auctions – really intensifying beginning with the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance on Wednesday the 16th and building throughout the rest of the week and weekend.  What started as historic car races at Laguna Seca now includes marque specific events, car club gatherings, multiple auctions at various venues and times, and food, drink, & aircraft events.  Although you easily could, you don’t need to spend a mint to have a great time.  Just walking around Monterey and Carmel at the right times will treat you to some very cool sights and sounds.

Here are a few shots from the 2011 Monterey Motorsports Reunion week:

The Quail

The Quail

Porsche 918 at the Quail Lodge

Monterey Motorsports Reunion Races At Laguna Seca

Monterey Motorsports Reunion

Monterey Motorsports Reunion

Monterey Motorsports Reunion

Monterey Motorsports Reunion

See the full gallery here.

So What About IndyCar Push-To-Pass?

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Well after watching a few races under the revived IZOD IndyCar series push-to-pass system, I can’t say that I am a big fan – at least yet.  At Edmonton, most of the radio chatter in the last few laps of a competitive race was about when to use push-to-pass, how much to use, how much other guys might have left.  Helio Castroneves was able to hold off Takuma Sato, perhaps with the help of conserving his push-to-pass time throughout the race.  Too much like a video game for me.  This weekend at Mid-Ohio, there was a revision in that there would be a 5 second delay between push and effect.  I never heard an explanation for the change, but I would guess that it was to prevent push-to-defend: the overtaking driver would know where he wanted the push-to-pass boost and would push 5 seconds early, and the overtaken driver would not be able to respond.  At Mid-Ohio, it was not easy to determine the effect of push-to-pass on the race.  Winner Scott Dixon had great pace throughout and the Target Ganassi team executed flawlessly on pit stops.  I do have to give IndyCar kudos for how they reflect the use of push-to-pass on live timing and scoring – which is perhaps the best timing display in professional racing.

Personally I would rather see overtaking more dependent upon driver skill and looking after tires that performed more on the edge.  And I think the cars should have much more horsepower all of the time with less dependence upon aero.  Again this would put a premium on driver skill and car control.  Think of what a race is like in the rain.  In fact, on Twitter, there were folks rooting for rain at Mid-Ohio.  Opinions?

IndyCar Reintroduces Push-To-Pass: Good For Action Or Folly?

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IndyCar reintroduced push-to-pass last weekend at Toronto.  Was this a good move or not?  Well, I was skeptical about reintroducing a somewhat contrived way of promoting overtaking.  After all, during the Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park, there was plenty of passing at a course where historically it has been difficult to overtake.  At Toronto, since there was no indicator on the broadcast of when push-to-pass was being used, it was difficult to determine the overall effect.  We did hear toward the end of the race that Ryan Hunter-Reay had enough of his 100 seconds of push-to-pass time allotment remaining to use it on the main straight for the remainder of the race, effectively making it push-to-defend in his case.  Unfortunately the race ended under caution with Hunter-Reay at the front, so we never saw what was to happen in his case.  I’d say the final verdict is out for now, but my opinion is that it’s not needed and its reintroduction was a mistake.  We’ll see what happens next week at Edmonton.  I’d rather see at least 25% more horsepower which would make the race outcomes more dependent upon driver skill.

I’m eager to hear what Robin Miller or a couple of top drivers have to say…

ESPN3 Broadcast of ALMS Northeast Grand Prix (Lime Rock Park)

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After a week long trip to Eastern Europe and a self imposed media blackout so I could watch it fresh on ESPN3 rebroadcast, I really enjoyed the ALMS Northeast Grand Prix upon my return to sunny SoCal.  Especially enjoyable is the enthusiast oriented broadcast by the Radio Le Mans team of John Hindhaugh and Jeremy Shaw.  These guys are real pros, and their broadcast is fabulous, and a clear step up from the ESPN2 highlight show.  If you are an ALMS fan, you MUST watch ESPN3 and the Radio Le Mans team.  If you are a race fan, you really owe it to yourself to check out the Radio Le Mans podcast.

HSR West 11th Annual Southern California Historic Sports Car Festival – Auto Club Speedway

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Auto Club Speedway hosted the HSR West 11th Annual Historic Sports Car Festival this weekend for two days of vintage and historic racing in the SoCal sun.  HSR West was running 10 run groups this weekend:

  • Group 1 – Formula Vee
  • Group 2 – Small & Medium Bore Production
  • Group 3 – Formula Ford Pacific
  • Group 4 – 2.5 B-Sedan
  • Group 5 – BOSS, Formula 5000, & Formula 2.0
  • Group 6 – Historic Stock Cars
  • Group 7 – Big Bore Production
  • Group 8 – GTP, Trans-Am, Can-AM, & FIA
  • Group 9 – Champ & Indy Car
  • Group X – Datsun-Nissan

HSR West ran a quality event with an open paddock, an entertaining race announcer, podium celebrations, and generally a really friendly atmosphere.  The luxury box seats on the inside of the main straight were open, and some folks brought their portable party along.  Add in dignitaries like Adam Carolla, a passionate historic Datsun racer, and Tony Adamowicz, the Trans-Am, Can-Am, Formula 5000, and IMSA veteran along with beautiful weather, and we had a recipe for some good old fashioned – literally – Southern California racing fun.  Tony Adamowicz also has a long association with Datsun-Nissan and Riverside International Automotive Museum, who had a big celebration event earlier in the week.  Being here with the HSR West crowd around all these historic race cars made me think of what it must have been like at Riverside or even Ontario back in the day.  Unfortunately I wasn’t here back then…

All pictures in this gallery were taken with a Canon EOS 40D; most were shot with Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras.

I also recently bought a new SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash 16 GB Flash Memory Card SDCFXP-016G-X46,Black because my old card with a 30 MB/s write speed could not continuously keep up with the 6 fps of my Canon 40D.  The new card was fabulous; I could hold the shutter release down essentially indefinitely without the card slowing down my shots.  A really important consideration when shooting live action sports.