THE LINE

July 28, 2010

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Check out the outstanding Pikes Peak GT3 film "GT3 CLIMB" - presented by Luminox Watches, Porsche Motorsport North America & Pirelli - of Jeff Zwart's record-setting Pikes Peak International Hill Climb run, here. Directed by Will Roegge (willroegge.com) and shot by Will Roegge & DC Chavez, it's awesome stuff. Sit back, turn up the volume and enjoy! - PMD

(John Thawley Images, Copyright 2010)
Klaus Graf, Greg Pickett (No. 6 Muscle Milk Team CytoSport Porsche) earned their first overall victory in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón with a stunning victory Saturday in the American Le Mans Series Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park. Graf raced David Brabham (No. 1 Patron Highcroft Racing HPD ARX-01c) over the final half-hour, with the critical moment of the race coming when Graf blatantly moved over on Brabham as they passed the start-finish line - and Memo to TV commentators: Graf knew that Brabham was there, by the way. It was an intentional move that could have resulted in disaster too - and sent him off the track, causing Brabham's car to suffer a punctured right-rear tire, forcing a late pit stop.  Graf received stop-and-go penalty for blocking but the race was over for Brabham, as Graf took the checkered flag by 27.81 seconds for the team’s second victory of the year. The Porsche also won the prototype portion of the MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge, which rewards entries for going the farthest distance the fastest with the least amount of environmental impact. Graf also climbed to within 7 points of Brabham and Simon Pagenaud in the LMP championship. The Elton Julian/Gunnar Jeannette G-Oil Green Earth Team Gunnar’s ORECA FLM09 won in LMP Challenge for the second time this year as Jeannette coasted across the finish line without fuel pressure, finishing ahead of the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports’ entry of Tom Papadopoulos and Alex Figge. The Jörg Bergmeister/Patrick Long (No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR) won the GT class at Lime Rock for the fifth consecutive year and second in a row with Patrick Long as co-driver. Long beat BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team’s Bill Auberlen (driving with Tommy Milner) by 1.495 seconds in a knock-down, drag-out battle. The top three cars were separated by just 4.079 seconds, with the Joey Hand/Dirk Mueller BMW M3 GT getting on the GT podium. Andy Lally and Henri Richard (TRG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) won their first GT Challenge race with Lally getting the measure of Black Swan Racing’s Jeroen Bleekemolen (driving with Tim Pappas). The TRG entry ended BSR’s two-race win streak. Check out more scintillating images from photo ace John Thawley here, this time from the ALMS race at Lime Rock. Next up for the ALMS is the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge on Saturday, August 7.

(Dana Garrett/IndyCar)
Scott Dixon (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda-Powered Dallara) leads his teammate Dario Franchitti in the No. 10 Target car during last Sunday's IndyCar race at Edmonton. Dixon was given a "gift" win by Brian Barnhart of IndyCar as Helio Castroneves was penalized for blocking on a re-start with three laps to go.

(Dana Garrett/IndyCar)
Helio was robbed, pure and simple. Here he leads Dixon, Franchitti and Ryan Briscoe through Turn 1.

(Dana Garrett/IndyCar)
James Hinchcliffe (No. 2 Xtreme Coil Drilling TMR) outdueled J.K. Vernay (No. 7 Lucas/CJ/Sam Schmidt Motorsports) in the Edmonton 100 to claim his second Firestone Indy Lights win and his first race on home soil. Hinchcliffe closed to within 55 points of Vernay, the championship leader, heading to the next round at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Aug. 8. Martin Plowman finished third in the No. 27 Automatic Fire Sprinklers/KEP Printing car for AFS Racing Andretti Autosport - his season high on a street/road circuit. He's the only driver in the series to finish in the top 10 in all races and the only one to complete every lap.

(Chris Jones/IndyCar)
KV Racing Technology came up big at the Honda Indy Edmonton, placing four drivers in the top ten. Paul Tracy (above) finished sixth after raising more than $112,578 for Make-A-Wish Canada. Mario Moraes finished seventh (his fourth top 10 in 11 races), E.J. Viso (No. 8 PDVSA Jet Aviation KVRT) started a season-high sixth, finishing eighth, and Takuma Sato earned the first top 10 of his IZOD IndyCar Series career with a ninth place in the No. 5 Lotus KVRT car.

(Illustrations by Mathisen Media)
Well, at least someone has the right idea. WC Vision - managing arm of the World Challenge Championships - has announced that the future of the GTS class will include a mix of production sports cars and sport sedans, aiming to provide one of the most diverse classes of racing in all of motorsports. The 2009-spec Touring Cars - such as the Acura/RealTime Racing Acura TSX cars currently competing in GTS and former competitors such as the MAZDA3 and BMW 328i - will continue to compete and be equalized through adjustments from SCCA Pro Racing to remain competitive. But the core of the class moving forward will be production-based, mid-level sports cars, including pony cars like the Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro. Additionally, it will offer a place for current-model Domestic, European and Japanese sports cars and sedans including the Audi S4 and S5, BMW 335 and M3, Cadillac CTS-V, Mercedes CLK V-8, Infiniti G37, Nissan 370Z, Lexus ISF, Mitsubishi EVO, and Subaru WRX STi. With exceptions allowed to equalize the performance of each of the machines, the GTS cars will use stock transmissions and pickup points. Only the cars "grandfathered" in - such as the Acura TSX and BMW 328i - will be able to use sequential gearboxes. Wings and splitters will continue to be used, but no exotic suspension components will be permitted. The new GTS cars will maintain a stock body, with no carbon fiber body panels permitted while maintaining the stock unibody chassis. Performance will be managed with weight and engine restrictor adjustments as currently used in the GT and Touring Car classes of World Challenge. Sanctioned by SCCA Pro Racing, the 12-race 2010 World Challenge Championship next races August 7 – 8 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the World Challenge Sports Car Challenge presented by Optima Batteries. For more information, please visit www.world-challenge.com.

(BMW Group)
Holy Schnikees, Batman! MINI goes rally crazy, in a Countryman, no less! MINI will compete at selected rounds of the2011  FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) and will go on to contest the entire season from 2012 onwards. This involvement is planned for several years. And they picked the right company to go rallying with too, as Prodrive will develop the car "in close cooperation with MINI." Based on the production model, the MINI Countryman WRC machine will have a 1.6-litre, four-cylinder turbo-charged engine prepared by BMW Motorsport. The car will comply with the new Super2000 regulations put in place by the International Automobile Federation (FIA), which stipulate the use of turbo engines with 1,600 cc displacement and four-wheel drive combined with an increased emphasis on road relevant technologies. The aim is to reduce overall costs by 25 percent. The first test for the MINI Countryman WRC - which will also be available to customer teams - is planned for autumn 2010. Prodrive has been working on developing the MINI Countryman WRC since early 2009. The company was formed in 1984 by David Richards, who won the World Rally Championship as co-driver to Ari Vatanen (FI) three years earlier. Based in Banbury (GB), Prodrive has developed into a leading independent company in the motorsport and automobile sector under Richards' guidance, and today employs over 500 people. Prodrive's many successes currently include six overall victories in the World Rally Championship, five titles in the British Touring Car Championship and three class victories at the Le Mans 24 Hours (FR). “This is a very exciting new motorsport programme,” said Richards, now the Chairman of Prodrive. “During the 1960s MINI captured the imagination of the world when the tiny car took on the might of V8 powered Fords and won what was then one of the toughest motorsport events, the 4000km Monte Carlo rally. I believe our new MINI will become a firm favourite of the latest generation of rally fans, just as it is adored by its millions of owners across the world. We already have a significant number of confirmed customer orders for the new MINI rally car with the first deliveries scheduled for the start of the 2011 season.”

 The U.S. Grand Prix in Austin. Former San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota Vikings owner and mega auto dealer Red McCombs has been named as the big-time investor behind the U.S. F1 Grand Prix set to take place outside of Austin, Texas, beginning in 2012. We've said it before and we'll say it again, we'll believe it when we see it.

 NASCAR. Editor-in-Chief's Note: Speaking of Bush-League Bullshit, the NASCAR Implosion continues as its dramatically plummeting in-person attendance numbers reached a crescendo at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last Sunday for the Brickyard 400. The reality of the situation has now become apparent as Brian France's failure to get out front of the changes needed to bolster attendance is absolutely killing NASCAR, and it's a downward spiral with no end in sight. Instead of Brian France worrying about dinking around with "The Chase," he needs to concern himself about the fundamental decline in the popularity of the sport. The glacier-like pace of change that has been NASCAR's raison d'etre forever has set the sport on the road to ruin. As I've said countless times on this website, NASCAR needs to consolidate its schedule ASAP. Twenty-five well-attended races beats a schedule of 36 (plus 2 gimmick races) with glaring "holes" in the stands. Except those weren't just holes in the Indy grandstands - it was obvious to everyone that the stands were half-full, at best. Not Good. Too bad I didn't get to craft the headlines for Monday's newspaper and Internet coverage, because it would have read: "The wheels come off for NASCAR as series reaches new low" or, "Empty grandstands reveal NASCAR's stunning decline as traditionally loyal fans abandon the sport in droves." The lack of attendance at Indy has nothing to do with the recession and everything to do with the stupefying lack of vision in Daytona Beach. I'm tired of the NASCAR excuses, I'm tired of the glass half-full platitudes, and I'm tired of France's "pretty happy where we're at" bullshit. We're watching the decline of an enterprise that once was the darling of the media and its rabid fans, one now reeling from a relentless serial incompetence that apparently knows no bounds. Pretending that NASCAR is just going through a "bad patch" is what the France family and its apologist-minions do every single day. That may feel good to those engaged in it, but it's not going to reverse the deteriorating fortunes for NASCAR. As a matter of fact, the plunge is accelerating. Changes are needed - stock dimension bodywork, recognizable Camaros/Mustangs/Challengers, a shortened schedule, etc., etc., etc. - immediately, not in 2011-12-13.  My advice to NASCAR fans? Make your voices heard and your opinions known. Don't sit back and watch these bozos fly the thing into the ground. - PMD

(BMW Group)

The BMW M3 GT2 Art Car was one of the popular entries at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. The work of American artist Jeff Koons, images of BMW's latest "Art Car" were seen around the world. BMW conducted a photo contest for all accredited photographers who captured pictures of the car at the “Circuit de la Sarthe” and Rick Dole, from St. Augustine, Florida, has been named the winner. Dole made the biggest impression on the jury, which included BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen and the three drivers of the BMW Art Car, Dirk Werner (DE), Dirk Müller (DE) and Andy Priaulx (GB). “The BMW Art Car Photo Contest was very well received among photographers in Le Mans,” says Mario Theissen. “They too are artists, who understand how to capture the special atmosphere at a 24-hour race and the character of the racing car in pictures. Congratulations to Rick Dole, who achieved this feat in style with our 17th BMW Art Car. His photo perfectly captures the unique dynamic of Jeff Koons’ design. However, it was not easy for the jury to decide on a winner. I want to say thank you to all of those who took part for submitting a large number of impressive photographs.” Since last Wednesday, visitors to the BMW and BMW Motorsport Facebook profiles have been able to view some of the jury's favorite shots. So far, the gallery has been viewed by 1.8 million fans, and more than 8,000 users have shown their appreciation of the work of the motorsport photographers who took part by clicking on the “Like” button. Rick Dole has been working as a professional photographer for 24 years. 2010 was his 14th visit to the endurance classic at Le Mans. The winning photo was taken in the second chicane on the Mulsanne straight. “Le Mans is my favourite circuit in the world to shoot,” says Dole. “Each year I search for new and unique locations to photograph the event. This year, for the first time, I leased and photographed from a helicopter and was able to capture this wonderful image of the BMW Art Car. It is a spectacular car to photograph from any angle. I am honoured and humbled to be recognised by BMW.” Dole developed a passion for motorsport in his teens. His heroes were Niki Lauda (AT) and Ronnie Peterson (SE). The first race he watched live was the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1984. From that moment on he has been hooked on motorsport. As a reward for his photo of the No. 79 BMW M3 GT2, the Dole receives a check for 1,000 Euros. Rick is a regular contributor to Sports Car Insider... and "ONE HELL of a photographer" according to John Thawley. Way to go, Rick!

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Check out Michelin's racing website - "Michelin Alley" - and get in on all of the behind-the-scenes buzz. Go here. - PMD

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