Auto racing here and there

The way to make a small fortune in auto racing, is to start with a large fortune.
Ancient auto racing proverb

Racing season is almost here and there's some news and non-news to catch up on.

Here

AG at Dullard Mush alerted me to an ad on Craig's List about someone looking for help in promoting auto racing in the Reno area. At first I thought it was one team looking to find a sponsor, but it turned out to be an entire league; Dwarf Cars.


Photo credit D.A.R.T.

It sounds like fun and I gave it serious consideration, (I'm still thinking about it) but I can see a number of problems. The biggest problem is the location of Reno/Fernley Raceway. Asking potential customers to drive nearly 100 miles round trip for some entertainment is a lot to ask. I don't know what a good location would be, but 10 miles south of Fernley ain't it.

In order to get people to make the drive, you'd need a good headline race. Club racing just isn't a big enough attraction. Their best bet, I would think, would be to attach themselves to a larger and more popular series and race at bigger tracks.

We can also add the mud parking lot, dilapidated grandstands, and only a 1/3 mile oval, and let's face it, it's not the best place to impress your girlfriend on a Saturday night in Reno. The league operates in northern Nevada and parts of California. I'm no marketing guru, but if Reno isn't the main draw in this area, then what is?

Contrast the Fernley track with what the Reno Aces did and it's easy to see why baseball is popular in Reno and dirt track racing isn't. Old Moana Park and the Fernley track have at least one thing in common; I visited them both once and never went back to either.

There

So for the time being, I'll remain an ALMS fan. The economic crunch has been tough on the series and many of last year's problems persist, but there are some interesting additions. (Note: Driving 600 miles round trip once a year is still worth it).

Last year's Aston Martin has moved to GT and for the most part, gone back to Europe. The Muscle Milk team picked up Honda which returns after a one year absence due to the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. Still, with the Dyson Lola/Mazda, LMP 1 is only a two team class.

LMP 2 has two new additions for a total of three teams now. On shorter, curvier tracks like Laguna Seca, both classes are competitive so we could get a pretty good race between them. The most interesting of the LMP 2 entrants is the Conquest Endurance Morgan/Judd prototype.

The Morgan Motor Company is best known for the iconic three wheeled cyclecar. They've been building them by hand since 1909.


Photo credit Wikipedia

They make four wheel cars also, including this one.


Photo credit Racecar Engineering

Aside from their long history of innovation, what's especially interesting is the choice of the Judd engine. English sports cars traditionally focus on being light weight, and Judd is best known for their monstrous V-10. They'll certainly have something smaller, being an LMP 2, but the combination of Morgan and Judd make this the car to watch this year.

In the GT class Jaguar is out and Lotus is in. After three years, Jaguar never saw much success and I don't expect Lotus will either. But I have to admit, that's a good lookin' car.


Photo credit American Le Mans

The BMW's, Ferrari's, Porsche's and Corvettes will all return for another year. The GT class has been by far the most competitive and this year will be no different.

There are some new teams in LMPC and GTC. The cars in these classes are all from the same manufacturers, Oreca and Porsche respectively, so the focus is more on the drivers. We'll see if any new stars emerge.

All in all the series seems to be hanging in there. With only five teams in the marquee LMP classes, it's difficult to see the series gaining new fans. Still, there's enough that's new to keep the regular fans coming back.

Twitter In The Over 50 Club

A buddy of mine at work, who is roughly the the same age as me (55), informed me one day that he had been "talked into signing up with Facebook." He then went on to describe how stupid and pointless it is. I asked him about Twitter;

"Oh hell no", he said. "I can see where teenagers would like it. They can talk on the phone for 3 hours about nothing. But what am I going to tell everybody, that I cut my toenails today? Who gives a shit!"

I have to admit, I'm somewhat sympathetic to this view. I signed up with this stuff last March, and although I've found it interesting in a sociological kind of way, I haven't been able to make much use of it. As the conversation with my friend went on, I told him that I had followed on endurance auto race from Japan, courtesy of Drayson Racing. It triggered some long forgotten memories.

DraysonRacing Good morning from Okayama. We are approx. an hour from the start of Asian Le Mans Series Race 2. Jonny will again start from the pole.4:03 PM Oct 31st from TweetDeck

DraysonRacing The car has now taken its place at the point of the grid. We are approx. 20 mins from the green flag. 3 hours,/136 laps will be run today.4:41 PM Oct 31st from TweetDeck

In the early '60's, Major League Baseball was almost always played during the day. Most stadiums didn't have lights yet, and even for those that did, night games were a novelty. For a school aged kid, this presented a problem until the invention of the pocket sized transistor radio. Whether a jock or a nerd, cool guy or dweeb, on certain days in October, the kid with the transistor radio was the most popular kid in school.

DraysonRacing GREEN FLAG!4:58 PM Oct 31st from TweetDeck


During recess, we'd follow that poor kid around the playground like a pack of dogs waiting for their bowls. At lunchtime, you would have seen us all out on the grass, Indian Council style, in a circle, cross-legged, in silence, staring at the tiny magic box.

DraysonRacing Give & take of traffic has us back 14 secs to the leader; ahead of 3rd by 2.5 secs. All-told, the gaps remain close; 2 hrs, 14 min to go.5:44 PM Oct 31st from TweetDeck

As time went on, they came out with a little ear piece that connected to the radio with a wire. That meant that if a kid was sufficiently discreet, he could listen in class. Updates could be whispered. or notes could be passed, and we could all stay informed. One time I remember, the teacher was writing on the blackboard with her back turned to the class when a kid near the front and off to the side held up his binder with the message:

Yanks
3-2
5th

and that's when it clicked. Waiting for the Twitter updates had turned me into a 10 year old again.


DraysonRacing Drayson Stop 2 - Lap 87, 55 mins remaining - Shell Fuel, Michelin Tyres and a Driver Change. Jonny IN, Paul Out. Running P3. Great stop!7:04 PM Oct 31st from TweetDeck

Of course, the kid would eventually get caught. No worries, another would have one and the updates would continue. As the saying goes, history doesn't repeat itself, it rhymes.

DraysonRacing 15 mins remaining and Jonny is 10 seconds behind the Audi in P4.7:43 PM Oct 31st from TweetDeck

On March 20, the regular race season opens with the 12 hours of Sebring. I don't know if other teams are doing this yet. Multiple Twitter updates could be as good a way to "watch" the race as any.

DraysonRacing 6 minutes and 2 seconds remain. Jonny calls in to confirm the Audi within his sight is for position. It definitely is!7:52 PM Oct 31st from TweetDeck

DraysonRacing 1.5 seconds, 4 minuts remaining between Drayson and P47:53 PM Oct 31st from TweetDeck

DraysonRacing Jonny flashes by just off the rear of the Audi... 0.475 seconds!7:54 PM Oct 31st from TweetDeck

In any case, I've found another use for Twitter. It took a long time, but it was just a matter of staying with it. Sooner or later, the Law of Unintended Consequences kicks in.

DraysonRacing Jonny takes P4. White flag lap!!!7:57 PM Oct 31st from TweetDeck


DraysonRacing Team ends 2009 'World Tour' on high note! P4!!! Highest Privateer Finisher! Fastest race lap, again, by Jonny.8:01 PM Oct 31st from TweetDeck

That's all for today. It's time to cut my toenails.

Development In The Public Eye

Another October, time for me and my brother Steve to make our annual pilgrimage to Laguna Seca Raceway for the American Le Mans Series
(ALMS) 4 hour endurance race in Monterrey, California. The series usually features 4 classes of cars, 2 prototype (experimental) and 2 production (street cars). Recently they added a 5Th, the Michelin Green X Challenge.

All of the Green X cars run on bio fuel and are the most experimental of the prototypes. The one that I was most impressed with was the Dyson Lola/Mazda turbo-diesel hybrid.


Dyson Racing started as a father/son team over 25 years ago and has been a major independent in the ALMS since 1999. The father is now retired. They run 2 cars but the white and green #16 caught my eye at the 2 hour mark, when we were sitting in turn 4. He was going nose to tail with eventual winner Gil De Ferran in his more powerful Jim Hall Acura. De Ferran should have been losing him in the straights, but wasn't. At about 2 1/2 hours into the race, the Dyson team had a lengthy pit stop which put them out of the top ten.

We arrived early, in time for the morning warm-ups and spent some time wandering around in the pits. I didn't shoot a lot of video as I wanted to save the battery for the race. One shot I couldn't pass up was a close-up of De Ferran checking the seating arrangements in his Acura. Another shot was an exhibit of vintage Jim Hall Chevy Chaparrals from the old Can-Am series. There were a lot of exhibits explaining some of the new technologies, and of course, the inevitable t-shirt booths and $3 hot dogs too.

Shooting video of auto racing is not easy. I was battling fences all day long. There were some holes in the fence to shoot through, but these were always crowded with photographers. The hilly terrain sometimes helped. One guy I saw was carrying a small aluminum step stool and shooting over the fence. Great idea, I'll have to remember that for next time.

We watched the start of the race at turn 2, the fastest part of the track. After about an hour we moved to turn 6, then to turn 4. We stopped by turn 10 on our way to the "corkscrew", a series of corners starting with a 90 degree left hander, then a 90 degree right hander and a sweeping left hander all happening in a 3 story drop in elevation. We finished up back at turn 2. It was a great day, and a great race.