How to do Le Mans

We didn't go to Le Mans this year, but here's how we made up for it:

• Listened to coverage of qualifying whilst watching the Eurosport live streaming video via a European proxy
• Moved the TV to the bedroom so that when we woke up on Saturday morning we just needed to push the power button and we were good to go. Also had the laptop on hand to tune into Radio Le Mans for audio (we muted the Speed Channel coverage) and for live timing and scoring
  
• Had fresh coffee, baguettes and croissants for breakfast, just like we do when we're there
  
• Then we moved the TV and laptop to the kitchen whilst we prepped for the evening's Le Mans party
• Taped Andy Blackmore's superb spotters guide to the wall, crossing off retirements as they happened, like you find in the local Le Mans newspapers
• Had people show up around 5pm, just before Speed Channel came back on, and made sure to only invite true Le Mans fans. The group this year was great!
• Provided French cheese and crackers for appetizers
• Drank Kronenbourg 1664 beer and French wine
  
• Cooked roast chicken and tartiflette, grilled fresh, hand-stuffed halal merguez sausage and borrowed my mate Dave's deep fryer to do proper twice-fried French fries. Delicious!
• For dessert we had tasty little European confectionaries
• We stayed up until 11:30pm Pacific time, got 3 hours sleep (like we do at the track) then got up for the final 3 hours

That's about as authentic as you can get I think. It was a Le Mans to remember.

Someone peed in their pasta

Remarkable events have unfolded before anyone even turned a wheel in anger at Le Mans.

When the entry list was first published, many people questioned the inclusion an LMP2-spec Lucchini prototype entered by veteran Italian team Racing Box. The chassis was old and slow and other more worthy entries had been denied in order to allow it entry.

Part of the paperwork requirements at Le Mans is a certification from a car's manufacturer that the entry is as originally homologated, and if any changes have been made by the team that they haven't compromised the integrity of the tub.

Racing Box asked for this paperwork from Lucchini prior to the LMS race at Monza and received it, only to make some modifications afterwards (and before the Le Mans test day). When Lucchini heard about the modifications they informed Le Mans organizers, the ACO, that they were withdrawing their certification pending a re-inspection of the car. The ACO informed Racing Box of this development and the team made hasty arrangements to bring the car to Lucchini. On the day of the meeting, Lucchini's CEO called Racing Box to say he couldn't meet with them due to a bad back. Later that day he called again and said that he would meet with them to certify the car but only if they paid him 28,000 Euro!!! This amounted to extortion and Racing Box immediately called the police who raided Lucchini's premises and caught them trying to destroy documents.

Racing Box still turned up at Le Mans but failed scrutineering due to the missing paperwork. As a result, a second Epsilon Euskadi LMP1 coupe has taken its place with the powerhouse lineup of Stefan Johanssen, Jean-Marc Gounon and Shinji Nakano. Quite why this happened is unclear - we are well past the deadline for reserve entries to take a place, and Epsilon seemed *very* ready for the turn of events. Perhaps the ACO suspected that Racing Box would run into trouble and informed Epsilon that they might be offered another grid place.

There's much to this story that remains a mystery, but for now it's just one more piece of Le Mans' rich and sometimes bizarre history.

BMW: Toyota's worst nightmare

Back in December 2006, I wrote a post about how Toyota should really be so much better than they are, not just in F1 but in all forms of motorsport. Here we are, 18 months later, and Toyota's generally poor showing in F1 has been brought into stark contrast by the remarkable first win for the BMW F1 team in Canada.

BMW seems almost to be the opposite of the behemoth that is Toyota. Perhaps the most successful "small" independent carmaker, they've made a point of generally kicking tail in every motorsport they've been in. Robert Kubica's win today is simply the latest in a long string of racing successes for the Munich-based manufacturer. Back in 1998 after a failed two-car Le Mans effort they radically revamped their V12LM prototype, realizing that revolution, not evolution was the way to go, and brought in the expertise of the Williams F1 design and engineering departments to help out. Whilst requiring more work, and representing greater risk of failure, it was this move that set the ball rolling for a victory at the Sarthe in 1999.

Since the return of the World Touring Car Championship in 2004, BMW has taken both drivers and manufacturers championships, always in the face of very stiff competition. Between 1973 and 1988 they won seven European Touring Car Championships, and the '88-'91 E30 M3 is often considered the most successful production-based racing car of all time.

When BMW brought their E46 M3 to the American Le Mans Series it was utterly dominant. It's not often that you see Porsche crying foul about another manufacturer cheating, but the success of the M3GTR drove them to such action. The car was swiftly banned for not complying with homologation numbers requirements. Next year sees the return of the M3 to the ALMS. I wonder how it will do? They're also going World Superbike racing in 2009 with a clean-sheet design, no doubt with series designs on the title.

And there's always the small matter of two Nurburgring 24 Hours victories with the aforementioned M3 GTR in 2004 and 2005.

For such a relatively small company, BMW have generally done a splendid job whenever they've gone racing. Toyota on the other hand have nothing but a string of failures to show for the ungodly amounts of money they've spent on their racing activities. The only bright spot in their racing portfolio is recent success in NASCAR, but based on this season's results, much of that is due to a certain Mr. Busch.

Shuntorama

What a weekend for big accidents. We saw two entirely different yet highly disturbing crashes, both of which illustrated the potential danger of the sport, as well as the incredible ability of modern race cars to protect its occupant when things go wrong.

Here's exhibit A. Stephane Ortelli's LMP1 class prototype experienced some kind of mechanical failure during the Monza 1000km and veered abruptly to the right. At this point the aerodynamics, which are designed to prevent a car getting air (like the Mercedes CLRs at Le Mans in '99) took over because the car was sideways, and aero is not designed for sideways travel. The car launched into a massive barrel roll. As with most accidents of this type, they look far worse than they are - the gradual release of energy throughout the crash ensured that Ortelli never experienced life-threatening G-loading. The scariest thing about this one is how close the flying Oreca came to decapitating Allan McNish in the Audi:



Onto Exhibit B. In the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix, McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen also experienced a mechanical failure that forced the car to go somewhere it shouldn't. In his case, the car speared off the track and he made contact with the tyre wall at an angle of about 30 degrees whilst doing 137mph. Unlike Ortelli's crash, Kovalainen DID experience massive G-loads, perhaps equalling Robert Kubica's record-setting 75G load during his accident in Canada last year. It's worth noting that 100G is enough to kill most people. An additional aspect of this shunt that was scary was the fact that the car dived UNDER the tyre barrier, and no matter how low down the driver sits, his head is very much at risk in that kind of situation.


I'm not that surprised that Ortelli was relatively unharmed (save for a broken ankle) but the fact that Kovalainen survived with nothing more than concussion and some bumps and bruises is incredible. I have no doubt that the HANS device played a key role in his survival.

The gains in safety since the Imola '94 have been remarkable and it's weekends like this, where we could easily have been mourning the loss of one, perhaps even two, professional racing drivers, that are testament to the work put in by many on this critical issue.

Thunderhill 25 Hours - A perfect end to the racing season

Earlier this year I wrote about the Britcar 24 Hours, an ostensibly amateur 24-hour sportscar race that had become well-loved by the entire racing community and was attracting big names who enjoyed its relaxed and laid-back energy.

This weekend I was able to attend an event which could lay claim to being the American equivalent to the Britcar 24 Hours, the 25 Hours of Thunderhill. The race had attracted more than 70 entries, from a Daytona Prototype and some Norma sports-racing prototypes all the way down to Spec Miatas and Honda Civics. Teams were generally amateur, and the vibe was friendly, grass-roots, supportive yet competitive.

Thunderhill is a terrific drivers track. I've done trackdays there both in cars and on bikes, and its diversity of corners and interesting gradients make it fun to drive on, whilst the huge amount of grassy run-off means it's incredibly safe. About 3 hours from San Francisco near the rural town of Willows, it is somewhat in the middle of nowhere, but this adds to the general feeling of camaraderie amongst everyone attending.

My friend Bob and I got there at about 4pm, with dusk approaching. My most recent 24 hour experience was at Le Mans, which starts at 4pm and doesn't get dark until 10pm, so it took some adjusting of my internal clock to deal with this. The race had kicked off at 11am, and by now the three prototypes had a healthy lead. We watched from a number of great vantage points before grabbing a warm cup of coffee and checking the scoring in the comfy clubhouse. With the leaderboard in hand we spent the next couple of hours wandering the pits and paddock, talking to teams, watching them at work and checking out pitstops. Drama was unfolding everywhere. There was the completely bare-bones effort from some local guys in an E30 BMW who had cracked an oil sump and were working feverishly to scavenge parts off a donor engine they'd brought in the back of a pickup truck. Then there was the big budget MER Mazda team (whose driver clients included Patrick Dempsey from "Grey's Anatomy") who had one of their five cars up on jackstands whilst they replaced the entire right-rear suspension, occasionally going over to a brand new MX5 they'd brought along to see how things were supposed to fit together.

Every now and then we'd see another car dragged into the paddock on the hook of a tow-truck, another victim of the night. Team members (or drinking buddies or work colleagues or family) would pounce on the cars, trying to figure out the problems in order to get their car back on track. It was motorsport at its most basic, survival of the fittest and survival of the most desperate.

The energy in the paddock was buzzing. Ten hours in, and the cans of Rockstar and Red Bull were disappearing from underneath RVs, whilst Gatorade and water remained untouched. The diversity of crazy marker lights punctuated the night like an Aston Martin's door mirrors at Le Mans. Barbecue grills smoked, generators hummed away, mig welding torches crackled and sparked, breath froze in the chilly night air and the constant background noise of straight-fours, V8s, inline-sixes and of course rotaries filled gaps in conversation.

Endurance racing, whether it's the multi-million dollar kind at Le Mans or the few-thousand dollar version at Thunderhill is essentially the same.

Unlike Le Mans, we opted for a proper night's sleep and returned the next morning, tea and croissant in hand, to find a gray, sad paddock. Rain during the night had hampered or ended many efforts. Crews who had retired had already vacated their paddock spot, whilst those still running were starting to clean up, given the three hours remaining. The wind howled across California's Central Valley, chilling everyone to their bones, as the 40 remaining cars pounded out the laps, covered in grime, trailing broken pieces of fiberglass and struggling for grip on the dusty, damp track.

With an hour to go the battle for third was truly on. MER Mazda number 92 held a slim lead over the factory-backed Honda Research S2000 effort, and before long the Honda took the lead. A final pitstop by the Mazda had effectively handed the podium spot to Honda. As we returned to the clubhouse for a final check on the scores, the Honda was leaving the pits. A pass under yellow had earned them a penalty, and the Mazda took full advantage, holding the spot all the way to the end.

As the final minutes ticked down, excitement returned to the paddock. People gathered on the pit wall to watch crews try to get their battered machines back on track for that one final lap, whilst the leader, the Parallax Racing Daytona Prototype, struggled with battery issues, praying for that checkered flag. The clock ticked over to midday and their prayers were answered. One by one, the cars crossed the finish line, and you couldn't help feeling that, even more so than at Le Mans, everyone who finished here was a winner.

What an event, and what a way to end what has been the busiest and most exciting season of racing spectating I've ever had. Wandering the paddock of Thunderhill at night stands equally with watching the sunrise at Arnage at Le Mans, cheering on shootout contenders at the top of the Mountain at Bathurst or watching in awe as the MotoGP field funneled into the Andretti hairpin at Laguna Seca.

Bring on 2008!

Open cockpits - a risk worth taking?

Motorsport is so safe these days. Or so we're led to believe. I believe we may very well be in the same place as we were prior to the tragic weekend at Imola in 1994 in which both Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna were killed. Prior to their accidents, Formula had had no race weekend fatalities for twelve years, and everyone involved with the sport felt that safety was at a high enough level that there would never again be a death in the sport. Sound familiar? Ask anyone in Formula 1 for example if any major changes could be made to improve safety and you will probably get an answer that goes something like this: "no"...

The accidents of Robert Kubica in Canada and Ernesto Viso in Magny-Cours (and come to think of it, Katherine Legge's Champcar crash at Road America last year) were as much examples of how luck plays a part as how strong the cars are these days. I have little doubt that improvements in safety cell technology saved all three drivers' lives, but there remains one huge risk factor to open-wheel drivers, and that is a situation where the top of the head makes a direct, high-speed impact with something immovable. Viso's crash showed this most visibly: once the car was airborne and upside-down it landed on the top of a concrete wall. Had it made the impact six inches further forward, it would have been his head that took the brunt of the force as opposed to the roll hoop and surrounding safety cell structure.

The collision between Alex Wurz and David Coulthard at the Australian Grand Prix this year is another example of how objects are still able to get into the cockpit and make contact with the driver. The vectors of that impact were such the Wurz was uninjured, but the fact remains that cars without roofs introduce an additional safety risk factor that is not present on those with roofs.

Open wheel motorsport is not the only place where this is an issue. The plans of the ACO, organizers of the Le Mans 24 Hours, call for the elimination of open-topped cars in their top class by 2010. Whilst their reasons for doing so are varied and include responding to the majority opinion of fans who prefer the aesthetics of closed-top prototypes, the safety benefit is worth noting.

There are numerous ways to address this safety issue. Concrete walls played a major role in the crashes of Kubica, Viso and Legge, and repositioning, redesigning or simply removing such walls would be a good start. The addition of a lateral roll hoop to these cars would be a major step forward in risk alleviation, but would be an aesthetic challenge that would no doubt incense fans of F1, Champcar, GP2, IRL or anyone else who might implement the idea.

So I'm not going to advocate for any changes right here. Instead, I'm simply going to suggest that sanctioning bodies are ignoring a major safety concern in just the same way that things were ignored prior to Imola 1994, and that discussion of this topic by the powers-that-be should be happening right now. The clock is ticking before we have another fatality.

A Le Mans marketing disaster

Look at all the people in this photograph. This is the pitwalk on the Friday afternoon at the Le Mans 24 Hours. Thousands of sportscar racing fans descended on the pitlane, as teams made their cars available for viewing (from behind the safety of prehensile barriers). This is the kind of thing sponsors live for. It's the perfect opportunity to hand out posters, collector cards, promotional materials and other swag, all emblazoned with the sponsor's logo.

So how many of the 54 teams do you think were doing this? Maybe 75%? 50%? 25%? Surely at least 10%? No. Only two teams had ANYTHING to hand out, and only one had a human being making direct contact with the public. As such, The Fastest Lap Blog's Award for Best PR Effort at Le Mans goes to the Flying Lizard team. More about them in a moment....

In the meantime, here's a message for all the teams at Le Mans that missed out on the award: WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ALL DOING???? This is top-level racing, with many millions of dollars invested, and only one team is able to put together any semblance of a PR effort! European sportscar fans constantly complain about lack of promotion in FIA GT and the LMS, and I finally witnessed this in person. As a regular attendee of ALMS events, I'm used to mandatory autograph sessions, free posters from every team distributed all day long in front of the teams' rigs, scoreboards around the track and the excellent Radio Le Mans to keep me abreast of on-track developments. I'm also used to seeing tie-in promotional events in local cities, TV advertising, magazine and newspaper promotion, ticket giveaways on local radio stations, and a wealth of marketing campaigns from associate sponsors when the ALMS comes to town. Sponsors look for value, and one indicator of this is the number of people reached per dollar spent. At Le Mans, that number could have been dramatically higher for any team that wasn't the Flying Lizards, and what's even more infuriating is that this is a highly-targeted, pre-qualified audience. I KNOW that many of these teams have commercial directors or marketing individuals, and to them I say "do your job". It was a piss-poor performance, and they should all be ashamed of themselves.

As for the Lizards: they went to the trouble of hiring a marketing contractor specifically for Le Mans, a fellow by the name of Shane. He was out front of their garage during the pitwalk, handing out cards promoting all the Lizard merchandise that was available at a booth they were sharing with Radio Le Mans. A double-whammy then, since they got many, many mentions during the Radio Le Mans broadcast, and seemed to be doing a roaring trade in their new line of clothing that featured (guess what?) the fantastic (and newsworthy) new livery. They were in fact one of only a handful of teams who even had merch, the others being Audi, Pescarolo, Peugeot, Corvette and Aston Martin. That's some very impressive company to be in, and they were the only small team in that group.

Shane took the time to chat with us for a while, and he was pleased to meet up with other folks from the SF Bay Area. The Lizards are our "home team", based up at Infineon Raceway, a mere 35 miles from San Francisco. We got an invite to visit their workshop and were made to feel vested in the team's success. Guess who we cheered for in the GT2 battle?

Job done, Lizards - you may not have finished the race, but your other successes at Le Mans were in many ways even more notable.

Off to Le Mans

This blog will be rather quiet until early July. On Monday I leave for France, where I'll be making my fourth trip to the Le Mans 24 Hours. After that we're spending a week in the Loire and another week in the Dordogne.

Unfortunately the weather forecast for the race is really rather crappy, so my fingers are very crossed that it improves in the next few days. Some showers could shake things up a bit, but we certainly don't want another 2001 or 1995. That would make my merguez soggy.

Last year I wrote a very comprehensive preview to the Le Mans 24, but this year I've seen so many equally good previews that I'd just like to point you in the direction of The-Paddock.net's Le Mans preview.

Petrol vs diesel at Le Mans

My compadres over at the Ten-Tenths sportscar forum are all a-twitter at the moment about equivalency formulae between diesel and petrol Le Mans Prototype cars. I've tried to stay out of the discussion because it seems like one of those threads where no-one really hears what anyone else is saying and it all ends up being a bit pointless.

But it's an important issue that impacts the future of Le Mans sportscar racing. The perceived problem is that the current rules format favours diesel-powered cars unfairly. In theory, ACO Le Mans rules are supposed to offer teams and manufacturers the option of running different fuels, none of which offer an advantage over any other, thus encouraging innovation and use of alternative fuel technologies.

In reality, there are two teams running cars with diesel engines, and both those teams appear to be running significantly faster than any of their rivals. As a result, many people are saying that the rules favour diesels. The one point I made on the aforementioned forum thread was that it just so happens that the only two teams running diesels are the only two Le Mans entrants in the prototype class who can effectively be considered "manufacturers".

So is the apparent pace of the Peugeot and Audi diesels down to their engine or their HUGE AMOUNT OF FINANCIAL RESOURCES??? This is a question that will be answered in 2008 (maybe) and 2009 (certainly), when Acura step up their ALMS prototype project to the LMP1 class. It will be the first time EVER that a factory Audi will have been challenged by a petrol-powered prototype from a manufacturer with a legitimate shot at winning Le Mans. Until then, Audi and Peugeot's closest rivals will be privateers such as Pescarolo, Creation, Zytek and Courage, all of which run petrol engines and all of which operate on a fraction of the budget of the two big diesel teams. It's like comparing apples and oranges, something that some of my friends over at 10/10ths seem to be missing.

The elephant in the room here is Porsche. Despite running very close to Audi in the ALMS all year, they believe that the current engine equivalency formulae in LMP1 are so tilted in the favour of diesels that they are considering delaying their entry into LMP1. Personally I think Porsche should suck it up and get on with the job. If it becomes clear that petrol engines are being unfairly legislated against, I'm sure the ACO will make adjustments.

The numbers seem to indicate that any adjustment is either unnecessary or would need to be tiny. Last year, Pescarolo ran a 3:30 on the Le Mans test weekend, and a 3:32 in qualifying, with Audi doing vice versa. So performance was close prior to the race itself. In the race, Pescarolo lost by four laps. Audi's 27 stops gave a total of 2700 litres of fuel taken onboard. In 2007, Audi's fuel tank will go from 100 litres down to 81 litres, giving 34 pitstops. So if both teams run the same pace with the same fuel economy this year, Audi's seven extra stops will cost them an extra 11 minutes, which is equal to three laps. What this means is that the change in fuel tank size has gone a long way to levelling the playing field, and that really it seems as though petrol performance is only about 0.25% below what it should be (at Le Mans at least) in order to produce a straight fight against diesels.

We'll know in 18 days. I'll be watching very carefully from my pitlane grandstand seat how many laps diesel teams are getting on one stint versus what the petrol cars get.

About damn time....

My Le Mans tickets arrived. That means that I'm definitely going, LOL!

The drama to get these tickets was more than I expected. We knew that we wanted seats in the stands directly above the pitlane, since you can get a great view of pitstops all the way along the pitlane, and it's as good as any other for a view of the start. When I "applied" to the ACO for these tickets they were sold out. In a state of panic I then contacted JustTickets.co.uk and picked them up at a premium price from them. Two weeks later the ACO comes back to me to say that the stands were now available. Alas, it was too late, so we had to suck it up and deal with the extra cost of having bought through a broker.

To be fair, JustTickets did send them via overnight international, quite a cost on their part, after I told them we'd be leaving significantly earlier to start our vacation in France.

By the way, the picture is of me and my dad eating dinner at the legendary Stella Bar on the outside of Tertre Rouge corner at Le Mans in 2004, during the Thursday qualifying session. Only 29 days until I'll be doing the same again!

TV coverage - the good, the bad and the downright ugly

TV coverage can make or break a motorsport championship. I watched the second round of the Australian Rally Championship last night, which is produced by the same folks who do the WRC coverage, with the same style of graphics, same music, same editing style and an overall similar feel. The goal is clear: regardless of what happens in the rally, MAKE IT COMPELLING...

They have succeeded. Despite an absence of flame-spitting WRC cars, replaced instead by tamer Super 2000 and Group N machinery, and even with a runaway leader, I was very entertained. Quick edits, smart, diverse camerawork and an excitable commentator all helped, and the show was put together in a manner that allowed me to keep track of what was going on.

In contrast, MotorsTV's coverage of the Le Mans Series race at Valencia was a disaster. Many on the sportscar racing forums are decrying the lack of spectator-friendliness of this series, and a piss-poor TV package is not helping. Unlike the ALMS, which provides excellent trackside commentary, internet radio, position indicator lights on the cars and numerous live-timing scoreboards at the track and online, it seems as though the LMS exists just for the competitors, and the TV coverage is one more example of this.

The MotorsTV highlights show had a wonderful opportunity to pack 6 hours of action into a tight 90-minute presentation. Instead, they took three segments of the race, stuck them together and called it a day. Tough luck to the viewer if something happened in the time between those segments. For an endurance event, it is vital that the viewer or spectator know what's going on, because it is often hard to see unless you follow closely over a long period of time. This is impossible if one moment you're watching action from lap 70, then a second later, it's lap 170.

As much as I like Mark Cole, an extremely knowledgeable commentator, he needs to be teamed with an entertaining co-commentator. He needs to function more as the expert, and sit next to someone like Martin Haven or John Hindhaugh, who can provide some excitement. Even his normal partner of Carlton Kirby is a little better. But when it's just Mark and David Leslie, or even worse, the pillocks they dug up for this weekend's event, it makes a potentially interesting event rather dull.

The top racing championships have it right - MotoGP for example does a great job, with good graphics, excellent camerawork and a solid commentary team. But the Aussie Rally folks prove that you don't need to be a major worldwide championship to have a great broadcast package. In fact, for smaller championships it might actually be even MORE important to have exciting, compelling TV shows.

Stefan Bellof

A question was raised on the Ten-Tenths sportscar forum the other day about people's favourite Porsche sportscar teams. This got me thinking about all those great Group C teams of the 1980s, like Kremer, Brun, Joest and Obermaier who ably backed up the factory team from 1983 onwards. So I hopped over to the RacingSportsCars.com site that has a fantastic archive of photos and entry lists from sportscar races, and started browsing through their Group C archives.

So many great cars and evocative liveries and so many great names. One driver in particular stood out as I looked over the entry lists, the late Stefan Bellof. There are very few drivers in the world who would be more deserving of the unfortunate title of "greatest talent lost before his time".

There was no doubt that he was one of the fastest drivers of his generation, winning the German FF1600 title and nearly winning German F3 despite only competing for half a season. He had a tremendously competitive year in Formula 2 before being drafted into the Tyrrell Formula 1 team. Even though the car was perhaps the slowest in the entire field, the young German managed to give Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell a run for their money when the rain fell at Monaco in 1984 and levelled the playing field. He even scored two points finishes in 1985, grabbing a staggering 4th place at the US Grand Prix. It was widely believed that he had signed for Ferrari for the 1986 season, and I personally feel that that would have been the catapult to stardom for him. It's quite possible that he could have ended up alongside Senna or Prost in the McLaren team in '88 or '89. Who would have owned the title of "most successful German F1 driver of the 20th century" had Bellof lived?

His sportscar career was equally spectacular. Although he failed to finish during both his outings at Le Mans, he clinched the 1984 World Endurance Championship ahead of illustrious factory Porsche team-mates such as Derek Bell, Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass. He won numerous races and showed that raw natural talent that team managers dream about.

In 1985 the factory Porsche team replaced him with Hans-Joachim Stuck, perhaps knowing that his Formula 1 commitments would make it more difficult to focus on his sportscar career. He had a number of outings for the privateer Brun outfit and it was in a Brun Porsche that he lost his life at Spa-Francorchamps on September 1st, 1985. His car was slower than the factory machines, but his sheer speed found him dicing for position with Jacky Ickx's Rothmans Porsche 962. Impatience got the better of him, and he collided with the other car at the brutally fast Eau Rouge corner, taking both cars into the armco where they caught fire. He was pronounced dead one hour later.

I tend to think of the loss of Bellof in the same way as I think of Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin or Jim Morrison. All had huge talent, and all had so much more to give to the world.

All were 27, too.

**LAST MINUTE EDIT**: I forgot to mention when I posted this yesterday that Stefan Bellof holds the record for the fastest EVER lap around the Nurburgring's Nordschleife circuit, set in a Porsche 956 in 1984. The fact that the 23-year old record still stands today is incredible...

My first weekend as a sportscar journalist

I was down at the Long Beach Champ Car and ALMS event this weekend, in my first proper reporting gig for The-Paddock.net. It was extremely interesting to see what the life of the motorsport journalist is like compared to attending a race as a punter.

I arrived early Friday morning and found my way to the media center. At Long Beach this was in the basement area of the Long Beach Performing Arts Center, where they have a bunch of ballrooms and meeting rooms. John, the website's editor, had secured a couple of spaces in the internet and photo press room, which was arranged with rows of tables, each with power and internet. There was also wireless internet, a number of TV screens showing live TV feeds and live timing and scoring of whatever was on track at that moment. At the back of the room were tables with a whole host of media materials, including the gargantuan ALMS media guide (400 pages) and the latest official press releases from each of the championships competing that weekend.

My goal for the day was to cover ALMS practice and qualifying, and secure an interview with Greg Pickett, owner of the Cytosport team, who were running their first ALMS race. I headed out to the ALMS paddock, but on the way ran into the three drivers of the Intersport Creation LMP1 car. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out my rookie interview technique and I pulled out my voice recorder and asked Clint Field if I could have a quick word. He was very gracious, and we talked and walked. I was working feverishly to come up with follow-up questions whilst he was talking, realizing that I could review content later, but had to think of questions NOW! It all seemed to go very well, and as I entered the paddock I was ready for more.

For this event the paddock was seperated from the pitlane, so the cars were all "staged" prior to heading for the pits. This gave the public a tremendous opportunity to get close to the cars and drivers, and me a chance to get more interviews. My next victim was Ben Devlin, factory driver for Mazda's LMP2 program, and then Romain Dumas from the Penske Porsche team. This was all going very well, and I took my place in the grandstands for the practice session very pleased with myself.

After practice I went looking for Cytosport, and was eventually invited into their hospitality area. Greg spent about 15 minutes talking to me and I got a lot of great material for my article. He was very enthusiastic and I found that I didn't need to ask that many questions because he was happy to just talk about the project.

By now it was clear that a media credential provides not only access to media and team facilities but it also allows you to talk to people in a far more brazen fashion, since teams and drivers know that media coverage is important. At no point was I declined an interview, and everyone I talked to was very open and friendly.

I completed my articles, working for the first time against a deadline, and later in the day went to my first press conference, with the top qualifiers from each class. This went pretty much as I expected, and I found myself asking a question to Dindo Capello from the Audi team at one point, as I was seeking clarification on a couple of points.

On race day things started later, which was nice, but I knew that with a 5:40 race finish, I'd be staying late to finish the race report. Much of the day was spent deciding where to watch the race from. Street circuits are notoriously poor for having general admission viewing areas, but I was pleasantly surprised to find Long Beach quite different in this regard. I eventually settled for a GA grandstand with a view of turn 1 for the start, followed by a migration to an embankment across from the pits once pitstops were imminent. The plan worked well, and I made extensive notes as the race unfolded. I've never been so focused on what was happening at a race, especially with four classes to keep track of. In reality, LMP1 and LMP2 ended up functioning as one big class, GT1 only had two cars, and GT2 was a seperate story, so I wrote the report in two major parts. We eventually got out of the media center around 8:30, a long day to be sure, but exhilarating and fun.

I noticed that the sportscar media fraternity is populated primarily by older men, which shouldn't have surprised me. It's a less glamorous form of racing than open wheel, NASCAR or motorcycles, but it meant that John (who's in his twenties) and I (I'm just out of my twenties LOL!) stood out a little bit. John's got a bright future ahead of him - he's passionate and knowledgeable about the sport, a good writer and a good photographer. Since sportscar racing will always be there even as these older journalists leave, there will be a gap in sportscar journalism for people like John, particularly if they have good tech abilities like he does.

My next assignment is likely to be the Grand-Am event at Laguna Seca in May. I'm less interested in (and less knowledgeable about) that series, so it will present its own set of challenges. After that I'll be at Le Mans but as a tourist not media (by choice), then Grand-Am at Sears Point in August. I'll close out the year at Laguna Seca for the final ALMS event of the season. All good stuff to put on my journalistic resume!

Audi, Porsche and Acura - Go big or go home

Much has been made of the state of the American Le Mans Series in the past couple of weeks, especially since Audi's Dr. Ullrich announced that they were considering not running in the ALMS after Sebring.

The ALMS has been modelled on the ACO's four-class system since 2001, and for the most part it has worked well. However in 2006 IMSA, the sanctioning body for the ALMS, started fiddling with the previously unfiddleable ruleset of the ACO, organizers of the Le Mans 24 Hours, primarily to allow for closer racing and in turn attract more entries. They were successful in making the GT1 battles very close, and by bringing LMP2 closer in performance to LMP1 opened up the list of potential overall winners to something more than Audi. In retrospect this turned out to be a bad idea - Audi got upset, LMP1 didn't grow because it was cheaper to run in LMP2 where an overall victory was still possible, and the constant weight changes in GT1 discouraged entries who feared that being too successful would instigate performance balancing in their opponents' favour.

Imagine you've spent the money to either buy or develop an LMP1 car. The ACO never intended that you would be battling against LMP2s, but here you are battling against LMP2s, and facing the ignominy of possibly losing to a "slower" car. This situation was exacerbated by a heavyweight factory Porsche team choosing to enter the second division class, effectively "beating up on the small guys". For 2007 Acura have followed suit, turning LMP2 into a playground for factory teams (and possibly scaring off plucky privateers who used to fight for a class win in LMP2 on a smaller budget). To be fair, Acura have stated all along that they plan to step up to LMP1 in 2008 but it still raises the question of why they didn't start there in the first place.

ALMS, despite strong crowds and a good TV package, is in a similar (possibly worse) quandry to last year: not enough entries. If they can secure a title sponsor and some extra cash, perhaps they can "encourage" some European-based competition to join the party, especially in LMP1 and GT1. After all, this year's Le Mans series has 14 LMP1 entries and 8 in GT1. After Sebring, the ALMS will have just two in each.

What I'd like to know is:

• Why has a lower class that's supposed to be for privateers ended up attracting (and allowing) factory entries?
• Why has the ALMS increased the attractiveness of this class by offering larger restrictors that offer entrants the chance for an overall win?
• Why, despite these seemingly obvious errors, are Audi scared of competing in the ALMS, effectively curtailing all the marketing value that such competition brings and undermining the investment made in developing the R10?
• Why, given the potential absence of Audi, aren't more LMP1 teams looking at the ALMS where they could have a very strong chance of winning (Arena's Zytek project comes to mind)?
• Why have Aston Martin pulled out of the ALMS (don't say money, because the major costs are developing and building cars, not running them, and they already had some sponsorship to partially cover those costs)?
• Can Intersport score an overall win with their new Creation LMP1? (I hope so)
• When will the ALMS secure a title sponsor?
• Will IMSA rescind the restrictor changes in LMP2 to encourage Audi to return? (and will that be a good thing?)
  

Buy an LMP2 Le Mans car

What does it cost to buy a Le Mans prototype car? Take a look at this brochure from Rollcentre Racing, who are selling their Radical SR9 LMP2 car. It completed a full season in the Le Mans Series as well as the 24 Hours. Although very fast, it had numerous reliability issues which Rollcentre's Martin Short assures potential buyers have now been fixed.

The list of retail prices for spare parts is especially interesting. In MY world, $1700 for a new engine for my motorcycle is a LOT of money. In Shorty's world, that's peanuts and would barely cover the cost of an ECU for a power steering system. In fact, it's only one third of the cost of a clutch for the Radical...

It's useful to occasionally stop and think that motorsport is a game for the very rich. Very few people are making money in this business.

Aston Martin's renaissance continues

In a very rare event, I stepped foot in a movie theater on Saturday evening. Typically I despise going to the cinema, with the long lines, overpriced food and drink and lack of beer (except at The Parkway). However, I'll never miss a Bond movie....

Casino Royale proved to be an exceptional example of the genre, and in my mind the best Bond movie of them all. In much the same way that Batman Begins showed the humanity behind an action hero, Casino Royale exposed Bond as fallible, reckless, sensitive and human. The character has shaken off all the ridiculous debonair baggage and is no longer a cartoon: best line of the movie is when Bond orders a vodka martini and is asked by the bartender "shaken or stirred sir?" His response: "Do I look like I give a damn?"

I highly recommed it.

So why am I writing a movie review on a racing blog? Once again, Aston Martins feature prominently in a Bond film. In this case it's a DB5, and the new DBS high-performance variant of the DB9. The DBS was staggeringly attractive and the perfect car for the role, and got me thinking about Aston Martin. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that in addition to making gorgeous cars, Aston are experiencing a bit of a purple patch at the moment.

Time for some Googling... we're after some sales figures for Aston:

1992: 42
1999: 622
2002: 1551
2004: 2400
2005: 4000
2006: 7000

That is an amazing growth cycle, which I reckon can be attributed to four major factors: management, product positioning, new cars and racing (see, there had to be some racing connection).

Aston is currently owned by Ford, as part of its Premier Automotive Group, alongside Jaguar, Volvo and Land Rover. Ford's takeover in 1993 heralded major reinvestment, including a new factory in Bloxham. The arrival of the hugely-experienced Dr. Ulrich Bez as CEO in 2000 and the opening of the new Gaydon headquarters in 2005 further reinforced the company's stability, providing expert leadership and state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities respectively.

Interestingly enough, Ford has chosen to sell Aston Martin to raise capital, and is expected to make between $600 million and $2 billion from the sale. Bez is reportedly putting together a deal to make a bid, which would perhaps be the best long-term bet for the security of the company.

It would be impossible to put a value on the marketing exposure achieved from the positioning of Aston Martins in James Bond movies. Aston's darkest days in terms of sales were the period during which none of their cars were featured in Bond movies (1987-2001). The return of Aston Martin to the 007 franchise was in 2002's Die Another Day, and coincided with the release of the exceptional new Vanquish. The Vanquish is seen by many as the first of the great new Aston Martins and it was only fitting that it should be James Bond's car of choice.

Following the Vanquish, Aston Martin went on to release the DB9 and the V8 Vantage. Moving away from the Ford switchgear found in the Vanquish, both cars succeeded in being something truly special. Exhibit A: the clocks on a DB9 are pure art. Exhibit B: the first time I saw a Vantage up close I was blown away by the quality of craftsmanship and componentry. Thankfully, complaints from sportscar anoraks, who rue the day that Aston stopped building cars by hand at Newport Pagnall, can finally be silenced.

Finally, there's Aston Martin Racing. Nothing imbues a brand with performance cache more than racing success. Compare a brand like Lamborghini with Panoz. Panoz have consistently gone racing since they started making cars in the mid 90s, whilst Lamborghini (despite their deeper history) have very little racing heritage. People who Panoz cars can never really be labelled posers. Lambo owners on the other hand can. Was I impressed by the bloke who drove past me yesterday in a white Diablo roadster? Not really. If it had been a Panoz, that would have said much more loudly that the owner was a "car person". Thankfully, Aston Martins have that racing heritage, and it's no longer a dusty 50s heritage or kooky 80s Group C piece of history. It's bang up-to-date, with road-car derived racers that look and sound fabulous, and that actually win.

For quite some time there haven't been any new exotica that I've truly wanted in the same wayI wanted a Lamborghini Countach when I was ten. The new Ferraris are a little odd, Lamborghinis are big, pointy and really just overgrown Audis, Porsches continue to be exceptional.......ly boring and ubercars like the Pagani, Koenigsegg and Bugatti Veyron are just ridiculous. But an Aston... well that's classy, cool, fast and somewhat impervious to the attention of NBA stars and platinum-selling rockers who'd sooner buy a Bentley Conti GT with 20" chrome rims.

You need to know about cars to want an Aston Martin. I'll take a V8 Vantage in British Racing Green please.

Grab bag of racing news

Time for some racing amuse-bouche...

Michael Schumacher did not win the F1 World Championship on Sunday, but his team-mate became the first Brazilian to win a Brazilian Grand Prix since 1993.

Speaking of Brazil, Alex Barros will leave World Superbike after just one year and return to MotoGP with the hopelessly underfunded D'Antin Pramac Ducati team. Hopefully this means that our friend Liam's job will be safe.

There was a V8 Supercar race this weekend in Surfers Paradise but I don't know who won, because I still haven't finished watching Bathurst. I've been waiting for my Australian friend to come round to watch it with me, but our schedules appear to be incompatible.

The Kronos Citroen World Rally team will return to a red livery in this weekend's Rally Australia. Apparently the sponsorship deal with Gauloises was only for 13 rounds, which seems rather odd to me. So the Xsaras will once again look like the old factory team cars. Which they are. The charade is over. Kronos Citroen was never anything less than a full factory effort...

Many rumours of new cars in the Le Mans Series both here in the US and in Europe. These include six Audi R10s for Europe; Zyteks in both series; Creations in both series; up to 8 Corvettes in the LMES; Bobby Rahal running a Porsche in GT2 in ALMS; Martin Short's Rollcentre team running a Pescarolo in Europe; Lister using a Pescarolo tub for its new prototype; up to 8 of Porsche's RS Spyder Evo running worldwide; at least 2 new Radicals joining the LMES; and Peugeot coming to Sebring (although maybe not to race, just to test).

There's rumblings about the FIA GT series being in trouble. Not sure why this is yet, but if I hear anything I'll post it.

In an interesting coincidence Rolling Stone just ran an article about rallying, highlighting the exploits of Travis Pastrana, who just this weekend secured the Rally America title.

In AMA Superbike, the silly season is almost complete. Jason Pridmore retired, so Aaron Yates will probably take his place at Jordan Suzuki. His factory Suzuki seat goes to Tommy Hayden. Hayden is replaced at Kawasaki by Jamie Hacking. Hacking's Yamaha Supersport and Superstock ride goes to Ben Bostrom who was left unemployed after the departure of Ducati. Meanwhile, Yamaha will enter Superbike with Eric Bostrom and Jason DiSalvo.

All for now...

Laguna Seca ALMS report

This weekend's trip to the ALMS finale at Laguna Seca as everything I hoped it would be: great cars, good weather, very close racing and a large (but not too large) crowd of enthusiastic fans.

Undoubtedly the highlight of the weekend was meeting the guys from the Creation team. I've always been a big fan of the plucky British team, and the Discovery documentary about them further proved the point. So after practice I followed the car back to their garage, and found team owner Mike Jankowski gesturing onlookers into the garage. This was highly unusual - in the high-powered world of prototype racing, there's always a (small) barrier between the cars and the people. So I got a nice close look at the car, and then got talking with Mike, a very friendly and likeable chap. Later on I met driver "Quick" Nic Minassian, and had a chat with Ian Smith, the chief engineer. Even later still, the small, low-budget team beat the multi-million dollar Audis to the front row of the grid, alongside fellow small British team Zytek. This was extremely satisfying to watch!

Raceday was busy, but nothing like the outrageous crowds that Laguna sees for MotoGP. Prior to the race, the grid was opened up to spectators, and we were lucky enough to be right next to the pits. The second car along was the Creation and my father and partner got to meet Mike and see the blue rocket up-close. The ALMS' tagline is "for the fans" and this race meeting really proved it: mandatory autograph sessions for all drivers, open paddock, the grid walk and the fantastic Radio Le Mans commentary made for a great day's racing.

A number of awkwardly-timed safety car periods conspired to make the race itself exceptionally tight, the first one prior to the leaders lapping any cars. The first few laps were thus completely irrelevant, and ensured a carbon copy second start. As the race progressed it was interesting to see the see-saw between those on a conventional strategy (Zytek, Audi #2 and Creation) and those who pitted early (both Porsches and Audi #1). The race unfolded clearly, and I had none of the confusion that often accompanies long races such as this. Perhaps the radio commentary helped in this regard, or perhaps it was because we were sitting above the pit exit and could see who pitted when and whether they lost laps or not.

By the time we got to the final stints, the #2 Audi had a healthy lead over the Creation, which had to do a final splash-and-dash stop and lost second as a result. Audi's stingy fuel consumption once again bought them victory (as did two penalties for the Zytek which was the fastest car out there). I believe that Creation might have been in a stronger position had Jamie Campbell-Walter been the second driver instead of Harold Primat, but his funding no doubt allowed the event to happen for them, so I can't complain too much.

Bring on 2007! After a number of races with small grids in 2006, next year should be bigger, closer and more exciting, as proved by the final two races of the year, both of which looked much healthier.

Reflections on Petit Le Mans

Due to my lack of TV- and laptop-related viewing on Sunday I'm unable to talk about the three different Superbike championships that raced this weekend, two of them for the final time this season. I can assure you however that comments are coming, especially given the pathetic behavior by so-called "profesisonals" at Mid-Ohio that I've heard a little about...

So today seems like as good a day as any to cogitate on this year's Petit Le Mans, which took place on Saturday at Road Atlanta.

I'm pleased to say that I only missed 15 minutes of the nine hours whilst I ran out to get milk, distilled water and flowers at the local store. A remarkable thing happens when you watch / listen to a long endurance race: you get sucked in. As the race ebbs and flows, the fact you've seen enough of it to spot said ebbing and flowing unlocks a whole new level of understanding and complexity that the casual observer would certainly miss.

So whilst Joe Blow would have certainly spotted the dramatic destruction of Guy Smith's Dyson-Lola, he would have missed how Creation were constantly battling the need to change tyres at every pitstop. He would definitely have missed the gradual move up the leaderboard by Duncan Dayton's Highcroft Racing Lola, which crossed the line in a magnificent third despite a late charge by mutant-nocturnal-ninja-creature Jamie Campbell-Walter in the Creation.

All in all it was a fabulous race, full of drama, and enhanced by my usage of the Globecast 0157 commentary allied with Speed Channel's visuals. We even got to hear my partner's name read out on air after she asked a question about the aforementioned Lola that had been converted into a 10,000-piece carbon-fibre jigsaw puzzle.

Kudos go to the Zytek team for a great second place, at the expense of the terrifically boring Audi freight-train, which suffered suspension failure on the second-placed car ten laps from the close of the business.

I'm feeling all "predictory" about next year's Le Mans season (as well as focused on the topic given the upcoming ALMS race at nearby Laguna Seca), so look for such a post in the next few days.

Petit Le Mans is tomorrow

The third prong to sportscar "triple crown" (on the Le Mans racing side of things anyway) happens tomorrow: the Petit Le Mans. Race duration is 10 hours or 1000 miles, and most importantly the winners of each class get an automatic selection for next year's Le Mans 24 Hours. There is one caveat however: you gotta be running in ACO-spec. This means that if the Aston Martins take the weight break that has been handed to them by IMSA all year, and win, they don't get the pre-selection. This is not the end of the world for them, since they already have one entry for coming second in the 24 this year, and a second entry is almost 100% certain. It is also an issue for any teams running cars that are not legal LMP1 or LMP2 cars, for example the Lolas that Highcroft Racing and Autocon Racing have - they are actually older LMP675 cars and would have been ineligible to run in the 24 this year or any of the Le Mans Series races (the ALMS chose to "grandfather" them in order to boost its entry numbers.)

Not to keep harping on about the same thing over and over, but a 28-car entry at PLM is pretty poor, yet officials, media and even Radio Le Mans are all saying it's no big deal, the racing is great, the crowds are good, car count isn't important, the technology is fascinating, blah, blah... Well call me selfish but I want more cars in the ALMS. If the European series can get 45 entries, why can't we? Everyone is saying the LMS and ALMS are going from strength to strength, but until I see more entries I'm going to be skeptical. The old adage in sportscar racing is that you can't believe anything about new cars until they line up on the grid.

All that being said, I'm looking forward to the race tomorrow, and will be tuned in to Speed Channel and Radio Le Mans all day. I'll even forego a night of boozing tonight so I can wake up early to see the start!

(photo credit: American Le Mans Series)