Up close and personal: is the Delta Wing the future of racing?

Drivers Andy Meyrick and Katherine Legge with the Delta Wing at Mazda Raceway. (Photo: S. Bloom)

The Delta Wing has returned to racing in the American Le Mans Series.  When Ben Bowlby and Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers announced plans to build (and race) a radical, triangular race car, many scoffed.  And when IndyCar chose Dallara over the Delta Wing as its future chassis, many assumed the car was dead.

But Bowlby and Don Panoz believed in the project.  Panoz is no stranger to innovation or frustration, having developed a front-engine Le Mans prototype despite 40 years of technology in the other direction.  Bowlby conceived of the project five years ago (with Chip Ganassi’s support) in preparation for the IndyCar chassis tender, but Panoz brought it to life.  The car was built by All-American Racers in 2012 and tested by Marino Franchitti and Alex Gurney in preparation for a Le Mans entry as “Garage 56″ – the experimental division.

At Le Mans last year, the car was competitive but failed to finish after it was struck by a Toyota prototype.  Satoshi Motoyama heroically tried to repair the damage trackside on his own (rules forbid assistance), but to no avail.  The car was retired after six hours.  It was anybody’s guess as to whether the car would reappear.

The car is now owned by Delta Wing Racing Cars, i.e., Panoz.  The Nissan engine has been swapped for an Elan (Panoz-built) power plant, but the chassis is otherwise similar to the original delivered by AAR.  AAR, Nissan and Michelin are no longer involved.  The car now runs on Bridgestones.

The 1.9L Panoz engine is based on a Mazda MZR lump with direct injection and twin turbos, making 345 hp (reputedly more than the predecessor Nissan).  The transmission is a paddle-shifted five-speed sequential ‘box, with the entire transmission weighing 35kg.

Bowlby’s design is certainly ingenuous.  The car is designed to generate more downforce with less drag, using less power and fuel.  It has no wings, but it is, in essence, nothing but wing.  Most of the braking force comes from behind the center of gravity, providing great stopping power without instability.  Nearly 3/4 of the car’s mass is in the rear, rendering it extremely light on front tires (it used just one pair during the Le Mans test day in 2012).  Arguably, this also cuts down on lock-up entering a corner.  And at 490kg (without a driver), the car is significantly lighter than even a modern F1 car.

Who are its peers among other race cars?  Certainly not the P1 class in the ALMS – in Monterey, the Delta Wing’s best lap was ten seconds off the P1 pace set by Rebellion Racing.  In qualifying, it was 8.6 seconds behind the pole time set by Rebellion’s Lola-Toyota.  Several GT cars turned in quicker laps.

At Laguna Seca, the Delta Wing inheirited a podium when one of only four P1 entrants retired.  The car is scheduled to make another appearance at Lime Rock in July, and reports indicate that the car may adopt a canopy.

Whether this design will ever take hold is anyone’s guess.  It’s a radical approach to an age-old compromise.  But is it pretty?

Ask us in 2050.

Low profile – the car is barely there. Cuts down on drag.  (Photo: S. Bloom)

Crew await next run.  (Photo: S. Bloom)

Compact front.  (Photo: S. Bloom)

Notice the short ducts and compact suspension work. [Center line is part of the jack] (Photo: S. Bloom)

Cowling shows exhaust port tucked into side. (Photo: S. Bloom)

IndyCar: Conway and Pagenaud shake up the status quo

Simon Pagenaud won his first race at Detroit. (Photo: S. Bloom)

When IndyCar checked into the Motor City for a street race, no one expected that the “Dual in Detroit” would be taken by two of IndyCar’s smallest teams.  Mike Conway’s win for Dale Coyne, and Simon Pagenaud’s victory for Sam Schmidt, were unexpected surprises in a season that has upended the status quo.

A week after Tony Kanaan’s stirring victory in the Indianapolis 500, the IndyCar Series returned to Detroit for a two-race appearance at Belle Isle.  Conway left the series last season after expressing reservations about oval racing.  He rejoined Coyne for the street race in Detroit, hardly expecting to find himself in the winner’s circle at week’s end.

For Pagenaud, an IndyCar stalwart who is equally versed in endurance and sports car racing, the win at Detroit was his first victory in the series.  Sam Schmidt is hardly one of the series’ leading teams, but his win demonstrates that the current engine/chassis package doesn’t favor the wealthier teams.

Of course, given the shambolic nature of the racing, one could argue that Pagenaud and Conway were fluke winners.  Although Conway’s win was legitimately on pace, Sunday’s second race was blighted by yellow flags caused by overly aggressive driving.  Will Power was taken out of the race while running near the front, and Dario Franchitti took steps to turn his season around by challenging Conway for the lead.  It’s hard to say whether Pagenaud would have won without that chaos.

The race also saw James Jakes run at the front, great news for another minnow, Sara Fisher Hartman Racing.

Not a clean race, by any stretch. But a popular result, for the second week in a row.

The versatile Pagenaud has also raced at Le Mans. (Photo: S. Bloom)

Grand-Am: Belle Isle puts on the bowtie

Corvette has won three races in the Daytona Prototype class. (Photo: S. Bloom)

It was a Chevy weekend in the Rolex Series, as Jordan Taylor and Max Angelelli teamed up for a home win in the Wayne Taylor Racing Velocity Worldwide Riley-Corvette DP, and Stevenson Autosport Group put their Camaro on top of the podium for the third time.

A first-lap incident in the Rolex Series race took out the 01 Riley-BMW of Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett, as well as John Pew in the Michael Shank Racing No. 60 DP car.  The incident was caused by Gustavo Yacaman in the No. 6 DP car.  Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi finished second, a solid result for Action Express Racing.  Alex Popow and Ryan Daziel managed third.

Stevenson Autosport Group won in GT for the third time this year.  Jeff Westphal and Alessandro Balzan took second in the Ferrari, while Max Papis and Jeff Segal finished third, also in a Ferrari 458.

Angelleli leads the driver’s championship in DP, with Wayne Taylor Racing ahead in the team championship.  Chevy has won three races this year, to BMW’s two.  In GT, despite  three wins, Robin Lidell and John Edwards of Stevenson trail Alessandro Balzan in the driver’s championship by five points.

Third straight win for Stevenson Automotive Group (Photo: S. Bloom)

Indy 500: Kanaan’s popular win – decency has its own rewards

Tony Kanaan at a pre-season test at Sonoma in February. (Photo: S. Bloom)

In the end, the Indy 500 was a straight fight between Tony Kanaan and two Andretti Autosport drivers, 2012 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay and rookie Carlos Munoz.  Both looked ready to attack Kanaan on the final restart of the race.  And certainly, had Dario Franchitti not hit the wall and caused a caution flag that ended the race under yellow, Kanaan might not have put his “ugly face” on the Borg-Warner trophy.

It was hard not to miss the irony. Three years ago, Michael Andretti dropped Kanaan from his squad after longtime sponsor 7-11 quit IndyCar racing.  Kanaan, the 2004 series champion, was left unemployed.  His revival started the following year at KV Racing, Jimmy Vasser and Kevin Kalkhoven’s outfit, a lean racing operation that hasn’t tasted much success but always raced hard (and with respect).  Vasser is not a man to be trifled with.

After his victory on Sunday, former Andretti teammate Franchitti cheered as Kanaan took a victory lap around the speedway.  Kanaan is a popular driver in the paddock and with fans, and his record of frustration at the Speedway is part of what endears him to the chattering classes.

His generosity of spirit is legendary.  At a test last year at Sonoma, Kanaan went out of his way to make sure that friend and Brazilian compatriot Rubens Barrichello was comfortable at KV Racing.  Kanaan lobbied hard for Barrichello to join the IndyCar Series after leaving F1. The magnitude of the gesture is easy to miss: Barrichello won multiple F1 races as part of the greatest race team in the world, Ferrari.  But on a cold day in Northern California, the former F1 driver was a rookie relying on his old friend for pointers and support. Barrichello finished the year with five top ten finishes, and Kanaan placed ninth in the championship.

This year, Kanaan is working with another new teammate, a much younger driver in Simona De Silvestro.  “I have a teammate now in TK (Kanaan) which is pretty good, he has a lot of experience,” she said. “We are starting to learn how to work with each other and hopefully we can really push the team to get the results we want. I can learn a lot from him.”

So if race car drivers can be aloof, distant men for whom ego is a necessary competitive instinct, Kanaan is just the opposite.  His victory, for a small team up against the might of Ganassi, Penske and Andretti, was one for all of us.

Tony Kanaan and Rubens Barichello suit up in 2012. (Photo: S. Bloom)

IndyCar: Carpenter’s pole at Indy proves nice guys can finish first

Ryan Hunter-Reay tested for Ed Carpenter Racing as part of a Chevy collaboration. (Photo: S. Bloom)

There are different types of drivers.  Some exude cool but aloof confidence; others mask insecurity and fear with outgoing personalities.  A select few are simply nice guys.

And we know what Leo Durocher said about nice guys: they tend to finish last. But not all of them, and not all of the time.

Ed Carpenter captured pole position for the 2013 edition of the Indy 500, ahead of better-funded and larger rivals like Penske, Ganassi and Andretti.  Carpenter may very well be the least assuming and most low key driver in the IndyCar paddock.  As the owner of a single-car team and scion of the family that owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Carpenter has endured his fair share of long Sunday afternoons far off the pace.  He has never been on pole for the series’ blue-ribbon event, and he has just one series win to his credit – in the closing race last year at Fontana.

Carpenter made changes coming into 2013, the first being to hand his keys off to Ryan Hunter-Reay, last year’s IndyCar champion and driver for Andretti Autosport.  Hunter-Reay tested Carpenter’s Dallara-Chevy DW12 at a test in Sonoma this February.

It’s a sign of Carpenter’s humility and desire to win that he took off his driving overalls for RHR.  That’s the kind of ego-free decision made by a team owner who wants to move to the next level.  “This is an interesting opportunity” Hunter-Reay said.  “Ed and I are good friends, we were teammates in 2009 and we’re friends off the track as well.”  Carpenter – who runs a one-car operation and thus lacks feedback from another driver – said “A great part of being at Chevy is that everybody helps out.”

Carpenter’s achievement at Indy also came a week after losing team manager Derrick Walker to a front office job in the series.  Walker is a veteran who Carpenter credits with renewed energy and improved form.

“This is a good start,” Carpenter said after Pole Day. “I want to make sure we keep the team focused.  I hope this is part one of a really magical month, and we’re here for race day.  This is awesome and it’s bigger than our wins and it’s huge for the team. It’s definitely a landmark day, but I don’t want to get overly focused on this because we have a lot of work to do yet.”

Pole at Indy is no guarantee, but it sure looks like Ed Carpenter is headed in the right direction.

And he’s still a nice guy.

Fuzzy’s Vodka is Carpenter’s primary sponsor. Team manager Derrick Walker recently left. (Photo: S. Bloom)

Carpenter at Sonoma in 2012. In order to move to the next level, Carpenter must improve his road course performance. (Photo: S. Bloom)

Carpenter in his guise as team owner, with JR Hildebrand. (Photo: S. Bloom)

ALMS at Mazda Raceway Gallery: The Last Waltz

Smart-looking Rebellion Lola-Toyota. (Photo: S. Bloom)

The ALMS completed its final weekend at Mazda Raceway-Laguna Seca last week.  The series merges into the Grand-Am in 2014, turning this into a farewell appearance after 15 years of visits to the Monterey Peninsula.  We’ve been frequent attendees at this event, and we’ll certainly miss the prototypes next year.

This weekend featured the usual assortment of P1, P2 and GT machinery in the main event, as well as two races in the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Championship Powered by Mazda, the Playboy MX-5 Cup, the IMSA GT3 Series, and demonstration laps of the Unlimited Racing Championship cars.  The URC cars sound like fantastic Can-Am cars back when “Mazda Raceway” was just “Laguna Seca”.  If this series gets off the ground fans are in for a treat.

Inevitably, like anything that comes to an end, we have mixed feelings about the last waltz at Mazda Raceway.  The ALMS has never disappointed at this circuit, and while many of the same cars and drivers will return next year for the United Sports Car Racing Series, it won’t be quite the same.  Only time will tell if we’ll see another series quite like the ALMS.

NGT-Momo, GTC class winner. (Photo: S. Bloom)

Officially IMSA’s “heritage series”, the Unlimited Racing Championship is in demo phase. (Photo: S. Bloom)

URC is meant to evoke Can-Am. The cars sound fantastic. Whether the grid can be filled is another question. (Photo: S. Bloom)

Owen Kratz during Friday’s Cooper Lites race.  (Photo: S. Bloom)

Rough weekend for Flying Lizard. (Photo: S. Bloom)

Elliot Skeer and Christian Szymczak won the Playbox MX-5 Cup races. (Photo: S. Bloom)

Ryan Booth finished second in Friday’s race, didn’t finish on Saturday. (Photo: S. Bloom)

Cooper Lites chassis ready to go. (Photo: S. Bloom)

“Ric-Man” (Photo: S. Bloom)

Dan Weyland. (Photo: S. Bloom)

And….goodbye.

ALMS at Mazda Raceway: Final visit to Monterey Peninsula is worthy of series legacy

Muscle Milk proved that P1 is still capable of exciting, wheel-banging sports car racing. (Photo: S. Bloom)

With one pass, Lucas Luhr proved that the American Le Mans Series’ P1 class isn’t going down without a fight.

In the final appearance of P1 machinery at Mazda Raceway, Muscle Milk racing won the American Le Mans Series at Monterey for the second consecutive year, largely on the strength of Luhr’s inspired drive in the final hour of the race.  Luhr’s Honda HPD-ARX03a eventually passed Neel Jani’s Lola-Toyota after a race-long duel that ended with a pass by Luhr in the Corkscrew and an incident between the two cars.  It was a thrilling, emphatic reminder that P1 is still the top dog in the house.

Rebellion had been fastest in Thursday’s test, and the team put its Lola-Toyota on pole Friday.  Although Dyson Racing managed P2 and hoped to turn its morbid season around at Mazda’s home track, fuel pressure problems led to an early retirement.  That left a straight battle between Honda and Toyota.

Knowing this was the last prototype ALMS battle to grace the Monterey Peninsula, Luhr and Neel Jani put on a master session.  In the 15-year history of the ALMS at Mazda Raceway, P1 racing has been among the finest in the world.  As Jani and Luhr battled for the lead through the Corkscrew, it didn’t matter that the series wouldn’t be coming back.  It didn’t matter that P1 machinery was literally racing into the sunset.  This was the kind of racing that ALMS fans had grown to love over the years.

In P2, Marino Franchitti teamed up with Level 5 team owner Scott Tucker for class victory after an early dice with Guy Cosmo.  Problems for Cosmo and teammate Scott Sharp meant that Level 5 would take both first and second place in class and the 551 car took third overall. This is now a two-horse division with one owner (Tucker) driving both of his cars.

As usual, GT was tightly competitive between five manufacturers, with Corvette’s Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen taking victory for Corvette, the pair’s first win since 2011.  Bryan Sellers and Wolf Henzler guided the Falken Tires Porsche to second place for the team’s second podium of the season (although a technical infraction stripped the team of its points and prize money).  BMW managed a podium with Dirk Muller and sub John Edwards coming in third in class in Bobby Rahal’s Z4 GTE.

In PC, Luis Diaz (PR1/Mathiasen Motorsporst) made a late move that put him ahead of CORE Autosport’s Colin Braun.  Duncan Ende and Bruno Junquiera were set for a podium in the RSR Racing Oreca FLM09, before an incident with a P2 car ruined the pair’s day.  Impressive newcomer Tristan Nunez finished third along with Charlie Shears.

It’s not without some disappointment that we say goodbye to Dyson, Muscle Milk and Rebellion. Like Audi (and Panoz, Cadillac, and BMW as well), we’ve been thrilled by P1 over the years. It’s the closet we get, domestically, to Le Mans, and these cars never fail to get our blood moving.  We’re fairly confident they’ll be back one day, perhaps under a different name, but just as exciting all the same.

Rebellion held its own on unfamiliar ground, until Muscle Milk…muscled through. (Photo: S. Bloom)

Dyson woes continued despite solid qualifying. (Photo: S. Bloom)

Falken Porsche took a solid second against Corvette power. (Photo: S. Bloom)

Podium for BMW Z4 of Dirk Muller and John Edwards. (Photo: S. Bloom)

Duncan Ende and Bruno Junquiera showed early pace but came together with a P2 car. (Photo: S. Bloom)

Sixth in class was “Epic” for Tomy Drisi, who has a new movie to promote. (Photo: S. Bloom)

Sixth place for Marco Holzer and Bryce Miller in GT. (Photo: Sbloom)

ALMS: Dream weekend as Rayhall claims Protoype Lites win in sponsor’s backyard

Sean Rayhall took pole and the checkered flag in race one at Mazda Raceway. (Photo: S. Bloom)

It’s always important to perform well in front of your sponsors.  Comprent Motorsports driver Sean Rayhall took that to heart, taking pole at Mazda Raceway and winning both races in the IMSA Cooper Lites Championship Powered by Mazda for local sponsor Robert Talbott.

Robert Talbott, a men’s fashion company, is located off California’s Highway 68, the same road that leads to Mazda Raceway.  There is no better feeling in racing than performing well in front of your sponsors, and Rayhall didn’t disappoint.  He qualified on pole and took a dominating win in Friday’s first race, followed by a second win on Saturday. Ryan Booth finished second on Friday and Daniel Goldburg was runner up on Saturday.  Scott Tucker claimed the master’s win both days (does this man ever stop racing?).

Not a bad way to show a sponsor what the investment is worth.

Rayhall turned in a dominating performance at Mazda Raceway (Photo: S. Bloom).

A spin on Friday cost Giancarlo Potolicchio and led to yellow flags; he DNF’d. (Photo: S. Bloom)

Mikhail Goikhburg finished third on Saturday (Photo: S. Bloom)

ALMS: Series heads to Mazda Raceway for final visit as jockeying for 2014 begins

P2 vs. DP? You decide. (Photo: S. Bloom)

The ALMS visits the Monterey Peninsula for the final time May 9-11.  Next season, the series folds into the all-new United SportsCar Racing, the awkward moniker born from the shotgun marriage of the ALMS and the Grand-Am Road Racing Series.

On social media, 2014 is optimistically referred to as “#theFuture”, as if the present no longer has relevance.  Despite a close race at Long Beach and the addition of Rebellion Racing as a competitive prototype entrant, the chatter this season focuses equally on what lies ahead.  A vigorous debate has emerged among drivers, teams and series officials regarding the final complexion of the series’ multiple classes.  The jockeying – driven by budgets and taste, as much as anything else – has already begun.

This we know: the current generation of Le Mans prototypes are no longer welcome, and P2 machinery will race against Daytona Prototypes, although one car is a carbon fibre monocoque chassis and the other is basically a tubeframe under the skin.  The current GTE class remains as it is in the ALMS, as does the existing Prototype Challenge (“PC”) generation.

P1 has been shrinking steadily over the last few years.  Pickett Racing and Dyson Racing have had a virtual monopoly on the division since Audi, and later Peugeot, withdrew their support.  Mazda and Honda love competing against each other, but Honda has been getting the better of Mazda lately (with Rebellion adding some welcome privateer flair).  The reality of next year is that a class of two (or three) cars isn’t enough.  As much as we love these cars, the cost of a frontline P1 program has led to class extinction next year.

The proposed USCR grid causes any number of problems.  In certain cases, P2 machinery will be significantly faster than DPs, and even the current PC engine/chassis combo can produce comparable performance.  GT – both Le Mans and Daytona varieties – must also fit into the equation, but there is a stark difference between a Daytona GT machine and one equipped for Le Mans.  Tire performance is anybody’s guess, particularly as none of the ALMS teams have experience running on the Grand-Am’s Continental tires.  It makes for an awfully crowded grid, one that may ultimately need additional pruning once the 2014 entries are submitted.

Related to all of this is the budget: improving the performance of the current DP generation will drive up costs, which goes against the entire philosophy of the Grand-Am.  This is particularly true when it comes to extracting performance through expensive aerodynamic upgrades.  Slowing the P2 machinery down, or getting rid of it entirely, could be on the table.  Which looks less like a merger, and more like a takedown.  After all, there are only four regular competitors in the P2 class, and ESM’s return saved the class from dying off this year.

We’ve been firm supporters of the ALMS since it first landed in Monterey after several years at Sonoma.  Throughout the years, the ALMS has produced close racing set against one of the most scenic backdrops in all of racing.  We would be dishonest to say we have no feelings about the pending merger.  Mazda Raceway suited these cars, and the crowd support was consistent if not spectacular.  Grand-Am provides its own brand of thrills, but we hope to see the great Le Mans prototypes stalking the Corkscrew once more…

WTCC: Coronel claims race win as Honda takes debut victory in Slovakia

Tom Coronel converted a race 2 pole into victory at Slovakia (Photo: S. Bloom)

ROAL Motorsport BMW driver Tom Coronel earned his first race victory of the season at the Slovakia Ring, while Honda capped a stellar weekend with a race one victory.  After a 1-2-3 Honda lockout in qualifying, Gabriele Tarquini handed the Japanese manufacturer its first win since returning to the series as a full-time entrant.  The win came after a disastrous run for Honda in Marrakech.  Coronel followed up his race 2 pole with a win ahead of Muller and Tarquini.

Here’s Honda’s video log of qualifying: