Haywood first raced at Daytona during the Kennedy administration. (Photo: Grand-Am)

If we learned anything at Daytona this weekend, we learned that experience matters, but only to a point. Whether it was Le Mans winner Allan McNish pressuring Cup driver A.J. Allmendinger on Sunday morning, or Hurley Haywood’s astonishing drive in his 40th 24 hour race at Daytona, this was a weekend of veterans against the next generation.

Endurance racers are a breed apart, possessed of a certain determination that makes a man drive a car for a complete rotation of the earth.  Haywood has been running at Daytona since Kennedy was president, and McNish has won at Le Mans twice and has multiple ALMS titles under his belt.  For the 50th running of the Daytona 24, sports car vets were joined with IndyCar and Cup race winners, including Juan Montoya, Marco Andretti, Scott Dixon and Justin Wilson.  But this is not a sprint race, and success in other disciplines is no guarantor in endurance racing.

All of which might lead you to believe that McNish would eat Allmendinger for lunch, and past Daytona winner Scott Pruett would be there at the end.  It didn’t happen that way.  Allmendinger fought McNish (and others) hard for his wristwatch, along with teammates Justin Wilson, Oz Negri and John Pew in their Michael Shank Racing Ford-Riley.  Even as Pruett charged his Ganassi-BMW through the field, it was not a case of age before beauty.  Pruett’s gearbox gave up shortly before the finish.

Even Haywood’s illustrious Brumos Porsche was bested for GT honors by a younger Porsche fixture, Andy Lally.  Winning at Daytona is a perfect capper for NASCAR rookie of the year Lally, who previously won at Daytona with Kevin Buckler’s TRG squad.  But after a late-season falling out over a “start and park” dispute in Sprint Cup, Lally decamped from Buckler to Magnus Racing, and promptly won another Rolex in a GT3.  Haywood had returned for his 40th attempt at the race and earned a podium, but not a win.  He fell to a driver who was born when Haywood was competing in his 13th Daytona 24 hour race.

But Haywood and McNish know something that Allmendinger and Wilson have yet to learn: life is an endurance race, not a sprint.

In 'Vette We Trust (photo: Grand-Am)

When the flag drops Saturday afternoon for the 50th running of the 24 Hours of Daytona, the grid will feature something new: variety.  After five years of sterile Daytona Prototypes, the Grand-Am Series has opened up competition (slightly) for prototypes that look closer to their showroom brethren.  The first of the new generation is a stylish Corvette prototype adopted by five of the top teams. 

To which we say: finally.  The older generation of DP cars were some of the ugliest prototypes to hit the track.  The new DPs are sleeker, more modern, and less bulbous than their predecessor.  How good is the new ‘Vette prototype? Good enough to take three of the top five spots on the grid for Saturday, although Wayne Taylor’s SunTrust DP Corvette was edged out for pole by the new Ford-Riley by just a tenth of a second.

If that wasn’t enough, this year Audi has produced an R8 challenger for the GT class.  APR Motorsports will be the first team to race the R8 in anger in North America. As always, the GT field is packed with a combination of heavy-duty American muscle, European style (including a new Ferrari 458 adapted to the series for 2012), and Japanese speed (Mazda is supplying four teams, Dempsey, Sahlens, Yellow Dragon and Speed Source).

The 24 hours at Daytona has seen its ups and downs. In the early 1960s, the race attracted top international grand prix drivers like Pedro Rodriguez, Jo Bonnier, Innes Ireland, Phil Hill and Dan Gurney, as well as Indy legends Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt, plus sports car heroes such as Brian Redman, Mark Donohue and Ken Miles.  Imagine racing a long-tail Porsche 917 around the high-degree of banking at Daytona.  It took serious balls, to be frank.

The race made it through the hard times in the late 1990s, when GT cars ruled the roost before the introduction of the current generation of prototypes (cheered not a little bit by a victor for the Dale Earnharts, big and little, behind the wheel of a Corvette).  In the early 2000s, the series pursued cost containment and eventually found a formula that keeps attracting new teams.  To be sure, the NASCAR affiliation never hurts, giving us Cup drivers like Juan Montoya, along with Indy stalwarts like Dario Franchitti, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Scott Dixon.

This is the 50th running of an endurance race at Daytona, and it’s timed perfectly for a new generation of prototypes.  When this race began in 1962, people scoffed at “Big” Bill France’s vision of an international sports car race at NASCAR’s temple of speed.  But the race endures, and in our view, it’s looking better than ever.

The Daytona 24 Hours has become a classic endurance race. This is Mario Andretti's winning Porsche from 1989 (photo: autoweek.com)

Ganassi/Telmex BMW took third in qualifying.

The Pug takes a holiday. Photo: ALMS

Sometimes life in France is unpredictable.  One day you buy a rail ticket, only to find out the next day that SNCF has gone on strike.  You didn’t know about it, mais, c’est la vie en France.

Other things take you by surprise.  The racing world was shocked by Peugeot’s abrupt decision to pull out of sports car racing with immediate effect.  Peugeot will not race its 908 prototype at Le Mans, where for the last five years, Audi and its French rival have exchanged top steps on the podium.  The rivalry continued at Sebring and was expected to play a large role in the FIA’s new World Endurance Contest.  Now, that series finds itself in disarray as it struggles with the loss of a primary (and – key here: French) competitor just months before the opener at Sebring.

Peugeot’s decision is easy to understand if you follow global economics.  France is in the doldrums along with much of Europe, and as we have seen time and time again, racing is expendable.  Competition programs do not add much to the bottom line, and thus, the expenses become hard to justify.

Ironically, Peugeot’s announcement follows increased manufacturer interest in the French enduro classic.  Nissan, Toyota and Porsche all plan to return with prototypes.  Note, however, that the group is Japanese and German, as the Germans are saving everyone’s economic asses.  Toyota is up and running, having recently tested its new hybrid prototype with Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kaz Nakajima

Unlike the French, we are “glass half full” people.  We think that this could lead to an increase in competition at the privateer level, where smaller funded teams will have a chance at winning the world’s greatest endurance race.  To be sure, Peugeot’s withdrawal will make Audi question its plans, as there is little to be gained from beating up on a small privateer squads.  Whereas, there is much to be lost if any one of those squads beats an Audi.

Hopefully, Peugeot’s decision will have less ripple effect as others join the fray.  And, again, Audi may remain involved as long as other marques maintain their interest.  It will be interesting to see if Aston Martin continues despite the troubles with its AMR1 last season.  If the World Endurance Challenge and the ALMS can hold out for another year, we could see banner days return once Toyota, Porsche and Nissan are back.  And let’s not forget Honda’s discreet involvement in the HPD program.  HPD returns to LMP1 competition this year with the ARX-03a, powered by a normally aspirated 3.4-liter V8 engine.

Still, Peugeot showed up at Le Mans with a serious race car that gave Audi a run for its money.  We’re sad to see the Pug walk away.

We don’t expect a boycott to survive.  F1 has been traveling to China, no friend to human rights, since 2004.  The Williams team is sponsored, in part, by Hugo Chavez, a Venezuelan dictator PDVSA, a state-sponsored Venezuelan petroleum company.   F1′s record with respect to Bahrain is dismal.  When Bahraini pro-democracy demonstrators were jailed, beaten, or worse, the resulting hue and cry caused the Bahrainis to cancel their own race.  The dust settled, and the race was reinstated by the FIA, only to have it canceled again soon after due to scheduling concerns.

So when we hear about a boycott of Bahrain, we think: “go for it”.  F1 has no business supporting those who seek to crush or control basic rights like freedom of speech.  But don’t count on it.  The show must go on, after all…

Asking F1 to stay home. (Photo: Telegraph.co.uk)

Goodbye, '11

In the warm light of a New Year’s holiday morning, we tried to collect our thoughts about the year in racing, 2011.   In some respects, we were a cranky bunch for much of last year.  A prolonged global recession has caused a continuous contraction in the racing world.  Nearly half the F1 grid has a pay driver in one form or another;  NASCAR is bedeviled by “start and park” teams, while IndyCars lost a series stalwart (Newman-Haas).  The ALMS pulled itself off of live television and the Grand-Am series filled in the gap by courting ALMS regulars (Ferrari and Audi, to name two).

In some quarters, such as F1, it was more of the same.  Although Sebastian Vettel won his second title on the trot, this era feels vastly different than Michael Schumacher’s dominant period at Ferrari in the early 2000s.  In those days, some muttered that F1 was “dull”.  F1 in 2011 was anything but “dull”, although Vettel seemed to walk away with the title before McLaren and Ferrari had finished their first capuccino.  We had Lewis Hamilton vs. Felipe Massa all season long, a pissy little spat that made Massa seem like the better man.  Alonso gave his all for Ferrari, wringing its neck while Massa lagged behind his Spanish teammate.  Jenson Button turned in the best drives of his career, and Mark Webber’s season-ending win was the perfect capper.  If at times Bernie Ecclestone has sent F1 into ridiculous corners of the world, at least he has not destroyed the actual racing.  However, it wasn’t the smartest move to whipsaw American fans over an Austin race (on? off? on!), nor was sidling up to an increasingly odious regime in Bahrain.  And we may have lost the great Robert Kubica forever due to injuries from an off-season rally excursion.

In other arenas, familiar names returned to the fore – Tony Stewart won again in NASCAR, and Dario Franchitti became a reluctant IndyCar champion in the wake of Dan Wheldon’s death.  Stewart has always been a popular driver – honest about his appetites and pure in his love for racing.  He is more than just talk: Stewart is equally comfortable on dirt or in Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren F1 car at Watkins Glen.

Franchitti became a champion but there was nothing to celebrate when the season ended.  A season of ups (Wheldon winning the 500 on the last lap; a new race at Baltimore) and downs (Wheldon losing his life at Las Vegas; Baltimore canceling its contract after financial losses).  The larger picture remains the dominant position of Chip Ganassi Racing and Penske Racing, the combined winner of 12 of 16 rounds.  Andretti Autosport rounded out the “big three” and won three races.  Although there are a good crop of young drivers on the grid (James Hinchliffe, Simona de Silvestro, Graham Rahal, and JR Hildebrand, to name a few), the small size of their teams makes it difficult to challenge for the championship.  Our favorite moment: Ed Carpenter taking victory for minnows Sarah Fisher Racing.  The worst moment (other than Wheldon’s death): the closing of Newman-Haas.

Wheldon’s death cast a black cloud over the entire season.  His accident wasn’t attributable to a single cause but, rather, a series of bad decisions that have plagued the series over a period of several years.  A lot of people said an accident like Wheldon’s was foreseeable to anyone involved with the series, but these concerns were overlooked, or downplayed, without any easy solutions and no leadership at the top.  The belated decision to fire Brian Barnhart won’t bring Dan Wheldon back.  Neither will cutting Las Vegas out of the calendar.  We can only hope that IndyCars sorts out the problems that have plagued the new car.

The brightest spot came in the world of sports cars.  Internationally, the organizers of Le Mans and the FIA have reached an agreement that will see the 24 hour race at La Sarthe become part of the FIA’s World Endurance Challenge.  The Audi vs. Peugeot wars at Le Mans continue unabated, producing some great racing.  The 2011 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans also produced some of the most spectacular crashes that we have seen in several years.  Two accidents involving Audis didn’t stop the German marque from taking the top step from a trio of Peugeots.  Peugeot won at Sebring and Petit Le Mans to bookend the year, but Audi won where it counts.  And things are looking up for sports cars, as manufacturers announced their return to Le Mans, a real upside in an otherwise down market.  Audi and Ferrari have committed sports cars to the Grand-Am series, and Corvette has just premiered a gorgeous new Daytona Protoype.  Now if only Audi would return in numbers to the ALMS…

The dominant factor in racing this year had nothing to do with racing but rather the global economy.  Cities like Baltimore found it difficult to justify profligate racing projects in light of dim economic prospects.  In IndyCars, the venerable Newman-Haas operation was closed up.  Austin struggled to close its deal to bring back a United States Grand Prix.  Sponsorship remains elusive, and tetchy.  Kurt Busch found out that racing talent does not always win out over a marketable driver.  Lesson duly learned.

We hope 2012 brings brighter days for the world at large, and that these effects trickle down to racing.  Amidst reports that Europe faces another season of gloom and doom, things are looking up (slightly) in the United States.  2011 had some spectacular moments, and a lot of very sad ones.  We’d like to tip that balance to the positive for 2012.

The closest round to our home base is the annual visit to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.  A walk through the paddock on qualifying day allowed us to spend some quality time with the machinery.  Some of the details on these cars are difficult to see from a distance at speed, or on television.  Sometimes you have to stop in order to appreciate their brilliance.

Details of an Aston Martin Racing Lola B0960 front end.

The prototype ranks were thin this year, courtesy of a weak global economy.  Only a few of the European-based Le Mans teams attend ALMS races, aside from Sebring (part of the FIA’s new World Endurance Challenge) and Petit Le Mans (formerly part of the Intercontinental Cup).  Aston Martin made the trip to Monterey, and capably handled the Dyson Mazda/Lola and the Muscle Milk Racing Aston Martin/Lola.  Next year, Muscle Milk will switch to an HPD chassis with a Honda power plant.  Dyson will stay with Mazda power.

In contrast with Aston Martin, Dyson ran the Lola B09/60 with a Mazda engine.

Given Muscle Milk’s previous success with a Porsche LMP2 Spyder, we expected more from their first Aston Martin campaign.  We assumed that 12 British cylinders would prevail over a Japanese four-cylinder lump.  Muscle Milk missed out on points opportunities at Sebring, Baltimore and at Mazda Raceway.  By contrast, even when Muscle Milk took top honors, Dyson was usually on the next step.  It was enough to hand the title to Dyson.

Greg Pickett's Muscle Milk team ran an older Aston Martin B08/62, a chassis similar to Dyson's but with a different engine. Results were mixed.

The GT ranks are the best entertainment when there are only three or four prototypes to watch (we don’t pay much attention to the LMPC cars, to be honest — to spec).  By comparison, a brace of Corvettes, Ferrari 458s, BMWs and Porsches are always entertaining.  It’s too bad that Risi Competizione will switch its allegiance to the Grand-Am series.

Corvettes will always be a fan favorite.

Flying Lizard is one of the top GT teams, consistently running at the front end of its class.  We love these guys because they’re from Northern California (like us), and the cars always look immaculate.  Presentation is everything, we say.

Gratuitous GT3 pic goes here.

The GT3 hybrid (below) is an amazing car that uses Porsche’s flywheel hybrid technology.  Not your mother’s Prius.  This car finished 10th overall at Mazda Raceway, although it runs in its own class due to a lack of equivalency.

Porsche GT3 hybrid blew away the petrol-fueled GT field.

The Patron Ferrari 458 looks great in the tequila brand’s familiar color.  Scott Sharp was a successful IndyCar driver before turning his attentions to sports car racing.

The Patron Ferrari is another favorite. Patron's support of the ALMS has been vital.

Special delivery for Aston Martin.

Just in time.

Mazda was out in force to support Dyson’s championship effort.  Mazda brings out the heritage at its home race track, including a classic Le Mans 767 prototype (below).

The old Rx-7 looks simple compared to today's machinery. Simple, but effective.Mazda's vintage RX-7 GT racer.

No frills in the cockpit.

RX-7 interior.

Will Mazda return to Le Mans with its own car?

X

Another Surtees? (Photo: Team Vodafone)

If Valentino Rossi can drive a rally car, why can’t Moto GP world champion Casey Stoner drive an Aussie V8? And let’s be honest, weren’t we looking for a reason to run a picture of Team Vodafone’s super-sweet Holden V8?  Yes, we thought you would agree….

Stoner had a go in Craig Lowndes’ Team Vodafone Holden earlier this week (teammate Jamie Whincup just wont the title).  Second career mate? Maybe you’ll look a bit better on four wheels than Vale, who binned it in his first rally and never convinced Maranello to do more than offer a test.  It’s not unheard of to make the leap from motorcycle racing to auto racing (Surtees won an F1 title and Mike Hailwood also made a successful transition from bikes to grand prix cars).  However, by all accounts, Casey was just enjoying the privileges of being an Australian world champion.

1931 Alfa Romeo Tipo B

We are really enjoying historic grand prix cars from the pre-war era and the immediate post war era. The Alfa Romeo shown here, as raced for Scuderia Ferrari, is a great pre-war example.  An enormous race car by today’s standards. The analogue gauges in the Bugatti, below, show the craftsmanship that went into these cars. The French blue is iconic.

Interior of a 1936 Bugatti T-57

This 1949 Talbot-Lago is our personal favorite.

Sports cars of the 195os are really romantic cars. The AC Acera is a rare model, of which only 352 were sold.

1957 AC Aceca

F1 cars from the 60s were plentiful, as were FJr. cars from the same era.  We are blessed to be blase about seeing these cars year after year, to the point that we’re fascinated by the non-obvious.  This BRM, for example, was raced by Innes Ireland. Not one of F1′s famous cars, but the light green color was iconic (and not captured in the black and white photos of the day).

F1 cars of the 1970s had a style that matched the bell bottoms and forward-looking designs of the era. We were young when these cars were new, and they captured our imagination.

1973 McLaren M23

Another 1973 McLaren M23

March’s F1 car from 1974.

March 741

Another view of the March.  Hans Stuck Jr., after driving Infineon in a BMW, described the circuit as a sort of mini-Nurburgring.  We are left to wonder what he would have thought driving it in this.

A Penske F1 car.

Penske PC4

1971 Shadow MKII Can-Am car

The Can-Am cars look sleek and sound fantastic.

1974 Sting Can-Am car

Open-top sports cars of the 1970s remind us of Campari umbrellas and women in mirrored sunglasses.

1972 Chevron B21

BMWs have always been a favorite. We’ve owned a few and think highly of them.

1974 BMW 3.5 CSL

Lola and Chevron side by side in the paddock at Infineon.

1967 Porsche 910

Speedsource will convert from its usual black paint scheme to a more Mazda-friendly design (Photo: Mazdaspeed)

The 24 Hours of Daytona is shaping up to be one of the top sports car events outside of that other 24 hour race in France. Longtime ALMS GT entrant Risi Competizione has entered the January enduro with a Ferrari 458 specially prepared for the Grand-Am Series. John Dagys at Speed has a testing report here, including a driver change that sees Jaime Melo out and driver Rafael Matos in. The other interesting news is that Risi has yet to make up its mind about a 2012 program in the ALMS.

We’ve loved watching Risi carry the prancing horse’s flag in the ALMS for several years. We’re not sure if it relates to the ALMS’ lack of live television, but don’t be surprised if one or more teams begin to consider defecting. It’s great to see Ferrari return to Daytona in strength, especially as Audi enters the series. APR Motorsports has become the first team to step into the Audi R8 waters. The R8 is a spectacular supercar, and we think it is going to be a fan favorite.

NASCAR driver/broadcaster/team owner Michael Waltrip will also return to Daytona, in a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car owned by TRG and co-driven by Rob Kauffman (who co-drove a Ferrari with Waltrip at Le Mans earlier this year). Waltrip’s plans include a full-time a Ferrari operation in the Grand-Am, fielding a 458 Italia Grand-Am edition.

The Mazda squadron continues to make its presence known with at least two topline efforts: Speedsource and Dempsey Racing. Marino Franchitti and (now unemployed) IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe will join Speedsource for Daytona. Both teams are returning with tried and true RX-8s. However, Dempsey Racing is hedging its bets and entering a prototype in the ALMS. Patrick Dempsey cannot race an open-top car, so the ALMS effort will be spearheaded by other drivers. This seems related to Dempsey’s desire to compete at Le Mans, which is now at the heart of the FIA-sanctioned World Endurance Challenge. At Le Mans, Patrick drove demo laps of Mazda’s Le Mans-winning prototype, and he enjoyed himself quite a bit. Dempsey and baseball pitcher CJ Wilson (both Mazda men) seem to be picking up where Paul Newman and Joe Gibbs left off.

Interesting times for sports car fans. January is shaping up to be a good month.

Dempsey Racing returns with support from Florida.

Back to the old cars?

Sometimes you can’t catch a break.  Instead of concluding its season with an exciting shootout at Las Vegas, IndyCars endured the tragedy of Dan Wheldon’s fatal accident.  Amid reports that the 2012 car is plagued by serious problems, the IndyCar Series this week announced the departure of Brian Barnhart as Race Director.  To make matters worse, stalwart team Newman-Haas has closed up shop.

For those who haven’t followed (and we can’t blame you for turning away), Barnhart was hired by Tony George prior to the unification of Champ Cars and the IRL.  Universally reviled for a series of questionable decisions, pressure mounted on series honcho Randy Bernard to show Barnhardt the door.

Quietly, it was assumed by many that Barnhart would be relieved, but not during the season.   Randy Bernard is not that kind of manager.  Finally, the die was cast earlier this week, much to the relief of teams, drivers and critics in the press.  Let’s hope for consistent officiating that makes sense to the drivers, teams and fans.

Even with one problem solved, Marshall Pruett of SpeedTV.com has just published his detailed analysis of significant teething problems with the new car.  The car apparently has a mind of its own, with scary oversteer when it enters a corner at Indy, and fence-worthy understeer when exiting a corner.  The car is almost 20 mph slower than Alex Tagliani’s pole-winning speed at Indy last May.  We’re not experts, but we’re pretty sure no one asked Dallara for “slower”.

One longtime IndyCar engineer interviewed by Pruett lays the problems at the doorstep of Dallara, the Italian chassis-builder.  Like its lamented (read: piece of crap) HRT F1 car, Dallara has employed a significant amount of CFD (computational fluid dynamics) design.  CFD produces great results on a computer but correlating those in the real world is no mean feat.  And from what we’ve read, Dallara flunked.  This, mind you, was a car that was meant to save money and make the racing safer and more exciting at the same time.

We don’t even know where to begin.  The new car was supposed to energize the series, but everyone who has driven it says “pig” would be a compliment.  The cause of Wheldon’s death is under investigation, but there’s been precious little news on that front for at least two months.  A storied team like Newman-Haas can’t find any sponsors.

At least the much-despised Barnhart is gone, which is one good sign.  Plus,  TV ratings increased 10 percent, another positive in a series struggling to find them.

But it’s going to be a long winter folks.