PRUETT: Triple Stint, 8/3

Le Mans / ALMS

PRUETT: Triple Stint, 8/3

The latest collection of thoughts from last weekend’s open-wheel and sportscar events and other assorted topics from Marshall Pruett.

Marshall Pruett | Posted August 04, 2009 Oakland, CA

TK: 1, MP: 0. I didn't think the IndyCar Series had done enough to improve their oval racing with the aero changes they announced. Boy was I wrong. (LAT)

Thanks again to everyone that joined in last week for another hilarious weekly open-wheel and sportscar chat (Tuesdays, 5:30pm ET). Join in to chat with me and a host of other diehard open-wheel and sportscar fanatics again today.

Have thoughts, questions or opinions to share about this column or topics of your own?

Well, I Got That One Wrong

I wasn’t a big believer in the aero changes the IndyCar Series unveiled for the ovals, and boy was I proven wrong on Saturday night. When the aero changes were announced, Tony Kanaan told me they’d have a major impact on the quality of racing, but I wasn’t nearly as sure. TK was happy to remind me of his prediction when I asked how the changes aided his march to 3rd place at Kentucky.

“I told you! All kidding aside, we got what we wanted Saturday night. You know, the one [company] we need to thank that people didn’t hear [about] was Firestone. They got a lot of complaints from us about [the tires generating too many] marbles, and they came up with something new for the race that worked great. You had a lot of lines you could run and it wasn’t like that before because of the marbles.

“You have to thank Honda for the ‘press-to-pass.’ They gave us extra power. But the biggest thing was the aero. It was a big step in the right direction. We wanted a photo finish, and we got it. I still think we’ll get together to make it better. Running side-by-side is still difficult – it’s not as stable like it once was. It’s really good, but there’s some improvement there. Overall, I was extremely happy with everything.”

Unlike the recent oval races, cars could get as close as they wanted Saturday night. “For sure, the extra aero wasn’t too heavy, but you were able to get up on people’s gearboxes and stay there or get alongside. If you look at our Texas race, that wasn’t even an option, man. And that’s what you want. You don’t want it like the Hanford Device times – that was like a cartoon. We want to run side-by-side. If you don’t do that on the big tracks, it’s really boring. We can’t do that to the fans anymore.”

Kanaan was also quick to thank the IndyCar Series, but it wasn’t a case of just saying nice things about the series as so many drivers do purely out of habit. “I can’t thank the League enough for the changes. We’ve been in A LOT of conversations with them about this. It wasn’t like they came up and said, ‘this is what you’re going to do for now on.’ They included us in everything, asked our opinions and really used their drivers and teams to come up with this solution. That’s just the way it should be, you know?”

Kanaan also thought Honda’s P-t-P button was an effective tool, but made a point to dispel any false perceptions it might have. “This wasn’t like a movie where the guy presses the button and his head snaps back and the car does a wheelie. You could feel the little bit [of] extra power – you feel it – but it’s not something that goes ‘WHAM’ in your back. It was just enough to help, but not enough to do the pass for you. I think it’s worth it – we’re still developing it and we’ll have it on the road courses too, but the aero was the big change. You put all these things together, and it’s three smart steps by everyone.”

After he was done thanking the players involved with the change to the oval package, Kanaan’s thoughts turned to the original fans of the IndyCar Series. “Our fans got to know the Indy Racing League because of the photo finishes. They were the ones that put us on the map, and told their friends to watch and to come out to the races. We’re growing and diversifying with more road courses and that’s great. But for the fans that have been with us since we were only on the ovals, they want to see what we used to give them, and I hope they see we made a step in their direction at Kentucky.”

America’s Got Talent!

I've highlighted only drivers so far, but this week we’ll feature an American racing team -- Michael Shank Racing.

MSR has attracted some of the best drivers to drive for them -- it looks like opportunities for a new cast might exist in 2010. (LAT)

Shank, the leading privateer Grand-am Rolex DP entrant for the past few seasons, has evolved his operation from a winning Atlantic team to a steady threat in DP in a short amount of time.

Shank has boasted a multi-national driving squad for years now, but that complexion of that driving lineup could be changing for 2010. For anyone looking to launch themselves into the top-5 in DP in an instant, the team sits 4th in team points and has driver Michael Valiante currently situated 7th in driver’s points.

With giants like Ganassi, Gainsco and SunTrust as the only three teams ahead of MSR in points, access to such potential for 2010 is a no-brainer for any serious drivers looking to hire the best team available.

"I like to think after five years of doing DP, we offer the best turn-key solution in the series, Shank told me. "I hope that doesn't sound arrogant -- it isn't meant to -- but we take pride in our team and what we deliver for our customers."

MSR’s privateer effort makes use of an American chassis (Riley), an American engine (Ford) and is staffed by an incredibly talented group of mechanics and engineers based out of Pataskala, Ohio. They’re as ‘home’ as ‘home team’ can get.

I’m sure they’d welcome a call or email from interested parties.

Where Art Thou, Art?

I’m reminded on a daily basis that sportscar racing has lost one of its more fun elements – adding new and different artwork to the cars at each round.

I have an ex-NPTI (Nissan GTP) headlight cover from hanging on my office wall that carries a fun depiction of multiple driver’s champion Geoff Brabham counting his money as his teammates look on, and it makes me long for the antics this art used to bring to sportscar racing.

It was the most public way for mechanics to express themselves – each round carried something different, and as ex-TWR USA Jaguar team boss Tony told me, “I love some of the stuff we did back then. It was part of the psychology of how you messed with someone. It was a great way for the fans to follow what the teams were doing different and for the anoraks to keep pace with the little differences from race to race.”

My daily reminder of how cool IMSA's artisans used to be. And why exactly has it stopped? (Marshall Pruett)

Nissan was by far the most active of the IMSA artisans, using one of their headlight covers to depict a different home made graphic at each round -- sometimes it was Batman, sometimes Spiderman – sometimes Bartman (when The Simpsons became popular), or maybe Jessica Rabbit. And sometimes it was done to taunt their rivals.

That taunting usually came with a slight twist of the knife. Everything from a bullseye with the Jaguar logo in the middle, to a gravestone with the letters “R.I.P” written on it could be found on the Nissans.

“You never wanted to be outdone by the other teams, even if it was on the headlights,” continued Dowe. “It wasn’t stabbing at one another – it was pushing them. It was to get them off center. If you get them to say ‘F*** I wish I’d thought of that!” then you’d succeeded. Some of it was nice – one team put ‘Welcome Cats’ on their car when we arrived, but most often, it was a way to antagonize each other. For the amount of publicity it can generate versus the pennies it costs to make up the decals, I can’t see why teams aren’t doing it today. The spectators loved it in IMSA.”

As much as TWR wanted to respond to Nissan's frequent jabs, their backers weren’t as keen to engage in the back-and-forth exchanges. “Our sponsors weren’t so supportive of us doing artwork on our car to go at them the way they did with us. The Nissan mechanics had a much freer policy to mess with us, but it was great.”

There were also practical reasons behind the headlight art -- it was most often done to help differentiate one team car from the other, even when different color windshield banners were used to distinguish between team cars. The creativity of the sportscar art also matched the mechanical creativity in the series.

Bruce Leven’s Bayside Disposal 962s often had a cartoon of him on the sides of the cabin that paid homage to his roots as a “garbage man.” Comptech sometimes used Rising Sun art on the headlight cover of their second car in deference to their partners at Acura – teams genuinely tried to add to the visual appeal of their cars, and I have to ask why that’s been lost.

With multi-car teams in the ALMS and Grand-Am, surely there’s room on the front of the cars to still have some fun at each round, but the location of the logos would have to change. Headlights are used at each round today, so covering them with stickers wouldn’t work as it did twenty years ago, but I’m convinced that manufacturers like Acura, Mazda, Porsche and Ford could bring back some of the amusement with their modern sportscar racing efforts. For the privateers, it’s an even easier decision to make.

This time, Nissan sported the Batman logo, but you never knew what they (or other teams) would show up with at each round. (Marshall Pruett)

Corvette Racing has done a great job to incorporate their 'Jake' skull logo (from their friends at BadBoyVettes.com), going so far as to do alternate liveries with Jake covering their GT1 C6.Rs. With the Corvette Racing boys about to debut their GT2 Vettes this weekend, the logical extension of the Jake logo seems to be in the form of different cartoons on the cars at each round, doesn't it?

Jake munching on a Porsche emblem at Mid-Ohio...roasting Ferrari's prancing horse logo over an open fire for Road America...it fits the team's playful nature.

Dowe reckoned the best bit of artwork was seen when he worked for Carl Haas during Can-Am’s “formula cars with bodywork” period of the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s.

“If you look at the Carl Haas Lola that Jacky Ickx drove, the secondary sponsor was a company named Borax that made laundry detergent. There was a guy named John Hucksdorf. He did all the sign writing on Haas’ cars and did Jacky’s Borax car. Borax had an advertising campaign around that time called the ‘Twenty Mule Team.’

“Along the engine cover, he did a ‘Twenty Mule Team’ logo that had these horses pulling carriages, and it was all done by hand. Carl (Haas) never noticed it, but if you looked close, Hucksdorf added in a little guy behind the horses with a shovel scooping up their s***.” That was brilliant – it wasn’t obvious; it was a bit cheeky, and the sponsor never knew it. We loved it.”

So, sportscar teams, who’s going to help bring back this tradition? Seems like an inexpensive way to attract more attention to your teams, to your sponsors, and to add some of the playfulness back into the sport.

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