David Soares on the Foundation of Revolt

David Soares on the Foundation of Revolt � Grand Am Round 6 at Laguna Seca

Even before the checkered flag had waved on the Sunday main at this year�s

Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca Road and Track 250 for the Grand Am Rolex

Sports Car Series, I could hear the clamoring of the sportscar partisans about the

result. What wasn�t to like? Fourteen of the twenty-eight prototypes finished on

the lead lap, with a scant three seconds separating first and second, and barely a

second between the top two finishers of seventeen starters in GT. Others sniffed

that forty minutes of the first hour were spent behind the safety car and that the

time-limited race wound up being the Rodent Track 197 rather than the billed

Road and Track 250.

Close racing or contrived bunch-ups? I really didn�t care. I enjoy the Grand Am

for what it is. While I�ll never consider it to be the premier road racing series its

shills try to claim it to be, I think that it fits nicely into the continuum of American

racing, harking back to the early days of IMSA and the All-American GT�s or to the

tube-frame contingent of the late-lamented Trans Am.

Pledging My Time
This year there is even more to like. In another echo of tube-frame glory days,

when second generation Porsche man Al Holbert showed up with a DeKon

Monza, perennial Porsche GT stalwarts Alex Job Racing have joined the DP ranks.

Tired of being derided for merely winning everything in sight because he�s �factory

backed� in the last of four classes but really only barely cracking the top-10, Alex

Job is in the running for overall wins and a national championship with his

Porsche Crawford now sponsored by Ruby Tuesday restaurants. Patrick Long

won Saturday�s qualifying sprint leading from flag to flag after topping the timing

sheets consistently.

On Sunday young German phenom Mike Rockenfeller started from the pole Patty

had earned him and was pulling a second a lap on the field when he wasn�t

following the Pontiac GTO safety car. The team was eventually slowed by the

overcrowded pits and then felled by a shift-linkage failure, but wags in the pits

were playing their �factory backed� violins just like they do in the Other Sportscar

Series. Holly Job presents a convincing case that the team is emphatically NOT

�factory backed� but some people don�t want to hear it. My own walk around the

paddock looking at naked DP�s suggested that Job�s experience with this

particular performance envelope (remember, the DP was normed to the Porsche

GT3 RSR) has led to a superior chassis set-up. The Alex Job Crawford is put

together nicer than everybody else�s, and it makes those rock hard skateboard

wheels Hoosier is supplying work to their full potential.

The series threw Job a few pounds of considerable ballast and a big rev-

restriction after the second race they ran, but it hasn�t seemed to make a big

difference. You also can�t under-rate driving talent. I had the privilege of seeing

Mike Rockenfeller�s Iron Man act at Le Mans last summer when he and Marc Lieb

relieved Leo Hindery of the need to sweat and slide to victory. Patrick Long is also

brilliant. Just to bring home the point that drivers do make a difference in this

series, the Sun Trust Riley Pontiac won the 197 on Sunday thanks in large part to

super-sub Jan Magnussen�s hard charge during his early stint. No more whining

about the disadvantage of Pontiac power. Word around the paddock was that the

sportscar world hasn�t heard the last of Mags.

500 years of the cuckoo clock�
All those full-course cautions really fried my bacon, but they weren�t entirely the

fault of Grand Am. They were the result of the meddling of a little motorcycle club

in Mies, Switzerland, the Federation International de Motocyclisme. Road racing

has been struggling at the gate in this country for over a decade, since CART

imploded from its own success. At the end of the Eighties Laguna got bumped up

to international length through the addition of the lakebed section in hopes of

attracting Bernie�s Kart circus, but that wasn�t going to be financially feasible on

the Monterey Peninsula. In the meantime local lights like Kenny Roberts and

Wayne Rainey were tearing up the European motorcycle firmament. After a couple

of fits and starts, Moto GP came to Monterey. Suddenly the track that was having

trouble selling 4500 tickets to a Champ Car race was selling-out a weekend.

Promoter nirvana.

The only problem is that the insane power-to-weight ratio of a GP bike, when

combined with teeny-tiny contact patches and a dusty Fort Ord lakebed, led to

visions of frightening carnage. I have such a healthy respect for bikes that I swore

them off about thirty years ago after soiling a perfectly good pair of undershorts

riding my cousin�s Moto Guzzi 850 Le Mans in the local hills. When you find the

limits of adhesion on a powerful motorcycle you need a good place to lay it down,

and the Federation International de Motocyclisme has laid down how. I guess that

they were watching re-runs of David Lean�s Lawrence of Arabia and realized that

the sands of the Empty Quarter were a better place to pitch a bike than an English

hedgerow. I don�t know for sure.

Twango bango
What I do know is that my beloved Laguna Seca Raceway has been subject to a

massive earth-moving campaign, with entire hillsides scraped away, bridges

moved, and the Media Center knocked down (and moved to a stack of containers

that look to be from the Port of Oakland). In their place are vast sandtraps on every

runoff area into which the Moto GP riders may slide their skinny leather-clad asses

when the twist of the right grip outmatches the ability of the of their rear tire to grip

the pavement.

I really hate when racing people get hurt (or worse). I was shaken to my bones

when I happened to be sitting in the grass on one of those missing hillsides a

quarter-century ago when George Follmer flew the Prophet Can-Am car over the

fences at what was then Laguna�s Turn Seven. I can still hear the sound of Clay

Reggazoni furiously downshifting his Ensign at Long Beach and having the

sickening realization that the Shoreline Straight ended in immovable concrete

barriers. Decent run-off areas might have saved George�s back and Regga�s

legs. There have been too many good people hurt on both sides of the barriers

not to care about racing safety.

Mrs. Peel on a Ducati�
But what is safe for one kind of motorsport isn�t necessarily what�s best for

everyone. That soft sand can be quicksand for the �historic� cars also popular at

Laguna Seca. I can also remember a guy in a plastic Lotus Elite thinking that he

could brake with the Elan 26R�s in his run group a few years ago at the Historics.

He hit the sand trap at Turn Two with his wheels turned, just the way driving

instructors tell you not to. The outside front dug in and the car was launched into

the fencing eight feet off the ground, landing the driver an ambulance ride to a

Salinas ICU.

Modern racing cars are more stable than a 1960 Elite, but the FIM sand traps will

beach them as solidly as the Moro Castle ran up on the Jersey Shore. The

SCCA�s tow trucks just aren�t up to the task of digging them out. The first

grounding incident on lap 8 took nine laps to clear. There were seven official full-

course cautions during the race (there would have been an eighth but the checker

had been waived) due to off-course excursions. It wasn�t a problem during

Saturday�s single-class (full-points) qualifying sprints, but when multiple classes

take to the track, you�re going to have a few offs. These used to be quick

unassisted returns to the racing surface but now they require a fleet of recovery

vehicles worthy of the Dakar Raid.

Bucks in the bank�
Moto GP is keeping Laguna Seca solvent. The circuit has the advantage of being

FIM-certified, an advantage that means something in a series that has such strict

requirements for rider safety that they run three of their European rounds in Spain

at circuits where they don�t have to worry about run-off. But the vast dune-scapes

that have been created at a circuit that has been an oak-shaded temple of

American road racing for half a century are clogging-up the racing. ALMS boosters

can gloat that their cars managed to stay on the road the past couple of visits, but

then they can�t start 48 cars, can they? There�s a lot of traffic at a Grand Am race �

and a tremendous diversity (shall we say) of driving talent and car preparation.

That�s what makes the series so entertaining to watch.

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Somebody�s got to come up with a better plan for recovering high-centered cars

at Laguna. Or maybe T.E. Lawrence had it right. It�s said that he favored the

Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost armored cars. I can see it now. Maybe PTG can revive

BMW�s captive brand heritage in partnership with A1 GP�s Sheik al Maktoum�

David Soares
May 2006