Green, Green Green: Venezuela stops the money flow

What makes a race car go fast?     That's right, money.

E J Viso in Houston with Andretti Autosport

You could have the best talent, the best ideas, run your team with the efficiency and precision of a Swiss watch but, if you don't pay the bills, you're not racing.  

Motor racing and nebulous financing are no strangers, from the very pinnacle of Formula One  to regional racing like Grand Am, ALMS  or Indycar in North America.  Cases and allegations of scams run the gamut from outright fraud like Greg Loles's   to allegations of bribes paid for financial considerations as in the German case against Bernie Ecclestone.    Truth of the matter is most teams  in racing are constantly on the edge financially and very few will ever be in a position to be choosy about where funds come from.

This brings us to the seemingly miraculous explosion in Venezuelan driving talent over the past several years.  a country of 30 million, with few race tracks has spawned a seemingly inexhaustible supply of racers and gentlemen drivers buying rides.  PDVSA, the state owned Venezuelan oil company and Citgo, its US subsidiary  are major team sponsors in F1 and Indycar. The "Venezuela, conocerla es tu destino" stickers promoting tourism became ubiquitous on GrandAm tracks.

Apparently it's everyone's destiny now to get to know a bit more about Venezuelan sponsorship.  

We first heard whispers about how the program worked when we were at the 2012 Rolex 24.  Simply put, the talk was those stickers came with a very sizable kickback percentage requirement.   Classic laundering, classic cleptocracy.  

Now many teams will be left scrambling in light of Venezuela freezing of motorsport sponsorship funds,   the allegations not of direct kickbacks from drivers and/or teams but of currency fraud.  
Perhaps people did not not expect the Venezuelan Minister for Sport, former olympic fencer Alejandra Benitez to, you know, do he job just because she's a hot babe who was photographed in the buff.  As it turns out, Ms Benitez did not take kindly to her signature being forged and discovering among other things, 66 million of government dollars going to sponsor one driver alone, at a time when ordinary Venezuelans are limited to exchanging a mere US$3000 per year for foreign travel and when dollars are sold on the black market for 7 times the value.

Who got $66 million in 2013?   Pastor Maldonado paid $46 million to Williams in 2012 for his seat and that's for what is by far the most expensive series on the planet.  You do the math.  How much did Venezuela give out to drivers and teams? How much complicity was there from teams?  I doubt we are destined to learn that.

All this of course while PDVSA, manager of the country's main asset is in shambles thanks to "marxist management" and Venezuela has  an almost 50% inflation rate.  

Green, green, green!

Bimmerworld Racing debuts BMW F30 racer.

Virginia-based BMW experts head to Wisconsin looking to strengthen their standing in the Street Tuner championship while also starting the on-track development of its brand-new BMW F30 chassis

Photos: MotorsportMedia/Halston Pitman

Cheers to our friends at Bimmerworld racing for they debut of a new BMW race car built on the latest F30 chassis.  The new car will join the team's E90 based cars in the Grand Am Continental championship, Street Tuner class.

Leading GRAND-AM Continental Tire Series team BimmerWorld Racing will have two objectives in mind this weekend at the Road America circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

The three-car program, which has fielded BMW’s 328i chassis built on the E90 platform since joining the series in 2010, is once again in the Championship hunt. Two of its entries are currently inside the top-10 in both the drivers’ and teams’ standings.

With seven rounds already completed in the 11-race season, Road America marks beginning of the final push towards the 2013 Street Tuner title for BimmerWorld. And with the No. 82 CRC BRAKLEEN® BMW 328i driven by Seth Thomas and Dan Rogers sitting fifth in the standings, and the No. 81 BimmerWorld BMW 328i of Gregory Liefooghe and Tyler Cooke in eighth, team owner/driver James Clay sees great opportunities ahead for both cars to improve their respective Championship positions.

“We are still nicely in the pack for the Championship race and with four rounds remaining; each race is becoming more important,” he said. “With Road America being the first of two back-to-back races, coming through this one clean and with a solid result is critical. We have a solid team and equipment, and this is our time to shine.”

SPECTACULAR PASS AT MID OHIO

Bill Auberlen and Robin Liddell held a seminar on proper side by side racing.

Photos: Turner Motorsport

Grand Am has seen its share of asshattery lately  mostly at the hands of Colombian driver Gustavo Yacaman,  the Baghdad Bob of racing ( "Not my fault, Rojas gave me no room"!).  

Here are a couple of real pros showing you can race side by side at the limit and not ball it up.

Turner Motorsport's Bill Auberlen is catching the Stevenson Motorsport Camaro of Robin Liddell at Mid Ohio, a very technical track with slippery off camber corners.   Auberlen sets the Camaro up for the "Esses" on the outside of turn 6 and makes a great lunge into 7,  a tricky left with a blind exit. Beautiful.

Auberlen, with co-driver Paul Dalla Lana won the race after the Corvette of Eric Curran was penalized for blatantly punting the Turner M3 in the final lap.

Postcards From Road Atlanta

Muhlner Motorsports Porsche GT3 Cup

Postcards from the 2013 Visual Studio Ultimate Grand Prix of Atlanta at Road Atlanta by MSM/Halston Pitman

Gallery after the break

That's How He Rolls

If you absolutely, positively have to roll your car, you cannot do it any better than Dr.Jim Norman did it in practice at Road Atlanta!

2013 Grand Am of the Americas

Photos: Danny Sullivan for Axis of Oversteer

Grand Am made its debut at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas this past week end. Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty in the Gainsco Red Dragon Corvette took the DP win and Turner Motorsport's Bill Auberlen and Paul Dalla Lana the GT win in two races very much conditioned by flags and penalties.

Penalties changed the out come of GT especially, the Scuderia Corse Ferrari of Alessandro Balzan and Alessandro Pier Guidi had been dominating the race when it was penalized for a very minor contact with the Magnus Porsche of Andy Lally. Lally went wide and allowed the BMW through to P2. Pier Guidi was given a Drive though plus a time penalty on the final lap giving Turner the win.



More pictures by Danny Sullivan who was shooting for us at CotA and video highlights after the break

If You Are Going To Spin, Do It With Style!

During the inaugural Continental Tire Grand-Am of the Americas race in Austin, one of the CJ WIlson Racing Miatas got rudely turned around by a BMW braking into turn 15. The driver, Jason Saini, recovers like a boss!.

The CJ Wilson Racing Miatas had the last laugh on BMW in ST class when Stevan McAleer smoked the faster BMW 128i of Terry Borcheller with a fantastic move in the final corners on the last lap.

(Video by Dustin Kirk)

Postcard From Austin

Brumos Porsche, Grand Am at Circuit of the Americas by Danny Sullivan

Ready for Battle!

The night before the storm by Halston Pitman/MSM

Tune in for the 51st running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona at 3 PM on Speed TV and at some point on Grand-Am TV.    

Don't have much interest in DP,  just hope Montoya wins.  GT is where it's at, as far as we are concerned with huge competition between Porsche, Ferrari and Audi  slugging it out with BMW and Camaros.  

NGT being the home of the Axis cup car,  we will be cheering for the number 30 Momo Motorsport-NGT Porsche GT3.   Super strong international driver lineup with Venezuelan Henrique Cisneros, Brit Sean Edwards,  Pole Kuba Giermaziak and and Frenchman Patrick Pilet,  a last minute substitution for Jeroen Bleekemolen who will instead drive for Alex Job/Weather Tech.

Sean Edwards qualified the car third on the grid but in post race tech the car were found to have the rear wing too far back and was disqualified.  The team appealed and now rather than starting from the very back, they will start 12th.   You would think qualifying is not that important in a 24 hr race but the reality is that these races are run as 24 hour long sprints so yeah, it does matter.

We'll also keep and eye on the all Brazilian GT3 number 21  team led by Rubens Barrichello and Tony Kanaan.

Audi will also be interesting to watch, obviously the factory has put in a big effort placing top drivers in the different teams, Mortara, Biela, Rast, Stippler, Basseng...  hopefully they will more reliable than last year.

Follow Axis on Twitter for updates
Click below to view pictures by Halton Pitman / MSM  who is at Daytona with Axis credentials this week end, cool!

Aston Attacks America!

Aston Martin is launching a major push into the North American racing market with a new partnership with Kevin Buckler and TRG Racing.

The aim is to provide customer cars for Grand-Am, ALMS, Pirelli Challenge as well as a for a new single make series.

The Aston Martin Vantage will run in GTE trim for ALMS, GT3 trim in Grand-Am and Pirelli World Challenge with the GT4 version ready for Continental Challenge and a  new single make series launching  in the fall of 2013.

The Aston GT4, as an alternative to Porsche and Ferrari in single make series or even as a track day car, offers some significant advantages.  It is more forgiving to drive,  is less expensive (under $200K) and crucially has wider service intervals.    Like the 458 Challenge but unlike the Porsche GT3 Cup, it has ABS meaning no flat spots.  Like the Ferrari it has an available paddle shifter eliminating the danger of expensive over-revs and even comes with a mind boggling  11 different traction control settings and air-con options.

TRG and Aston are betting "if they build it, they will come" but will they make a dent in Porsche's leadership?  I kind of hope so and I hope it encourages BMW to jump in,  the more competition, the better.

Press release after the jump and after this clip of a Vantage GT4 lapping Laguna Seca along with brochures and more info than you can shake a stick at.
Any further inquiries, email Kevin Buckler President of AMR/TRG.

2013 Roar

AF Waltrip Ferrari 458 Italia GT

Halston Pitman was shooting for us at the "Roar Before the 24" Test session at Daytona last week,  here are some of the contenders.

2012 Grand Am Championship week end at Lime Rock

Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli scored their third consecutive Daytona Prototype victory at Lime Rock Park, while Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas took their third straight DP championship with a seventh-place finish.

Taylor held off Antonio Garcia to win by .334 seconds, giving the No. 10 SunTrust Corvette DP its third victory of the season. Garcia and Richard Westbrook also ended the season as three-time winners in the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP.

Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney rounded out the podium in the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Corvette DP, followed by the two Action Express entries (the No. 5 of David Donohue and Brian Frisselle, and the No. 9 of Darren Law and Joao Barbosa), giving the Corvette DP a sweep of the top five places to cap its first year of competition.

Needing a ninth-place finish, Pruett and Rojas iced their fourth DP title in five years by finishing seventh in the No. 01 TELMEX BMW/Riley. Ryan Dalziel entered the race with a mathematical shot at the championship, but finished sixth in the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Ford/Riley started by Alex Popow.

Robin Liddell and John Edwards took their third GT victory of the season in the No. 57 Stevenson Auto Group Chevrolet Camaro. Liddell passed Andy Lally with three laps remaining, denying the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3 started by John Potter its third triumph of 2012.

Lally then had to pit for fuel, promoting the No. 51 APR Motorsport Audi R8 of Dion von Moltke and Jim Norman to a second-place finish.

While 2012 GT champions Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal had problems early in the race that resulted in an eighth-place finish for the No. 69 AIM Autosport/Team FXDD Ferrari 458 Italia, a third-place finish by the late-entered No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia of Alessandro Balzan and Johannes van Overbeek gave Ferrari the GT manufacturers championship.

2012 Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Sebastien Bourdais and Alex Popow survived a rough-and-tumble round of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series to win the inaugural Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the No. 2 Soloson Ford/Riley for Starworks Motorsport.

Bourdais pulled away on the final restart on the 2.534-mile Indy road course to clinch the Daytona Prototype division's first North American Endurance Championship presented by VISITFLORIDA.com.

It was another highlight in the team’s incredible season, which has included second-place finishes in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in addition to class titles in the endurance classic at Le Mans and Sebring.

The No. 01 TELMEX BMW/Riley of DP leaders Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas took second in the three-hour event, while Max Angelelli and Ricky Taylor finished third in the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Corvette DP.

Juan Pablo Montoya, who teamed with Scott Dixon in the No. 02 Chevron BMW/Riley Ganassi entry, stoked controversy with his driving stint, bumping Joao Barbosa and then Ryan Dalziel out of likely top-five finishes in the late stages of the race.

Andy Lally and John Potter prevailed in GT in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3, securing the $50,000 NAEC honors in the division.