(upbeat music) Welcome to the Marshall Prote podcast in your week in sports cars. Jamboree of fun and mirth. I'm Marshall Pruitt. This is the All Capps Graham Goodwin, editor of dailysportscar.com. Speaker of words into F-I-A-W-E-C-E-L-M-S, Asian Le Mans, if there's a series at the end of the name of the series, it involves sporty cars. I feel really confident in saying you, Graham Goodwin, have indeed been the lead comms person, a comms person in general, or something. So how are you doing? And please forgive me for not being able to do an episode for a little while. It's 100% on me. Oh, no, no, no, no, I mean, busy, busy, busy, all around you and my both. And if it's not been you're being away, it's been me being away. I think this is my second day at home in the last, or I want to say four weeks. And we're off again to Brazil for the F-I-W-E-Jourance Championship's first return trip there since 2014. My broadcasting colleague, Anthony Davidson's, the race at which he was effectively crowned as world champion. Yeah. And that doesn't feel like 10 years ago, but boy, oh boy, it was. Time to say a big thank you to our show partners on the Marshall Pruitt podcast, starting with FAF Technologies. Build to print composites manufacturing company. They're specializing in medium to large scale automotive, motor sports, and military applications. Visit FAFtechnologies.com. It's P-F-A-F-F technologies.com to learn more about their services and how they can benefit your business. Next, it's the Justice Brothers. Makers of premium additives, lubricants, and cleaners, and servicing the automotive and motorsports industries for more than 85 years. The victories in all of the biggest North American motor races, including the Indianapolis 500, the 24 hours a day tona, the Justice Brothers products are truly race proven. Learn about their vast history and range of offerings at justicebrothers.com. If you're fond of awesome motor racing collectibles, including FAF Motorsports McLaren Gear and goodies, pay a visit to torontomotorsports.com. And finally, we have a new online merchandise home for the podcast, ThePruittStore.com. All the show stickers, models, racing member Obelia, trying to sell and put towards our fun to buy a house, is now live and rocking. ThePruittStore.com. You know, Graham, we're not gonna have a lot of time here because you need to pack and get ready to hop on to one of them aeroplanes. They're not making you swim this time, thankfully, all the way to Brazil from the UK. But we don't have a lot of time, but we did at least wanna get in a quick episode. Maybe flap our gums a little bit about some of the more recent topics of interest. And then when you get back from good old interlogos, next week we will do a proper listener Q&A episode. So GTP/hypercar, definitely a place of interest in terms of potential new manufacturers. We have a definite don't believe everything you read on the interwebs because as some would have you believe, one or more manufacturers have already committed to doing new GTPs or hypercars or both or who knows and not saying that some that you might have read about won't just saying that to our knowledge, I haven't heard of anything being greenlit yet. Why don't we start with the one that's maybe top of that list of speculae shong, being Hyundai, like Sunday. This has been floating around for years as a possibility, but it definitely seems like Graham, the last, what, four weeks, three weeks, something in that general range. This has hotted up to a, ah, they're in there on the way, it's happening, they're making a genesis such and such and it's gonna be fantastic and we hope that to be true. We want that to be true, but none of your sources or my own have told us it is indeed a done deal. Does that sound about right to you? It does and there's all sorts of balls in the air, if you like, you know, going from, we have the good of a festival of speed this coming weekend. They are putting it through that major events, there's gonna be several Hyundai slash Genesis branded announcements at that events, including their brand ambassador, none other than Jackie X. This is the Genesis magma program, which is their Halo sub brand performance, you know, ultimate performance luxury end of the scale. That would seem, wouldn't it, to be a great opportunity to announce something. I don't think we're gonna have announcement. I would not be surprised if there was a couple of hints chucked in there by whoever, whichever major management figures of Hyundai are present, but am I expecting an imminent announcement? I'm not, where are we? Nothing signed is what I've been told by multiple people, both directly involved Hyundai and in their potential supply chain. - And I can add to that. I know for a fact because I have had the conversation and been told this and I won't say which team or teams, or how many teams, but I can say factually, talks have been held at least here in the U.S. on the GTP side between potential service providers who would name what it might be, facilitate the entire program, run vehicle supplied, however it would be shaped. I can tell you that it is a fact that conversations between the Hyundai Motorsport Group and entities of interest here in the Impsipatic that could run a future GTP program, if turns were agreed to and if Hyundai were to agree to do such a project, those conversations have taken place. I feel comfortable in saying we'll continue to take place, would characterize things and I think you would as well Graham as being in the fact finding phase. What's it gonna cost? - Yes. - Who is it? What is your pedigree? What is your provenance? If we were to do this, give us an idea on price, give us an idea on structure, right? Would this just be an Impsip program you would run? Could you run a Impsip and WEC, let's talk. And so, yeah, I know from those that I've spoken with, those conversations have been taken place and I know you are aware as well that on your side of the world and WEC-ity WEC, similar things been happening. - I think what we're talking about is beyond conceptual, beyond initial evaluation, not at commitment level yet. - Who else is out there in terms of manufacturers? I'll ask you a question which I know the answer to and we can't mention all of them. But what other manufacturers can we talk about? We're comfortable with. - Well, we're comfortable that McLaren talking, but McLaren have been talking for as long as Hypercar has been mooted. - Not a question of if Graham Goodwin, but when? Which I feel like I've heard as a quote and used a couple times and I keep investing my faith in the fact that this is going to happen and... - Well, I think the reality is for our friends at McLaren and they are our friends. - Yeah. - Is there's a point where that narrative ain't going to wash? And I think we're getting close to it. My guess would be that they have the absolutely ideal opportunity for a stage made in heaven for them to make this announcement. And that isn't Lamont next year. - Where stage made in heaven. - Did you hear what you just said? That's beautiful. That should be the name of some form of Lamont documentary. - Stage made in heaven. The Graham Goodwin story. - Maybe that's the doc about your career at Lamont. - Yeah, there you go. That's the absolute advantage that it is. - It's a beautiful turn of phrase made. - If they're going to say anything, an announcement on the 13th anniversary of their win would be the right place and time to do it. And do I think they're going to do it? I do. I actually do think they will commit. I think what we're seeing is that their motorsport portfolio is beginning to produce results. Formula one, were it not for some dark thoughts on the pit wall would have been successful in this past weekend. But I don't think they're ready yet. I think they're ready to push things forward. I have had conversations with a number of people, again, directly and indirectly involved in this and the signs are good that they're pushing towards a point where it can be a yes, okay? So that's as much as we know from them. The third big beast that we can talk about today, because there are more that the third big beast that we can talk about today, I think, is forward. Quite interesting, I know a number of my journalistic colleagues and your journalistic colleagues have been sniffing around this one. The most we can say about forward, I think at this stage is they consistently, it's not what they are saying, it's what they're not saying. And they're consistently not saying no, okay? It's clear that they're reasonably happy, I think, with the strategies they've got across their multiple portfolio. The Mustang products in variety of forms in a variety of formulae is breaking through in terms of the marketing punch they're looking for. The presence are built forward on the on podium with the predstone competition car, finishing third, was significant, it means that they were most definitely senior Ford executives on site that much when you're ready, those tend to indicate that they're not just there to sip white wine and watch the timing screens that there's other things going on. So that, I think, was interesting. I can tell you, by the way, we definitely had Sunday. Senior top brass at Le Mans without a chakra doubt. There were some other very interesting brand named senior executives at Le Mans, which I won't talk about for this show, but something's coming in terms of a bid for someone else to be involved in the WC/Le Mans that currently isn't. - That's hot too. - And this one could be quite a surprise. So there's a lot of movement, I think make no mistake. The success we've seen over the last 12 to 18 months in MCSGTP class, in the WC's hypercar class, has had a profound effect on the outlook and the attitude of a number of sectors in the automotive industry. And I think you're gonna start to see and hear some very important and significant names and brands who want to become involved now. In a situation where the numbers across the board MCSTV numbers shooting up and online numbers shooting up, the same for WC. That's not to be ignored, is it? The key thing now is having space to accommodate them all. - TVR and Marcos, those are the brands. - Yeah. - They're like, well, there you go. - Lister, can you say? - Lister Storm is coming. - Well, to give you, for instance, is the kind of background things that are happening. In the middle of this last weekend with European Among Series, cracking race again with the EMS. And talking there to people at the circuit, they're not ready to tell us exactly what the plans are right now. And I think that's because they want to respect local planning laws, et cetera. Look, they're building new garages to accommodate the World Championship. It's no small thing for a circuit to having rebuilt to accommodate Formula One, to now rebuild again to accommodate a second World Championship product. And I think we're going to see more significant things like this. Spa, making moves to try to nail down long-term relationships with sports car racing. And seeing this is very much their kind of bailiwick. Before we leave this show up at the way, we should return back to a couple of points from the Centenary race for the Spa 24 Hours, just a few weekends ago, two weekends ago, I think now. I think my three weekends, I'm afraid, that my fatigue levels are actually portraying me. But all sorts of things going on this side of the pond. And I know I'm hearing from our friends in and around the emsipatic too, that the numbers that are beginning to show themselves, Marshall, are impressive and are turning heads. And who would have thought that three, four years ago in the depths of COVID, would it all look desperately sad? Who would have thought we'd be in this position? - We are in remarkably strong times. - Let's talk about good old Brazil before we say farewell, Graham. We have crossed over into the second half of the FIA WEC calendar. We look at the top on the hypercar side. Interesting, cross those opening four races. Porsche winning the first round with the factory effort there. Toyota getting in, round two. Friends and the privateer side. A privateer victory at round three. With Hertz Team Jota. I was about to call it Hertz Team Jost, which would be one of the great marriages of racing teams. Brian Hurda, Ryan Holdyost, together again for the first time. But yeah, factory Porsche to open. Toyota, round two. Customer, Porsche for round three, then obviously Ferrari winning hypercar at Le Mans. Any thoughts, any prognostications. And there are other brands who would certainly love to get in on the good old victory routine. But any thoughts of what the glorious interlogos circuit might hold in terms of favor among any of the hypercar brands. - Well, it's gonna be interesting. Like I said, at the top of the show, it's a decade since we've been there. It was the final race of the 2014, the third season of the FI World Insurance Championship. And it marked two things. It was pretty much the debut for that circuit with its new surface. So that surface is now a decade old. And it was the final race for the terrible Pitts paddock building. So no idea what that's gonna look like, but as long as it doesn't have water literally flowing down the walls and the electrics, it's gonna be a bet in the old one. I expect a really decent crowd. Well, we're back there in 2014. I've seen three cool 55,000 people turned up to watch. And that was at a point where the championship really wasn't that strong. That was a race, by the way, that saw Tom Christensen's final race, Houghton Haynes's final race with Audi. It saw an effective dream podium that had Porsche's first win. The championship winning Toyota squad on the podium and Tom Christensen on the podium in his final race. It was also a race, by the way, you might recall MP that saw an absolutely enormous shunt for Mark Weber. Yeah. Where the 919 collided with a Ferrari GT car and ended up in two pieces on the pit straights. Yeah, debut season for the 919. There's simply Mark. Yeah, massive, massive shunt. So what do we expect? I think more of the same in terms of the, the closeness of the contest. Ferrari looking good, Toyota looking, perhaps not the dominant force they were, but certainly they showed at Le Mans that they're certainly not out of this. We're expecting some mixed weather. I'm told by people already on sites that whether it's somewhat autumnal in Brazil at the moment. So we'll wait and see what that kind of pounds out. Porsche, including the Hertstein-Jody car. And for that matter, the proton car, I think could well be in the mix as well. Caddy have been there and they're abouts and did, I thought, pretty well at Le Mans as well. For that matter, over six hours, don't count out Alpe. They've looked quick. The BMW in WC trim has looked pretty quick. We're almost sort of waiting for one of those new teams to catch up with the established order at the moment. And I think that will happen, as we get into the second half of the season. I think this could be a pretty spectacular race because the one thing we absolutely can say is none of them have got race experience at that track. So it is going to be something of a leveler. But what am I expecting? Potential mixed conditions. There's certainly some rain forecast for Sunday. I'm expecting a close race, a big crowd. And frankly, that's been the story of the WC all season so far. It's been pretty inspiring to be honest with you. I'm a, you know, like many of my germistic trades, I do have my cynical traits. Not not be cynical about the moment. It's actually enormous fun to turn up and see people enjoying what's being built here. And you can sort of feel the inherent cynicism that sits in sports car racing, evaporating at the moment. Everybody's aware that this might well be a bubble. And, you know, when you talk to people, it varies from, oh, the management, don't know how to hang on to this, for two, three, four, five years. Well, if hands on for five years, that'll do me. Thank you very much. Brazil, interesting marketplace. Slightly scary prospect for some people to visit at the moment. We'll see how that all works. In there a couple of times. Loved every minute of it. Yeah, I mean, me too. Was there in 2012 as a journalist? There in 2014 as a broadcaster. No scary experiences whatsoever. I'm fully well aware that others have not been able to say that, too. But ultimately, I think this could be a really positive experience for the championship. There's a lot to be decided. It's time now for Porsche to kind of regather themselves and push for home in championship terms. Or it's time for Ferrari to show what they've actually got beyond the 24 hours of Le Mans, where, of course, they put in that sterling performance to bring home the second consecutive win. But it's one worth watching, one worth keeping an eye on. CTMP this weekend as well with-- it was whether it's a sports car championship and their Canadian round, which of course doesn't feature. GTP, but there's a bit of a brief shuffle with a number of the LMP2 teams. There's some big names involved there as well. So lots and lots of sports car racing to be savored. Now we're away from the three big 24-hour races in Europe, all of which, by the way, featured not just great racing, but also some pretty appalling weather for all three of them. And in the case of the sports 24 hours, I'll say there's some pretty appalling driving as well. And it retains its position, MP, for me, as being, to be blunt, the one that I worry about, the one that I worry about driving behavior, and perhaps a bit of an inconsistency towards the way in which poor behavior on track is dealt with. Last quick thing for you. It has been a very Germanic season so far in the Wex. New LMG-T3 category, porkers winning three of the four, BMW getting the other. Any reason to believe whether it's an Aston Martin, Lexus, a Lamborghini, Ferrari, you name it. Any reason to believe the Germanic Uber-Alice streak might come to an end this weekend. Well, without wishing to kind of pour rain on their parade, I sort of hope so, because it really has been a matter of who can catch them. Well, here's a few pointers. McLaren have been stronger than getting stronger. There's some concerns about the depth of talent in the driving squads, but there's no doubt that the United Auto Sports McLaren effort is gathering pace. The Mustangs did so well at the Lamont 24 hours. Third and fourth in LMG-T3, although it was the third car that was fourth, the second WC car, not in that kind of form. Lamborghini, the Iron Games won this weekend, this last weekend in their Porsche, and are looking strong. So I'll mention it just this once. That Lamborghini is so sensitive to the balance of performance in particular rear-air road, that if they've found a sweet spot, there'll be ones to watch as well. The Lexus came into its own at Lamont, and again, why shouldn't it? So it looks like the Cody's ASP are beginning to kind of understand the internet's there. You mentioned Aston Martin, you know, heart of racing. Yeah, finished the race on its roof at Indianapolis, but they've been strong as well. We've been saying throughout the season that to this point, LMG-T3 has been a little underwhelming. It was way better at Lamont. It was great at this past weekend. And I think as the teams are getting to understand the formula and the differences in the formula, and the drivers' squads are getting to understand that for many of them brand new machinery, I think things are beginning to improve to level out. I think people are catching the BMWs and the porshes. And I hope that with the kind of the leveling effect that comes with a track that very few people would have got any kind of experience on, we might see something better, and hopefully something great from LMG-T3 as well. It's going to be fine, and it's going to be good. It's just taking time for people to unlock the code. Time and good. Another Graham Goodwin story. Brother, thank you. I know it's late, and you do indeed need to pack and get ready to roll out in the morning. We will be back next week with an in-depth look into both IMSA, a good old CTMP, also known as Mo Sport in our hearts, and also your trip to gorgeous Brazil, and hopefully a really phenomenal, wickety wick race. I'm Marshall Pruitt, that's Graham Goodwin. This has been your "We Can Sports Car" brought to you by FAFT Technologies, torontomotorsports.com, and the Justice Brothers will speak to you here very soon. [MUSIC PLAYING]
