[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to the Martial Pro podcast and your weekend sports cars, listener Q&A show, Graham Goodwin. We had enough questions for last week where we said we were going to do about a half hour between us, and then we realized we were at almost an hour, and we still stopped, and we still didn't get to all the questions. So we're going to cover off more of that, knowing that you also have just gotten home from the good old European Le Mans series season finale, which I was able to watch a little bit of on SpeedSport 1, which is a Amazon-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] --possibly that I've sent in many complaints already, but one of-- I didn't know how extensive this was here, but using the Amazon Fire Stick 4K thing that we have plugged into the back of our television, and Amazon Prime Channel Gateway, there are 600 channels available there. There's the Formula One channel. And it's the official FI Formula One channel. There's this and that. There's a Three Stooges channel, which I love. There's a bunch of great stuff, and in and among them, SpeedSport, which I believe is the good old America's oldest motor racing presence in terms of media outlets dating back. I don't even know. 20s, 30s, something like that. They do a ton here in the US gram. With live video, they have a pretty powerful app that I'm aware of, but it could be Sprint Cars, could be DTM, or in this case, ELMS. So yeah, I got to listen to you and some other good folks who call the race there in good old Porti-Mao last weekend. That's a bloke called Jody Palm. Nope, not that guy. I wouldn't know in that guy's voice, but he's definitely terrible. But anyways, great to hear, great to see. We're going to catch up on some of the questions that we have left over, but still pertinent, and want to hear about ELMS in season finale there from you. But also, let's do this real quick, get this out of the way. Let's pay a little homage to those who make the show possible, along with our friend Daniel Summersgill, who puts together our questions. But let's hear from our partners, and we'll be right back. Time to say a big thank you to our show partners on the Marshall Pruitt podcast, starting with FAFT Technologies. Build to print composites manufacturing company. They're specializing in medium to large scale automotive, motor sports, and military applications. Visit FAFT Technologies.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. With victories in all the biggest North American motor races, including the Indianapolis 500, the 24 hours a day toner, 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 FAFT Motorsports McLaren Gear and goodies, pay a visit to torontomotorsports.com. And finally, you have a new online merchandise home for the podcast, ThePruittStore.com. All the show stickers, models, race and memorabilia, trying to sell and put towards our fund to buy a house, is now live and rocking. ThePruittStore.com. So Graham intensely, profoundly sad to have learned Thursday morning in an email shared by Bill Riley that his father, Bob Riley, had died. And wasn't so much a health matter, had a bit of a fall and things went downhill from there, unfortunately. But I am thinking of Mount Rushmore in terms of greatest race card designers. And obviously, Mount Rushmore, a very American thing. Got four American presidents there. But however we might think of this, even in an international sense, Graham of mountaintop, and carving the legends of motor racing design into that mountain, Bob Riley is one of those people. And Adrian Newey, Harry Miller, we can run through a number of them. Gordon Murray, cross sports cars, open wheel, you name it. But think about what Bob Riley did in his 93 years of life and how at 93, he's not putting in 20 hour days, but still working, still designing, creating, going back to things like which car won the first ever IMSA race, which happened to be little open wheel cars, believe it or not, not sports cars. It was the Lynx Formula V designed by Bob Riley, first ever IMSA race, won by one of Bob's designs. Think about his time with car craft, everything that led from car craft into the Ford GT40 program at Le Mans, victory there. Think about possibly the biggest achievements if we're talking about fame, designing coyote chassies for the legend AJ Foyt winning the Indianapolis 500, AJ's fourth and final Indy 500 in one of Bob's designs. You think of all of the victories in the 1980s into the 1990s in IMSA GTO, also in Trans Am, the Roush Mustangs, that one 10 consecutive GTO class victories Rolex 24 championships up and down. Scott Pruitt, Willie T. Ridd, just everybody designed by Bob Riley. Think about the intrepid, the trend setter, the standard bear for downforce, and the crazy GTP down for explosion era, 10,000 plus pounds. That is a Bob Riley design. And I'm skipping about half the other designs as well, Graham. But whether it's a front engine Mustang which won on its debut, GTP car, which was crazy, to think about the WSC via Riley and Scott, the Mark III that dominated here in the US for so long in the hands of whether it's Wayne Taylor, the Dyson's. Think about James Weaver, one of IMSA's winningest drivers of all time. Where did the majority of those victories generate from? Driving a Riley and Scott WSC on and on and on. Then moving into the Grand Am era, the Daytona prototype era, the winningest model. That would be from Bob Riley's hands, along with Bill Riley, his son. Move into the 2010s, the factory Dodge Viper program. Miracle Le Mans series/IMSA, championship winning as well. Moving into LMP2 era, DPI, what became the Mazda design, working in partnership with Multimatic, and on and on and on. 12 hours of Sebring, 24 hours of Daytona. Everything in between Indy 500, just imagine all the things created that you and I love. There's obviously a sports car show in the vast majority of Bob's creations being sports cars. So much of what we love from the sports past. Domestically, even internationally, had his hands on them. Le Mans victory again through the GT40 program back in the day. Few, few designers, innovators, creators, come to mind who've had their hands gram from the '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, the aughts, the teens, relevant every year, every decade. Unbelievable what this man gave to us. And so for all of us who came into the sport turning a wrench, or engineering, or what like just hero, legend among legends, on that mountaintop along with select few, we think of a Colin Chapman, all that he did, everything that he thought of, like Bob Riley, he's in that class. So to lose him, having just inducted him two weeks ago into the Impsal Hall of Fame, the morning after Petit Le Mans was really fortunate last year, Graham, for the inaugural Hall of Fame to be asked by Impsal to host that, and can tell you, this isn't a complaint, just telling the truth, there's a pretty good idea, going into the Hall of Fame selection process, which I was asked to be a part of, to submit names. Bob Riley was one of my first ballot Hall of Famers. Didn't get the nod the first year, to which I said, K, second year, there's no argument, there can't be an argument, and indeed was fully agreed upon and was selected for the second Hall of Fame round and inducted, and just sharing, last year Al Holbert, one of my true heroes inducted, many others inducted, this year, Derrick Bell, Jeff Brabham, Jim Downing, and so on and so forth. Bob Riley, saved as the last, so thankful he was there, along with Bill, and able to receive his flowers from Impsal in person, only person among all the folks that I've stood up there and inducted last year and this year, Graham, where I was choking back tears. A guy who makes things out of metal, composites, like what a strange thing, right? Not someone who drove a car in a victory lane after some heroic battle, and boy, it plucked at your heart strings and all the stuff that makes you love sports because of, look at how this played out and so dramatic, it's just a guy who made things with his hands and drew on paper of what could be fashioned using blueprints and saws and mills and that kind of stuff. How crazy to get choked up over someone like that, right? Not for me. That's because of all the contributions he made, all the inspirations that he had for us, all being just the nicest, dang guy, the humblest possible guy. You wouldn't know, talking to him, that he'd won with the exception of Formula One. Maybe NASCAR, I'm not sure. There's probably something from Bob in there in NASCAR at some point, but this guy had won seemingly every major motor race that has any meaning to me and to many others with his designs and was just the warmest, sweetest, kindest person who remained inspired and motivated into his 90s to continue doing this thing. So yeah, I had to fight back tears two or three times just in his intro because of how much he meant to me and just wild, brother, to think that we've just lost him. But our condolences, obviously, to the entire Riley family, to the many, many been fortunate to know him over the years. Everything and more in agreement with that, my friend, and well done for getting the whole of fame process in time. Nobody could have known this was so imminent after that. Just a couple of thoughts from me, MP, about the scope on the scale of that achievement. I mean, the runs of victories with the DPs, it went on. I think it was 2004 to 2012. His chassis won the championship with that long run, long, long run of Rolex 24 wins. And that came after I was at four wins. The running of Scott Mark III. But it's two of the particular points in that long career as well. I don't think there can be many, if any, that can actually say they've had such a strong part in designing cars that went on to win races in the level and beyond for each of the big three. Did it with the Mustang, with the Ford GT, the Mach 4, did it with the Intrepid, and for that matter, with the engines in the back of all sorts of other machines, did it with the Dodge Viper? And I think, on right, you can tell me if I'm wrong, was his second spell working with Chrysler. Because I think prior to his race car career, that's where it came from. He worked in aviation. It did. It was Chrysler's part in, of all things, the space program. Yeah. And the Apollo missions, the Saturn 5, the mighty Saturn 5, that meant the moon. What's a life? What's a career? What a legacy? And yeah, it is a sad day. Reflecting, you know, we're not going to see him again. You know, track side, paddock side. But he had been proud that his family named lives on with Bill in the Riley presence at the Empsopada account. I'm sure there'll be a lot of calls like this. There'll be a lot of conversations like this right across the sport today, and for many days to come. I remember being his contributions. Amen, brother Goodwin. All right, let's get to some questionings. And we got through a lot of Empsa-related nonsense last time around. And I think we have a ton more. I want to get more into wackety-wack and the ELMS and such. Maybe I'll cover off a quick thing or two here with folks asking on the Empsus side about ship Gennasi. I think it's some French team. Ship Gennasi, saying now that Shank is sponsoring with Gennasi in IndyCar-- not true-- what are the odds Scott Dixon or Alex Pullo end up in Shank Accuras for Daytona, Sebring, or Petite? Great question, Ed. Not totally sure there, but I would just suggest that with the Meyer/Shank Racing return to GTP, doubling in size, so no longer just one Accura but two, and the second Accura being one that HRC on the Racing Corporation US has a pretty significant hand in terms of who's driving what. We're still waiting the Enduro driver announcements, but I would say Scott Dixon and or Alex Pullo sure are pretty close to HRC. And it wouldn't surprise me knowing that they've been deployed Dixon more than Pullo, obviously, over the years. But Dixie's relationship with them is pretty tight. He has been deployed to a number of teams over the years, if not his own. So I wouldn't be surprised to see if that happened, but admittedly I haven't jammed up Shank yet to find out exactly who's driving those cars. So that's my bad. Michael O'Keefe asking, what Gennasi might be doing next year in IMSA? Will he have a team? No, but I've recently learned there are now two GTP manufacturers, if not a third, that aren't currently in the series but are intending to be in the series that either are or will be actively seeking partner teams. So the odds are certainly Graham in favor of Gennasi having one of those auto manufacturers saying, let's go do this together simply because there's no other GTP grade experienced level team in the US, at least, that is sitting idle, waiting to be hired to do a turnkey program for a manufacturer. Plenty that could be spun up from name the class, P2, GTD Pro, whatever, but there's only one here where you say, OK, you have been a factory prototype team for many years, various manufacturers. This would be really easy for us to go do this together. And hey, by the way, you just won the GTP season finale. So that's a pretty good marketing point as well. Let's see, what else might we have? DaveLove50 says, I'm thrilled that Shank is returning with Acura to IMSA, says, even with all the past success, it was difficult for the team to win back the Acura program after the Rolex 24 punishment and whatnot with other teams like Gennasi out there searching for programs as well. I would say not difficult, Dave, because they got the deal. That would be my overarching comment. But Gennasi is known for being premium when it comes to working with them. They do not bring sponsors to the program. They traditionally have been fully funded by the manufacturers they've engaged with. The Shank team being one that tends to have sponsors involved. That not saying it would be a huge offset, but do offset the operating costs a bit. So I would say that was probably one of the stronger and most compelling points to consider. Obviously, things did not end well at the end of 2023 due to what happened at the Rolex 24. But would also say, given time, a year away, you got to admit. In-tail erasing was in the series as well, or campaigning accuracy, and losing all those points at Daytona, I mean, the Shank team dang near rallied back. They didn't win the championship, obviously, but they were by far the strongest Acura team by way of results in 2023. Lost the program as a result of what happened at Daytona, fully understand, but looking at the fact that Waintail erasing wanting to re-engage with General Motors and Cadillac, where might Acura/HRC go to have the best chances of succeeding right away? It's the team that did the best job for them through 2023. So also, if you consider the budget side slightly, I think that's why it might have made it a little bit easier than it looked from the outside. Graham, good one. Let's up a really intriguing battle, let's look, between two big rivals, two rival teams that worked alongside each other with Acura two years ago in TTP. And all that showing again was put out of the championship last year, but now with 2,000 a piece, I think that's going to be quite something to watch. Completely. I'm going to do a lot of hurling of questions your way for the rest of the episode. - That's right. - Very good one. So, our pal Nate Detweiler, another long-standing submitter and friend of the show. Thank you, Nate. Says, Graham, what does the future of Lamborghini's prototype program look like? Well, they commit to two cars in the good old wackety wack. Well, they focus on Imsa and perhaps change their endurance entry to a full season. What do you think will happen? This is a great one-to-one pack, and I'll just say up front, Nate, this is one where we probably know a little more than we can say completely, but Graham will do his best. - Well, look, there's been a draft sitting on the back in a deli sports car for some little week while I spent time over, last weekend, and bought him out with a couple of people who would know the ins and outs of what is the most likely outcome at the moment, the answer is we don't know. So there are all sorts of options here. One of the options we can tell, one of the things we can tell you about, we can tell you that, come what may, with the hypercar program with the WC, that does not put the LMGT3 program at risk. That is nailed in with or without a car since. I have read a couple of internet comments around the potential for the factory team to pull out, but to put a privately run car for the WC, that's possible. Be allowed, it's factory or nothing, but it's too discussed on the weekend sports cars, and that's a problem at the moment, because Lamborghini are fully well aware that the car they homologated needs development to get into the window of competition that's going to be required to make progress. So the answer at the moment is the team, say they don't know, I tend to believe them. - Should we also tell folks that you've been fighting to overcome a pretty wicked chest cold? So please. - Yeah, you can probably hear in the voice and you will hear the odd cough, I'm afraid, here, that's, it was the evil of this Johnny Palmer, brought his pox that might be down with it. - Human garbage, that's Johnny Palmer. - But just being at the moment, we've got that kind of coming, coming through that year, they got in household. So I'm just getting over it, unfortunately, truly just coming down with it. So apologies for any kind of spluttering you might hear in the background. So what's going to happen? I think it's distinctly possible we may not see Lamborghini in the WC, it's not done. If we don't see Lamborghini in the WC, we'll definitely be a car for IMSA. I know that's currently confirmed for endurance only. That's, it's possible that might end up being a full season car, but I think most likely is endurance. It is just possible they may decide to go find the budget and do it all. The two cars in the WC put together a budget that allows them to have a development programme in the background and come back with a major joke or upgrade for that car later. For me, the smartest move for them right now is to basically announce our front asymmetrical. That's agreed with the FIWC, they go away, fix their car, they give themselves track time with the car in the IMSA's enduros, and they come back punching back in 2026, by which time they'll have Genesis to contend with. And maybe others too, as you quite rightly say, you are absolutely right. There is more than one programme that is now on the active roster of programmes. So the answer at the moment is, we don't know, nobody knows. They have to know soon. And there's very good reasons why they have to know soon. And one of the reasons is that one of the back filling programmes, as we've written, as we said on the programme of the show before, is the potential from Mercedes AMG to bring their GT programme to LMGT3. Why is that a concern? Because that car needs to be homologated. And why would you homologate the car, if there's no place to go to? I can throw in a couple other things here too, realising that not everybody probably follows all the stuff in crazy minutia on the topic post here by Nate. So we had the WEC state going forward 2025. If you were going to be in a Jutapee, as a factory, you are going to be minimum two cars. So a mandatory thing, not an optional thing. Looking at what Lamborghini has done this season, looking at what this programme's been altogether gram with this SC63 hypercar/LMDH/GTP. It's been fairly clear it has not been a wickedly budgeted project. Enough so to make cars, put them on track and compete. Car has shown, I would say, remarkable potential. Rarely and fully realized. But that thing's been fast at times. That thing, right? It is performed better than we would have expected, knowing that we love this. We are so thankful that Lamborghini is here, but we just know anecdotally, this is not something where they have backed up the money truck loaded with a gold bullion to run the programme. So where that-- Well, let's add a little bit of meat on that bone. First thing, Lamborghini, their very first ever appearance in the top-class at Le Monde this year with that car, finished Le Monde. In the top 10, there are good bones at that car. Totally. The problem happened very early on. It was about very, very early in the testing, the on-track testing process. Major shunt for their one test car, that poor record, destroyed the car. That added time and it added budget into that process that frankly were not part of the plan. What they meant was they were then rushing for a modification deadline to get the car in for both IMSA and for the WEC for 2024. What that meant is they made compromises. And compromises in particular as we understand it in terms of the damper set up on the car, some comments around the driveability of the engine package. But in particular, the weight, the car is overweight, not dramatically, but enough that it can make that difference. And as anybody who's been watching GDP and hypercar would notice, you're right. It's one thing being wickedly fast. It's quite another, keeping that wicked speed into a second or a third stint. And that seems to be where the package starts to fall down a little. So is this fixable? Yes, it is. Is it fixable without development on a joker package? Probably not. And therein lies the tail and peace. That's the enigma that's been sought out here. I guess if you want to put some light at the end of the tunnel here, if this was simple, they'd have made the decision. They've not made the decision, at least they've not communicated that to some calling port people in the program. And that means they're asking themselves bigger questions than perhaps we're expecting to. I think there's every possibility it could go any one of the multiple ways that we've been discussing here at Outlining. We usually get one topic we get properly stuck in on per episode. We've got to thank our pal Nate Dettweiler for being the one to do that here for us. And to the point of everything you mentioned here, Graham, we come back to the funding side. That means if you're not sitting on what feels like an unlimited budget, which not seeing the other hypercar/GTP manufacturers have, but certainly larger cash to work from. That means that you're having to make decisions on what to do, when to do it, how to develop, how much you can do within some pretty serious constraints. OK. Well, they've obviously made a pretty fast car. Lege, I'd say they have certainly burnished their reputation with what they've created and here, again, on a bit of a budget. They did it the last time around with the Nissan DPI. That was not done on a crazy budget. Basically, a privateer effort masked as a factory effort. That thing was rocket fast, granted some reliability issues, development, teething problems you would expect. But boy, anyways, just really impressed with what Lege has done with this. Know from some folks that I've spoken with on the engine development side, that twin turbo V8, the responsiveness you've mentioned being the most driver-friendly thing, certainly areas to work on. There's also another side to consider here. At least on the US side, the service provider for this. There is no Lamborghini squad recourse factory program, meaning truly from the factory based here in the US running the program. They've hired service providers who I think have done a really good job. But there's also been some pretty clear areas where the team itself, like the car, newer to this level of competition than maybe you would want. This isn't a case of getting a customer car. Just ordered some 963s or pick whatever model you happen to prefer. And we're going to run those because those have been developed for a full season in 2023. This is a team in a new-ish place of having to develop a hybrid LMDH-based vehicle with a manufacturer that is having to work from some budgetary constraints. Those things gram obviously conspire against immediate success. So we have plenty to point out with the car to say, OK, great bones. As you mentioned, boy, it can be a rocket, but we still got some areas to smooth out and perfect. Totally normal. There's also some growth on the team side as well. Mention this before, just kind of in a bit of a comical way, but it's part of the overall composition. They have this very unique pedic awning structure that they've come up with. And it has these big braces that connect the two transporters together. And once those are all installed, then they put the canvas top over it, which obviously provides a bit of shade from the sun and/or the environment. Most teams, it is a well-drilled, fast thing. We've moved into the pedic with our transporter or transporters. We have X amount of width per the regulations to use for our transporter, kind of the foot space available to extend the awning out, put the car or cars under. Everyone has their limitations of how much space you can use. Pretty normal thing to shoot that awning off of one side of the transporter, poles, and all kinds of a-arms and structures. You throw the canvas over the top off you go. Our friends here servicing the Lamborghini program, at least in the US, this has been a many hours long process at every event that I have seen. And I think, yeah, I think I hit every single endurance race this year. And for all the ones where they were working out of the pedic compared to being in a garage, it took hours, gram, upon hours and forklifts and multiple forklifts. And no work can go on while this is happening. All the cars get pushed outside into whichever area to make space to set things up. At Watkins Glen, it felt like it took five to six hours. I could be off on the time, but walked back and forth through the pedic multiple times, and it was still ongoing. We saw this in Sebring where I think it took even longer. At Petite, it felt like maybe it only took three or four hours. Again, it's not like I timed it, but just sharing. This is one of those things where you go, K, your rivals, even those in GTD or LMP2, have come up with a process here in a structure to wear from the moment they park their transporters. It's an hour, maybe, until everything is out and basically ready to go. Maybe an hour and a half if it's a small crew. But that's a lot different, right? Then, well, it feels like we've surrendered half a day. Well, we're just talking about setting up for a race. I get all that on a set up day. Not exactly the most important thing in the world. But if you're a new team in any class with a new car to develop, I'm not saying that sitting there under the tent at whichever race is where you're going to find the greatest gains and reliability or performance. But it does speak to, OK, year one, we've learned a lot of things. There are ways we can make better use of our time, the things we can do to be more efficient. So that, again, we can potentially spend more time crawling over every poor of the vehicle and looking at this and that. You're having to fart around with putting up on-ins and halting work for a half day or however long each time while your competitors are working. Vote solution that's got MP or is it just-- I believe so, yes. And so I get it. Again, and I'm not saying this is some sort of central thing to pin everything on, but I am saying that when you look next door and JDC Miller Motorsports is fully set up with their car, and you look down the way, and again, it could be Mustangs and GTD Pro. It could be whatever. But when everyone else you're competing against is at work looking at ways to improve, make better, and so on, and you are having to burn time doing menial administrative procedural process stuff that has nothing to do with competition, I look at that as a former guy who used to do this and go, OK, got it? Year one, totally. Let's learn from this and come back next year. I went to much and they couldn't do exactly that. It's the honest answer. But this just speaks, Graham. When you see things like that, you go, it's never a one-off thing. It's never in isolation. This one thing where you go, that's a little-- you go, OK. And then you look at the rest of things and go, OK, maybe there's a little bit of a through line of areas where you go, OK, learning, first year doing this, all the understand. Let's come back next year. And if nothing else, mimic what our rivals do, because that is going to make us better. Absolutely right. Absolutely right. Let's fire through a couple more here. Grant Westman says, "With Pratt and Miller running a full season of LMP2 and IMSA, does this allude to any future GTP hopes and plans? And how does this affect their IndyCar plans?" I can tell you, because we wrote the story a couple months ago that for now they have abandoned any IndyCar aspirations. So no connectivity there. I would say that the team behind the Corvette factory GTD Pro effort is making their first foray into prototypes with P2. So I love the idea, Grant and Graham, of them getting into GTP. But I would also say, let's let them get on track with a P2 car for the first time before we start looking at the future there. But the other thing, just to keep in mind, is what does it cost to do a full season of LMP2? Something that you can afford with budgeted drivers. What does it cost to do with a season of GTP? Oh, a heck of a bunch. And it is not something that is within reach of the average bronze or even silver rated driver who might be bringing dough. Here's an interesting parallel for you. It's a story that's been delayed because I have been in my bed for the last couple of days, which is one of your insert championship winning teams. In fact, two of your insert championship teams into Europe all combining with PL1 Madison for the season in the States. And sat down with Sasha Fassbender, who's the team manager, but this in principle, of Interpol across both programs. They will be back in insert next year under their own banner alongside a parallel, not combined, PL1 Madison effort. And I was talking to Sasha about that very thing, about the prospects of stepping up to GTP or hypercar. I apologize if you can hear the husky lapping in this bowl of the background, like a small paddle steamer, but that's what he's up to at once. It was an interesting conversation of what came out of that and that will come out to the interview. I hope I'll get round to publishing before we head off to Bahrain next week. Is Interpol are indeed interested in stepping up to GTP or to hypercar, but they've pretty much abandoned the prospect of doing that on their own coin. They're interested in being considered as a future factory service provider. So we've been talking about what we're going to see, we've been talking about with Maashank, we're talking about potential of Brent Miller and others and others and others. Because the budgets are significantly larger than people anticipated the start of this great adventure. So it's fantastic news at the moment we've got a very large number of factory efforts and that number seems to be set to continue to increase the next couple of years, but there are concerns that it's now getting to the stage where the budgets have beyond if they're well-resourced privately. - Last thing I'd add here, and again, it's a great question, Grant. Knowing Brent Miller's longstanding relationship with General Motors, I wouldn't pretend to know what kind of contractual obligations they do or don't have. But running a non-manufacturer branded L&P2 program, you would think would fall within scope pretty easily, shouldn't be any conflicts there, obviously not. Is there anything barring them from competing in the same series and space as the factory corvettes that they provide and facilitate with a different manufacturer? I do wonder, I know anecdotally, General Motors is pretty territorial. I don't think that's unique, Graham, right? I mean, if you're competing for Accura in GTP, would they look some bit sideways? If you said, "Hey, by the way, could I run Toyota?" In GT4, you know, probably say, "Nah, and I don't think we're gonna do that." But Pratt and Miller, though, would certainly stand out as a perfect house for some of those incoming GTP manufacturers who do not have a turnkey team development partner and all those things. Like there aren't many of those entities in the world, first of all, particularly here in North America that are untethered, right? The majority of the folks who are great at working with manufacturers, developing a car, have a lot of technical resources, fabrication, design, whatever, most of them are snapped up, right? That's what we talked about, Gennassi, being a very prized asset that a manufacturer of those that we know that are out there looking will want to grab. There just aren't many of those who can do that. Pratt and Miller is one of them, I just don't know if they'd be allowed to run a factory Corvette program in GTD Pro while also representing whichever brand, say in GTP. If they were able to find the funding to run a Cadillac, maybe granted, there is a Cadillac racing factory engagement already with Wayne Taylor Racing now in the long-standing one with Action Express Racing. But yeah, it's a great question, probably trickier though, than we might think to answer. - Might be interested, might be interested in the team by the way, here they end up with on their team sheets. That might start the ball rolling with further questions. - Let's get to the last couple here and get you back into bed. Let's see, Kevin Kemp asking how does Michael Andretti stepping down affect Wayne Taylor Racing? Not at all, zero impact or effect. WTR is effectively left alone. And I don't mean like the Andretti Global Folks are bad and leave them alone, but like WTR are the experts in endurance racing and in the relationship with Andretti Global, they have indeed been left to do what they are very good at doing. Let's see, fun one here from @ZAC23. Noting the good news that FAFF "have" filed an entry for 2025, all we can say is, phew, that's the PF. Ask was money flowing from Porsche? And now there's suddenly less of that in the McLaren era to cause some of the business changes or financial stuff or is that a total coincidence? Yeah, won't go into it in any kind of depth here, Zach, just because I was not told, the things that I was told weren't for public consumption, but I would not look at any manufacturer as a reason behind some of the changes here business wise. There's just been a need to restructure the team and so that is where that has come from. So, but yes, great news, they are going forward. We'll be competing with that McLaren 720S GT3 next year. So all that stuff is super positive. Let's see, I'm trying to think of what else I can throw your way up. - Gotcha, gotcha, something in first of a quick chat through which is we are seeing, we have seen over the last week or two, so the last few days in fact, the start of what we predicted some time ago, MP, which is some significant churn on the driver composition front for GTP and as well now with hypercar. And in particular, it's talent moving from BMW and from Cadillac towards the accurate side of things. We've got three names coming off the team roster for Porsche across both of their top-class programs and you know, Dane Cameron, Bunch of the Dane, a Porti-Mell, he looks set to be part of the AO racing efforts in LMP2, testing with T.S. sports at Porti-Mell's part of the European Le Mansa, who has posted some test programmes, but I think we might possibly see him involved maybe on both sides of the pond in their efforts. Also, it calls Fred McAvicki, what a long period of time he's had with Porsche. But perhaps the one that sucks my heartstrings the most, hadn't been a lotter. - Standing back. - After just so long an absolute WC legend, world champion Le Mans winner with Audi looks to be very close indeed to naming him, well, I know for whom we'll be a very special way to finish with a world championship for Porsche. Gonna take them non-finishing for anybody else to kind of get down the names on that trophy, just to take a moment really to say thank you for all that entertainment for those three gentlemen. And he's hoping that one of the comes next is someone that keeps smiling their faces. - Yeah, the win the championship and please pack up your belongings thing, I gotta admit, I'm not a big, big lover of that. - The on the Danes side was not unexpected. I feel like we might have mentioned there are some questions there in the podcast here a couple months ago, but now that it's official, I mean, I spoke with Dane at Road America, IMSA, whenever that was, it feels like it was a long time ago. But yeah, spoke with Dane privately there. I'm like, hey, man, I keep here and this might be the final ride with Porsche, with Penske keeping in mind that coming into this Porsche Penske Motorsport relationship in GTP, Dane was a three time IMSA champion, okay? Inaugural new era emphasis and in 2014, Will Turner, BMW Z4 and GTD, want again, and I forget whether it was called just the prototype class or what, but with Action Express and Corvette Daytona prototype, then with Acura team Penske in the DPI era, right, winning there and now a four time champion a four time champion in the last 11 seasons. Just saying, grand, there's nobody I can think of in IMSA since it relaunched where we look at and say, they've had that much success. So this is like, this is insane how good he is and how much he's achieved, but all to lead to and thank you farewell. Again, we heard that that was happening, spoke with Dane. Like I said, a couple months ago and privately had said, you know, I do keep hoping that a contract is gonna pop up in my inbox, but that hasn't been happening. Certainly not on the timeline was hoping for. So knew that things were headed this way. It still just rings a little odd. And then to know. I think you read it. I think you read it wrong, campaign. You're reading it wrong. You read it wrong. A man of extraordinary time. You're absolutely right. There's a perilous record in IMSA competition. But I think every scene this is, Porsche and Penske have made that decision. That's not the way I understand it. My understanding is that Dane Cameron always, always another SSI on the commercial possibilities of future career. He's realized with the recent launch of the Hot Wheels Rexy Cars, that if he can actually get a contract with AR Racing, that includes not just money, because let's face it, there will be money, but also the opportunity to get those cars at wholesale prices. The more on his eBay store, we'll keep him in rich galore, well into a normal person's retirement. So don't imagine for a moment that's Porsche and Penske making that decision. I think this is Dane Cameron going down the Rexy die-cast route. That's what I think it all about. Graham Goodwin, as always, with the real insider knowledge here, Dane Cameron will be getting paid in Spike Swag is what he's telling us, and maybe some Rexy gear as well. So I completely miss that one. But yeah, between him and Lottery, it's just stating the thing that's obvious that everyone's already said. But hey, congratulations, champ. Bye. Hey, there, Andre, look sure to look like a champion is gonna, we tend not to see that unless it is a bit of an aging champ, deciding and I'm going to bow out after scoring the title. When you have the team/manufacturer fair willing you off of a championship, just again, not something that, yeah, sits a little normally with me. Let's go to... - I completely agree. - Let's go to one or two wickety-wex schedule options. Let's see, I got my dear wife texting me here. Stuart Hart @ Jaglemall. Or let me mispronounce that for you in American, Jaglemans. Let's see, I feel like we already might have covered that one off, so I'm gonna go ahead and leave. I think, did we get to the one about the business case for Qatar and Bahrain last time? I think we did. - We did, we did. - Well, I just got to say Stuart's name again and thank him and mispronounce La Man. - That's a problem. - So, yeah, right, how would you know the car is only made in your country? - Uh, we already spoke about South America there, so we already covered that off. I forgot to delete those and I'm terrible. What should I scroll through and through you here to close? Ooh, that's a good one. - I could, I could go for it. - No. - No, I was just gonna say, looking forward, as you're looking at those questions to us, say, getting on plane to Bahrain midweek and following up from that rookie test, it's interesting names on that roster, including Valentina Rossi climbing a border from the first time and some real young talents giving their first opportunities aboard a vast array of hypercars, including the Lamborghini, by the way, so this can be part of that rookie test. So, in some of those cases, it's gonna be factory saying thank you in some of those cases, it's gonna be factories looking to the future. And I think we're gonna start to see some shape emerging in the coming weeks and months. Not necessarily just for what's happening in 25, but for also some young drivers emerging for 2026, as well as part of solar programs we've got now and some of our programs we're getting. Look out as well, MP for the combined efforts of Stephen Kilby and myself in trying to put some shape about what we expect to happen in LMGT3 for next season. Because there are some moves there that will start to turn some heads. And we're hearing potentially, it might be an interesting name or two, still to come on the rookie test list from GT3. It might be quite of interest to list us here as well. You found one we can record it with. - Yeah, I found a couple here. We can just fire through very quickly. Austin Taylor asks, are there any NASCAR teams looking to join IMSA? Not that I'm aware of. Ajente Strelnikov says, Graham, thank you for the sticker you gave him when he saw the DSC team on the way to the grid walk in Sao Paulo. He says, is it normal for the autograph session during the pit walk to be so short or was that just a Brazilian thing? - I thought they normally had around half an hour. Not too short. I know it was exceptionally busy at Brazil. I'd like it to be as long as they like, really. I think the team's necessarily object to that. I like these things to become a fun facing. But do let me know if you're coming back to Interlogos next year and we'll see whether or not we can say a little again and perhaps give you a small on your face or show you a little bit of the people in the scenes as well. - I think new rule for a wickety wack. If you are not driving, you must sign autographs the entire time. No sleep, no physio, no food. The minute you climb out of the car, you go straight to an autograph table. And I think that's absolutely right. And the only problem is one of two of them do do it, but they're not the very interesting ones. - Very true. Chris Hartley says, just for fun, not including Le Mans, what is your favorite sports car race? - It does vary. I think sports car or GT race, 'cause it's not quite the same thing. The number going 24 hours is just bonkers, absolutely bonkers. The Rolex 24 never was a favorite, but it's developing into one. Have to say, the more I do it, the more I love it. It was never one that I really liked when I first started to do it, 'cause it's just a totally different experience. - That can be taken out of context so many different ways. So thank you for that gift. - Yeah, the bath is 12 hour. Absolutely magnificent event. Now, the Maguires bath those 12 hour with a new title sponsor of that race. For me, it's one I've not done for a while. I was due to come this year and a late call for business reasons bent that I didn't petite them on, magnificent setting, always a title deciding battle or nine. And the Insta race rules and Jura race rules means that it's always a stand up scream at your screen or scream at the track side, finished in the season, particularly on one of the very best, indeed. So many different options, to be honest with you, get a bucket list, start early, start taking them off. I've been a very lucky boy in my 25 year career so far to have been to just about every single one, so I've always made you racist and I would choose to go to. - I love that. You stole mine, Petite Le Mans, for sure. Would say, I've only covered it once, but I would say the Bathhurst 1000, that was phenomenal. - Great call. - Would say that's probably the greatest parallel between events as well, Bathhurst and Petite. The energy, passion, history, like all those things that just bleed through all aspects of it. So that for sure, we're gonna close the show with our pal, Jen's Jensen, asks Graham, this is specifically for you, I have nothing I can offer. What is the best post race ELMS snack on the 2025 schedule? Churros, Macaroons, Gelato, Belgian fries, Skones or Pastel de Nata? - Jens are Danish colleague from the press room, comes along and shares a combination with the SC crew, for ELMS. He knows the answer, I'm gonna give him the answer, I know he craves, I'm gonna give it in two parts. Part one of the answer is, as you will know, it's Gelato. The answer is always Gelato. Question part two is, it comes as a question. Gel Gelato in Denmark. Thanks, Jen's for the support this year. Thanks for the question. And that's everybody for the questions. - I mean, Gelato being dipped into with Belgian fries? You know, I mean, that's maybe the next level. - No, just Gelato, just lots and lots of Gelato. We even know Gelato this year at Michelle O, having turned up to a pizza restaurant, astonishingly a river of pizza dough. - So do they just put like mozzarella and pepperoni in your hand and stick that in the oven? - I think what we expect is to take some kind of, some sort of bizarre Italian dinner salad, we decline a bunch of different restaurants, but we take it back later on in Gelato. - That's a fat guy, there's nothing that makes me more sad than the phrase dinner salad. I mean, come on, come on. All right, Graham Goodwin. - The two words, the two words, just uncomfortable. - We need to let you back to huskies, lapping up food and liquid and all kinds of fun stuff, and get you back in bed there. Why don't you do is you so ably do and have for so many years, take us home, also while noting two weeks in a row, listen to your Q&A, we're going to check the street going. - Yeah, we'll get one done from Bahrain mixture next week for sure, and we might see whether or not we can drag you to special guests for that. We're not going to have a couple of ideas Bahrain wise, because we are going to be - Chris Daphne's mentioning some other name. - No. - No, actually it was actually informed by somebody that the hammer incident we all know about wasn't the peak of his offerings of the speed wheeled in the attic, but so we'll go for another day. - Well, with thanks to the question for this week's edition, Daniel Dumber's goal for pulling them together so ably and so quickly as he often does. We're thanks to you MP for making the time to do this, and we're thanks for the husky for keeping the noise down whilst lapping the water out the pole, to my immediate left. This has been the weekend sports cars, back as always, but fast technologists, brothers and try to murder sports.com for the next edition online to download, or indeed to listen, as this is live who she'd like. I've been Greg Godwin, he's been Marshall Pruitt, this has been #Twisk, the week in sports cars, and we will be with you from Bahrain, in my case, next week. - I think you gotta start saying this is the has been Marshall Pruitt, that seems to have better fit. All right. - He's back, he's back. - Yeah, Rocky, or Cat Rocky, just jumped up on the back of the chair and is now trying to lick my hair, so I think that's the time for me to hit the stop button on the recording, and we will indeed speak to you all next week. (upbeat music) You
