You could be staring at the new Porsche 'factory' team for 2009. (Photo: Marshall Pruett) » More Photos

Rumors and Rumblings

Here’s a scattershot look at a few things I've heard this week. Believe at your own peril.

Sascha Maassen, out of the #6 Penske Porsche this weekend, is indeed out of the car altogether. Demand for his services have been high in Europe in Porsche products—GT2 and LMP2, but the decision over whether he’ll remain a factory pilot that’s farmed out to those teams, or if he’ll be bought out of his contract and made a free agent is still to be determined.

Lots of Porsche rumors were in the air today. The German marque’s desire to stop funding a two-car factory effort in LMP2 have been floating around for a while and I got word from a few people that should know about the situation that while the two RS Spyders could be seen in the Series in 2009, they won’t be yellow, nor will they have Penske involvement. I’ve heard that with no new sales of the $1.5M cars on the horizon, the Porsche factory has suspended production for the immediate future.

With thirteen chassis in existence and only seven being actively raced, the need to pour load of cash into Penske’s operation to promote vehicle sales is a thing of the past.

So what then happens to Penske’s cars, Porsche’s drivers that pilot those cars, and Porsche’s future involvement in LMP2? For the cars, I’ve heard that one Derrick Walker is looking for the funding to acquire his former boss’ equipment. That would be a mega move on all fronts. Send you checks to D. Walker c/o ALMS fans worldwide.

For the drivers, I’m hearing Porsche’s leading lights—Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas, will have their contracts renewed at the end of the year, but their placement within the Series is still up in the air. Their fates could be tied to how Porsche chooses to represent itself in ’09. More on that in a moment.

With Pat Long as the final ALMS driver to allocate, I heard early in the week that he’s destined for Farnbacher Loles as partner to Dirk Werner. If this is true, and despite it being a step back to GT racing for Pat, the pairing of Werner and Long would be simply wicked.

For Timo and Romain, one scenario could see Dyson Racing elevated as an ‘independent factory team’ next year, similar to the relationship Porsche has with Flying Lizard in GT2. Talk of the ’07 P2 champs being farmed out to Dyson would make incredible sense, but at whose expense?

With Chris Dyson driving better than ever, I wouldn’t expect him to step aside from driving duties. Guy Smith is a perfect compliment to Chris, and his raw pace and racecraft are on par with anything Timo or Romain have to offer. That leaves the drivers of the #20 in question.

Marino Franchitti has shown at every round that AGR was suffering a bout of dementia when they let him go, and the popular Scot has served himself well to fill the massive void of Dyson pillars Andy Wallace and James Weaver. Butch Leitzinger, Marino’s teammate in the #20 RS Spyder, has been having a less than representative year for what we’re accustomed from the veteran. Although his 2008 hasn’t been a year of record performances, Leitzinger is very much a part of the Dyson family. Across all four drivers, there’s no easy call to make on who to drop in favor of Bernhard and Dumas.

If Porsche goes the route of lending support to Dyson, adding a third car for their factory pilots is the only scenario I can see that makes sense. And that could be just what happens…but would all three cars be Porsche products?

I heard that Rob Dyson was in England recently and spent time to visit his friends at Lola to inquire about a B08/80 LMP2 Coupe…

If a Lola does appear, I’d expect Chris to maintain the Porsche tradition and use the Spyder with Smith as Franchitti and Leitzinger fight in Lola’s swoopy coupe.


Robin Miller confirmed AGR’s lack of a future with Acura last week, and their noticeable absence from today’s Acura LMP1 press conference spoke volumes. What was surprising to learn that AGR supposedly made an inquiry to Acura just this week about the possibility of continuing in P2 in ’09 if they can find the funding. Unlike other manufacturers, Acura has never written big checks to its teams. They’ve preferred to help with a bit of seed money and focus on providing cars, a certain amount of free spares, and technical support.

AGR took on the American A1GP entry and let their flagging ALMS program wither—with their sponsors now disposable, they’d need to secure fresh backing. We’ll see what becomes of AGR in the ALMS—their cars and equipment could serve as the basis for the second P2 team Acura is looking to partner with should the XM team find their program come to a conclusion at Laguna Seca.


Corvette. The ACO. Both are in Michigan. Two big LMP1 programs were announced today. The three representative from the ACO weren’t at these announcements. Why are they here, then? We’ll see if Corvette Racing will share the details of the ACO’s trip to Pratt & Miller Tuesday evening. Hmmnnn…