Just can't stop winning.

Lime Rock is a difficult course; narrow, bumpy, twisty and often compared to a roller coaster. It's not for the warmed over "race car inspired" vehicles using obsolete technology we are relentlessly told are the only true sports cars because they go stop and turn less well but are not American. It's easier and more profitable, of course, to make slick claims about performance than to build something that wins all the races and America is better at convincing people we're winning some war that isn't a war than at convincing people we make the best sports cars by actually winning sports car races again and again and again.

The Corvette team placed first and second again yesterday at Lime Rock, just as they almost always do in the GT-1 class, the category for the fastest production based sports cars. Somehow for me, that seems more appealing than "attitude" and "edge" and all the other nebulous and empty measures touted by advertisers, but what do I know? After all I'm one of those out of touch sorts who thinks the Dodgers aren't in Brooklyn any more and insists the 1972 Oldsmobile hasn't been made for 35 years -- and apparently I'm absolutely clueless with regard to urban semiotics.

So it's on to Mid-Ohio on July 21st and probably on to yet another season's championship for the American guys that will go entirely unnoticed by American guys.

Don't get me wrong, Companies like Audi make terrific "prototypes:" purpose built, off road only race cars that are great feats of engineering, but they cost millions and you probably can't buy one or drive it home much less find parts or service anywhere any more than you could for an Indy car or Formula 1. Unattainability is a strong attractant for some, but daydreaming about owning an R10 is just less satisfying than owning a thoroughbred you can still make the trip to Grandma's house in. That's just me though, you may prefer to spend two or three times as much for a loser. It's a free country.

Time and chance

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Whoever wrote Ecclesiastes 9:11 would have understood racing. The number 63 Corvette was hot on the heels of the Aston Martin and gaining nearly 30 seconds per lap. The American entry, having higher mid range torque, was having an easier time in the rain than the smaller displacement, higher RPM cars. Only a dozen laps to go at the most famous endurance race in the world and another Le Mans victory in the LMGT1 class would belong to the Americans, making for a total of 6 firsts out of the last 7 tries. Last year Aston Martin had reliability problems; a major factor in a 24 hour race and had to settle for second, but this year time and chance favored the Brits but with a bit of help, as some claim, from the French.

Deciding that there was too much rain, the pace cars or as the French call them "safety cars," came out and the race ran under the yellow caution flag under which there is no passing. Then, with a few laps to go, the green flag came out again even though there had been no change in the weather leaving the bright yellow Corvette C6R to finish second. Fans are still mumbling to themselves, asking what just happened and comparing the finish to the last episode of The Soprano's.

Who really understands the French? Losers always have reasons and the reasons nearly always have to do with the French juggling their arcane rules and procedures. It's not hard to understand their animosity toward the US at the moment since French Bashing has become the national sport of the American idiot class, but the race is over and it didn't go to the fastest car or to the most reliable. It went to the winner. Second place is second place but overall, the Corvette C5Rs and C6Rs have dominated the highest power sports car category at Le Mans and in the American Le Mans series for a number of years now.

This battle may not have gone to the strongest, but the war will go on for a long time.