Looking at the year-end point standings of stateside open-wheel racing series, it looks like the American open-cockpit driving gentry is pulling a disappearing act. The Indy Racing League reports only four native-born Americans among its top 10 in final points, the best being fifth-place Sam Hornish, Jr. In the season wrap-up for the Champ Car World Series, long dominated by foreigners, fifth-place Graham Rahal is the only American among the series’ top 10 while in the IRL’s Indy Pro support series the champion and four other foreigners raced into the top 10 with fourth-place Bobby Wilson the best-finishing American driver. And in Formula Atlantic, fifth-place Jonathan Bomarito topped the five Americans who made the top 10 in points. All in all, rather distressing for those of us who look for the stars and stripes to appear on victory podiums. One can legitimately ask ‘Why?’ The view of some is that the resistance of midget racing authorities to welcome rear-engine cars led to a flood of open-wheel drivers with no rear-engine experience. Ye ed’s theory differs: In every country in the world outside the United States the first lesson a young man who aspires to become a racing driver learns is that a patron is an absolute necessity. Finding some person, club or business that will support his career, emotionally and financially, is an absolute requirement. “Paying to race” has long been commonplace in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America, but it has long been resisted and an undeveloped practice in this country. The great majority of American drivers grew up knowing nothing of patrons, and most have yet to learn how to cultivate one. Many years ago the only “speed equipment” a car owner could buy was a racing cylinder head and camshafts for his Ford Model T or Model B block racing engine, all else on the engine, chassis and body was the product of his knowledge, skill, energy, desire and handiwork, for little, if anything, of consequence could be bought. It is different today. Look at our colossal PRI show with 1,400 specialized dealers and manufacturers offering for purchase every conceivable racing engine performance, chassis and body part for sale to car owners. All of this costs money, lots of money, which today’s sport can no longer provide. Result: the arrival of the “paying driver,” one who can bring a moneyed car owner to his series. There also is a difference in attitude, which must be faced as well. Drivers in this country grew up expecting to be paid to race, not paying to race. Long ago, foreign drivers learned how to find, develop and retain patrons, be it a sportsman, wealthy relative or company. For American drivers it’s a new skill that few, if any, have learned, mastered or perhaps are even aware of! So, here we are today with our finest Yankee drivers becoming fewer and fewer in number, season by season.

And in international Formula One, in which years ago Americans Phil Hill and Mario Andretti raced to world driving championships and fellow Yankees Dan Gurney and Masten Gregory posted victories, the 2008 F-1 driving roster shows nary a single American driver!  

It’s too bad that Jerry Coons, Jr.’s hometown newspaper in Tucson waited until he won back-to-back USAC national midget championships before giving him due recognition. Constant reader Carl Dabelstein of Tucson sends along an Arizona Daily Star column by Greg Hansen suggesting locals should now add Coons to the roster of the city’s historic racing greats: Roger McCluskey, Bill Cheesbourg and Carl Trimmer. We wholeheartedly agree.

The December luncheon of the Madison Avenue Sports Car Driving and Chowder Society at New York’s swanky Sardi’s Restaurant provided the more than 100 diners a detailed look back at the 1908 running of the New York-Paris contest which has become known as “The Great Race.” Records reveal U.S. auto production in 1908 included 136 builders of gasoline pleasure cars; nine electric carmakers; five steam-engine car builders and 41 builders of gasoline-powered trucks! For the Great Race, six cars left New York’s Times Square headed to Paris, with a 1907 Thomas Flyer driven by George Schuster arriving at the Eiffel Tower as victor 169 days later. A 100th anniversary “Great Race” will be rerun over a 35,000-kilometer course on its 100th anniversary which will see contestants flagged off from New York City’s Times Square the morning of May 30th, headed west via Canada to Vancouver, B.C. There, on June 13th, all will be flown to Shanghai for an over-the-road hustle through China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and France, with arrival scheduled for the Eiffel Tower in Paris Aug. 2. Mike Ewing of the race’s organizing committee reports 12 enthusiasts have paid the $125,000 “participation fee” with one or two more possible by the cutoff date. Competing cars fall into one of three classes: Innovation, MPG Challenge and Schuster, memorializing the 1908 winner. Ewing calls the event an “adventure rally” with specific routes to be followed with state-of-the-art GPS communications transmitters installed in each vehicle to serve as “tracking devices.” Nowhere could we find any data on prize money. Job No. 1 for the New Year? Find a world-wide road map.

Racing’s first “big feed” of the year comes this Saturday night at the All-America Team dinner at the downtown Hyatt Hotel in Indianapolis. Presenting sponsor, A1 GP World Cup of Motorsport, will bring in the celebrated Emerson Fittipaldi as dinner speaker. Festivities begin at 6:30. 

Remember Northeastern driver Rene Charland, a former NASCAR Modified champion? He’s now in tough shape, suffering with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. He’s in an assisted living home with no relatives and would welcome some mail, reports NEAR official Al Fini. Send your message of cheer to Rene Charland, #24 Pine View Commons, 201 So. Melcher St., Johnstown, N.Y. 12095. 

German automaker Porsche can now look back on year 2007 with great satisfaction as its net profit more than tripled from that of 2006. Earnings for its ’07 fiscal year were $6.18 billion! Credit for the upswing is said to be revaluation of its partial ownership interest in Volkswagen, resulting in a one-time gain of $759.27 million. The company has announced an increase in dividend to $31.99 per common share, no doubt thrilling shareholders. More importantly Porsche Chief Executive Wendell Wiedeking is now saying it will take over management of Volkswagen shortly after Christmas, as its 31-percent ownership coupled with the 20 percent owned by the State of Lower Saxony means no entity can challenge such a move. Porsche currently reports employing 12,000 workers, while VW has 324,000 on its payroll.  

The New York Times recently devoted a half page to a feature story on Juanita Epton, known to all in NASCAR since the 1950s as “Lightning,” in the Daytona Speedway ticket office. She is the widow of NASCAR’s first timing and scoring chief Joe Epton, who died in 2005.

Dan Knutson is starting his 25th year with NSSN off in fine fashion. His astute coverage of F-1 over the years has kept us all informed of the myriad goings-on in that arena. He previews the season for us this week with some inside info. Thanks Dan, and we look forward to 25 more!