Wine & Cheese vs. Beer Time

This is the Statt Mann Baby. Time to Scatt a little bit.

Maybe 20 years ago I was sitting in a hauler with sports car legend Bob Snodgrass of Brumos Racing.

I brought up the myth of sports car racing being a wine and cheese community. He laughed so hard, we had to pause for a moment while he gathered himself.

Bob is gone now but if you watched the final thirty minutes of the Rolex 24 today you saw athletes who throw back beer if they throw back anything. There’s nothing elegant or refined about sports car racing, especially at the extremes like the Rolex 24.

The Penske and Action Express teams fought like the heavyweights they are in the final 90 minutes. And, as it turns out, the race was won by the over-the-wall team at Penske.

It got Felipe Nasr out of the final pit stop before Tom Blomquist who came into the pits leading the race. The winning pass came while the cars were standing still.

That near face-to-face battle allowed Nasr to hold off Blomquist to the checkered flag for the win. There was nothing ornate in that battle. No rope-a-dope. That was slug-it-out racing in the middle of the ring after nearly 24 hours. The ultimate blow staggered the Action Express team at winning time.

Penske’s pit team will hoist a few tonight and you can bet there’ll be no wine and cheese on the table.

Peace.