Powell Porsche? - The Race Forums - A Social Network for Fans of the American Le Mans

dysonfan · 01-24-2008, 08:25 AM

My step mom is pretty good friends with John Powell. Who many of you may be familiar with if you watch Grand Am cup at all. However they have not been involved in on track racing in awhile. They have been building all the cobalt's for customer teams.

Anyways back to my point. My step mom was on the phone with him yesterday catching up. Turns out his son Devon, ( who you may also know) has put together a prosche and is currently down in Daytona. Which led me to believe that they were racing in Rolex and the corresponding series given there past. However, she through out the acronym ALMS. Now my step mom knows NOTHING about racing. She knows as much as John tells her. So for her to have thrown ALMS out there when telling me the story of what he had told her. Chances are, he had mentioned it.

So might we see a powell porsche in ALMS? I'd like to think so. Even the "bear" wasn't sure where the other porches that are spoken for are coming from. Maybe this is one of them.

Anyones thoughts?

mayk · 01-24-2008, 02:50 PM

Thoughts....interesting of connecting the dots....let's hope this comes true.....as I just read where we will be losing one LMP1 after Sebring...

I am one that does not buy into the "smaller grids are ok as long as there are top notch teams"...for me, the more enteries (yes including back markers!) the better....

WMUCarGuy · 01-24-2008, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mayk

Thoughts....interesting of connecting the dots....let's hope this comes true.....as I just read where we will be losing one LMP1 after Sebring...

I am one that does not buy into the "smaller grids are ok as long as there are top notch teams"...for me, the more enteries (yes including back markers!) the better....

Yea, I'm with you Ken. If people want to go with the smaller grids, but top notch teams argument, why not just have the series be 2 Audis, 2 Porsches, 2 Corvettes, and 1 Ferrari as they're the only teams that are winning on a normal basis. I like to think that at any race, on any day, any team could win given the right set of circumstances, which is why we need all the cars we can get!

mayk · 01-24-2008, 03:21 PM

While I wont go as far as saying that on any given day a team can win (like in the NFL), I do value the importance of the so called back markers. I can clearly remember how a few so call 'journalists and fans' were so critical of van der Steur racing and their baby blue with 'shower mat' flowers.....

As I was their team photographer for two years, I found myself having to bite my tongue as these so called 'professional writers' and photographers made negative comments about them....yet, when the team was in the lead at Laguna back in 06 and Ben Devlin was having a great battle with the Penskes, these same people were are all about them....

Ahem....venting there....anyway....I would much rather prefer a grid of 20 LMPs with a handfull of them just racing for the love of racing vs. 8 LMPs with all top teams and each one with a great shot of winning....call me silly, I like to see as many CARS as possible.

Stepping of soap box now.....and still stuck in Philly

dysonfan · 01-24-2008, 10:25 PM

If anything, it will definately be a GT2 car. We would have heard about a spyder kickin around and they have no experience with LMP cars. They were slotted 2-3 years back to run a DP in Rolex with Doug Goad, but lost funding. So now I'll just hope my small town friends put together and ALMS team, and we'll have a home team to cheer on at mosport again!

dysonfan · 01-24-2008, 10:27 PM

speaking of Powell Motorsport.. is anyone familiar with them? They won multiple championships in Motorolla Cup before it was bought by Nascar, and I think they won one championship in Grand Am Cup, before Corvettes were moved up to Rolex, and they got stuck with a brick of a CTS-V.

John Thawley · 01-25-2008, 08:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dysonfan

speaking of Powell Motorsport.. is anyone familiar with them? They won multiple championships in Motorolla Cup before it was bought by Nascar, and I think they won one championship in Grand Am Cup, before Corvettes were moved up to Rolex, and they got stuck with a brick of a CTS-V.

Rockland Gears, right? John's kind of a outgoing character.. lots of stories to tell. If I have it right, he drove with Stu Hayner a couple of times and I think I had dinner with him at PRI one year.

JT

mayk · 01-25-2008, 11:23 AM

I will try to find it on Racingfanatics, but think it was back in 04 maybe 05?, I interviewed the team at Phoneix as that was their first race with the Caddy.....let me check to see if I still have the pics and interview....The Caddy was sweet!

dysonfan · 01-26-2008, 06:22 PM

Yep, Rockland Standard Gear was the sponser on the second car. Sunoco was the other one. I worked for them for a summer. John is definately outgoing and can be rather demanding, but knows what he's doing that's for sure. Great at setting up suspension. The restrictions NASCAR put on that cadillac were ridiculous, making it impossible to be competitive.
But from, what I've heard, and can see from watching Rolex right now, they built the Porshce if anything, and aren't actually running it themselves as one of their entries. I know Devon is down there, and the hauler is missing from their shop. So I've got my fingers crossed for another GT2 entry in the better series!

Nologo · 01-28-2008, 11:16 AM

Hello,

i send an e-mail to the team last week and John Powell denied this rumor.

He wrote:

"Thanks for your interest. The answer is no, interesting rumor, we were going to run a GT3 in Rolex Grand Am this year but that deal fell through a while ago regards

Safety Fast!

John Powell"