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LEO PARENTE: This is TrackDown, the ShakeDown show
where, from the racetrack, we talk with Corvette racing's
Doug Fehan or SRT Viper's Tommy Kendall.
But we're not at the race track.
You know what, let's just put up some pictures of the
racetrack, Lime Rock, and we'll pretend we're there.
And am I pissed?
No, not really.
But ex or not, I'm a racer.
And like a racer, when something happens, we just put
our head down and move forward.
So today from the lovely studio with pictures of the
race track, we'll be talking to Tommy Kendall via Skype,
because he's not at the racetrack either.
Lot of racing action coming up.
Tommy, fresh from the Le Mans 24 where the SRT Viper made
their debut.
We'll chat about that a little bit.
We'll probably talk about things like tires and F1.
When we come back, it's TrackDown on Shakedown on
Drive from the studio.
Let's just call this desk down.
Jesus.
[CAR ENGINE]
So, Tommy Kendall, thank you for joining us.
I've already explained to the audience why TrackDown, which
was supposed to be you and I meeting trackside, is not
happening at Lime Rock Park.
But we're here doing this via Skype, so
it's all good, right?
TOMMY KENDALL: Well, it is.
You know, it is Fourth of July and so since the 93 is being
ably driven by Jonathan and Kuno, I figured I would stay
home and exercise.
Exercise my right to celebrate the Fourth
exactly how I choose.
LEO PARENTE: And you also know, TrackDown is really not
you and I just talking about SRT Viper.
We'll talk about Le Mans a little bit, but really, just
kind of catching up on the topics of the day in racing,
because I value your opinion and I know our viewers want to
hear more than just what the hell I'm thinking.
So why don't we start with probably the bigger topic in
racing, that whole F1 Pirelli tire thing
that's been going on.
Obviously, I'm sure you've read all the comments about
what Pirelli is saying and what the drivers are saying.
From a driver's perspective, though, how do you approach
something like this?
Is it purely safety first, or is it just a cacophony of
factors that kind of screw with
everyone's head in a helmet.
TOMMY KENDALL: If it was purely safety first, every
single one of them would have pulled into the
pit lane and parked.
So it's clearly not safety first.
But you're caught between a rock and a hard spot as a
driver, because when something like that's going on--
I remember I raced in GTP in Road Atlanta in '92, where we
had a series of failures and both Nissans went through
massive end over end accidents.
And they ended up cutting that race short.
But the reality is, none of them will pull off the track
voluntarily.
So you're kind of in a tough spot, which is why you see
them react the way they do and are vocal about some of what's
going on between races.
LEO PARENTE: Now it's tought for us to comment about the
technical stuff, but I think you know enough from
obviously, being with teams in pro-racing.
So we've got two schools of comment going on here.
One, we've got Pirelli, who I think have come out publicly
and said, hey teams, you're just not
using the tires correctly.
Extreme camber, tire pressures, swapping tires, and
I'm going to ask you about that to make sure
I understand that.
And then the teams, I think led by Mercedes, frankly, kind
of weirdly, saying, thank you Pirelli.
We need more guidance on how to use these tires.
How should I interpret all this?
TOMMY KENDALL: With a big grain of salt like a bunch of
poker players telling you what they have in
their hand, I guess.
It's one of those things.
What was amazing to watch was how quickly they adjusted.
You saw Red Bull doing a two pound pressure increase.
You set pressures because the tire has become, even moreso
in F1 with that small wheel and the huge sidewall, the
spring rate of a tire affects basically the ride height of
the car and the angle of the whole car, which is a wing.
So usually they're talking a tenth of a pound can be felt.
To go up two pounds, they had to tell Saab ahead of time.
They were probably in an area they weren't
real familiar with.
But to watch them adjust on the fly like that.
And the reality is, they probably were running outside
of the recommendeds.
You saw that in NASCAR a while ago.
The guys were running basically flat left front
tires because it's faster.
And so again, safety is a concern, but a bigger sin than
being unsafe is being slow.
And so you can give them guidelines but at the end of
the day, you kind of have to save them from themselves to
some degree.
LEO PARENTE: It's funny, because there are two things
you mention.
One's going to come with a question.
But everyone wants to bag on NASCAR, but NASCAR laid down
some very rigid parameters to keep everyone within some
windows so we don't out-beat ourselves, for lack of a
better awkwardly word.
The second thing is, I was at Watkins Glen this weekend and
I'm looking at the tires-- the Continental tires-- and
they've got a sticker on it that kind of said at x pounds,
I think it was like 30 pounds, this tire was rated at 800
pound spring rate.
In effect, is that telling me what the inflation does in
terms of that third spring, if you will?
TOMMY KENDALL: Yeah.
It's hard to overstate how important that is.
In Formula One, we know that arrow is everything.
And so a tenth of a pound affects it enough where the
dynamic rake, basically the angle that that whole car and
all of its downforce-making apparatus are going through
the air, it's the angle of attack of
the wing, is changed.
And so they work hard to A, understand that.
And so you throw something like this into the equation.
Even when there's no variables, there's some people
that do it better than others and they're the ones that win.
But it's incredibly complex.
But that's exactly what that sticker is.
Because the teams were getting inconsistencies--
and I don't care who you are, there's the best tire makers
and there's some that aren't as good--
even the best ones are going to have some variance between
what they make.
The better ones have less variance.
Teams complaining about this set of tires didn't behave
anything like the other ones.
So that spring rate is they're saying, OK, this one, this
actual tire, was inflated at this pressure and then tested.
It's not a standard sticker for every tire of that type,
they tested that tire.
LEO PARENTE: So the last one, and I'm going to show my age,
because I can't remember.
My Atlantic team used to swap tires side to side.
And I can't recall why they were doing that.
Whether it was, quite honestly, to take a tire that
had kind of been bedded in and get more bite with the way the
tire would come up the first time around, or what.
And these F1 teams are swapping tires.
And Pirelli said they weren't really forbidding it, but now
they're saying that's a bad thing, we were surprised.
Why do you do that?
TOMMY KENDALL: Well I can't, I don't know why they're doing
it other than, they've concluded
there's some advantage.
Whether it's an advantage in grip, whether it's an
advantage in consistency, whether it's an advantage in
degradation, I'm not quite sure why they're doing it.
But it's safe to say it's not an accident.
They didn't just accidentally mount them on the wrong side.
LEO PARENTE: So to put a cap on this tire thing, obviously
everyone's making moves to correct.
But from a driver's standpoint, you don't want
tires to start affecting who's the champion.
And is the simple answer really just let the
professionals do their tire job?
Or is it more testing?
I mean, what would you be asking for if you were in this
spot as a driver?
TOMMY KENDALL: Well, as a driver, you just want to know
that they're not going to go down.
But it's never black and white.
It's never simple.
And you saw there was a move to change the construction of
the tires earlier, and the teams that really have a
handle on it, the Renaults of the world and so forth, said
we don't want to do that.
And the way the regulations are laid down, you could say
well, it's safer, and they could say, well, we've done
our job better, why should everybody else be
bailed out on this.
So it really is kind of a trick box.
Some of the teams that seem to be having more trouble with it
might go, and you could negotiate and say, you know
what, we're going to give the teams that have a better
handle on it and are resisting the change more test days.
But there's two sides every story and it's easy to say--
it reminds me of that race at Indy where half of the people
pulled out.
They wanted them to change the course, and the Bridgestone
guys at the time, which weren't having any trouble
says, why should we be penalized?
And they said no.
So it's easy to say, they should do this.
But there's so much more at stake and invested and so
forth, that's not a simple answer.
But what the drivers want, is the drivers want confidence
that they're not going to fail.
LEO PARENTE: Here comes the big picture question.
All this stuff seems to be a microcosm of the bigger debate
of is it all about the show or is it all about the sport?
And I'm going to ask you point blank.
Where's your head at?
Does it really matter more that this be great
entertainment, this thing we do called racing?
Or is there an aspect of it that, it's a sport, and may
the best guy win?
TOMMY KENDALL: I think the purity of that question went
out the window a long time ago when they
started tweaking stuff.
So, where is that line?
I think you look at Global RallyCross
and watch the X Games.
Those guys are just hammering on each
other, and it's exciting.
But by the same token, if you get to the point where there's
so much damage that it's too expensive for guys to run
based on their return, it kind of sorts itself out.
If road race guys or Indy car guys, for that matter, or
Formula One guys, destroyed as many cars as they destroy in
NASCAR, the budgets would come under serious pressure.
But NASCAR's cars, there's enough--
and that's part of the spectacle--
that overall it works for them.
That's something the market kind of decides.
I think you need smart people--
Bill France, Jr I was always impressed with him where, he
didn't say a lot and he took a lot of input.
But he was taking everyone, all of the constituents'
input, and ultimately making his best decision on what was
best for all of them.
And some would be better for some of them than others, but
on whole he was kind of guiding it forward.
And obviously, results show he did it to great effect.
You just hope you have people in charge that have enough
wisdom to be smarter.
It reminds me of parents, and the racers are like kids.
And you always say, I want this, I want this, I want
this, or fans say I want this, I want this, I want this.
And sometimes you give them that and it's not
what's good for them.
And they might not see it at the time.
They might not see it looking back in 10 years.
But hopefully we've got some wise people guiding the
various parts that they'll get more right
than they get wrong.
I didn't really answer your question, but that's why,
again, it's not a simple answer.
LEO PARENTE: No, you kind of did.
And actually you kind of set the stage for the
next part of it.
Because I think it is time to redress that question.
Your ship has sailed comment is very valid.
And I'm going to use the kids analogy.
Unscientifically, if I look at the YouTube comments, a lot of
younger car enthusiasts dismiss professional racing
because A, they think it's too political, they think it's too
contrived and not authentic.
And I wonder, for example, I'm going to not pick on but use
as an example the last Grand Am race where a Camaro is
beating a Ferrari.
Where logic would say the Ferrari should have blown by.
At some point in time, does show versus sport have to be
discussed, and balance or performance comes in to
contrive this thing and negate that authenticity.
I mean, I'm pushing for a position, I'm not trying to be
controversial with you.
But there's something in here that just doesn't feel right
for a lot of viewers that are negating pro racing.
TOMMY KENDALL: Well, coming from a guy who is the only guy
who races a car with less power than the production car,
part of me says we should race them exactly how they come off
the showroom floor.
That's not realistic, either.
You have to be careful, too, at who you listen to.
And it reminds me of Apple.
Apple listened to their most vocal guys, the ones that were
on the message boards and so forth.
Who you really need to ask is you need to ask the people
that aren't watching why they're not
interested, and so forth.
Because some of the same charges you leveled against
racing, political, this, that, and the other.
If you dug into the UFC, you probably make the same charges
about who gets the fights and who doesn't, this,
that, and the other.
At the end of the day, the market's not wrong.
And so you need to gauge off the needle.
And if you're not happy with the audience, you need to make
some changes.
And invariably, if you start making some changes, some of
them go right at the core of what people
believe the sport is.
Some of them don't.
Again, that's why you need smart people doing this stuff.
If it's not working how you want, you need
to make some changes.
If it's, generally speaking, trending the way you want, you
say, OK, we could make this better.
But let's not do a knee jerk in
exactly the other direction.
So it's tough.
I think there's room for something that's a little less
restricted and a little more, you know, kind of
run what you brung.
And everybody says that.
But the reality is, that will probably not come out of a
series that exists because the risks are too
great to go that way.
You're going to get some start up that's going to
say, you know what.
Like Bill Huth thought of Willow Springs out in the
desert, who's going to say, I'm going to pay a hundred
grand to win and there's two rules.
It's got to have four wheels and you get this much gas.
It's going to be something like that.
It's ironic, I think the second most innovative series
on the planet right now is LeMons racing.
Because you've got this $500 limit and you have everybody
saying, you know what, I can game that.
I can do this, I can do that, I can do that.
So my tongue's in my cheek a little bit but we see what
happens the other way.
They argue about LMP1.
They're the sexiest, most insane looking cars, but
there's three of them.
So it's easy to spend other people's money, but the people
that actually are spending the money, most of them are
saying, that's not worth it to us.
LEO PARENTE: And I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole of
manufacture investment versus private teams, but I hear you
loud and clear.
I'm going to use that as a segue to a little bit of an
update on Le Mans with your SRT Viper program.
First of all, for you, personally and professionally,
how cool was it to be back?
TOMMY KENDALL: Oh, it's hard to overstate.
I mean, everything about that event is just bigger than
everything else that we deal with.
On the global sports landscape, it's as big an
event as there exists in the world.
And it's cool to be a part of that.
We were walking in the parade, I was with Kuno and Jonathan
and we're like, you know what's so cool about this?
For once, everybody thinks this is cool as we've always
thought it was.
We've played in empty houses before.
We still enjoy the challenge of trying to beat the guys
we're racing with, but it's nice to see it celebrated in
the same way we think about it.
So to take part in that was huge.
It's a tough, tough event.
This year was even tougher with the way the race started
out, conditions.
It was incredibly mentally taxing.
And I was glad to hear afterwards that even the
veterans felt the same way, because I didn't have a lot to
compare it to, but it was tough.
LEO PARENTE: If my notes are right, it tells me that the
team kind of dropped you in the deep end.
You were in the car in some very tough conditions.
the ever changing weather there at this year's Le Mans.
TOMMY KENDALL: Yeah, that's the way it goes.
I've always liked running in those kind of conditions.
There was one situation in the night where it started raining
and really should have been on wet tires, but for one reason
or another we stayed out on slicks.
They said, can you do it?
I said, I can do it.
I'm not sure A, it's smart or B, we're going to not lose a
lot of time.
That's just the way it goes.
Any driver that wants to be out there wants to be in the
car when it's tough, or at least I've
always felt that way.
But it was a big ask.
And you alternate between what the heck am I doing and this
is what I live for.
And so it was a cool event in that way.
Some of it went the way we wanted, some of it didn't.
LEO PARENTE: So, not to stuff words in your mouth, but it
was year one back, you got the cars to the finish, there were
a little niggling things through it all.
What did SRT Viper learn from this year's Le Mans?
TOMMY KENDALL: I mean, that's a two hour
show, what we learned.
I think it's safe to say every single person--
the teams have become so specialized,
everyone has their job.
And from one guy that only worries about the transmission
temperatures and so forth, or whatever.
But everybody, the tire guys, everyone learned from it.
Everyone went away from there saying, gosh.
Next year we'll pay attention to this, and we'll consider
that, and we'll do it this way.
And so every person in every single role learned and has a
list of how they could do it better.
Tires is a big, big part of it.
In terms of being on the right tires.
Not only for the dry, wet, intermediate, but also
temperatures.
In the past, in the States you run in about the same
conditions and the compound choice is pretty simple.
But there it was a little more complicated and because the
laps are so long, when you do things right the rewards are
bigger, when you do them wrong, the penalties in terms
of lap time and stuff is bigger.
So I think that's something that I for sure learned in
terms of paying attention and understanding the tires maybe
a little bit better.
LEO PARENTE: So I understand that the WEC tire was
different from your ALMS tire.
Compound construction, something.
Did that make a difference in your ability you get the car
to work at Le Mans?
TOMMY KENDALL: It's hard to say.
We haven't gotten to the end of our development window to
have total consistency on our part.
So there's too many variables for us to assess that.
We had some challenges, mainly because we didn't have much
practice time deciding which direction we wanted to go
setup-wise.
Whether some of that was due to the tires, I don't know.
So it's hard to say.
You'd be better off asking one of the team with more
experience in that, like the VAT guys.
LEO PARENTE: So neither one of us are at Lime Rock.
You're doing just the long distance races with SRT Viper.
But they launched the GT3-R. Are you going to be involved
in that program?
I could see you as the perfect ambassador to work with the
customer teams.
Should I be filling out your resume for that?
TOMMY KENDALL: Well, every one of us, all the drivers were
there at the announcement.
I know every one of us was wondering when am I going to
get to drive that.
So the World Challenge Series is one where that car is
eligible, the GT3 stuff.
That would be closer to what I spent most of my career doing,
in terms of the short race sprint format stuff.
In my mind, that would be a cool supplement to the long
distance races with ALMS program.
They haven't discussed with us specifics on that.
But I'm wracking my brain thinking, who can I get that
might be interested in buying one of those cars and going
racing with it.
So it's got my wheels turning for sure.
Beautiful, sexy piece.
LEO PARENTE: Yeah, it's awesome, awesome.
Cool.
And I know of Viper nation will love it.
Is the GT3-R also eligible for GTD in the USCR?
TOMMY KENDALL: I think so.
I think so.
LEO PARENTE: Yeah, I think so too.
OK, let's talk a little bit, and not to be controversial,
give me the insider update on this consolidation of ALMS and
Grand Am into USCR.
Have you heard anything from your side?
How should a fan be taking what's going on?
Because it's been somewhat quiet.
But I don't know, maybe behind the scenes there's dialogue
going on with the teams and such.
TOMMY KENDALL: Well, I mean, in GT where we are, GTE if you
will, it's basically crossing over unchanged.
So I think we're the lucky ones.
I think overall, I did talk to some people that are trying to
figure out what to run.
And there's a good bit of that.
I think this shows you've got different tastes and opinions
on how to do it.
And I think what they've done is they've conducted inventory
of as many of the ideas and preferences, and they've tried
to incorporate as many as they can.
How well they did in terms of assimilating that into the
rules package and the classes, we'll know at
Daytona next year.
I suspect we're going to have just a ton of
really, really good cars.
LEO PARENTE: But let's be clear for our viewers, either
racing fan or new ones.
The way it stands right now, the die has been cast.
WEC will not be merging races with USCR where an Audi, for
example, came and used Sebring as a test because the P1
category existed.
A, that's not true.
There's no P1 category in 14.
And the two entities, WEC and USCR, are kind of going their
separate ways.
With the exception of GTELM, I get that part, and P2.
But there's no real crossover here.
We're not going to see Toyotas and Audis and new Porsches
racing in USCR races.
And we're not going to see Sebring, at this juncture.
Or Daytona becomes something part of the WEC series.
This is not a test of Leo, but that's what we're hearing.
Am I relatively accurate to make sure our
fans understand that?
TOMMY KENDALL: That's the way I understand it.
There's no place for an LMP1 car at Daytona or Sebring.
LEO PARENTE: OK.
Enough about what I'm thinking.
Anything on your mind to end this little rant?
TOMMY KENDALL: Well, I'm actually
heading up to Charlotte.
I'm going to be doing a wind tunnel Sunday night, live.
And it reminds me, August 17th is the end of an
era as we know it.
Speed Channel is becoming Fox Sports One.
And so from someone that has a Speed Vision jacket and had
some of my Trans Am races televised by them.
It's sad.
I know a lot of the racing coverage will continue on Fox
Sports One, in terms of some of the existing contracts.
And I see some of the other networks getting involved.
NBC Sports picking up Formula One and IndyCar.
It's good to see racing taking up more of the spectrum.
Those of us that can't get enough of it are going to miss
Speed Channel.
For guys like Dave Despain and a lot of the people that have
been part of our lives for a long time, I hope they find
other homes.
And I'd just like to thank them for their contributions.
LEO PARENTE: Well, I'm going to go all the way back to
remembering a friend of mine, Terry Lingner, how this whole
thing started.
Yes, big fan of Dave Despain, watch the news.
And them I'm going to give you prop, you little savvy
***, for showing up on ShakeDown as those racing
shows go away and we continue.
Man, you're like a cockroach, you just end up on your feet
all the time.
TOMMY KENDALL: Yeah, I'm like one of those bacteria that's
resistant to antibiotics.
Somehow I find a way to survive.
LEO PARENTE: But now you're our bacteria, so we love it.
Thank you again.
I'm sure we'll see you at the track soon.
Thank you for doing TrackDown from what isn't a track.
But we'll show pictures of Lime Rock and
it'll all be good.
Tommy, thank you for the time.
Catch up with you, OK?
TOMMY KENDALL: All right.
Thanks, man.
LEO PARENTE: Thanks.
[CAR ENGINES]