BAM! - ownership change

[rdjones]

The following Press Release has just hit my inbox.

BAM! (British American Motorsport), based in Stuart, Fla., is being restructured to be a single-owner team. Tim Munday of Jupiter, Fla. will assume sole ownership of the team by buying the 50-per-cent share of BAM!'s founding co-owner, Peter Baron of Deerfield Beach, Fla. The partners hope to complete the transition by Aug. 1.

Munday remains BAM! technical and race director, and he will now assume responsibility for the team's business operations, as well. BAM! will maintain its close relationships with Porsche Motorsport North America and Michelin.

BAM! will continue to compete in every race of the American Le Mans Series, fielding the No. 43 YES Network Porsche 911 GT3 RSR for Leo Hindery, Jr. of New York and for Porsche factory drivers Lucas Luhr of Monaco; Sascha Maassen of Raeren, Belgium and Mike Rockenfeller of Neuwied, Germany, who will alternately drive with Hindery in the six remaining races of the season.

BAM!'s next race will be at Infineon (Sears Point) Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. on July 18.

Peter Baron:

"There's a reason a ship has only one captain. Tim and I had a difference of opinion on how BAM! should go forward, and when we couldn't agree on a common vision, it felt best for both of us to split the partnership. I'm proud of my contributions toward making BAM! one of the premier GT teams in the ALMS and in helping lay the strong foundation that Tim and the team can build on for future success. And I will always cherish my seven years racing with Leo -- after all, we share tattoos!"

[Hindery and Baron got matching tattoos after their second-place finish in the 2003 24 Heures du Mans]

Tim Munday:

"I will miss my friend Peter Baron, and I wish we could have resolved our differences. Thanks in no small part to Peter's support, BAM! has had remarkable success in its first nine months of operation, including a magical run at the 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans, and I am confident about our prospects going forward."

Leo Hindery, Jr.:

"Back in 1998 when I stopped racing NASCAR, Peter Baron first taught me the phrase '10/10ths' and then he taught me how to turn right. He also taught me the worth of friendship, and I will greatly miss my tattoo-mate. Tim Munday and I will now have to convince one of our young Porsche factory drivers that tattoos make you cool."

I want to wish the team all the best for the future.

[GT1]

I don't think this team can be a consistent winner until one L. Hindrey gets out of the car.

Just my opinion.

[Liz]

Mine too. But I bet Peter wanted to (1) drive and (2) have fun. And Tim wanted to (1) make money, (2) court high rollers, not fans, and (3) have factory drivers in the cars.

My own opinion only. I hope Peter starts his own team and takes the Giant Slingshot with him.

[Liz]

P.S. I don't mean that I think Peter Baron was and is other than a serious team owner and businessman; just that I think he wanted to drive and have fun in addition to his more serious duties. And it's only speculation on my part too.

But I do hope he starts his own team and takes the Giant Slingshot with him.

[GT1]

I remember last year when Lieb and the Job/Peterson car were trading laps at Le Mans. Then it was time for Hendry to get it. I thought "well thats the end of that". Of course, both had their own problems and the Job/Peterson car won.

Leo might be excused for crashing in the rain, but as cold as it sounds, thats his fault.

A good combo would be Barron and whomever factory driver was in it with Leo as team principle. That won't happen because cable guy wants to try and see how fast he can go this weekend.

Its tough to say to a guy that supplies the money, but "Leo, if you want to win, get out of the car. If you want to have a lot of stories to tell the folks at home and call yourself a race car driver, stay in".

[pbaron87]

First, GT-1 thanks for the words. If you remember rocky and I got the car in the lead at Sebring, and the Petite, and Marc and I had the car in the Lead of Le Mans by 2 minutes in 03! So I agree with you!

Second, this was created to take care of Leo. Leo is a first Class guy and loves driving. It's not about purchasing you wins (ala Peterson LeMans 04) - All you have to do is write the check and beg porsche and you get what Peterson got at LeMans. (Where were Murray and Stanton?).

As part of the agreement I cant tell you why what happened happened - but we are all friends.

Liz, Perhaps you should get to know me a little bit better before you post thing like i just wanted to have fun. (even though you were speculating ;-) )
-I was the person that arranged to have Sascha and Lucas in the car in place of me, and Again i begged porsche to have Marc when i found out he was not going to Freisinger for Le Mans.
-I saw my Kids for 3 hours awake in the month of June
-Part of my business resume includes negotiating patnerships with Oracle and Sun, including and Oracle investment of $10 million. You'll see me surface again bringing big ideas to team ownership.

(I retained the legal rights to the slingshot!)

[pbaron87]

One more thing Liz - I do love the fans. I always to time to chat with kids and make the feel special. I remember going to tracks as kids thinking drivers were gods! I have taken time out to put hunderds of kids in the car, given away thousands of T-shirts, and have a honorable fan club based on my interactions with the fans!

[paul-collins]

Welcome to 10-10ths, Peter. I'm glad you could shed some light on the situation, and look forward to your reappearance with your big ideas.

Will you be around at Mosport?

[Nordic]

Good to hear the thoughts from a team insider. Hope whatever you try next works as well and you have fun doing it, after all it is supposed to be fun, right?

I would not take Liz's words to heart, by her own admission she only left the press room at LM twice this year, maybe hard to get a feel of the outside world from there sometimes!

[GT1]

Good point Peter. Often said to be one of the more sutle forms of ride buying, they had an all Porsche factory line up. Thats no disrespect to any of the three, but their regular drivers were sitting at home (or something) while three drivers who will most likely not sit in that car again this year took it to victory.

Good to hear from you Peter. Your a true class act. Very open and honest.

[Cadete]

Anyone who throws t-shirts at the fans with a catapult is the right kind of person in my book!

Good luck to both Tim Munday and Peter Baron.

[pbaron87]

Thanks Gang!

I know Liz (Kate) is just speculating - But obviously Im pretty sesnative as to what is out there right now.

I'm hard at work trying to put together a program for '05 now! I might show up at a few ALMS races this year to help some people out.

I still wish the best for Leo and Tim. Looking forward to seeing Lucas, Sascha and Leo in the car for Portland and Laguna - how cool is that one going to be!

[Mags]

I didn't know Sascha was going to be in Portland. I thought it was just going to be Lucas. Cool. But I look forward to kicking both of thier behinds in the soccer game at Laguna!

[HeelNToe38]

Thanks for your insight Peter. Best of luck in all future endeavors and I can't wait to see you behind the wheel again. Truly one of the good guys in the sport and a real class act!