Bob Barnard Track Engineering

In the absence of much else, and after reading Murphy The Bear's latest missive, my thoughts turned to Audi. Now Audi ran in the ALMS for most of the last decade under various guises of teams, mostly Champion from Florida. Audi now say that it is not likely to race in ALMS next year as it needs Audi North America to step up with some money. I can understand Peugeot not bothering with anything but Sebring or Petit, they have not sold cars here for years, mores the pity. It is only when these two turn up that ALMS really draws a crowd.

Now stop me if I'm wrong, but Audi seems to sell a  lot of cars in the US. So why is Audi NA not interested? They can sell enough without using racing as advertising? Maybe now they are one company they do not want to compete with Porsche? Americans do not like diesels? They should, and perhaps showing a diesel winning is the best advertising. Anyone from Audi NA saying anything publicly? It seems we are not even to see the Audi R8 in GTC next year.

We have the Portugese MotoGP to look forward to this weekend and Capirossi is to ride. These guys are tough. Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo breaks his collar bone and it sounds like he is out for most of the season. GP riders would just plate it and be back in a couple of weeks. It's not his throwing arm. I know, he will get hit and hurt it again, but so could the GP rider. Doohan rode with a broken leg for most of a season, shades of Bret Favre.