Bob Barnard Track Engineering

A couple of odd pieces of news today caught my eye. BMW is "considering a V8Supercar entry." As far as I knew, and I would think most motorsport fans are concerned, the V8's are a closed shop. Toyota have even tried court action to get an entry, so why should BMW, a yuppies car not liked by your average aussie race fan, think they can just apply? Well lo and behold, the V8 Supremo said in response, "We would love a brand like BMW to be involved," V8 Supercars boss Tony Cochrane told AUTOSPORT. "We're very open-minded about working with them and trying to find some common ground. We're talking about quite a few manufacturers at the moment and we're trying to be as accommodating as we humanly can." What an odd way to put it, "accommodating as we humanly can." What does that mean? Is it a Japanese no? The success of the V8's is built on the Ford/GM rivalry that borders on fanatical, that is where "fan" comes from. There was a time when the Touring Car series, as it then was, had BMW, Nissan, and Toyota, and Ford's were Mustangs or Sierra's, not quite the fair dinkum aussie Ford. Then there were two series, one with 2 liter super tourers for the BMW's etc to win, but we know who won that battle. So, are we going to see a real BMW out there, even a DTM silhouette car, or are we going to see a spec racer with a BMW badge on the front? At the price of BMW's in Australia I am amazed they sell any of them.

The other odd news was that Jeff Gordon, who has Dupont paint in his veins, is to lose them as a major sponsor and replace them with an ARRP Foundation "Drive To End Hunger" campaign sponsorship. ARRP Foundation ultimately expects the sponsorship will help raise far more funding that they will actually spend, estimates about the foundation's investment being between US $10 and $15 million per season. Is that all? You can feed a lot of people for that, or buy a lot of lobbyists. I dislike most of what ARRP does, it seems to me as a past member they are more interested in selling insurance than anything else, and this smacks of desperation on the part of Hendricks, and a stunt on the part of ARRP to promote their insurance in the guise of a worthy cause. If NASCAR wants to help this cause get each of the drivers and owners to drop a percentage of their prizemoney in it. It is like the NASCAR "jeans day" deal, buy a pin and wear jeans to the office. This is one of the wealthiest group of people in America, you donate the money.