Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Casey Stoner is concerned tracks are too safe these days. Now when I read that headline I had to admit I thought he had lost it, but he actually makes a point of view that I have had for a while, and the introduction of asphalt run off has only made things worse. What Casey said was that the standard of racing had got worse because riders, and probably drivers, now knew that the penalty for a crash was a lot less, if you crashed at all. Looking at the NASCAR race from Sears Point I saw the same problem. At the top of the course there is a blue and yellow piece I presume is supposed to be a curb, that all the drivers ignored and drove over onto the asphalt behind, and then just got back on the track before they ran into the wall that comes back in at that point for some reason. That was not how the track was designed, and someone will complain when they do hit that wall.

We saw Capirossi run off at Copse at the end of the pit straight at the British GP last weekend, and try to ride it out, but finally dropped the bike just before the wall. This is the classic "I can save it" mentality that lots of run off encourages. It does not even need to be asphalt, I have seen it with gravel , and does anyone else think that gravel does not seem to work as well as it used to, and grass. Mat Mladin had about a 500 yard get off on the redesigned infield course at Daytona at the first practice, and I followed his tire tracks for about 450 of those before he laid it down and then complained about lack of run off!

Now do not get me wrong, I am not advocating less run off. Space is our best friend when it comes to racing, riders and drivers just need to understand why it is there and not use most of it before they bail out. I am not a fan of asphalt. OK, we do not have cars stuck in gravel traps requiring a caution to get them out, and we do keep more cars and bikes in the race, but there needs to be a penalty for using it. Abu Dhabi last year I saw a car run wide during qualifying and the time counted! It was like the Sears Point deal, it is the fast line. OK, but it is not the race track, and stewards need to start penalizing people that do it consistently. It's like cutting a chicane to me. And to work effectively the car or bike needs to be the right way up, in contact with the ground, in the case of the car have all the wheels on, and have brakes. If we are going to the extreme let's go back to the Ceasars Palace parking lot.

First practice for MotoGP at Assen, the race is on Saturday, saw Lorenozo just pip Stoner. Another replacement rider, this one for Aoyama, appeared on a Honda, and Akiyoshi is another test rider from Japan. 6.2 Seconds off Lorenzo's time, and 4 seconds behind the next rider in 15th place! This is shades of Ferrari last year. The Team Manager said "For the meantime we are looking for a stable replacement. At the moment we don't have a rider apart from Assen and Barcelona and we are looking for a suitable solution." As a few of us have commented, this is a very sad situation when the top flight of motorcycle racing cannot find young riders to step up. The various National Championships are obviously not doing their job as training grounds for riders, and the people in charge are not doing enough to ensure the future of their sport. My contract with the Australian Body had a clause that we would sponsor a young rider to go to Europe. I wanted to make sure we would always have a Gardner, Doohan, Beattie, or Magee to guarantee the future of my race. Events as we know never let us get to that point.