Bob Barnard Track Engineering

At the end of the interview I did Friday I was put on the spot to say racing is safe, and I said at the time that it was bound to come back and bite me. Well it did not take long. Marco Simoncelli passed away from injuries he received on lap 2 of the Malaysian MotoGP after falling, losing his helmet, and being run over by Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi who were too close to avoid him. Marco had his fair share of falls, and it appears to be just the wrong one in the wrong place. Did his hair contribute to his helmet coming off? Who knows but I'm sure someone will look at it. Very sad, too young, and spare a thought for Edwards and Rossi.

At least this time they red flagged the race.

Other big news is the "Grand Prix of America" F1 race to be run on the streets of New Jersey with the Manhattan skyline in the background to give Bernie his New York race. Given Austin is the "Circuit of the Americas" I would have thought that should have been given this title rather than the US Grand Prix. Rumors have abounded for this for a while, and this is still not official, press conference scheduled for Tuesday. So who is going to lose out, or are we headed for 25 races?