Bob Barnard Track Engineering

A few items caught my eye today about tracks and calendars. Superleague cancelled their trip to South America as the track in Goiania in Brazil is not ready. Then I see MotoGP announcing a race in Argentina in 2013, provided the track improvements are done. See a pattern here? Next year's MotoGP calendar has been announced, with several tracks to be decided or races to be confirmed. Germany is one where the track is to be nominated as it seems the Sachsenring is unwilling to pay the 4m Euros Dorna want for the race. Dorna taking a leaf from Bernie? Then there is the comment "Despite doubts about its future, the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island is also on the provisional calendar." Any of my Aussie friends want to shed some light on this? Is it racing in October that is the problem, or is it something more, like 4m Euros?

The row continues over the tax on the Indian GP competitors. I originally believed that this was about the teams earnings, and it may still be, but ESPNF1 has an article about the customs duty on importing the equipment.

http://en.espnf1.com/india/motorsport/story/58975.html

Now this is usually handled by international carnet, guaranteeing what goes in comes straight back out, but the Indian Authorities do not see this as a sport or an event of "National Significance," so they are not playing ball! Seems cricket and the Commonwealth Games are significant. Tells you how far motorsport has to go there.

Joe Saward's excellent F1 blog has a piece about a street race in Cape Town, how many GPs is Bernie going to put on a year? Starting to sound like NASCAR. Check out Joe's blog at:

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/

Then there is the proposed New Jersey F1 street track which rates a mention by Murphy The Bear so must be getting serious:

http://murphythebear.com/blog/index.php/2011/09/13/unlimited-racing-championship-rands-go-to-jail-national-press-club-bust-leading-proto-teams-go-public-with-demands/

As always a good mix of rumor and gossip with always a grain of truth.