Bob Barnard Track Engineering

As predicted by Murphy The Bear ALMS CEO Scott Atherton announced at Laguna yesterday a new series to support the ALMS, and it needs a lot of support. Not sure who is supporting who here as it is a remake of Can-Am with spec racers. If it is half as good as the original it will blow the current ALMS away. Car "owners" will get two 30 minute races at each ALMS event, for only $485,000 a season. No mention of how many cars will be available, but more important will be the number of gentlemen racers with $485,000 to spend a year.

Not that I think this is a bad idea, could be a good way of reviving sports car racing, if it gets any TV coverage, which even ALMS doesn't. But spec racing is not what Can-Am was about, no-rules was the original idea with innovation being the key to its success. Personally a GT series is where I would go, but I'm sure there are plenty who would disagree.

In Spain the lights and A/C were back on and so was Stoner who ran away with pole, despite laying the main bike down. He then went out on the spare and went quicker! Pedrosa is second with Spies recovering from whatever ailed him or his machine yesterday to complete the front row. Lorenzo is next but not confident for the race, while Rossi is playing with his aluminium frame which necessitates different engine bolt up points, so he has exceeded his six engines despite having two unused of the original. Not doing him any good though. Nicky Hayden and rookie privateer Karel Abraham qualifying ahead of him on their Ducatis.

The Dyson team have taken the two top spots for the Laguna ALMS race later today, with the works Aston Martin and the Muscle Milk sister car on the next row, but not by much. A whole four LMP1 cars, this should be exciting, roll on Petit. BMW are on pole in the GT class, but as usual the gap from second to ninth is less than a second, so this is where the fun will be.

In Paul Ricard the FR3.5 continues to put on a show with Vergne winning the first race and Wickens third, so Vergne is still in with a shot at the Championship. Further back Ricciardo and Rossi, Alexander that is, had a good fight with Ricciardo ending up in front but being penalised post race for putting four wheels over the track edge. He must have been watching the Monza race last week, but of course he was there!

On the cover of Autosport a few weeks ago there was a piece about Kimi coming back to F1. I looked to see if it was the April 1st issue just late, but no. Now Joe Saward reports Kimi as having been to see Williams, as has Sutil. Now I would love to see Kimi back in an F1 car, and Williams will have a Renault engine next year and a new design team, but somehow can't see he wants to put up with the BS and the travel again. He declined to fly to the Australian WRC Round, so how is he going to put up with the F1 schedule? Peugeot in the odd WEC race seems much more likely, but I have been wrong before.