Bob Barnard Track Engineering

If I thought the previous weekend was busy then this last one was downright crazy. My wife always tells me sleep is over rated when I chide her for working too long, but having the F1 in China at 2 am Saturday and Sunday, NASCAR with night races Friday and Saturday, Silverstone 6 hour WEC starting at 7 am Sunday and rolling straight into MotoGP from Texas and Indycar from Louisiana made for a long, long weekend. 

Add to that the Masters Golf from Augusta that rounded off the day. Great examples of the mind games that sport is good at demonstrating. We saw Lewis psych out Nico in China, he is really getting into Nico's head. "He's driving very slow" complained Nico of Lewis. Well he should be easy to overtake then. Lewis played a very smart hand with that middle stint. Winning a race by a minute gets you no more points than winning by 3 seconds, winning at the slowest pace as Sir Stirling Moss used to say. It reminded me of the piece in "Days of Thunder" when the Crew Chief sends Tom Cruise out to do a stint and drive as fast as he liked. Of course the tires were shot well before the end of the stint, and when he went out again and ran a set pace the overall time was better. Maybe Lewis had just watched it on the plane.

The safety car with two laps ago seemed a trifle unnecessary, again a reaction to the Bianchi incident? Watching the marshals trying to move it through a gap in the pit wall gave truth to the old saying, "a Chinese fire drill." The car was near the end of the straight in clear view and up against the wall. A yellow flag should have covered it and left there until the end. It probably made no difference to the result, but we won't know will we? 

Jordan Spieth showed incredible mental strength in leading every round of the Masters, setting new records and holding off the challenge of champions like Phil Mickelson. Talent is never enough in either sport. They all have talent or they would not be out there, it is who wants it most and can keep control of his own performance in the heat of battle. You are racing or playing yourself after all.   

We saw plenty of talent and commitment in the Silverstone 6 hours. One of the commentators, one who actually does know racing, not just a talking head, said it was the best sports car race he had ever seen. It would be hard to argue with him. Porsche, Audi and Toyota all with different designs achieved the same ends over a lap with each showing strength in different places. The racing between Jani and Fessler was incredible, swapping the lead two or three times a lap, almost like a MotoGP race. Just wait for Spa and Le Mans. Fox is showing all the WEC rounds live here in the US, although live is a relative term. Half live it should be as were subjected to never ending ads, mostly for what's coming soon on Fox. We had two interruptions while they crossed to Austin to do a promo for the MotoGP!  At least we did not have the obligatory interview with Scott Atherton as we have to have in the Tudor Series, plus the "infomercials." We had to have the repeated "highlight packages" to interrupt a great race. If people can't be bothered to watch more than the last hour then that is their loss.

Nissan brought their cars, but did not race. Is this another publicity stunt like the Delta Wing? They even took them to the Manchester City ground to show off! I'm sorry Nissan, either race or go away. Enough "wacky racers." 

MotoGP threw up some odd racing with the usually close Moto3 seeing a runaway win by the young Englishman Kent. Moto2 was a bit more fought over but after Qatar that was to be expected. What was also to be expected was Marqez running off with the MotoGP, although there was some good racing behind with Rossi and the Ducatis. Not much of a crowd, I'm glad I was not paying for this and hopefully Red Bull did. Need some American riders out there, which we hope MotoAmerica can provide. 

Then we had the Swamp GP from NOLA. God knows what Europeans think when they tune in to watch our premier open wheel racing from a facility like this. Don't get me wrong, it is fine for what it was built for, but you have to be desperate to stage this race there. Michael Andretti's organization promoted this and he was bemoaning the weather on Saturday for the empty seats. I don't think it was the rain Michael. Why you would start qualifying at 5pm in Louisiana I don't know, but it was predictably washed out. The race was not much better, lots of yellows and flooded run offs. One magazine led off with a headline of Snakes, Alligators and Hogs, and they did not mean Harleys. I hope the Louisiana Tourist Board think they got their moneys worth, but downtown New Orleans might have been a better ad for them. 

I missed the WSB from Aragon and the BES from Monza as we do not get them. Just as well or I would have had no sleep at all.