Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Been a busy day today on the Sol Real project. Web site has been updated and looks like a version we can go live with as long as the other guys are happy. Video needed a lot of "tweaking" to put it kindly and rewrote the story line and script yesterday afternoon. Spent the morning with the editor and I think we have it back on track. Both of these will be works in progress, as starting any project like this is difficult. There is no track to film or photograph, so we have to try and use stock footage, which for country club tracks is almost non-existent. Hopefully Thursday we will have a revised video to look at.

Moved furniture into the hanger we are going to use as our presentation area, and installing A/C. "Toys" will go in early next week and some suitable posters and photos and we will be ready for a dress rehearsal. We progress.

More e-mails overnight from foreign parts, and at least two could actually turn into projects. Documents coming for a new expert witness commission, and the attorney is actually coming to see me this time. Being involved in these cases is a salutary experience and shows just how dangerous motor sport is and just how you cannot take your eye of the ball for a second when running a track. It is like when I design a track, I have to keep telling myself that anything can happen and probably will at some point in time at each and every point around it.

In the wider world, the Ferrari debacle still reverberates. Bernie has come out and said whatever the teams do should be their business, because to him it is a business, but businesses succeed because of their customers, so ignore their views at your peril. There is a short piece on Last Turn Club about the decline in the attendance at the Brickyard 400, and how this is a sign of a serious loss of interest in NASCAR by its fans, and NASCAR needs to pay attention.

Murphy the Bear has his latest offering on www.murphythebear.com, always worth a read, and interesting forecast on who will have an ALMS race next year. In other news Mini announces it is coming back to world rallying, a place where it made its name in the 60's. Villeneuve and Durango are confident in their bid for the next F1 team slot, and Austin announces the site for the track and a major backer in Red McCombs. Tavo says the USGP was successful when it was run at a permanent circuit, i.e. Watkins Glen, but that was long before Bernie was running things and when the cost of the rights was the prize money.

Well is seems the summer season has woken up and we have some news to comment on. Casey Stoner is off to Honda next year in MotoGP, not a surprise really, and the other shoe to drop will be Rossi to Ducati to get away from Lorenzo.

Over at F1 at Silverstone the HRT Team have put Yamamoto in to replace Bruno Senna, only for this race they say, and only for money is what they are not saying. Yamamoto has raced in F1 before but made such an impression I cannot remember. In practice he is was not the slowest, but only because Trulli's Lotus broke after three laps! Red Bull have led both sessions today with Vettel quickest in the morning and Webber this afternoon. Times are all over the place with Ferrari struggling in the morning and second fastest in the afternoon. Teams working out the new layout. Eddie Oliver, you mentioned the bike times were slower than the simulation, can you tell us how much? It would be interesting to know the prediction for the F1 cars. Drivers not saying too much about the new section, mainly worried about the high curbs at the Maggotts/Becketts complex and are asking for them to be removed. I can understand why being a really high speed corner, and that style of curb is used for slow chicanes. Why would you put those in and why did the FIA OK them? Nice quote in one report that Rosberg was half a second quicker than his "elderly" team mate!

Bernie is calling for tire with a maximum life of 100km so the cars have to stop twice and spice up the show. You know my thoughts on that sort of idea, a circus is entertaining but that is not what we are running here. Seems that Bernie did not keep his mates at the FIA informed of the deal in Austin, with both Jean Todt and Nick Craw, head of ACCUS, and I know no one knows what that is but look it up, reported as saying they knew nothing and still do not. Todt is saying it is a "project," i.e. not yet real. This all comes from an article in the Austin Business Journal, seems they are still sceptical of the whole deal. Tavo Hellmund is reported off in South Africa, at the World Cup or raising money? Tilke say they will have a track layout in September, but no one knows where the site is yet.

Jonathon Summerton seems to have become the spokesperson for Cypher, the latest would be US F1 team. Jonathon tells us there is a lot going on and he is learning a lot from these ex F1 guys. Hard to see how they are keeping this so secret, surely someone out there knows who these guys are? Tony Dowe, you always know everthing.

Sir Frank Williams is handing over the CEO role at Williams to Adam Parr, but will remain the Team Principal and front up at the shop every day. Amazing man, it would be great to see Williams bounce back. Not that they are doing bad at the moment, but we remember the glory days and their innovations.

Over at the Rally of Bulgaria there are two headlines almost side by side, have to laugh, "Raikkonen for a podium," "Raikkonen crashes and stops special stage." Just about sums up Kimi's year. I hope you are enjoying it Kimi.

Hi everyone and sorry for being late, but it's been a busy day. Started with a trip to the County seat and a meeting to go over the project with County Staff as a first run through. No red flags, some good info and all we need to start the rezoning. That will take a few months, but in the meantime we can be promoting the memberships and getting our plans finalized and contractors sorted.

Followed that with a meeting of the partners to go over our program for the next few weeks to finalize the name and logo, web site and promotional material. Oh yes, and move my furniture to Arizona. Xan is busy organizing that so that when the movers come we are ready. Interesting times.

Had a contact from Serbia about the FIA guidelines for a track. It is so hard for someone who has no background in this and the country has no history to even know how to start, had to feel sorry for him. Hopefully gave him some places to go and learn. Poor guy has been given this task because the client cannot afford to hire someone like me. How do they think they are going to afford to build the track if they cannot afford my fee? Like I said with Palestine, this sport just keeps on growing. I'm probably crazy, but I'll likely lay him out a track, my good deed for the year. What can I say, I love the sport.

Still not a lot of news to comment on. We have ALMS at Miller this weekend, not that you'd know it. British F1 GP which should be a great race. Lots of teams and drivers really wanting to win here, and it will be interesting to see what the new section does for the racing. World Cup Final, Holland already there, but sorry to my Dutch friends, I fancy Spain or Germany will beat them. Tour de France continues on its crazy way, the first week never usually this fraught. A lot of sore bike riders out there, and some just out.

Bernie says he is still trying for a race in New Jersey, overlooking Manhattan. When asked about what would happen if Austin did not come through he said that there were penalty clauses, but that he remains confident that this will not happen and says that the government "won't lose their money". However, he does sound one note of caution: "It's hard to promote anything in America. It will either get a following or it won't." Never a truer word spoken, after all he has been trying for thirty years. Long Beach, Detroit, Dallas, Phoenix, Indianapolis and now Austin?