Bob Barnard Track Engineering

A couple of odd pieces of news today caught my eye. BMW is "considering a V8Supercar entry." As far as I knew, and I would think most motorsport fans are concerned, the V8's are a closed shop. Toyota have even tried court action to get an entry, so why should BMW, a yuppies car not liked by your average aussie race fan, think they can just apply? Well lo and behold, the V8 Supremo said in response, "We would love a brand like BMW to be involved," V8 Supercars boss Tony Cochrane told AUTOSPORT. "We're very open-minded about working with them and trying to find some common ground. We're talking about quite a few manufacturers at the moment and we're trying to be as accommodating as we humanly can." What an odd way to put it, "accommodating as we humanly can." What does that mean? Is it a Japanese no? The success of the V8's is built on the Ford/GM rivalry that borders on fanatical, that is where "fan" comes from. There was a time when the Touring Car series, as it then was, had BMW, Nissan, and Toyota, and Ford's were Mustangs or Sierra's, not quite the fair dinkum aussie Ford. Then there were two series, one with 2 liter super tourers for the BMW's etc to win, but we know who won that battle. So, are we going to see a real BMW out there, even a DTM silhouette car, or are we going to see a spec racer with a BMW badge on the front? At the price of BMW's in Australia I am amazed they sell any of them.

The other odd news was that Jeff Gordon, who has Dupont paint in his veins, is to lose them as a major sponsor and replace them with an ARRP Foundation "Drive To End Hunger" campaign sponsorship. ARRP Foundation ultimately expects the sponsorship will help raise far more funding that they will actually spend, estimates about the foundation's investment being between US $10 and $15 million per season. Is that all? You can feed a lot of people for that, or buy a lot of lobbyists. I dislike most of what ARRP does, it seems to me as a past member they are more interested in selling insurance than anything else, and this smacks of desperation on the part of Hendricks, and a stunt on the part of ARRP to promote their insurance in the guise of a worthy cause. If NASCAR wants to help this cause get each of the drivers and owners to drop a percentage of their prizemoney in it. It is like the NASCAR "jeans day" deal, buy a pin and wear jeans to the office. This is one of the wealthiest group of people in America, you donate the money.

"Frankly, we have not been prepared well for our F1 debut," said Yoon Keun-Sang, the PR director for the race organiser. "If we host this year's event successfully, the situation will be far different next year," he is quoted by the Bangkok Post. How is that for an understatement? Conflicting first reports coming out of Korea, but it seems the site is more like a construction site than the site of a GP. Still some people seem happy. McLaren's Phil Prew made these comments on Autosport's web site.

"I actually walked the circuit this morning with the other engineers, and I have to say I was fairly impressed with what I saw. The track itself, the kerbs and run-off and all of that sort of thing looked pretty good. The track surface itself, yes it has been recently laid, and it is a bit of an unknown. I don't think it looked too bad in terms of it wasn't particularly greasy under-foot and it looked - from what you can tell - smooth, well-laid and consistent all the way around the circuit.

In terms of how it develops and how the tyres interact with it, it is going to be guesswork. It's going to evolve, I expect, very quickly through the first session and then I think we should expect it to continue to improve all the way through qualifying and then the race."

That seems to be the key to the weekend, and there is rain forecast to make it even more of a lottery. How much will the track improve, will it stay down, and how do you set the car up, especially when it goes into parc ferme conditions. It will be a gamble, and Herman Tilke likes it like that. Again talking to Autosport, Tilke said he actually thinks that it will be a benefit for F1 fans in helping improve the show because it will be so slippery. Well why don't we make all tracks slippery then? How about ice racing, oh sorry, we already do that, but it does not seem to get much TV coverage. We are not running a circus here.

Anyway, we do not have long to wait to find out the answers to all the questions. One quote I liked was that some teams are looking forward to getting out of Korea already and heading to Brazil. Now no offense Felipe and Rubens, but I've been to Brazil, and I have never looked forward to going back.

Curious that the second most important sportscar race is on and Autosport web page does not mention it, not even under the ALMS tag? We have Peugeot and Audi going head to head with two cars each, unlike Silverstone, and they covered that race. I know the ALMS is not seen as it once was. Quoting Gary Watkins in the September 6 Autosport, "The harsh truth is is that, despite the rhetoric from the series bosses, the ALMS is a pale imitation of its former self." As Gary says, "should Audi return and be joined by another big gun in LMP1, the ALMS can return to its former glory." That is what makes the absence of news from this weekend mystifying, we have just that scenario, and it has drawn the fans to the track by all accounts. Even SPEED has opted to show us all ten hours! Must not be a truck race on.

Practice is showing how close the race is going to be. Yes the Peugeots are fast, 204 mph at the end of the main straight, and lap times in the 1 min 8 seconds. Audi are about a second behind with the "young guys" car, who have less experience here than McNish and company. Maybe Audi know the race is not won in practice. In fact many teams opted to sit out the wet second practice to install their race set up and engine, saving the mechanics sleep last night. They commented that getting the race set up was more important than qualifying.

In LMP2 the Highcroft Honda is just in front of the Cytosport Porsche, and the GT2 class is its usual close run thing, but with the Patron Ferrari with its nose just in front. All drivers were commenting on the amount of traffic so the race is going to be fraught for the drivers and interesting for us. Luck and patience is going to determine who comes out on top, just ask Pirro.I liked Anthony Davidson's comment that Road Atlanta is a "proper mans track."

The Porsche Hybrid is performing extremely well, as you would expect from a car that almost won the Nurburgring 24 hours. Even though it is racing itself the comparison with the GT2 cars will be inevitable, and should it beat them, what then? Porsche are making statements about rejoining F1, and Audi staying with LMP1. It has been a long time since Porsche ran its own F1 car, without much success, but supplied engines to help McLaren win world championships in the mid eighties. It seems that is likely to be the way they will return, although probably not with McLaren. I think we can look forward to McLaren making their own engines when their deal with Mercedes runs out.

Talking of McLaren, Lewis says he will hold nothing back in Japan, that will be something to see! Look out world, I'm coming through. Poor Massa has finally been told what he already knew, he is there to help Alonso win the championship.

Over at MotoGP at Motegi, Pedrosa has helped Lorenzo win the championship by falling off and breaking his collarbone in two or three places, depending on what you read. He is out this weekend, so maybe they can plate it and get him back for later rounds, but what's the point? Valentino topped practice today and was surprised by the lack of shoulder pain and his speed. Let's hope he can keep it up and give us a race Sunday. Lorenzo only needs to cruise around, but if he is any sort of racer he will want to beat his team mate.

Those of you who have followed my blog will know my views on the English Autosport weekly magazine as the best there is. It turned 60 this week, nearly as old as me, and celebrates with a whopping 330 page issue looking back on those 60 years, the cars, the drivers and the tracks. It is a keeper. Have not read it all yet of course, but a look through is enough to see the quality of what they have produced, so make sure you get a copy wherever you are.

The article on iconic tracks is interesting, and they did a great job on Adelaide, but then again I am biased. I'm sure Ron Walker from the Melbourne GP is getting ready to sue them over their comments that Melbourne has yet to reach the standard Adelaide set. It is interesting to see the other tracks from each decade. I would have got them wrong. 50's Pescara, 60's Suzuka, 70's Paul Ricard, 80's Adelaide, 90's Texas Motor Speedway!, and 00's Algarve. Of course the word "iconic" does not necessarily translate to the best, but there are some interesting omissions.

I forgot for instance that Suzuka was built in the sixties. You tend to think of it in terms of its' F1 life. What a track it must have been when built, quite unique, and still is. Paul Ricard is a good choice for the seventies, but Texas for the nineties? I am trying to think of its place in the development of the 1.5 mile tri-ovals of that period, and why that one is particularly special. Guess I will have to read that article. Then the noughties. I would have picked the Chinese F1 track for sheer extravagance, and the grandstand/pit complex is certainly iconic. But there you are, we each have our own opinions, and thank goodness for that.

Of course these are tracks built in those decades, so Spa, Monza or Monaco pre-date the magazine.

Talking of Spa, it is raining, imagine that. Spa is notorious for rain. It is one of those places where that old saying, "if you can't see the hills it's raining, if you can see the hills it is going to rain" is most apt. Makes for interesting races on an already amazing track. Hamilton is still confident there is more to come out of the McLaren, and he had better be right if he and Button are going to maintain a challenge for the Championship.  The real interest is still going to be the fight inside the Red Bull team, and the FIA's latest moves to beef up the testing of the front wings and floors. There are heavier test loads at Spa, and apparently even more stringent tests to come at Monza, especially on the floor. It will be interesting reading when someone finally explains how they did this.

In a previous issue of Autosport they had a half year review of how the F1 teams were doing, and of course the RB6 was the class of the field. Gary Anderson makes the point that it is just better everywhere, it is not just the exhaust blown diffuser or the front wing, it is the skill of Newey. I have a 90/10 rule that works for lots of things, and Gary uses it here. He believes Adrian understands 90% of what makes a car work, because no one can know 100%, where others only know 80%. So the 90/10 rule, you can calculate 90%, but the last 10% is instinct, experience, call it what you like.

Roll on tomorrow when we have F1 and MotoGP practice to get our teeth into. Can Valentino win at Indy, or does Yamaha want Lorenzo to be the new hero?