Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Checked out actually. That is what Carlos Checa did in both WSBK races at Phillip Island today, with Biaggi settling for second in both in front of Haslam Jr. and Melandri in race 1 & 2 respectively. Greg Sarni scolded me for calling Checa and Biaggi geriatrics, and as he rightly points out they can still beat the youngsters, so why should they stop? It is a sad reflection on the state of racing that they can still beat the field. Where are all the next great riders?

There were a few in the race of course, just not at the sharp end other than Haslam. Australian Mark Aitchison started his first WSBK event after limited time on the bike, and as Kenny would tell him, stayed on it and improved. In race one he was over a minute behind the winner, but halved that deficit in the second. Now there may be reasons for that but as we in the US do not actually get to watch the races until this afternoon I guess I will have to wait and see.

Not much else going on. More quotes from Bernie's story, "No Angel," about Alonso who sounds like no angel himself, but most of us knew that already. Not to be outdone by Jenson running a V8Supercar around Bathurst it now seems Lewis is going to swap cars with Tony Stewart at Watkins Glen later this year. Has Lewis ever driven something with a roof?

Time heals all wounds they say. Not sure about that, but it does allow a better perspective about events. As most of you would know from reading the blog I am writing  my life story, my memoirs I guess you could say, a challenge I have attempted a few times in the past, but events and wounds were too fresh. I can now write about those events and look upon them as part of life's great adventure, a learning experience, and hopefully I can pass on some of those lessons for others.

In a similar vein a friend mentioned the other day an article in Car and Driver from earlier this year.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/10q2/america_s_best_road_courses-feature/road_atlanta_page_2

When we rebuilt Road Atlanta back in 1998 there were some who were very much against the changes, as the article implies. Among the most vehement was James Weaver who saw the "gravity cavity" as an opportunity for him to gain on opponents who were more wary of that series of corners. It is interesting that time has allowed the changes to be viewed more dispassionately for what they were and what they did to ensure the track maintains it's place as one of America's best tracks. Not sure James would have changed his mind though.

As I have said recently about the possible second track at Bathurst, the trick with working on famous old tracks is to make them safe without losing the character and history, not easy to do, and it will be a challenge at Bathurst, expectations are high. Looking back at the 'gravity cavity" it was America's Eau Rouge, and perhaps the solution would have been to remove the bridge which was the real issue, but then how to access the infield? The new tunnel only went in because we raised the dip, so that would not be a solution. Perhaps move it back up that long back straight, not sure that would work with traffic flow either, so no easy choices. One of the things I have learned is that you never get to do exactly the same thing twice, so unless you make a real mess of things it is not possible to know if you were right or wrong. Doing nothing is what is usually the biggest fault, so make a decision and live with it.

A bit like Ferrari at Abu Dhabi, there are a lot of suggestions about what they should have done, and I guess in hindsight you can simulate the race and see what would have worked, but in the heat of battle make a decision and live with it, it is a sport between humans, not machines thank goodness.

Quiet day news wise, at least nothing worth my time talking about.

The biggest issue is in Australia at the moment, Bathurst NSW to be precise. Now if the world knows of Bathurst at all it is because of the V8Supercar race once a year, but along with Phillip Island it is an historic track in Australian motorsport on two and four wheels, with particular attachment to the motorcycle brigade. The track is public road and has never been "safe" even before the walls were put in principally for a round of the short lived World Touring Car Championship. The track is now only used for "tin tops" and there has been a push to build another circuit to allow other forms of sport, especially the motorcycles to compete there again. The track is owned by the Bathurst Council being public roads, but I believe parts of the infrastructure have been owned by the ARDC who ran the 1000 km race for a long time. So what does the Government do? I presume it was the NSW Gov't, still trying to find that out, commissioned the Homebush Bay Motor Racing Authority, HBMRA, the body they set up to manage the V8Supercar event at the old Olympic site, to do a study. They in turn commissioned a consultant, and guess what, it is too expensive and cannot make enough to justify that cost. How is HBMRA funded you ask? And does it make money? No it is justified on the basis of economic benefit, but it seems poor old Bathurst must pay for itself, and the $57m in infrastructure improvements! What are we building? Phillip Island, home of the motorcycle GP has no infrastructure but manages somehow. When I proposed rebuilding it the traffic guys said the two lane bridge will not cope. I doubt that they have widened it in the last twenty years, and still they come. This is a classic political manoeuvre. ask the question the right way and you get the answer you want, look at the referendum on the Queen. Who wrote the brief for this study and what were they looking to build. And why ask the HBMRA to do it and not Bathurst Council? As the report correctly states this track would not get the F1 GP, and why would you want it at a loss of $50m a year,  and is unlikely to steal the MotoGP from the island, so it should be a safe, good standard national track, not some $47m monument to some politicians or consultants ego, and should be capable of running all year on a closed track so it does generate economic benefit and income. Not sure what things cost in Australia, but that could be built for around $12m here in the US, depending on earthworks, but my guess this is not going up the mountain.

Of course you could spend the money making the existing track safe, but I doubt the macho V8's would like that. The trick is always to make a track safe without gutting it of the character. I would recommend looking at Phillip Island, which I rebuilt for $5m including the pits and tunnel, and Road Atlanta here in the states.

So Charlie is in Korea, but no news posted yet on a decision, not that we do not already know what it will be. The Head of the Spanish Motorsport Federation and World Council member was telling Spanish reporters yesterday that it will be approved. Amazing what a bag full of money can buy these days. Presumably the Koreans are paying what Russia is being asked and what Singapore and Abu Dhabi are paying, $40m.

It seems from comments by my Australian friends that their channels are doing the same bang up job of showing racing as Speed. One outburst was about how many more ads Channel Ten could fit into the MotoGP. As my wife tells me constantly, do not ask those questions as you might find out. Then there was Bathurst and a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't. Channel Seven, who I gave up on years before SPEED, decided not to miss any action during ad breaks, so they got progressively behind the actual race, to the tune of nearly an hour! So if you had the internet in some form you knew who won, and more importantly it ran into the Japanese GP coverage. Fans are accusing Channel Seven of putting ad revenue before the audience, now who would think that of a TV channel, but actually they were doing the opposite to my mind. SPEED would have just cut it off to go to a NASCAR race.  Actually I do not think they show it at all.

Apparently the last three laps of the NASCAR Sprint Cup race were really exciting. Pity about the other 197. Seriously, I did not watch it, have not watched a NASCAR race all year, but it is good to see Tony win again. Now maybe we can get someone else other than Jimmie Johnson to win the "Race to Chase." I might watch that.

Pedrosa says he is going to race at Phillip Island this coming weekend. Tough guys these motorcycle riders. I think I told you that when we ran the six hour a young rider had to complete the last twenty minutes with a broken collarbone to finish third, his co-rider having already done his maximum time allowed on the bike. It will be good to see the Island again, it will encourage me to keep writing my book.

In the fall-out from Suzuka it seems Massa is being given a gentle reminder to pull his finger out and help Alonso, or else what? Webber correctly says he needs to win a race, he cannot just finish second to Vettel, Ferrari says they have to qualify better, and McLaren say they can only work harder to improve the car and it's reliabilty and not worry about the rest. Like most sports, you are actually racing yourself. As Kenny said to Jnr., "we're not here to win, we're here to ride better." The message is, if you keep riding better then eventually you will be better than the others, whatever they are doing. It's like watching American Football, especially San Francisco last night, if you do not make mistakes and beat yourself, then most times you will win. Ask Renault, what might have been if Kubica's wheel had been put on correctly? Or Valentino about his crash.

It's OK expanding racing to the far east, so long as they can build the tracks properly. We have had the earlier saga of Korea not building a track and paying Bernie a chunk of change not to run a GP, and now we are presumably still paving a track to race on in two weeks time. A couple of years back we had a Shanghai street race where the hairpin was so tight the cars had to do a three point turn, and no I am not joking, and then the manhole covers were not secured and the race was stopped to weld them down. Now we have the second practice for Superleague cancelled at a new Beijing street race because the curbs are coming up. It is actually worse than this as it is being run as non-championship race to a Chinese National Sanction as the track was not approved safe for an FIA Grade 2 status. So, the drivers are not going to race as hard if it is a non-championship race? It is OK to have a serious accident so long as the Chinese are approving it? What piece of unsafe are we missing here? As I said yesterday some people get a pass because they do not know better. Who built this anyway?

Suzuka already looks to be a Red Bull benefit. I know it is only Friday, but the signs are ominous. Ferrari nearly a second off the pace, Button struggling with the car, and Lewis dumping it into the wall almost from the get-go and doing very few laps in the second practice. Let's hope the new rear wing arrives in time for him. I guess they only had two of the new wings, and unlike Red Bull, did not want to take the one off of Button's car for him. It must be hot off the press or you would think they would have brought more than the two with them. The Degner curves are catching people out just as they did last year, despite the curbs being altered, but obviously not improved. Barrichello in particular commented that they love Suzuka as drivers, but it does have some safety issues and they have to drive accordingly. Not easy to make changes to Suzuka, being tightly wrapped in the valley as it is. Let us hope the rest of the teams can get it sorted and we can see another good race, and one not spoiled by the weather.

Trulli says he is looking forward to next year with Lotus and applauds their improvement this year. Looking at the practice times they are the class of the new teams, but are still over 4 seconds adrift of the quick guys. HRT are some 6 seconds back, so it seems not surprisingly the new teams have not made much progress this year. They are going to have to make a very significant redesign of their cars in the off season if they are to survive, which so far only Lotus seem to have put in place.

In other F1 news it seems the engine builders are agreeing with me, rule changes cost money, so they are trying to change Jean Todt's mind about the four cylinder turbo for 2013. Cosworth is saying it will cost Euro 20m to design a new engine, and who is paying, HRT,Virgin? The other guys are saying this is a Euro 100m deal, so where's the cost saving in F1 now? They sensibly suggest they can do a lot with the existing 8 cylinder if Jean wants "green," otherwise it is going cost lot of green stuff. Resource Reduction Agreement anybody?

Over in Malaysia Rossi seems to be riding around his shoulder problem, or maybe it is the chip on it that is helping? I'm sure after the comments of Yamaha management he is out to prove something. He is now saying he will go to Australia, which I am sure the Phillip Island Promoter is very relieved to hear, and make a decision after that. Stoner will be looking for a good result to take to the Island, while Lorenzo I'm sure will be looking for a nice quiet race to the World Championship.

Bathurst is on and practice times are as competitive as you would expect from this series, with 1.5 seconds separating the top twenty cars. I'm really sad we do not get the race here, although after ten hours last weekend of Petit I need to get some things done. I think we have had a highlight show on occasions. If any of my US friends know please tell me. David Brabham looks like it could be a long race as his car is well down in practice, but as they say in the classics, and F1 driver's interviews, it is a long race.

Murphy The Bear has a new post today, it is the usual mixture of rumor,opinion, and truth, but as always funny and worth logging in to.