Bob Barnard Track Engineering

The start of proceedings for the Baltimore "Grand Prix" have been delayed. Oh how Americans love to devalue that Grand Prix title, it's about time Tavo put his foot down as he has the only four wheel GP in the US next year. It can be done, I did it for the US Motorcycle GP at Laguna in '93. Anyway the story is the track is ready, they just have to put the perimeter fence back up that they took down for Hurricane Irene. I don't really believe that but I am not there, but some good friends are. Of course we have the now compulsory tram tracks to cross a la San Jose and Detroit to name two. Do we not learn? Traffic is a mess so the natives may not think this is such a good idea. Let's see what happens when we do get some racing. USF2000 supposed to be on track about now but it is not looking good.

Lorenzo is on track in Misano leading the way in the second practice session, but only just. Interesting that Yamaha see this as a "home race," the team is based just down the road. All the usual suspects at the top of the time sheets, with the factory Ducatis way down behind even the privateer team.Over in Brno Checa lead the first practice but was just pipped by Biaggi in the first qualifying session. Biaggi desperately needs to win here with Checa well behind or DNF to have any chance of winning the title this year.

News out today that the British Parliament is to hold hearings on the BBC/Sky TV deal. Seems the story coming out of Bernie and the one from the BBC is not one and the same, and MPs are not happy. As they rightly say only having half the races on BBC is like being slightly pregnant, if you want to watch the other half of the races on Sky you do not get a 50% discount on the fee.

Stories also out today link Toro Rosso with either improved sponsorship from Cepsa, the Spanish oil company owned by an UAE investment group, or that the UAE group has bought Toro Rosso and will move it to Spain. Either way Toro Rosso will get a large boost to its fortunes, in more ways than one.

Mercedes should be applauded for helping out a young man who did not have a hand. In a wonderful piece of PC he is described as having "a lower arm deficiency that means his left arm stops at his wrist." You can read the whole story on ESPNF1, and it is certainly one of the best things F1 has done lately. Thanks to Ross Brawn and the team they have arranged for a new bionic hand to be supplied free as part of a deal for technical cooperation with the manufacturers, Touch Electronics. It seems when Ross started making enquiries both parties realised how much technology they had in common. A nice feel warm story, and again displays the incredible technology in an F1 car that most of us do not see.

I watched the Indycar race from New Hampshire yesterday and I hope a few more did than were at the track. I've seen bigger crowds at an SCCA race at Texas Motor Speedway. Of course the track's General Manager said how pleased he was at the attendance, I bet Bruton Smith wasn't. Dario had the race won until he and Sato managed to run into each other on a restart, and it looked to me like Dario moved down on him, but that was not how he saw it. Rain was a factor, bringing the race time forward to try and beat it, but the boys did not need rain to crash, Conway taking out Rahal at the first corner, and the Castroneves losing it there the next lap. Nice tire wall there made of used race tires! Could barely hold themselves up let alone stop a car, and in the wrong place. Will Power got all hot and bothered at the last restart after being taken out when he had a chance of closing the gap on Dario in the Championship. Lots of talk about the track being too damp to restart it, but in reality only one driver spun and caused the rest of the carnage, all the other drivers managed to keep it straight. Now that's not to say they would not have spun later, but in racing someone has to make a decision and live with it, it is not a democracy. Have the ratings really improved so much that ABC will now carry the races and not Versus, or did they work out the ratings would never improve on Versus?  

Missed the MotoGP race but was fortunate to see a great Moto2 race, just like the 250cc days. I like the Brno track and it has aged well. Great use of the topography. A little repetitive in the corners, but produces some good races, and a lot of spectators. Interesting Honda are saying they will limit bikes for next year in MotoGP, but one has Bradl's name on it already. Northern European market must need a boost, but well deserved. Great news that Gardner Senior and Junior, and Mick Doohan are to ride at Phillip Island this year, nice touch, and Remy is to have the Moto3 bike for 2012 to ride.

No blog would be complete without a reference to Bernie. News today that he is going to sell his shares in QPR soccer team to Tony Fernandes. Good time to sell as they have just been promoted to the Premier League, so sell at the top, it probably will not last. Apparently he cannot get on with the other shareholder, Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal. Now Lakshmi has in the past shown an interest in F1, and it is a shame he does not have a team because then we really could have had a driver "put the pedal to the Mitall."

Is it me or has it rained on just about every race this year at some stage? The "best drivers in the world" if you believe NASCAR are sitting it out at Watkins Glen, a road course, 'cause it's raining. Put some treads on and race, it's not an oval.

In Brno yesterday's third practice was wet and saw a number of falls, including Friday' surprise package John Hopkins who will not race due to broken fingers. Hero to zero. Stoner won handily from Dovi and Simoncelli after Pedrosa crashed out early. He just tried harder in the race was Casey's comment on the win. Lorenzo chose the wrong tire and had to settle for fourth with team mate Spies riding shotgun for him. Only 13 bikes finished, with Rossi sixth in front of his team mate Hayden. Suzuki's weekend went from looking good to disaster as Bautista crashed out of 7th place. This cannot do Suzuki's chances of running a team next year any good.

The F3 Masters was run at the Zandvoort circuit, of which I have fond memories from growing up in England. It brings together all the various F3 series runners and is part of the new FIA F3 Championship, won by Merhi despite being disqualified after making contact with Juncadella as his nearest rival had a DNF. British F3 star Kevin Magnussen finished third despite a recurrence of a misfire problem with his VW engine in practice. This has plagued him all season and it is hard to understand why VW or the plug manufacturer cannot get on top of this. A bit like Trulli's power steering.

Kevin's dad Jan also had a bad break, a driveshaft actually on his Camaro while leading the GT class at Watkins Glen. 

Well we at least have some GP racing going on at Brno, and Honda in the shape of Pedrosa is again leading the way. Stoner and Simoncelli are there as well so Lorenzo is running fourth fastest, but apparently working on race set up and doing consistent laps. Team mate Ben Spies was sixth despite a pinched nerve in his neck, can't be much fun. Rossi was happier with seventh, but still over a second off the pace. Rumors are that Ducati are thinking of going back to an aluminum frame instead of the carbon fibre. We've seen this before with the Cagiva in 1990. I can't help believing that a carbon frame and stressed engine is the way forward, it is just such a big step that it rewrites the set up and needs time to sort out. I'd hope they are given that time.

Suzuki are the surprise package with Bautista in eighth and ring-in John Hopkins right there in tenth. As Bautista said, nice to have John as long as he is slower than me. From there on down there are a bunch of guys making up the numbers. 

Elsewhere desperate web site are reduced to re-runs of THAT race at Dijon with Arnoux and Villeneuve, Gilles that is. Silverstone unveiled a very ambitious planning proposal for the site which will be great if they can fund it, but perhaps they should look carefully at what has happened at the Nurburgring with similar ambitious plans. Pirelli has raised the issue of qualifying tires for next year. Not sure I like the idea of going back to special tires, surely that is going to alter the set up on the car which has to be kept for the race? Anyway, the issue is teams saving tires during qualifying, so just give them extra sets of the race tires to use just for the qualifying rather than make something different.

Grand Am racing at Watkins Glen tomorrow, and Indycar at New Hampshire for something different.