Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Well it is here at last, and with a good field of cars. To help you sort them out Radio Le Mans web site has a "spotters guide" you can download and print so you can keep up with the cars and drivers, very useful. Radio Le Mans coverage is live for all the sessions, and qualifying for Petit is streamed on SPEED's web site at 3:10pm eastern. Peugeot driver Anthony Davidson, who has not been to Road Atlanta for ten years, had forgotten how awesome the track is, and difficult for drivers with so many cars on a much shorter track than Le Mans.

It is a round of the Intercontinental Cup, the unofficial sports car World Championship, so it has attracted some serious contenders, not the least of which are the Peugeot's and Audi's. Peugeot won last year's rain shortened event, but expect Audi to want this one badly. Peugeot will have fixed the engine problems that robbed them of victory at the 24 hour this year, and won handily at Silverstone recently, but informed comment says that the development of that car has peaked while Audi is still potentially finding more speed. For once SPEED are showing the entire race without going to a truck race, so enjoy. I know what I am doing Saturday, and it does not involve college football.

The MotoGP is off to Motegi for the next round with plenty of racing left yet, including Phillip Island. Lorenzo still has a 56 point lead over Pedrosa, but with the number of races still to go it is not over yet. Lorenzo would still have to DNF in my book for Pedrosa to get up, but it keeps it interesting doesn't it? Not sure that I am a great fan of Motegi, Suzuka has some fond memories, but I guess Honda owns both, so he who has the gold makes the choice?

Rumors resurfaced about the possible sale of Toro Rosso. Since Gerhard Berger sold his interest it always seemed likely it would be sold. Owning one F1 team must be expensive for Dietrich Mateschitz, let alone two. It sounds like a bargain for one of the would-be F1 teams that wanted to enter next year. How about it Jacques? The cars have performed well this year, so it would be much better than starting from scratch.

Again, based on rumors, it seems Chandook could be going to Lotus, or whatever they are called next year, to drive with Kovalainen. They just announced Trulli as the other driver so it is probably time to fire him based on the musical seats going on. There is a piece on ESPN F1 about "no money no drive" goings on at HRT. There are also more great photos from India.

The actions of the medical staff at Misano at the weekend have raised a red flag to Paolo Giovagnoli, the prosecutor of Rimini, the City where the track is located. I had forgotten, goodness knows how, that the Italian authorities always investigate a death at a race track. Italian law is different to most countries in that if someone dies then there must be somebody at fault, even if that person is the one that died. Remember Jim Clark's problems after Von Tripps went into the crowd at Monza, and the Williams team after Senna died? The Race Director and the Medical Chief will both be under the gun for the death of Tomizawa. The prosecutor is particularly looking at the handling of the riders at the scene, something we all want investigated.

Martin Whitmarsh, head of McLaren racing and boss of FOTA says that F1 needs to market itself, what billion dollar business does not promote itself? Sounds like a good idea at first hearing, but when I think more about it I wonder what use it is trying to market a product that is not that good at the moment. Yes the season has been better than we expected, but us diehard F1 fans will watch it anyway. It is the new fans Martin is looking to capture. But it is not as if F1 lacks exposure, it is on the TV across the world every two weeks on average. You would have to live in a cave not to notice it. And the TV companies that buy the rights spend lots of time telling us and promoting when it is on, so what more does Martin want? I think of the Olympics and The World Cup. I do not see FIFA buying ads, it is the World Cup sponsors that do that, and the same with the Olympics. Now F1 has very few series sponsors, and those there are do  not seem to spend anything on promoting the fact. I see a similar theme with NASCAR with SPEED and Sprint promoting the heck out of it. So sorry Martin, in the end I do not see that you really have a point.

Talking about having a product you can promote. Watch the video of Chandook's laps of the new Korean track. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/86449. As Chandook says, it looks like a street circuit, and not a good one at that. And boy, is there some work left to do, particularly the top course of asphalt. 90 days curing time anybody? Three good straights, but an awful lot of just one corner after another, follow the leader stuff. Show off your product on that. As readers will know I believe you cannot show off your product if you do not take it to the best venues.