Bob Barnard Track Engineering

After my "foot in mouth," or is it keyboard in mouth, comment about Ricciardo just keeping his hand in he goes and sets fast time, only to have it taken away because a bolt was found loose on the car after qualifying. This sort of thing sounds a bit over the top, like last year when a piece of tape was found on a car. Daniel was philosophical about it though, confirming he was there for the race experience. He did well in the first race, coming through the field from last to sixth, but with another potential problem as he and a few others are under investigation for possibly passing under a yellow.  American Alexander Rossi finished well down, let's hope for a better finish in race 2.

Jan Magnussen's son Kevin won his maiden British F3 race with a couple of great overtaking moves. Let us hope Kevin can catch the breaks better than his father did. Somehow to me F3 is still the class to be in and win. We have F2, GP3, FR 3.5 etc, but this still seems the best finishing school. Many top drivers went straight from here to F1, while it almost seems that with a few exceptions classes like GP2 are for guys who will not quite make it. Still, not everyone is going to be world champion and at least they are living their dream and hopefully having some fun. Speaking of F2, another son of a famous father, Alex Brundle, took pole at Magny-Cours.

Also in France, at Le Mans, Casey Stoner continued to dominate practice and qualifying from Simoncelli and the rest of the Honda gang. Fifth is Lorenzo in front of the two Tech3 Yamahas, with Ben Spies eighth. So four Hondas, four Yamahas, and then the three Ducatis with Rossi and Hayden, who could not repeat yesterday's form. Are we loading an Ark here?

Grand Am is at VIR today, and DMG bikes are at Sears Point, but I don't think anyone is noticing.

Here we are on a Saturday near the end of the season for most series, and I do not have a clue what to write about! The F2 and F3 championships have been run and won, and it will be interesting to see where these champions go from here. The British F3 Champion, Vergne, won in his second FRenault 3.5 race, the drive his reward for wrapping up the F3 series early, but won after the winner was disqualified for a piece of tape on the bodywork following a morning crash. Sounds a bit harsh, but I guess the rules are rules.

On two wheels Casey Stoner finally has the Ducati working the way he wants, or he has found a track he likes, and is on pole for the MotoGP race from Aragon, Spain. Rossi is struggling in seventh, the shoulder being a big problem for him. It will be interesting to see the track tomorrow and if Casey can turn pole into a win.

As I said a while ago, who arranged this timetable? Tour de France, World Cup Soccer, MotoGP in Spain, Daytona, IRL at the Glen, you get the picture. I'm trying to do some serious writing, and I'm not talking about this blog. I guess Wimbledon is finishing as well. Glad it is actually a holiday on Monday, but the Tour goes on.

Mark Webber did a promotion with the Red Bull F1 in Parliament Square, London, and wowed the crowd. There is nothing like seeing a F1 car on streets you know and where you can get close to appreciate just how fast they accelerate and brake. That is what is so astounding about these cars that sets them apart from say NASCAR, where the top speed is the same but it takes them two laps to get there. That is why I love street tracks, provided they are done right.

Elsewhere the other Schumacher finally seems to have come good in the DTM with his first pole. The Norisring track is interesting, it is on the old Nazi Party rally grounds. Looks a bit like the old Avus circuit in Berlin. If you have never seen that check it out, it had an amazing banked 180 degree corner that puts Daytona to shame. Over at Daytona Brian France is talking about going green with a bit of ethanol, provided Sunoco agree, and possible changes to The Chase again to include some sort of knockout. I had that idea a while ago, to make sure they all go for it. Start with the top ten and whoever is the last of those ten drops out, so even for the last race you do not have to win it, just finish in front of your competitor. What do you do if they both crash?

Australian Daniel Ricciardo won the Formula Renault 3.5 race in Hungary and still leads the Championship. The next Mark Webber? Joylon Palmer returned to the winners circle in the F2 Championship and is leading that handily.

Big crash during practice at The Glen. Viso ran over the curb at Turn One and could not get it back in time and hit the wall on the exit head on. I said a few weeks ago that I was unhappy about some aspects of that track when there seems to room to move barriers back, and that is one of them. It is also down to the asphalt run off behind that curb that allows drivers to try and drive out of an off without lifting.