Bob Barnard Track Engineering

I watched a variety of sport over the weekend; US Open Golf, NASCAR, Indycar, Grand-Am and soccer. The one thing they all have in common is the love of statistics. What would the commentators talk about without all those numbers. How many majors since Tiger won one, how many greens or fairways hit in regulation, what is each hole playing in respect of par? How many shots on goal at the soccer, percentage of possession, games without a goal, or distance run by each player?

Think about baseball, what is there to watch if you don't know the ERA or RBI stats? NBA? Assists, average score, total points, points coming off the bench. It goes on and on. I swear that the golf guys could not complete a sentence without a stat.

So what about motor racing? Laps lead, tracks where Jimmie Johnson has not won, wins from pole, pit stop times, number of races without a win, how many times Ford has won at Michigan, and on it goes.

One stat no one seems to want to count in motor racing is deaths and injuries. I thought America was alone in not adding these up, but no. To try and get some comparison I went to good friends in Spain, Australia, France, Germany, Italy and England, and a friend with FIA connections. Surely the FIA keeps track? I have not heard from all of them, but the message is no one keeps count, or say they don't. How can the FIA Institute know what to research solutions and improvements for if they do not look at accidents? How does the Medical Panel know what injuries to expect, or the Track Committee know what to improve and update? The answer is they must, but no one wants to put the numbers out there. It's the same deal as not publishing standards, only the insiders should know such precious information.

Now I accept that here in the US the sport does not keep count, it is to split up to do that, but the insurers must. That is their business. How do you set insurance rates if you cannot assess the risk. It is an actuarial business, or like legalized gambling to me. What's the odds of having a claim at that track or event? How do we do it elsewhere? Look at the form book, or calculate the odds.

So, the most important statistic of all in motor racing is not how many championships someone wins, it is how many have to die or be maimed to accomplish it? We may never know.

I wrote this a few weeks ago when feeling the need more strongly than usual that something must be done about track safety. I put it aside to allow cooler reflection, but the carnage continues. Last weekend at Reno Fearnly Speedway two driver were killed. Now I do not know the whole circumstances, so it may be a "racing incident," but it keeps up the average. So here is what I wrote.

DEATHS AT THE TRACK            (with acknowledgement to the Charlotte Observer)

 All forms of sport are inherently dangerous to the competitor and sometimes the spectator. We expect that our sportsmen will push themselves and their equipment to the limit, and inevitably beyond. In most sports that is unlikely to result in a fatal accident, but in a few it certainly has the potential to. Hemmingway said “there are only three sports, mountain climbing, bullfighting and motor racing, the rest are just games.” We can add to that a few others such as ocean yacht racing, but you get the drift.

Motor racing involves metal objects, often heavy, traveling at high speed. Once out of control a huge amount of stored energy is released with potentially tragic consequences. We have seen in times gone by spectators standing at roadside while competitors in the Mille Miglia or Targa Florio race by at 200 mph. In some countries you still can, especially in rallying, but in most situations now a proper barrier and fence system is in place to safeguard drivers and spectators from a reoccurrence of the tragic accident at Le Mans in 1955 when a Mercedes flew into the crowd killing 83 people. Mercedes withdrew from racing for over thirty years as a result, and if safety had not improved then we would like as not be racing now in most countries. Switzerland has banned it for years.

But we have learned from that and other racing incidents which has lead to the development of better barriers further away from the track, stronger and higher fences, safer cars to absorb impact, and better equipment for the driver. Emergency response systems including on-site medical centers, response teams with the correct equipment and procedures, and race control augmented with CCTV and light systems for faster reaction. All in the name of safety.

This has resulted in dramatic reductions in the deaths of competitors at the top level of the sport. It is now such a rare occurrence that it is world news, with strong reactions including calls for racing to be stopped. Look at the response to Earnhardt Snr. and lately Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas.     

But what happens below that top level, under the radar? There are close to 3000 motor sport facilities of all types in the US, very few of which make it on TV or rate make news, even when people, including children, are dying or being maimed on those tracks. Who heard of the 6, 9 and 12 year olds who have been killed in kart races in the last few years, or the 8 year old horribly burned in a kart accident due to lack of fast response? How about the young man who lost an eye at a back-yard demolition derby, or the eighteen year old killed by flying concrete from an incorrect barrier? I could go on, and these are just incidents I know of.

That is a big part of the problem, no one is watching, or if they are they do not care enough to do something about it. Road accident statistics are collected assiduously, but accidents at race tracks; well that’s just part of the risk. Yes, racing is dangerous, but it should not be fatal. This is not just a sport, it is a business, but who is regulating it? No one.

The Charlotte Observer, as the home of NASCAR, does attempt to track fatalities and has done for the last ten years. They have an average of 22 deaths a year, but they do not include all forms of motor sport, and my gut feeling it is more like one a week. What makes this unacceptable is most if not all these are preventable, and preventable without closing down tracks or putting them out of business. Knowledge is the key, just as lack of knowledge is the root cause of the problem. Lack of knowledge of how a track should be designed, constructed and operated.

America vs. the World

Worldwide motor sport is governed by bodies such as The Federation Internationale De L’Automobile, FIA, which includes the Commission Internationale De Karting, CIK. These govern most 4 wheel motor sport, while the Federation Internationale De Motocyclisme, FIM, governs 2 wheel sport. These bodies are represented in each member country by the Association Sportive Nationale, ASN, who rely on the rules developed for the sport over years of experience and research by the International Sanctioning Bodies. The ASN will govern all the sports activities in their country based on these rules and with regard to their local conditions and culture, and include licensing competitors and officials, approving vehicle designs, sanctioning events, and inspecting and licensing tracks.

Most of these rules are available to anyone, often downloadable off the website, but the rules for how to design and construct a track are not. In fact they have not been published by the FIA since 1987. They are considered too complex and dangerous for inexperienced individuals to obtain and use, so there are now “Internal Guidelines” with limited access. So track owners could be forgiven for not knowing there are rules, as most profess to me when told their track does not comply. But, it should be obvious to anyone watching events on TV that there must be standards, how else do new tracks get built like The Circuit of The Americas?

So what happens here in the US? Nothing, anyone can go out and build himself a race track and open it. Who is the ASN, the one controlling body for motor racing in the US? For motor cycle racing we have The American Motorcycle Association, AMA, who are the FIM Member, but they are not alone in sanctioning races. There are other national series like WERA, and lots of regional organizations doing their own thing, with no standards I have seen, and no system for inspection and licensing.

Things are much more complicated on 4 wheels. We have an ASN, but we do not like to be restricted by choices, so we form a committee. The Automobile Competition Committee of the United States, ACCUS, a body almost nobody involved in the sport have ever heard of. And why should they? Unless you wish to drive overseas or run an International event you can get along very well without them. ACCUS is an office in Colorado with some lovely ladies and The Chairman, Nick Craw. Mr. Craw is a very important and busy man at the FIA, being the President of the Senate, the FIA governing body. Unfortunately ACCUS seems to be a body involved with looking out to the rest of the world, and leaves the organization of racing in the US to its committee members; NASCAR, USAC, Grand Am, SCCA, NHRA, IMSA, Indycar and WKA. In short the top level motor sport sanctioning bodies and WKA, a karting body. Of these NASCAR is basically run on tracks owned by two main groups, ISC and SMI who have their own engineering and officials in-house, and presumably have standards and systems known to them, but not generally available, and each track has its own character. USAC has plenty of rules, but no track rules. Grand Am is part of NASCAR. SCCA, The Sports Car Club of America, has a program of sorts to inspect and OK tracks, but lacks the clout to force changes. NHRA does have standards and IMSA piggybacks on the FIA by requiring a FIA Level 2 standard track, but even that is open to interpretation here in the US. Indycar does track work in-house, but what it is based on who knows looking at some of them. WKA like the other US kart sanctioning bodies does not have standards for tracks, despite the CIK rules being available.

So, at this top level, involving perhaps 200 of the 3000 facilities some form of standard/inspection is involved. Below that there are numerous national series, such as NASA, and regional series just out there operating. I watched an ARCA race from Toledo last weekend and that track was just plain awful. Most of these facilities are owned by Mom & Pop, local businessmen or clubs with no knowledge or experience, and this is where the majority of the racing takes place. When I raised the issue of licensing tracks at a recent deposition I was basically chastised as suggesting something “un-American.” Well my hairdresser is licensed, and she is nowhere near as dangerous as these tracks.

The only inspection of most of these is by a local fire marshal, who is not looking at the track, and by the insurers, who without being rude mainly do not know what they are looking at and concentrate it seems on grandstands and the like. Often the track owner fills in the insurance form! So the person who built it or runs it without knowing how is marking himself, and sending it to someone in an office to approve who has not seen it and is not trained either. You would think that the insurer would have a large vested interest in making sure the venue is safe, but having seen what they insure that would seem not to be the case. And if they have no standards to judge against how can you inspect and approve or reject a track anyway?

This is the root cause of the problem. People in the business do know these International standards exist, but tell me “we do not follow those here in the US.” Why? I asked one attorney after that statement if Americans were less worthy of protection, to which he replied he was asking the questions. Why does the FIA not publish their standards when the CIK, a part of their organization, publish rules for kart tracks? Is the FIA afraid of being sued for having incorrect standards? Who is going to be able to substantiate that, stand up in court and say they know better? I don’t agree with everything they do, but that is a difference of professional opinion, and certainly not anything I would dare to provide an opposing opinion on.

Even when standards are available they are not used. The International Kart Federation, IKF, who are not international but based on the west coast and sanction local series, are more than happy to quote the CIK as the standard for parts of the design of the kart. On a random page of their rules I found seven occasions when they quoted CIK, but see nothing incongruous in not requiring the track, as important in terms of safety as the kart, to follow CIK rules. How does this make any sense?

The only State where tracks are licensed and subject to design rules is New Jersey, and as lacking in some places as they are, at least they try. The National Fire Protection Authority, NFPA, has worked with the insurers and industry to prepare NFPA 610, a “Guide for Emergency and Safety Operations at Motorsports Venues.” Now as the name implies this does not address the track, but the equipment and systems that should be in place to effectively respond to an emergency. Unfortunately, like ACCUS, most track people I talk to have never heard of the document.

So we go on killing and maiming people, both on the track and in the grandstands, for the lack of knowledge being made available and standards enforced to do things the correct way, which does not mean a more expensive way.

How Do We Fix This?

Unfortunately not easily or quickly, the scale of the problem is too large and the resources available to tackle it too small. How do we find enough people who know what they should be looking at to go and inspect 3000 race tracks? Who do they report to? God forbid we let the Government, either State or Federal, get into the act, but they will if we don’t. ACCUS has shown no desire to do it, and does not have the resources, and all the committee members have their own show to run and I am sure do not want to take on the responsibility of inspecting tracks for other series.

Along with this goes the problem of unprofessional management, and by that I do not mean paid. An amateur still has a responsibility to do things in a professional manner even if it is for no pay. Otherwise don’t do it, you are putting lives at risk. The SCCA has an excellent training program for its volunteer workers who are the ones you actually see flag waiving and in race control at most professional races. The usual excuse I get from tracks is they cannot afford to fix things as they are a club of volunteers, or a track not making money. Most of the fixes can be done by volunteers or track maintenance, the piece that is lacking is the knowledge. Nearly all motor sport other than the very top level is run by volunteers or not-for-profit, even if they try to.

The one group that is large enough, has the clout to do it, the vested interest to do it, and should be going to all these facilities anyway, is the insurance industry. I have had this conversation of course, they are a small group of specialists, and their argument is that the market is “too soft” and tracks will just go to some fly-by-night insurer if they require them to spend money to upgrade things. That is a risk, but most track owners should be smart enough to know that when they have an incident then it is going to be one of this group that will be there when the cheap guy is not.

Besides, we will not fix everything overnight, but we have to start sometime and it should be now. We need a system in place to go to tracks and assess their safety for both competitor and spectator, and agree a program with the track to undertake the improvements over a reasonable period, with an emphasis on proven simple, effective measures that volunteers or track crew can do. Properly built and installed tire walls, barriers, and catch fences, properly designed curbs, groomed and adequate run-off areas would be a great start. Let’s expand the NFPA 610 to lay out operational procedures for correctly managing a facility and running events, not just when we’ve had the accident. Involve the already available training programs and manuals of the SCCA. I know the people in this business; they love the sport and are always willing to teach others. We know how to fix this; we just have to care enough to start.

Thanks to my great friend Dr. David Vissenga, ex F1 Medical Chief and FIA Medical Panel Member I had the great pleasure in watching a You Tube video of an Interview with Dr. Gary Hartstein who was the FIA Medical Delegate and F1 Medical Response Organiser after Professor Sid Watkins retired. If you want some background on the safety and medical side of motor sport at its top level then this is a must see. If you want to see the dark side of motor sport politics, not just the FIA, then this is even more a required watch.

The experience resonate so much with my experience."Safety at the top level is now at a level where it does not register", unless someone like Dan Wheldon dies. But at the levels below that where most participants are things are not so good. "They know but they don't care." Wow, how true is that.

And then there is the lovely "you need to bid for your job next year." After having talked me into resigning a s a Company Director so they could hire me as a Consultant in 1986, the Australian Grand Prix Office then required me to bid for my job for 1987, and of course the terms were ridiculous and I did not get hired.

I won't give any more away, enjoy and learn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBXWbTuNEl8

Who else is tired of this whole Pirelli tire deal. Paul Hembery says that it is "just a phase" we hear it every year and by the eighth race the teams work it out. Eighth race, that is nearly half a season of a lottery! I logged in at 10 pm to Sky F1 on line to watch first practice from Sepang. What did I see? Nothing for 45 minutes, the teams were conserving tires. I bet the spectator, and yes I only saw one, and no wonder with nothing to watch, was as annoyed as I was, and I went to sleep. When teams do not have enough test time, according to them, why would they just sit in the garage. Oh yes, saving tires, great show that is.

Apparently the boys finally came out and proceeded to "melt" the tires in the heat and green track. One of the Team Principles wrote an email to Pirelli suggesting an extra set of tires to be used by Friday drivers. Well I guess it would have cars on track, but we pay to watch the real drivers, not the reserve team. How would football fans like it if the teams put their reserves out for the first half?

To digress and follow the football analogy, why is motor sport stuck on this performance balancing? Success ballast? Manchester United players would be wearing diving belts by now. Federer would have a heavier or smaller racquet. They all do it one way or another, spec racing or regulations so restrictive that it may as well be. NASCAR thinks having 43 cars within a second and racing in big packs is what the spectators want. It did not seem a problem when Richard Petty won 200 races back when the sport was growing. There is an old saying that if you develop a better mousetrap the government will invent a better mouse. Well the FIA and NASCAR have done that very well lately. What happened to racing as innovation? There is a good article on where the "United Sports Car Series" should go:

http://www.racer.com/opinion-back-to-the-future-for-american-sports-car-racing/article/285560/

Without innovation where would the Chapmans and Halls be? Like Adrian Newey. Every new idea gets trodden on. You can't do that, all the teams will have to do it. So what, isn't that the point. And then there is the cost containment mantra. Let them spend what they want, if they go broke so what? Look at Rangers in Scottish Football. They survive even if it is back to square one. How about a relegation system for F1? Impossible you say, but what if the GP2 winner of 2012 is told he will get the spot in 2014 of the last team in 2013. That gives them a year to get ready, and if the winner does not want it then offer it down. Get some fresh blood in.

Bernie has success ballast of course. If you win you get loaded down with bags of money, bit like the Premier League actually, except if you try and spend it the FIA will stop you, or now take more off you. Bernie giveth and the FIA taketh away.

Sorry to wander around, but this blog is about what stirs me. Joe Saward has a great piece in his blog today about the disclaimer on Mercedes press releases:

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/

Scroll down it is the third or fourth article. Now you will have heard me talk about "the suits," the corporate men who run things now, lawyers and accountants. Well if you ever needed convincing then this disclaimer will do it. I know Mercedes is a public company and they need to be careful with what they publish, but this is a race team, a separate entity!

Talking of suits reminds me of "the blazers." These are another dangerous species in our sport, the people in the sporting bodies who spend their life being elected to higher and higher positions nationally and finally internationally. One of these, the FIA, has organized a conference this year at Goodwood to discuss the future of the sport. Being interested I checked it out, and who do you think the attendees are? The ASNs, the FIA member bodies. I would have thought that if they knew how to fix the current problems they would be doing it? How about bringing in the stakeholders, the people who have money invested in the sport. Teams, promoters, manufacturers, sponsors, drivers, and the media, and maybe Joe Blow public? This remind me of going to the FIM where the only people allowed to talk where the "blazers."

And so back to Sepang for practice two, at 2 am my time. Alarm set, ready to go, and so were the drivers this time. We were treated to lots of shots of some very nasty looking tires, but we are assured that the track is "rubbering in." I bet it is with that amount coming off the tires. We saw the usual suspects at the top of the time sheets, but as always it is hard to work out who is actually doing what. It is great that Johnny Herbert can hear and spot what is going on in the car, but at that time in the morning I am not awake enough to notice. Inevitably the rain arrived with 30 minutes to go. What did the teams do? Go out on inters to see what conditions where like in case it rained on Sunday? Hell no, they sat in the garage to save the inters, and I went back to sleep. It was bad enough when we saw teams saving tires in Q3, but it has now spread to the whole weekend, it is time this nonsense ends. If you want to know why spectator racing is dying, it is because the show is bad and getting worse.

I would guess that most of you have read the book "The Art of Racing in the Rain." Good book, and so popular the FIA have brought you a sequal, "Racing in the Slightly Wet." It is more of a serial, as it happens often during the year, the latest edition being Melbourne qualifying last night, for me anyway. I got up at 2 am to watch, and like so many I would guess gave up at 3 am and went back to sleep.

The FIA have regulated themselves almost into NASCAR where we cannot race if it rains a bit. NASCAR must laugh when they see the high tech brooms being wielded by marshals to dry the track. How did we get to a point where it is not possible to stay on the track when it rains? The stupid regulation putting cars into parc ferme when qualifying starts. Now I understand how that started, but like always they go too far. No one wants to go back to 1000 hp plus qualy engines good for two laps, but the current restrictions go too far. If teams could alter ride height and change wings for more downforce we might see some racing, instead of the medical car running around. Common sense is not very common it seems. Why not just draw lots for starting grid, the current system is just a lottery anyway, and is damaging cars.

No one wants to see drivers hurt racing in unsafe conditions, but there must be a happy medium here. And what's the idea of three sets of rain tires other than to save Pirelli money? Are we being "green?" We will get to a wet race one weekend where they use all the tires and the race is cancelled. If teams had more tires they could be out circulating and moving water off the track, instead of sitting in the garage saving tires.

Oh yes, then we have the 5 pm start time thanks to Bernie to suit European viewers. If the US is so important then why do we have to watch at 2 am? We saw in Malaysia a few years ago the problems a delay then causes, and we saw it again last night, because it was almost night in Melbourne by the time they gave up. The next call will be for two day GPs again if you can fit in Qualifying and race on Sunday.