Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Four in a row for Casey Stoner at The Island, and he made this one look so easy. Lorenzo showed the way to his current teammate Rossi who had a great dice with his future teammate Nicky Hayden. The interest was all in the 3-6th places as unusually for this track the first two were able to break away. Still a great track though after 20+ years. Decent crowd too considering the weather.

My apologies to my followers but it is all very quiet on the racing scene. Nice crash on the first lap at Hockenheim for the DTM cars, and looking at that corner I'm not surprised. Given the different configurations at that track, and even that corner, it is hard to see why they chose that one. You'll find it on Youtube. Grand Am announced that they were delighted with the likely link up with DTM, and who wouldn't be? What is that going to mean for their GT class though?

Things should liven up soon as the teams arrive in Korea for their first GP, so let's look forward to an interesting week.

Well that's a surprise, Charlie Whiting approved the Korean circuit. There are ongoing concerns though, but to be fair to Charlie he is looking at the safety aspects which if it is built to the approved drawings then should be OK. The Koreans announced that Charlie was walking the circuit and inspecting all the corners, as if that were something special. What did they expect, he would ride around at 50 mph and say it looks OK? When I inspected Shah Allam many years ago I said I was going to walk, and the locals thought I was mad and refused to come with me. They rode around in a mini van about every ten minutes to make sure I was still alive and bring me water. They said the only other person who walked was the FIA inspector. Of course, how else are you going to have the time to properly see all the minute details that can make a track safe or dangerous. When I build a track I walk it all the time. I've tried trail bikes and scooters, but there is something about riding or driving that takes a piece of your concentration away, and it is too easy to ride past something.

So, we will see what happens. I am told that Australia is sending a bunch of marshals and officials to help run the race, so at least there will be someone there besides Charlie who knows what they are doing.

Not much else brewing on the motorsport scene, the mid week lull and there are no juicy rumors about who is going where. Saw a headline that Panasonic might sponsor Sauber. After Kobayashi's drive on Sunday I'm not surprised. Let's see some more of that in Korea.

The movie on Ayrton Senna's life premiered in Japan over the grand prix weekend, and has got great reviews from the journalists who were lucky enough to see it. It seems the rest of us will not see it until mid 2011. Have they only got one copy?

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.

We are down at the sharp end of most Championships now, with some having been decided, some decided this weekend, and some still to play for. Congratulations to Lorenzo for the MotoGP and Tony Elias for the Moto2 World Championships, but what might have been if Valentino had not crashed? But that is what makes this sport so great to watch, there are so many what ifs, but in the end it is only what was. It is not as if someone else took Valentino out, he crashed himself, so it is part of his year. Great guts and determination to come back, and to win today's race from sixth. Lorenzo is a worthy Champion, and next season should be a very good one if they can all stay healthy.

Daniel Ricciardo missed out on the FRenault 3.5 Championship, finishing fourth after a late spin following a good duel with the eventual Champion Aleshin. Daniel has still done enough to deserve a step up next year, so let's see where he goes.

At Suzuka the predictable Red Bull 1-2 occurred with Vettel leading home Webber and is now third in the championship by virtue of Alonso's extra race win. All pretty predictable, except I thought Kobayashi's drive was inspired, and how he kept the car on the track and largely one piece must have been divine intervention. Hamilton too drove a great race given his start to the weekend and apparently with an ear infection. That cannot be great with a driver relying on the inner ear so much to tell him what is going on with the car. I don't know that I expected the McLaren to be as close on times a they were, and were not using the latest wing due to their practice problems. How unlucky can you be for a new gearbox to lose third gear when you have gone through the season without problems? It robbed us of a great finish between Alonso and Lewis. Massa had a terrible weekend. Are the mind games of being a number two getting to him? That dive down the inside at Turn One at the start was never going to work, and how did he not get a penalty for that when Petrov did? Petrov's would seem an honest mistake while Massa's was totally self inflicted.

We were treated to some excellent "commentator speak" this weekend. Kobayashi had three "unofficial spins." Those official ones must be something to see. Then there was the 130R that should be called the 130L, really? Varshaisms abound. I especially liked the "slow hairpin." I personally prefer the really fast hairpins, but you do not see many of them these days. David Hobbs chimed in with the fact that Red Bull had lead all the races this year "one way or another." I personally only know of one way to lead a race, but David has had a lot more experience of this stuff.

David Brabham finished thirteenth at Bathurst, only twelve seconds behind the winning Holden driven by Lowndes and Skaife after over six hours of racing. Craig Lowndes was one of those Australian drivers I was referring to yesterday who did get to Europe, but only had money for one year, so came back to drive tin tops, and very well he does it too.

And so on to Korea for the inaugural Grand Prix. Let's hope it is not a reprise of Dallas from 1984, or Spa where the race was canceled after one practice. Charlie Whiting is going there Monday, and will probably give it the OK, seeing as how Bernie has already said so.

As amply demonstrated at Suzuka, drainage is a key factor in building a track, and a most difficult thing to achieve. It is one of the featured topics in my Track Engineering session at next months Professional Circuit Owners Forum in Cologne, and we have the right guy presenting the latest designs, as we have for every topic. If I were building a new track I would take this team of presenters to do it for me.

Now Suzuka did some upgrading before the Japanese GP came back from Fuji, but they obviously spent all the money on the important stuff like the pit building, corporate suites and press room. I do not know how much rain they got, but 50mm was the forecast, which is not a lot where I've been living, but the topography of Suzuka, which makes it such a great track, also presents a huge challenge for drainage. Tomorrow morning is forecast wet as well, so we are in for an interesting day. Lewis Hamilton's weekend went from bad to worse with a gearbox change, so he is going backwards at the moment. Still, Kimi won it from 17th once, so anything is possible.

It seems the flexi-wing saga is not over, with comments about how low the Red Bulls are running resurfacing. Martin Whitmarsh said he was too busy to notice, I bet he was.

Bernie is as always in the news guaranteeing the Korean race will go ahead amidst photos of a track with a top course and curbs. I will be the first to congratulate them if that surface stays down, and will be in the queue to ask what they used. Bernie also said the Russian F1 GP is a done deal, the only potential stumbling block being the annual promotion fee, apparently comparable to the approximately $40 million paid by Singapore and Abu Dhabi. Oh, is that all? Bernie says he will sign the deal with the resort city Sochi the day after they sign it. For $40m I bet he will. So who is being dropped from the calendar? Is Austin in trouble? According to the local American Statesman newspaper the planning authorities have issued a four page list of concerns about the project. Tavo is apparently some way from satisfying the bureaucrats who have to approve it before groundbreaking can occur, which is scheduled for December. Couple this with the recent report that the design has not been submitted to the FIA as expected, not that they have missed a deadline, just an opportunity, and you wonder where this going. Tavo welcomed the inclusion of Perez in the Sauber Team, saying it will add 20,000 to the crowd.

In Malaysia Jorge Lorenzo is obviously out to prove himself a worthy champion by taking pole for the MotoGP ahead of Nicky Hayden, Nicky's best qualifying for a long time. Maybe Jorge figures that being in front is the safest place to be with Valentino back in sixth spot. Ben Spies qualified well, maybe he is going to run rear guard for his future team mate?

In the FRenault 3.5 final round Australian Daniel Ricciardo won the first of the weekend's two races to tie for the lead in the Championship with Russian Mikhail Aleshin, so Sunday's race will decide the title. Nice going Daniel, let's hope you have the backing to keep going unlike most Australian drivers. Perhaps Mark Webber's performance and potential F1 title will spark more sponsorship interest. Tonight's race , for us in the US, from Suzuka should clarify the F1 Championship picture, and not hopefully not "muddy the waters," couldn't help that. Whatever happens it will be a great few hours of TV thanks to the qualifying postponement.