Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Another terrible accident mars the MotoGP world this weekend with the death of Shoya Tomizawa. Much like Indy last week the track had nothing to do with the accident or the injuries, he was struck by other riders, but the manner in which the incident was dealt with has rightly caused outrage amongst motorcycle enthusiasts.

Anyone at any level of competition deserves the very highest standard of race management and officiating. Obviously a MotoGP event is operating under a high level of pressure, but that is no excuse for what we saw today. The race should have been red flagged to give the safety crews the time to deal with the riders properly, not drag them off the track, dropping Tomizawa at one point, so that the race could go on. The World Superbike race at Nurburgring showed how it should have been handled. I personally do not like red flagging races, too often I see it for no good reason, but when you see that crash it is impossible to think Shoya was not critically injured. How the message was put out that he did not have life threatening injuries is beyond me.

The TV coverage clearly showed a level of care way below what should be expected by riders. If you have a "spade" stretcher, as they did, it is made to come to pieces to slide under a fallen rider to prevent possible spinal damage, not for the rider to be rolled over and dumped on it! Thankfully Redding did not have serious injuries, but no thanks to the medical crew. I saw a comment that it was not the marshals causing the problem, but the medical team. In Italy, the home of Clinca Mobile and Dr. Costa, I am astounded at their performance. As a race organizer I have always made it my business to make sure I had the best available people working the tower and the track, and have made myself very unpopular for it.

When I went to Laguna to promote the Bike GP the medical was one of the high priorities to improve. I took the excellent Medical Chief to another GP to show him his job was to manage and train the medical team, not treat patients. I found the best corner workers, even talking to the SCCA at one point, yes the car guys. When I ran Phillip Island I brought in the pit lane crew from the F1GP, as the local motorcycle marshals had no experience of running a pit lane in these situations. In fact I really annoyed the first motorcycle club to use PI after I restored it. They ran that race very "loosely" as it was "only a club race." I asked where the switch was in their head that they would throw when they walked through the gate at the GP? They walked off and said they would not be coming to the GP, thankfully. Marshals and race officials need to run every race as a GP, that is what the riders are doing, they are learning their craft, and not going that much slower with less experience while they are doing it. It heartened me that after the GP this same club had the guts to come and say that they now understood, and could they please have another chance.

Then there are the corner workers who only turn up race day. Sorry, you need to be here all day every day to learn what to expect under stressful situations. Practice just like the riders. And no moving around to different stations during the week. I don't care if it is more fun, but learn what happens at that station and be anticipating it. Channel Nine used to have their cameramen out there covering the practice from the first turn of a wheel, even if they were not filming, just so they got up to speed. They understood.

What we saw today at Misano was unforgivable, and the FIM needs to take action. If the promoter cannot organize it better than that then he should not have a race, or the FIM needs to step in and train these people and manage the medical.  I am continually amazed that in this day and age when we know so much about how to stage a race properly, we continue to see a lack of care about reaching the highest standards, whether it is track construction or management. There are knowledgeable professionals out there, but too many would be track owners and promoters think they do not need to know, or think they can do it better. Who is enforcing the standards?

Oh yes, Tony Elias won the race, extending his points lead in Moto2, and Pedrosa won the MotoGP race from Lorenzo and Rossi, keeping his championship hopes alive. At the WSBK at Nurburgring the interest for me is not who won, but why Corser was suddenly so far off the pace, and why Leon Haslam is struggling after a great start to the season?

No one seems very impressed with the state of the Korean GP track, with Bernie joking that it will go ahead, even if they have to use tents. That will be the day. Now you could sell tickets to that!

Busy weekend on the motorcycle front. MotoGP at Misano with the Honda's quickest today and the Ducati's struggling. Can Pedrosa catch Lorenzo? Not without a few DNF's for Jorge, which seems unlikely given his reliability thus far. Stoner says he is not watching the Honda, but he must be dying for the season to end to get on it. Does not sound as if Dovizioso is willing to vacate the seat quietly, will Honda run three bikes? Misano was the scene of Wayne Rainey's unfortunate accident this weekend in '93.  Some days you do not forget. I had the privilege of getting to know Wayne and Shae when I lived in Spain and worked for Kenny, and then in the planning for the USGP at Laguna. A great Champion and individual.

World Superbike is at Nurburgring with Checa quickest, but good to see Troy Corser has the BMW right behind him. Troy seems to struggle over a race distance so let's hope he can hold it together this weekend for a podium. A young Australian, Mark Aitchison, is making his debut in the  Supersport class and is tenth in practice, not bad for a guy who probably never saw the bike or the track before. WSBK needs some fresh blood, Checa, Biaggi etc are a bit long in the tooth now.

AMA is at New Jersey in time to meet Earl, but it is supposed to clean up for the weekend. Tommy Hayden is quickest thus far, but with this series would anyone but the diehards notice.

Elsewhere a few series are restarting after the summer, like the F Renault 3.5 who are at Hockenheim with Australian Red Bull protege, Daniel Ricciardo, fastest in practice. F3 Euro are at Brands Hatch with the DTM and Audi leading practice. It is odd that either Mercedes or Audi dominate at a track, their characteristics must be quite different. BTCC are at Knockhill in Scotland, and F2 are at some place unpronounceable in Germany where most drivers have not been before with a Russian with an equally unpronounceable name quickest in practice. Tony George's stepson, Ed Carpenter shocked everyone with pole at Kentucky Speedway, let's see if he can make something for the race from there.

Over at F1 it is "back to the future." Korea is still trying to finish the track and the date for inspection by the FIA is Sept 21. As Tilke says, it is always tight building a track as the race date is fixed, not like a normal construction project where you can delay the opening if you get in trouble, but that has been the way since I built Adelaide, so why is that news? Korea had one go at running a GP and had to pay Bernie not to run it once before. Chandook is supposed to run a car on the track this weekend, so it will be interesting to see if he has the off road tires on it. What happened to the 90 day curing time on the track surface?

On the car front it seems we are to have 1.6 liter turbocharged cars with ground effects for 2013. Works for me, we had 1.5 liter screamers before, and ground effects and some great racing. The fuel flow to the turbo is apparently going to be regulated, and presumably the boost level, so we do not have 1000 hp grenades like before that basically made all the run off too short when the ground effects stopped effecting.

Sebastian Vettel still thinks he is going to win the Championship this year. I want some of what he is on. It is one thing to have confidence and I do not knock him for that, I guess all drivers need to think that they will win, but Webber and Hamilton have to have an amazing run of bad luck for Seb to get up from here. Bit like Pedrosa, maybe they should compare notes.

Back in Arizona we move forward on Sol Real with the land in escrow and a meeting with the City next week. Legal docs should be available this coming week so we can get serious. Membership applications will be available as well for those who want to reserve a place, with no money required until there is a track to drive on, although we are setting up a simulator, so that should be virtually very soon. Texas reconnected today, so should be making a trip there later this month. The program is out for the Forum in Cologne in November on track construction and ownership, so if you want one sent by e-mail please contact me, I can also provide a discount on the fee.

Not much energy around at the moment, either personally or in the sport. Continue to feel under the weather and went to the Doctors this morning. Probably a viral infection, and a bit dehydrated. Can't understand why, I been drinking more water than ever. So, combined with a lack of any real excitement on two or four wheels I am sorry this blog has been below par as well.

Received the program for the Professional Motorsport Circuit Owners, Investors and Suppliers Forum in Cologne (Koln), Germany, in November. It's been extended out to three days and coincides with a major trade show, so the most worthwhile conference you will go to if you are in the track business. As a presenter I can provide my contacts with a discounted fee, so if you are thinking of going, contact me and I can give you the promo code. I am moderating a session on track engineering which has some great speakers, and part of a panel discussion on the future of track design.

Our enforced hiatus from F1 is about to end with Spa starting in two days. Consensus seems to be that the Red Bull cars will lose out on sectors 1 & 3, so it could be a close race. We saw with Force India last year having a great handling car in the middle sector gives you a great lap time, but does not win the race, so McLaren and Ferrari could be in with a chance. McLaren say they are still baffled by the flexi front wing, as are most outside observers. It seems they are finding a way for the airflow to bend up the front of the floor while bending down the front wing. Sounds like a difficult thing to do, but I am not an aerodynamics genius. Whatever happens it will be great to see Spa, a track with only one bad corner for me and that is that last chicane. The rest is pure poetry.

The FIA is supposed to announce the thirteenth team by the end of the month, Villenueve has appeared as the dark horse for the selection, which is surprising, he kept the fact he was bidding very quiet until the last month. Rumors continue that HRT will merge with the other strong bidder, Epsilon Euskadi, which could be very good for both of them. Whoever gets the nod will have their work cut out to be ready in time for 2011. In the meantime Jacques is off to race a Nationwide car in Montreal.

We must not forget the MotoGP this weekend at Indy. I still have a problem with motorcycles on that track, just does not seem to be where they should be. Maybe if Mr.Tilke can get his act together he could make Austin work for MotoGP, they might make some money on that. Tavo talks about all the other events they can run, like NASCAR, Grand Am and AMA motorcycles, but all these are run by NASCAR, and the word I hear is they are not going. In any event, Bernie is usually very particular what else runs on his F1 tracks. When we ran the US Motorcycle GP at Laguna in '93 Bernie controlled the bikes, and we had to get him to agree that Laguna could keep their CART race, as he normally ruled out anything that competed with something he controlled.

What a strange weekend, the only race that did not end with someone really upset was the MotoGp at Laguna. Not a great race, but great result for guts and determination on the part of Valentino. Cannot imagine how hard the corkscrew is with a broken leg, although as I said before it is the shoulder that is giving him the most trouble. using more arm strength to turn the bike and he hurt his shoulder anyway. Roger Hayden at least finished the race which is more than a lot of the full time riders did, and was not last, so well done.

Ferrari are being hammered about the German GP debacle. I guess on balance my feelings are that if Alonso was faster he should have overtaken Massa without team orders, but we know how hard that is to do with cars so closely matched. From Ferrari's viewpoint I would have thought the team championship would be the prime target, and they got the same points for that whichever way round their drivers finished, so clearly there is a number one driver in that team. So, where do I stand? Let them race. It is going to be potentially a very stressful time for Ferrari until they know what the World Council is going to do, they have been known to strip a team's points for the season.

Over at Indy I guess Montoya thinks there were team orders at Ganassi, with his team mate being sent with two tires and him being delayed to take four and losing the race. I love Montoya for his passion, but then getting caught up in an accident seems to have been a "red mist" moment, although I did not see it so cannot really comment. Must be interesting in some teams debrief sessions. Managing these elite athletes is a special talent, and at the moment McLaren seems to  be the only ones doing it well, although they had their problems too in 2007. Maybe Martin Whitmarsh is the new Phil Jackson. If you do not know Phil he is the Coach of the Lakers Basketball, and was Michael Jordan's coach at Chicago. Known as one of very few men who can make egos work together. One funny story, he ran what he called the "triangle offence." When he went to the Lakers the players said they were confused as they could not work out which two of them could sit down.

Over at the IRL I watched the Edmonton race with the sound off as I was not really interested, but, like most I suspect, I am mystified how Castroneves was blocking? No wonder he was hot after the race, that was a terrible decision. About the only thing interesting about the whole race, except why there are walls right on the edge of the asphalt at an airport?

On the home front it has been an interesting morning with three e-mails about overseas projects. Never know where any of these end up, usually nothing happens, but it is nice to know people are out there finding me. Interesting the projects that get thought up. It is difficult to know whether just to give them a fee for what they are thinking of, or to try and redirect them to what I think probably works. It is also summer in most places that want to do something so they are on vacation and things take longer. That is a little of what is going on here in Arizona, but schools go back soon and things will get back in full swing.

Well Ferrari have done it again. I must say I thought they did it very tactfully, but obviously Massa did not think so. He could have staged it better, but chose to make it very clear to everyone. Loved the press conference, and the atmosphere inside the team must rival Red Bull. I hope Ferrari thinks it was worth $100,000 to get 7 points more for Alonso, that works out at about $14,000 a point. Probably cheap compared to what they spend on the cars. It will be interesting to see what the World Council does about it.

Personally I think the rule is silly, everyone knows that it happens, and as Mark Hughes said the other week in Autosport, as long as it is not done in a way that disrespects  the sport and the fans, as it was in Austria in 2002.

Race itself was actually all over at the first corner, not as interesting as those of late. McLaren are still not as quick as Red Bull, although they finished in front of Webber, so what does that tell us. It will be interesting to know where Ferrari found the extra pace, and whether it translates into future races. The gearbox woes of the new teams continue. It's hard to understand why they cannot work this out. I can only presume it is in the hydraulics and not in the box itself. Sir Richard Branson must be wondering what he has got himself into.

Interesting that the race did not sell out with six German drivers. It seems to go against my theory that the US needs a top driver to really make a US F1 GP "work." Maybe it is a wealth of riches, the Germans have got used to winning with Michael, but it is probably more to do with the cost of the tickets. Overseas, i.e. not in the US, the cost of F1 tickets is very expensive, $300 +, at a time when a lot of people are hurting for money.

Not a good weekend for the US drivers in GP3, but it is all a learning experience, and they are at least in the show.

Over at Laguna Lorenzo stole pole at the death, but it should be a good race.

Sad to see the Tour finish and Lance retire from it. I'm sure we will see him at the Tour with his team, and he will continue his amazing work for cancer victims.