Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Slow news day, I guess we will have to get used to this as we go into the winter break, but who knows, there may be more gossip then.

Portugal qualifying washed out. Phillip Island is not looking so bad now. It must rain a lot in Portugal, although I always thought of it as a dry country like Spain. I remember Senna's great win there in '85 when it was a washout.  So Lorenzo on pole by half a second and Hayden, Rossi and Stoner all close. I bet Pramac are glad they drafted Checa in to improve their performance, he is last and over 5 seconds off the pace. Who thinks that was a good move? There are only two races left with this one, what was the risk of giving some young guy a chance?

V8Supercars will not be returning to Bahrain next year with scheduling around other events as the reason, but I suspect since no one turned up to watch it may not be worth what the V8's were asking. Now Abu Dhabi is a stand alone race which cannot be a cheap exercise, so you wonder how long that will last, but I guess they have to put something on at this billion dollar mausoleum.

Peugeot ran a test hack at Monza to prepare for next year's Le Mans. Not sure I like the sharks fin, I know it is there for safety reasons, but it does not look right on what was surely one of the most beautiful sportscars ever built.

The driver silly season goes on, with Hulkenburg getting a big rap from Sir Frank Williams, just when he was about to get the axe for Maldanado. D'Ambrosio is rumored to be close to signing for Virgin, so who's out?

Why is Max Mosely getting air time lately? First there were the rumors of a coup at the FIA to bring Max back. Pretty poor security if you really are planning a coup? Then there's Bernie on his eightieth birthday singing Max's praises and saying it would be good to have him back and how he is sure the teams would not mind. Really? Now here is Max saying that "He (Todt) must be given a chance to get on and run it in his own particular way." Well why shouldn't he, he was elected after all. It sort of smacks of "give him enough rope," or Todt only has a certain amount of time to do something before we take over again. Why should Max even comment? All very strange. I would have thought after the prostitute business he would want to keep his head down in the bunker.

It seems the rain does not only fall on the plain in Spain, it rains on its way there in Portugal. Usual suspects top first practice, which was actually the second as the first was canceled. Nicky Hayden ahead of Stoner, let's see if he can keep that up after his good run at PI. Lorenzo seems to want to show his rightful ownership of the title, so let's look forward to a good race.

Rumors of a Bulgarian F1 race in 2012 have resurfaced. The head of the country's motorsport body, Bogdan Nikolov says that the contract could be signed next month, and that the circuit would host both F1 and MotoGP"s. Now a Bogdan from Bulgaria was entered for one of my MotoGP's, I remember as we were trying to find a flag and anthem should he make the podium, but he was a no-show. Is this the same guy, or is Bogdan a Bulgarian "Joe" or some other common name? There are rumors that Rome may not be such a done deal, only a letter of intent which is good to the end of the year. Still, how is Bernie going to squeeze all these races in. He says that Europe is finished economically and that is why he is looking east, but I never knew Bulgaria had an economy, and isn't Russia in Europe? And Italy last time I looked and we possibly have two races there. We have two in Spain, so it cannot be all bad.

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.

Saturday morning and it is pretty quiet on the motorsport front apart from Phillip Island. Must be the end of the season. Weather sounds wonderful down at the Island, cold, wet and windy. Did not stop Stoner from capturing the pole from Lorenzo and Ben Spies doing a great job in third despite not running much Friday. Capirossi having a bad day despite the fact he won his first 125cc Championship on such a weekend in 1990. Rossi is down in eighth and not happy, and Pedrosa has thought better of it and stopped racing this weekend. Could be a race between Stoner and Lorenzo. Gone are the days when five guys were duking it out, how sad. Lookout though, some new blood is coming, Carlos Checa is making a return at age 38! Can they really not find anyone under thirty to ride these bikes?

Elsewhere our would be F1 driver, Danica, had her best Nationwide Series finish. "Danica Patrick finished 21st on her ninth NASCAR Nationwide Series outing at Charlotte, taking her best career finish in the the series thus far." The fact that she started 18th should not spoil a good news story.

Is this about Bernie? No, he already has that with his latest signing of the agreement in Russia with Putin present no less. No it is about the DTM. BMW have finally got off the fence and announced their commitment to what has been a two horse race series between Audi and Mercedes, and no worse for it in the vein of the V8Supercars in Oz. Rumors have abounded about tie ups with both the Japanese Super GT series and Grand Am, but now it seems it will go further than that. The Japanese are to adopt the DTM rules for car preparation, so presumably manufacturers can compete in both and would not that be something to see. Nissan, Lexus and Honda mixing it with Mercedes, Audi and BMW, and with some of the best drivers in the world. What a show! It gets better. The plan is not to run in Grand Am, but to run as a separate series of twelve races in the US, six with Grand Am events and six with NASCAR events. Look out ALMS, we're coming through, and BTCC and WTCC are going to look a bit sick. No spec cars here with the same chassis and engine. Could even give NASCAR a run in the US as the DTM guys biff and barge as the old NASACAR boys used to do. Did you see Dijon last year?

Down at Phillip Island the conditions were the talking point among the riders and the spectators. Rain delayed practice and wind was another big problem. A racetrack next to the sea looks great on a nice day, but when there is nothing between you and Antarctica it can be awful, I know I lived there. For once I am glad I am not promoting that race. Pedrosa was in more pain than most with his freshly plated shoulder, but the wet conditions made it a bit easier for him. Very courageous men these riders. Lorenzo celebrated his World Championship with fastest time in Friday practice. He has vowed to put on a show now he does not need to worry about points, so it should be fun. Casey Stoner was next with his teammate Hayden third. Most riders saw little point in pushing it in the conditions, with Ben Spies presumably just touring around seventeen seconds off the pace.  The weather can change several times a day there, so tomorrow can be quite different, although running the race this time of year is always going to be a gamble. It is promoted by the Government who presumably do not want it to compete with the F1 GP, but a race early in the year is really the way to go.

A couple of nice articles to read. Last Turn Club has a review of the Petit which is right on the money, and ESPN  F1 discusses the never ending march of Bernie through more and more countries and asks where will it end?

"If the promised races go ahead, then the real losers are likely to be the established venues, mainly in Europe. Bernie deals on the back of massive financial guarantees from the tracks. The new venues he has unveiled - some good, some appalling - have almost all had the benefit of huge funding from local or central government. The older circuits simply cannot match the money being thrown at Ecclestone.

When Bernie faced with sentimentality, or even public opinion, against cash, there will only be one winner."