Bob Barnard Track Engineering

So New Jersey is postponed because good old American know-how cannot get a road paved with two years notice! This is no surprise, not much about this race has made much sense, and the photo they keep showing as evidence that things are happening look like a parking garage at the ferry terminal to me. As I have often said, I have never had more than a year to build a track, and yes that includes a street track. My last construction job was a $3.5 billion oil refinery built in just over two years, and rebuilding Daytona took less than a year and we needed permits from just about anyone you can name, include FAA, FCC and the Corps of Engineers. So what is really going on? No money to pay Bernie or do the work would seem the likely answer. As with USF1 Team, it makes us, that is the US, look incompetent.

Which leads me to the inevitable question, why is it that would-be track owners do not hire people who know what they are doing? There are a few of us, but it always seems someone turns up who has never done it before. Are these just mates, or do owners just not get it that this is not an easy thing to do if you don't know how? There is no manual for this, experience is the key.

As readers will know I have been off in Mooresville finishing the kart track there which opened October 8th and has been acclaimed as the best in the US by anyone who has seen and driven it. Modelled on the famous Parma track, reworked to modern standards by my friend Jarno Zafelli, it is a technical, fun track to drive. So much fun that NASCAR drivers like Joey Lagarno went out and bought a kart! Working the last few weekends to get the lights installed and the last barriers set up means I missed the last two F1 GP's. Not much loss by the sound of it. Is it not strange that Hamilton suddenly has suspension issues?