Bob Barnard Track Engineering

A great day for Australian sport! Cadel Evans is crowned as Tour de France winner and Casey Stoner wins the US MotoGP. Now if only Mark Webber could have converted pole position in Germany to a win we would have had a trifecta! But it was not to be, Lewis Hamilton and McLaren were not to be denied today, and as we saw in Silverstone, Lewis is back to his old self. Still going for it but without the rush of blood. A very good race to watch and I did not have to wait till noon to watch it thanks to live streaming. Vettel struggled and only took fourth on the last lap. So, is Red Bull vulnerable, or is this just a blip? Alonso carried on his Silverstone form and Massa had a good race, so it seems the Ferrari is back in the fight, although their performance on the hard tire is still suspect. Not sure about McLaren with Button struggling all weekend and finally retiring with a hydraulic problem.

Pirelli seem to be improving the durability of their tires, a lot less marbles to be seen, and the softs lasted well here today. A lot of overtaking and most of it not down to DRS or the tires thank goodness, just good racing. Our other Australian, Ricciardo, finished the race and beating Chandook in the Lotus, not too shabby.

Glock has re-signed with Virgin or Marussia or whatever they are, for another three years, so apart from the problem of not having many options, he must see some daylight at the end of the tunnel. Lotus Renault had a pretty bad day, while Sutil and Force India had a very good one. Poor di Resta was spun on the first corner by Heidfeld and was playing catch up all race. Heidfeld ended up being taken out by Buemi in dramatic fashion, for which Buemi has earned a five place penalty for the next race in Hungary.

Over in Laguna Casey Stoner played it cool for half the race and then took Pedrosa and Lorenzo in two passes that displayed his determination,skill, and guts. After Germany he needed to reassert himself, and he did emphatically.  Lorenzo showed his ability to ride through pain after a massive high side in practice Saturday morning to take pole and then finish second today. I would have given any money he would not ride after that strange accident that took place after the checker and while doing a practice start. 

Elsewhere I was able to watch Grand Am from New Jersey, ALMS from Mosport and Indycar from Edmonton thanks to multi-tasking. Apart from a professional interest all of these were underwhelming. Edmonton's revised track layout is worse than the original and these guys continue to drive into each other at every opportunity. Mosport appear to have repaired last year's damaged guard rail with the same round pine posts that are not to spec and caused the problem last year. Does no one ever learn? Hopefully the new owners will do what is necessary to upgrade the safety at this great layout.  

Going back to F1, it seems the teams were as surprised as I was over some of the rules for 2014 and are saying that they did not go through the correct channels to be approved. So maybe some sense will prevail. There is a suggestion that Bernie paid the money to Gribkowsky not because the lawyers fees would have been more, but the resulting loss from tax on the trust following a court challenge would have been substantial. That would presume that Bernie died before his wife had lived in the UK for less than 18 years, the time to gain residency. Now that is an argument, but given Bernie does not plan to die soon it is still hard to accept.

What a weekend! Crashes marred almost all the racing, and unfortunately took the life of an up and coming young American rider, Peter Lenz, at Indianapolis. The description of the incident shows that whatever we do with a track as designers the worst can still happen, and does, when two cars or bikes get together. The number of falls at the MotoGP, Rossi fell four times in the weekend, begs the question of what is wrong with the track surface? Indy has a history of problems with grip and tires for NASCAR, F1, and now MotoGP. From looking at the race I was amazed at the extent of the cracking on the infield track, which is not really that old. I know Indy has some bad weather in winter, but that seemed strange. The bumps cannot be bad asphalt laying, it must be movement in the base, but again, why?

The Moto2 race looked insane, with riders going down everywhere. Looked like a GP2 race! Speed did their usual bang up job, replacing the regular commentators with Larry and Mo, Diffey and Russell, and was more interested in giving us "background color" than showing us the race. Not that the race was very exciting, but more than Nicky Hayden at the dirt track!  I thought Australians were jingoistic, but American commentators beat us hands down.

I see that Valentino is calling for the removal of the electronic aids from the bikes to make the show more exciting. It certainly needs something. Apart from Ben Spies leading for a while, there was little to keep me watching except for professional interest. Not sure just removing the aids will do it though. It needs a group of equally good riders on equivalent machines, no not spec racers, but manufacturers all producing good machines. Suzuki certainly is not, Ducati is not on par, and Honda is up and down. And not just two from each either. Back when we saw Yamaha for instance with KR, Ago, and Sarron's team, six "works" bikes with good riders.

Spa turned on its' usual show. We moved house over the weekend and for some reason my DVD did not record, so will have to watch the replay Wednesday, but from the accounts it was a very good race. Well done Lewis and McLaren. Red Bull shot themselves in the foot again. Webber's anti-stall kicked in at the start which let Hamilton jump him and never look back, and Vettel did his now accustomed self-destruct, this time taking Button out instead of his team mate. Barrichello ran into Alonso and put himself out early, while Alonso took himself out later. Good result for Kubica and Renault. What would he do if he had a McLaren or Red Bull? Mercedes continue to be the mystery of the season. Season is building to another close finish, but now I have a problem. I have always liked Lewis, but I love Mark's grit and he is an Australian. So I cannot lose whoever wins the Championship, but who do I want to win?

And then there was Mosport, that 50 year old jewel. Well those 50 year old pine guard rail posts did not take kindly to being smacked by a 2010 Porsche. I told Don that they needed changing when I inspected the track after he bought it in 1998! Timber posts can be used if already in place, but are supposed to be rectangular hardwood, not old, round, pine. As soon as I saw that crash I knew they were never going to get that rail repaired. Even steel posts would still have given, that is the way rail is supposed to behave, and that is why I personally prefer a concrete block wall. It still moves, but is easy to pull back into place. The race? Shades of Lime Rock with cars running into each other all over the place. Interesting rather than exciting.

Good to see Boris Said finally win a NASCAR race, even if it was a Nationwide event. Sounds like a good race with Papis and Villenueve right there at the end.

Well Spa is living up to its tradition of throwing up odd results. Rained of course, but not all the time, which is also as usual. We are actually moving house as we speak and my recording of practice, it starts a bit early here in Arizona, was interrupted by the cable company swapping the service earlier than we expected, so I have yet to see any of it. Just reading the reports though sounds pretty bizarre. Practice held up by spectators climbing the debris fence! I've seen them climb it in Suzuka at the end of the eight hour and run across the track, and I've seen grandma and the kids break a hole in it at Paul Ricard during the GP to get a better look, but not heard of this one. Then the lights at the end of pit lane would not change? Whole session disrupted so the times are a bit pot luck. Alonso quickest and Hamilton third, so that's not so strange, but Sutil second? It shows that some characteristic of the Force India car especially suits Spa following last years performance. It will be interesting to see if this will continue through the weekend. Webber is way down the field, but says he is not concerned. The comment I liked was Michael showing you can go through Eau Rouge with opposite lock. Now that would be something to see! Not that it did him any good timewise by the look of it.

Red Bull passed the flexi wing test, not that there was any doubt it would, they are way too smart for that.

GP2 qualifying sounds even more chaotic than F1 practice, with the track flooded at one point and a load of accidents. Shook up the order, so that race could be more fun than usual. Series leader Maldonado ended up third in his Rapax team car. Always wondered where the name Rapax came from, and it comes from a Roman Legion with the motto, "we came to win." Very apt for the race team, but it seems the Legion got wiped out!

Lots of activity on the motorcycle front with Ben Spies being confirmed as Lorenzo's team mate for next year. Well deserved after a good rookie season, if you can call a World Superbike Champion a rookie. Colin Edwards is apparently still hoping to retain his Tech 3 ride, while Divizioso is looking to keep his ride at Honda when Casey Stoner moves over. Stoner meanwhile is fastest in first practice at Indy with Lorenzo second and Valentino fifth. What is the story there, Vale still nursing his shoulder and leg? Ducati has withdrawn its' factory team from the World Superbike, a series it has supported and at times dominated since it inception. It says it will leave it to privateer teams to race their machines, but did not sound too please with the direction the class is heading. It sounds as if WSBK is heading away from production machines, which I thought was the whole point, and MotoGP seems to be dumbing down. So in the end we arrive at two series both looking the same? That always seemed inevitable as soon as MotoGP went to four strokes. IRL v's Cart, Grand Am v's ALMS anyone?

ALMS is at Mosport this weekend, a track described by ALMS this way on it's web site. "When it comes to old-school, Mosport International Raceway is as close as it gets. The site of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón’s eighth and penultimate round has many of the same features it did when it opened 50 years ago – high speed, dangerous curves and a certain level of risk." Could not have put it better myself. Sounds just what you want for an International Race Series in 2010.

Grand Am is supporting the Nationwide series up in Montreal, which should be worth a look to see them on a decent track for once. Can anyone beat Ganassi though?

Finally, congratulations to Rubens for his 300th race. Who could have imagined any driver reaching that milestone? Just putting up with the travel would stop me a long time before that. Eddie Lawson said that he would not have retired if he could have had a helicopter pick him up at his front door and drop him at the track.