Bob Barnard Track Engineering

I turned on the Indycar races from Toronto last weekend and watched the GoPro lap of the track with Townsend Bell and Steve Matchett driving us around the course quite quickly with neither wearing a seat belt! How do I know it was quickly? Because Steve had to keep grabbing hold of something to stop being thrown around. Why not wear the seat belt idiot! I am sure Honda was very pleased at this fine example of safe driving.

And then of course there is the track where we have been racing for many years, but we still cannot afford to repave it, much like the New Hampshire NASCAR track. Rope tied tire barriers have never been acceptable as far as I know, but Indycar thinks they are just fine. Just as NASCAR thinks debris fence with the post and cable on the track side of the mesh is OK. Is there no one involved who knows or cares? How are we ever going to raise the standard of motor racing safety when we have these examples?

Thanks to my great friend Dr. David Vissenga, ex F1 Medical Chief and FIA Medical Panel Member I had the great pleasure in watching a You Tube video of an Interview with Dr. Gary Hartstein who was the FIA Medical Delegate and F1 Medical Response Organiser after Professor Sid Watkins retired. If you want some background on the safety and medical side of motor sport at its top level then this is a must see. If you want to see the dark side of motor sport politics, not just the FIA, then this is even more a required watch.

The experience resonate so much with my experience."Safety at the top level is now at a level where it does not register", unless someone like Dan Wheldon dies. But at the levels below that where most participants are things are not so good. "They know but they don't care." Wow, how true is that.

And then there is the lovely "you need to bid for your job next year." After having talked me into resigning a s a Company Director so they could hire me as a Consultant in 1986, the Australian Grand Prix Office then required me to bid for my job for 1987, and of course the terms were ridiculous and I did not get hired.

I won't give any more away, enjoy and learn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBXWbTuNEl8