Bob Barnard Track Engineering

In the absence of other major race series this weekend all eyes are on Brno for the Czech MotoGP.  For once Lorenzo did not grab pole, and both he and Rossi dropped the bike near the end of qualifying, but so did a lot of others. Pedrosa grabbed pole from America's Ben Spies who is obviously benefiting from being here before, and his increasing experience with the MotoGP machinery. In the 125cc class the usual order changed due to Marquez still feeling the result of his crash earlier in the week, but still on the front row. Pole went to young English rider, Bradley Smith, which will give my mates back there plenty to cheer about. Moto2 continues to be  almost anybodies race on any weekend, which at least keeps it interesting.

Let's hope tomorrow's GP lives up to the grid with probably four riders all in contention on qualifying times, and Rossi lurking in fifth.

The other series racing is the British F3 at Silverstone where points leader Jean-Eric Vergne took pole for both races, but was beaten by James Calado in the first wet race. Is this his Achilles heel? Vergne seemed unbeatable up to now and has been predicted for big things.

Here in the US the NASCAR boys, and girls, are at Michigan where Jack Roush made a surprise visit following his plane crash at Oshkosh a couple of weeks ago. Good to see you up and about Jack, but sorry to hear about the eye. Jack has some great WWII planes, and when he used to do his end of year thank you to sponsors at Road Atlanta he would take them to the nearby  airfield to give rides in both his many cars and planes. Does Jack still do that I wonder? It used to provide a very interesting comparison of the performance of the different vehicles, such as the Panoz ALMS and a NASCAR, no contest around Road Atlanta.

Our would be F1 racer, Danica, has played down expectations of her performance in the Nationwide race! Who had any? She finished 22nd at Mid-Ohio last weekend in an IRL car, and this is who we want to promote F1 in the US?

Booked the hotel for the Track Forum in Cologne, Germany, next November. Looking forward to it, should be a great conference. Started thinking about next year's New York Forum, and so should you if you are involved in the sport here in the US. After meeting with the attorney yesterday it just brought home again the poor state of tracks and track management here, and the need for more effective licensing and inspection. The lack of any consistent standards such as the FIA applies, and the myriad sanctioning bodies allows tracks to avoid play one off against another and avoid meeting even basic standards or best practices. Last Turn Club touched on this recently and the SCCA has been trying for some time to impose some basic requirements for certification, but lack the clout to force necessary upgrades. I understand that the current state of racing here makes earning a dollar very hard for track owners and operators, so spending on safety improvements is hard, but not as hard as when you face a law suit for wrongful death. Think about it.

It seems in motorsport, and maybe in life, it pays to have a rich or famous father, or preferably both. Now I'm not saying these guys should not be out there, in most cases they are good enough, but so are many more who never get the chance.

Two news items today prompted these thoughts. Paul Menard has signed to run with Richard Childress in 2011. Now this is not so much Childress signing a new driver as Menard Senior taking his bag of money from one team to another, as Childress is adding a car to its team for Paul to race. Ed Carpenter is also back in IRL, courtesy of step-dad Tony George, late of IRL and part of the Hulman family that owns Indianapolis Speedway.

Over at the US F1 track and promoter Tavo Hellmund says that the race could be in Austin for forty years. he needs to hope so as then he may finally make a quid. But how did Hellmund get the rights, well his dad promoted the Mexican GP way back when.

Then there are all the famous sons in racing at the moment, Alex Gurney, Nico Rosberg, Jacques Villeneuve, Joylon Palmer, the Mansell and Taylor brothers, Tambay, Brundle, Piquet, Magnessun, the late Henry Surtees, Damon Hill, Derek Hill, Conor Daly, Prost, Nicholas Todt, Paul Stewart, Bruno Senna(I know he is a nephew), Scheckter, and I'm sure there are a lot I missed. Let's not even start on that family business, NASCAR.

Bernie must be reading my blog as he has decided that he and Tavo need an American driver for the US race, but who does he pick? Rossi, Newgarden, Summerton? No, Danica Patrick, the driver who is doing so well in the Indy Retirement League and crowd favorite, personality of the year. C'mon Bernie at least do your homework and look past the face and the gender. She might get some column inches but is unlikely to make F1 popular in the US. I guess if you think Schumacher is a good advert for your sport then Danica could be a good choice.

Another great presentation session last evening for the Sol Real project. We are getting great response and the word is spreading. I was contacted by the SCCA to inspect a track in the same region, but the owner knew of this project and my role, and was concerned about me working on a track that might compete with his. He might be questioning my integrity, but he confirmed his.

Bernie is up to his usual tricks. No room for FOTA in F1. This is the man who got his power by taking over what was FOTA and with Max Mosely wresting the commercial control of the sport from the FIA. Seems there is a fight going on in the background over teams showing their sponsors logos at the track. What a cheek! In Canada it was about trackside, and at Silverstone it has moved into the paddock. The teams have been forced to take their prime movers with their logos off the trailers and park them outside. What petty BS. Of course Bernie says it is not him, it is Allsport, Patrick McNally, who is the signage rights holder who is doing it, and of course Bernie has no connection to "Paddy", just as he does not with Tilke. You just cannot have an F1 race without Alllsport having the signage.

Chris Pook is reported to be involved with the New Jersey aka New York F1 GP bid. Now Chris ran F1 at Long Beach and gave up trying to make money and went to CART. Chris told me in Detroit in '85, "If Bernie thinks you are making money he will put the price up." So why is he involved again? Most promoters have found out what Chris learned the hard way, and now Bernie has a built in escalator of 10%, so he makes sure you cannot make a profit. There is a great article in the June 10 Autosport about the money in F1, and a telling number is that it takes $250 from every spectator just to service the debt of the rights holder CVC. The average cost to buy the rights is $30m, and Abu Dhabi apparently paid $50m. Now do you fans understand why Austin does not seem a smart idea?

I am forever surprised at the naivete of fans, God Bless Them, but if you are into a sport so much then take the time to find out how it works, who runs it and who is getting the money. Yes, what happens on the track is the key, but it is only the end result of everything else that has got them to that point.

Emanuele Pirro is to step in for Lord Drayson in his Lola as the Lord has hurt his foot. It is a blessing in disguise, and it will be very interesting to see Emanuale and Johnny Cocker in that car at Miller Park this weekend. Not that there is much opposition, but that car has been struggling to beat what there is. GT's should put on the best show as always lately.

The Cypher would be US F1 team has come out at last and said it has lodged an official application for 2011. Still no details of who or where other than these are supposed to be the engineers and designers who have the knowledge and can make it happen this time. Confirmed that Jonathon Summerton is their driver if they get in. Good luck to you all, you are going to need it.

Saw an article by Jonathon Ingram about how F1 is not making a foothold here because the US has so much other motorsport that there is too much competition. My comment was have a look at Europe, there is way more going on over there, so that argument does not wash. I still stick to my premise that the US needs a very successful driver and/or team. No one here took much notice of cycling until Lance dominated, not just won, Greg Lamond had won, and then nothing. No one here cares about soccer until the US gets into the World Cup Finals and wins a game or two, then it is headline news. TV audiences in Germany bounced back when Schumacher returned. Sport is about heroes, forget that at your peril. IRL will struggle until an Unser or Andretti reappears. No one cares about a bunch of Brazilians, Englishmen, Australians or Frenchmen.

Rossi was back on a bike yesterday for the first time since he broke his leg. Seems it went OK, did a bunch of laps and his shoulder seemed to be more of a problem than his leg. His Father is counseling him to go easy, but Champions do not know how to. Good advice though, the last thing he needs now is to fall again.

Who can question whether motor sport will continue when you read an article from our National Public Radio, NPR, sort of BBC but more independent, about women racers in Palestine! Yes there is a Palestine Motorsport Federation. I would have expected just owning a car in Palestine would be a big ask, let alone risking it in racing! And there is a female team. Where there is a will there is a way. How can you say motor racing is going to die when you see it growing in the most unlikely places. We will always race something running on some sort of fuel.

I know NASCAR is not going to die, but it is going through some pain. The second biggest race at Daytona and the back stretch grandstand is not even open. Even the Budweiser Porch, where they took out seats, was empty, and the RV parking next to it empty as well. Now, it is still attracting probably 150,000, not too shabby, but the glory days seem to be over. I was sucked in by the promise of seeing all the green laps, presuming Coke had paid for the broadcast and there would be no ads. They manage to go 45 minutes of a soccer half without them, so why not. Wrong, while we had picture in picture, it turned out to be one long commercial, if possible more annoying than if they had ad breaks.

If you want to see a sport that draws a crowd tune in to the Tour de France. 450,000 yesterday in Rotterdam, and many, many more on the route today. The most amazing thing to me is that they stand there for hours waiting just to see them go by once for probably less than a minute. How do we explain that or learn from it for our own sports. And this is a sport that they keep saying is a bunch of druggies! I do not think the average Joe is buying that. These guys are real athletes and heroes of sport.

Jean Todt thinks we should worship Michael Schumacher like that, "He demands respect." No one demands respect, you earn it. I do not care what he won, I still do not respect him. I respect his skill, but not the man. Stirling Moss never won a World Championship, but who could have more respect?

Our Japanese stand ins at the MotoGp certainly are not winning any respect. Akiyoshi managed to beat Dovizioso, but only after Dovizioso had fallen off!