Bob Barnard Track Engineering

So Charlie is in Korea, but no news posted yet on a decision, not that we do not already know what it will be. The Head of the Spanish Motorsport Federation and World Council member was telling Spanish reporters yesterday that it will be approved. Amazing what a bag full of money can buy these days. Presumably the Koreans are paying what Russia is being asked and what Singapore and Abu Dhabi are paying, $40m.

It seems from comments by my Australian friends that their channels are doing the same bang up job of showing racing as Speed. One outburst was about how many more ads Channel Ten could fit into the MotoGP. As my wife tells me constantly, do not ask those questions as you might find out. Then there was Bathurst and a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't. Channel Seven, who I gave up on years before SPEED, decided not to miss any action during ad breaks, so they got progressively behind the actual race, to the tune of nearly an hour! So if you had the internet in some form you knew who won, and more importantly it ran into the Japanese GP coverage. Fans are accusing Channel Seven of putting ad revenue before the audience, now who would think that of a TV channel, but actually they were doing the opposite to my mind. SPEED would have just cut it off to go to a NASCAR race.  Actually I do not think they show it at all.

Apparently the last three laps of the NASCAR Sprint Cup race were really exciting. Pity about the other 197. Seriously, I did not watch it, have not watched a NASCAR race all year, but it is good to see Tony win again. Now maybe we can get someone else other than Jimmie Johnson to win the "Race to Chase." I might watch that.

Pedrosa says he is going to race at Phillip Island this coming weekend. Tough guys these motorcycle riders. I think I told you that when we ran the six hour a young rider had to complete the last twenty minutes with a broken collarbone to finish third, his co-rider having already done his maximum time allowed on the bike. It will be good to see the Island again, it will encourage me to keep writing my book.

In the fall-out from Suzuka it seems Massa is being given a gentle reminder to pull his finger out and help Alonso, or else what? Webber correctly says he needs to win a race, he cannot just finish second to Vettel, Ferrari says they have to qualify better, and McLaren say they can only work harder to improve the car and it's reliabilty and not worry about the rest. Like most sports, you are actually racing yourself. As Kenny said to Jnr., "we're not here to win, we're here to ride better." The message is, if you keep riding better then eventually you will be better than the others, whatever they are doing. It's like watching American Football, especially San Francisco last night, if you do not make mistakes and beat yourself, then most times you will win. Ask Renault, what might have been if Kubica's wheel had been put on correctly? Or Valentino about his crash.

So, Max Biaggi wrapped up his Championship at Imola yesterday. Brought back fond memories seeing that track again. His rival, Leon Haslam, blew up in the biggest way, I still cannot believe he kept that bike upright, there must have been oil on his rear tire, or maybe it all burnt off which explained the huge smoke screen. So what now for WSBK? Ducati are pulling out the works team, and the runner up, Haslam, has been released by his Suzuki Team as they do not have confirmation from Suzuki for next year. What is going on? Suzuki are doing well in the US championship, but who cares? Tuned in for a bit of Barber yesterday, but it seemed a pretty thin crowd at the track. Daytona has gone back to a daytime race for the "showpiece" 200, but still not for superbikes, and the public thinks it is changing the deckchairs on the Titanic stuff.

I cannot help thinking that if someone put together a series that produced great racing, went to safe tracks, were run properly, spread the costs and income equably, and gave the spectators and sponsor value for money, we might get somewhere. This is how NASCAR got where it was, and somehow forgot.

How is it that a car can be inspected prior to the race and after the race, the result declared, and then taken to some secret research base and found not to meet the template by a "puffteenth," as my race car tuner used to say. Nice one NASCAR, not the way to keep fans, team owners or sponsors happy. Now we have the prospect of a fifth Championship for Mr. Personality, Jimmie Johnson.

Korea just keeps getting better, inspection now Oct 11, after the freight leaves to go there. I have a personal saying, "a late plane never gets any earlier." Something should have been done about this a long time ago. What is the procrastination over laying the top course?

Not much else of interest today. Petit on the horizon, and should be a good week for Sol Real.

So now we have everyone calling Singapore a jewel, just because Bernie likes a parade with pretty lights. Someone said it is a great race, no it is a great event, there is a difference. Now, I know some of you think I am picking on Singapore, but my comments are intended to try and balance the overblown expressions of excellence. We have a track that is almost impossible to pass on. I say almost because we saw a few, when a driver had a much quicker car or better tires, and the overtaken car did not fight it. The rest of the time we saw the consequences of trying with one or both cars out. Vettel said it was too risky to try and pass Alonso, not conducive to good racing. Again we saw a lack of preparation for an incident, both in the track layout and the operations. Nowhere to put a damaged car or a crane to lift it, and no marshals running to remove it. Kovalainen was desperate to find a fire marshal and he was lucky he got that fire out with the small extinguisher they passed him through the pit wall debris fence. I know this is not politically correct, but I have never liked the fence on pit wall. I know the reasoning, but when did we have an accident that sprayed debris over that wall, I'm sure someone will tell me.

Then the NASCAR Channel, sorry SPEED, showed their utter contempt for F1 fans by leaving the race without the winners rostrum or the interviews, not for the first time, to go to a NASCAR talking heads show. SPEED, you know the time this race is going to run so why do you do this, especially hours before the other race is due to start?

Singapore says that they are going to study the true economic benefit of the event, and see what Bernie's fee is, before the ante up for the new contract after 2012. It was a sell-out, but the stands were largely empty Friday, and that tells me they are not tourists coming in for the race but locals, so where is the benefit?

Korea seems even more in trouble now Bernie has finally fessed up that all is not well. "We have to get lucky and hope it will happen." Not the way to run a multimillion dollar sport I think, and not Bernie's style at all.

A friend who works for Musco Lighting has responded to my comment on how "green" can you be using the power for the lights. They have a system coming, that is not for common knowledge at the moment, that will improve the situation, but it still needs power to run which would not be required for a daytime race. And let's not forget the lighting required for the spectators, it is not just the track.

I made a silly comment a month or so ago that Vettel must be dreaming if he thinks he can still win the Championship. Well, here we are and he can still do it, as can Alonso, Webber and Hamilton, and maybe Button. As we have seen anything can happen in the last four(three?) races, it is the Championship no one wants or can take control of.

On LinkedIn yesterday a discussion started in the Motorsport Professionals Group as the result of an article in the Sports Business Journal quoting David Hill of Fox and the drop off in viewing figures. To quote the discussion, "Fox Sports chairman David Hill recently told the Sports Business Journal that “the biggest problem facing NASCAR is that young males have left the sport.” Fox reports that ratings among men 18-34 have declined 29%. This isn't just NASCAR's problem, folks, this is racing's problem. If new life isn't injected into the sport in terms of technology and overall interest - and soon - before you know it there will be nothing left but vintage racing all across the country."

Just as an aside, David was the Producer for the telecast of my first F1 event in Adelaide in 1985, he has gone far since then.

Anyway, this seems to have struck a chord with a lot of the Group and there are several comments. Regular readers to my blog will know I posed the question, "Is motorsport in danger of becoming a non-spectator sport?' a few weeks ago, and commented that NASCAR were removing seats so obviously did not expect the audience levels to return.

It's interesting that the comment above talks about injecting new technology. Is that in the way that people interact with racing, or in the cars and motorcycles? One of the Group said that technology was killing the interest, but how can that be when just about every category is "dumbing down" the technology in the interest of cost savings? NASCAR still runs carburetors and five nut wheels and COT that is virtually a spec car, IRL is a spec car, as is basically Grand Am, Moto2 and soon 3 in motorcycle GP's, ALMS has two spec classes to make up the numbers, and even F1, that pinnacle of technology has control tires, common ECU, engine rules that are virtually spec, and moves for more common components. This spec racing is not reducing "costs" because it is costing racing spectators and viewers.

Then there are those that say that the marketers are getting it all wrong. So did they have it right when NASCAR went through it's growth spurt? I doubt it, it probably had more to do with Dale Earnhardt, a larger than life character. Where are they now? Only Tony Stewart even comes close and they slap him down every time he shows a spark of life. NASCAR went through a fad, and thought it would last forever and alienated it's fan base to chase the yuppie. It went to new markets. Did you read the piece here a couple of days ago from ESPN F1 about F1 chasing new markets like Korea?

So then there are the sponsors, who are pushing the sports towards these new markets and younger generations. Have they asked anyone if that is what the people watching now want? The sponsors came in because the sport was successful, and then they want to change what made it successful, and are then annoyed that the audience drops. I wrote the other week about Martin Whitmarsh suggesting F1 needs to market itself better and commenting that there is a problem marketing a product that is not good. Red Bull is probably one of the great marketing stories of the decade, and I watch their cars and motorcycles all the time, and did try it once. Hated it and have never bought one since. You cannot make people like something.

That is probably the nub of the problem. We have a generation growing up that does not want to watch what we are offering. No amount of marketing or packaging is going to change that. Some sociologists can probably tell us why they think this is. Maybe they are all brainwashed about global warming and racing wasting resources. Would they all watch if we raced electric cars? Maybe they cannot watch two hour races, but GT have tried shorter races and I do not think more people watched them. Maybe because they can all race every track and every car on their X-Box in their lounge room or on their phone they do not need to go to the race or watch on TV. Then again, as they get older will they "find" racing and become a fan? I do not profess to know the answer. But if we change racing to suit them, do we lose the audience we have now?

I do know that most tracks being built are non-spectator tracks for people to drive their own cars fast. This has to tell us something about the future? We may not like it, but we are not going to change it by "better marketing." Perhaps we have to adapt to a new world, or go the way of the dinosaur?

The actions of the medical staff at Misano at the weekend have raised a red flag to Paolo Giovagnoli, the prosecutor of Rimini, the City where the track is located. I had forgotten, goodness knows how, that the Italian authorities always investigate a death at a race track. Italian law is different to most countries in that if someone dies then there must be somebody at fault, even if that person is the one that died. Remember Jim Clark's problems after Von Tripps went into the crowd at Monza, and the Williams team after Senna died? The Race Director and the Medical Chief will both be under the gun for the death of Tomizawa. The prosecutor is particularly looking at the handling of the riders at the scene, something we all want investigated.

Martin Whitmarsh, head of McLaren racing and boss of FOTA says that F1 needs to market itself, what billion dollar business does not promote itself? Sounds like a good idea at first hearing, but when I think more about it I wonder what use it is trying to market a product that is not that good at the moment. Yes the season has been better than we expected, but us diehard F1 fans will watch it anyway. It is the new fans Martin is looking to capture. But it is not as if F1 lacks exposure, it is on the TV across the world every two weeks on average. You would have to live in a cave not to notice it. And the TV companies that buy the rights spend lots of time telling us and promoting when it is on, so what more does Martin want? I think of the Olympics and The World Cup. I do not see FIFA buying ads, it is the World Cup sponsors that do that, and the same with the Olympics. Now F1 has very few series sponsors, and those there are do  not seem to spend anything on promoting the fact. I see a similar theme with NASCAR with SPEED and Sprint promoting the heck out of it. So sorry Martin, in the end I do not see that you really have a point.

Talking about having a product you can promote. Watch the video of Chandook's laps of the new Korean track. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/86449. As Chandook says, it looks like a street circuit, and not a good one at that. And boy, is there some work left to do, particularly the top course of asphalt. 90 days curing time anybody? Three good straights, but an awful lot of just one corner after another, follow the leader stuff. Show off your product on that. As readers will know I believe you cannot show off your product if you do not take it to the best venues.