Bob Barnard Track Engineering

I am not talking about the lights at Bahrain but one of the best races I have seen for years! So this is "taxi cab" racing is it Mr. Montezemolo? I saw the look on your face as the Force India steamed past your Ferrari on the straight and as you turned away I thought "he's going home." And he was. What a joke all that BS from Bernie and Montezemolo about the state of F1. Good on Todt for turning them down.

There were passes all over the track and great racing. Ricciardo passed Vettel twice, good on you Aussie, shows how good Vettel really is. The Mercedes pair put on a show, and it was great to see Rosberg's reaction when he got out of the car. I was fearing a lot of pouting, but no. Naturally he wanted to beat Lewis, and only Lewis knows how he did not, but he said on the podium that it was the best race of his life. It looked it from where we sat. The Mercs finally showed their true pace in those last 12 laps after the safety car, pulling out 22 seconds over Perez who also has Mercedes power. Normally two drivers fighting like that slow each other down. The race time was 98 minutes against last year's V8's 96 minutes, so who says these are slow? Allowing for a lot of laps behind the pace car they are probably faster.

Paddy Lowe and the boys must have been dying on that pit wall watching that. I was excited about the prospect of these two fighting even before the race started, and they did not let us down. Good on you Mercedes for letting them race. What a season we have in store.

How Lewis held off Nico on those harder tires shows just how good he is, not to knock Nico, but he is a racer. Not sure how Vettel gets away with running people off the track like that, and what can we say about Maldonado? 5 grid places for that when Ricciardo got 10 for a loose wheel in pit lane? Come on Stewards, sort yourselves out. Shades of Grosjean at Spa.

These new low noses have been questioned already for just the sort of accident we saw yesterday. If it were the Mercedes or McLaren nose it may not have happened, but when changing rules we have to look at all angles of impact, not just from behind.

Talking of exciting races it is now 25 years since the first World Championship Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island. A lot of memories, and AMCN is having a special edition to recall some of them. Some of them are better left unsaid. It was a very difficult time with much personal pain and stress to pull it off. We stupidly believed that if we showed just how great this race could be we would receive the support we needed. But no, it just brought out the rats who then wanted what we created.

Last evening I had a long phone interview with Darryl Flack, a journalist with Australian Motor Cycle News. They are revisiting the events surrounding the inaugural World Championship Motorcyle Grand Prix staged at Phillip Island 25 years ago. I was the promoter for that event, rebuilt the old track from the sheep station it had become into a world benchmark circuit, and lobbied the FIM to obtain the race for Australia. Australia has had a Grand Prix continuously since then, both at Phillip Island and at the Eastern Creek circuit, which I also built, in Sydney.

The first race was an enormous success, if not financially. It cost a lot to redevelop the track and promote a new event, even with an Australian World Champion to help in Wayne Gardner. It was referred to by a journalist in the Daytona media center a few years ago as "The Woodstock" of motorcycle GPs, and he was right. Over 100,000 spectators on race day, most of whom had camped out in the surrounding farmers fields for a few days. A fairy tale finish after a great race with our Champion winning. Great times, but not pulled off without a lot of trauma to me and my company. History will record we moved the race to the new track in Sydney to get away from the tobacco advertising the teams then carried, not a move we made willingly, but it was a matter of survival.

So a new track was built from scratch on Government land in Sydney's western suburb, Eastern Creek. Try as we may to avoid that name from sticking it just did. The Government switched some of the land on me shortly after we had received the ok from the FIM to move, and the track layout changed to conform to what I had been given. Not that I thought it a bad layout, but I knew in my mind that the yardstick it would be judged by was Phillip Island. A hiding to nothing as they say in the classics. The track immediately became a political football, both between the real politicians in New South Wales, and the internal politics of the Australian Motorcycle World. The Opposition party and their media mates made life hell for me and the Government over the cost and the Government paying for it. Laughable now when we see Governments doing it all the time. Eastern Creek cost $24m in 1989, compare that to the cost of the F1 race for Melbourne of $50m plus each year, and they have no permanent circuit to show for it for others to use and enjoy.

So Eastern Creek became the "red headed step child" as they say. But it is still there and where would NSW motorsport be without it, with only one other circuit in the State, and so busy they have just built an extension. I must have done something right after all. So, during the interview I was deeply touched when told of the sidecar racer who recenlty passed away and asked for his ashes to be spread on Eastern Creek because he loved it so much. The wheel has turned full circle as they say.

I was married on the start line of the first track I built in Adelaide for the F1 race, so where should my ashes be spread? Phillip Island, Eastern Creek, or one of the other great tracks that I have been fortunate to have been given the opportunity to build?  

No other way to describe the MotoGP from Phillip Island last weekend. Shades of Indianapolis F1 and Michelin. Bridgestone were there, so did they learn nothing. Of course not. PI has always been hard on tires, all those long high speed corners that load one side of the tire. So having been repaved for 9 months or so why did it take practice to discover their tire would not last, and not just by a few laps! Presumably someone tested there this spring? If I were a spectator and saw a half distance Moto2 and MotoGP with compulsory pit stops I would be asking for my money back, as they did at Indy and Michelin paid up. What about it Bridgestone?

So saturday saw the end of ALMS at Road Atlanta. Having been there at the start it was a sorry sight. Not that I saw too much, I don't get Fox 2 and to show an hour and a half about 3/4 distance on Fox 1 really does not give one an idea of what's going on, let alone how it ends. Watched a bit Sunday afternoon, but that was so disjointed it was worthless. Anyway, ALMS actually lasted longer than I expected, I thought Don would get tired of it sooner, but then again if it was not costing him money why not keep it going.

On to USRC and LMP2's racing DP's, whoopee. GT's put on the best show so America should consider a pure GT series like Blancpain. Gets the prototypes out of the way and there are no shortage of cars for those events.

Just spent two weeks touring Spain and looking at tracks, including private tours of Barcelona F1 complete with a Ferrari testing. Mid season testing being banned what were they up to? Also inspected Ascari Race Resort, the world's best private track. Brilliant if not perfect, but debt free and shows what can be done with a little commitment and high standards.

Sad to see we keep killing and maiming people here in the US. Two riders at Daytona last Friday, and Justin Wilson badly injured Saturday at California Speedway. Nice seams in that track.

If you think the 2012 F1 cars are ugly, take a look at the Delta Wing, it is on show at Sebring apparently. Looks like a World Championship sidecar motorcycle, except they look better. Or a Morgan backing up, but I can't see how the driver leans out to keep it on the ground.

Eric Boullier expects the first race in Melbourne to throw up some surprises. Let's hope so, it's time to get away from processions. Presumably Eric is thinking of Kimi and his Lotus, that would be something to watch.

Talking of watching, I have decided I will not watch Bahrain F1. The only message Bernie and the sponsors will take notice of is if the ratings are down.

Received this month's Motor Sport, what a great magazine. Mat Oxley in his column on MotoGP tells us his ideas on the best tracks to go to to watch and get the best atmosphere, Mugello and Jerez. Been to both and I agree, but I also like his comment that "Phillip Island is probably MotoGP's greatest circuit." Thanks Mat.

In the same edition there is an odd comment in Gordon Kirby's column by Giles Simon, ex Ferrari, Peugeot and FIA. "When we think about the future of motorsport I think we need to think about attracting more categories of people - the people who are not interested in motor racing." Well what can you say to that? Why would those people watch then? Unless we are not actually racing in future, and then what about your existing audience who are there to watch motor racing? Just look to NASCAR to see what happens when you forget about your existing fans and go pandering to a fickle bunch of newbies.

Oscar McIntyre, a 17 year old Queensland rider, died at Phillip Island on Saturday during a support event to the WSBK. Any death on a racetrack is tragic, and is more so to me if it happens at a track which I built. I have not seen the accident, but a friend who was there, Herod Lowery, e-mailed me to say Oscar went straight on at Turn One and crossed the track between Turns 2-3. Oscar was hit by two other riders who fortunately survived.

Now when I rebuilt the track I had an earth berm at the rear of the Turn One run off to prevent this, and somehow it has been removed. I would be very interested to know by who and why. Presumably the FIM Inspector OK'd this? It is hard to imagine the Turn One run off is not long enough if you saw Kevin Schwantz get off in 1990 due to a rear brake seizure at close to 200 mph and brush himself off and walk away. Large open run offs are a two edged sword, riders tend to try and "save it" rather than lay it down. I don't know if this is what happened, but if you can get hold of the video from 1989, first lap you will see some great on-board footage of Malcolm Campbell trying to ride out an off at Turn one, not successfully.

Oh, and the race? Checa crashed out of the first leg leaving his mate Biaggi to win it, but stayed on the bike to win the second with Biaggi recovering from a Turn One first lap incident to come through the field and finish second. Biaggi is leading the Championship, but it looks like a Checa/Biaggi veterans Championship. The bright note was the race form of the BMW.

Daytona 500 postponed for the first time in its history. That is amazing in itself given Florida's weather, and today does not look good apparently.

VJ Mallya looks to be getting further and further into trouble with his Airline, just when his F1 team is starting to fly.

The Gribkoswky trial has gone quiet, but Pit Pass has information that the lawyers are looking to do a deal and drop the bribery charges for lack of any real evidence. Gribkowsky still has a problem with the German tax man though. Where does that leave Bernie? Well it leaves him a lot poorer, and if Her Majesty's tax men want to know more about his trust then he could be even poorer. Still, always another would be F1 GP promoter to donate to the cause.  

Sebring Twelve Hour will be here in a couple of weeks. It should be an Audi benefit in the absence of Peugeot. Risi's Ferrari will also be absent for the first time in a long time. Sign of the times, economically, or a move to Grand Am? They managed to field a car at Daytona remember.