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.

There is a connection on Facebook to Paddock Talk that has good press clippings from all over on F1, or you can go to http://paddocktalk.com/news/. In today's is a piece on how the German GP made a profit! They were hoping to break even, but the Mayor confirmed that they made about $180,000, but would have lost a bit over $9m on Bernie's original deal. Not bad though for building and maintaining a track, promoting and running an event. I hope Tavo and Red McCombs are reading this stuff. If Tavo gets his way and runs the race for forty years that is $7.2m, provided he has the same good deal as the Germans. Pretty good return on $250m plus investment, not.

Elsewhere Spa is expressing concern about breaking even with an F1 GP and staying on the calendar. This is the best track we have and it would criminal to lose it. There was a discussion on LinkedIn about your favorite sequence of corners. I have one, Spa!

On another article it says four drivers are "bying" for a seat at HRT. Is this a misprint or is it an intentional play on how to get a ride at HRT?

Rumors continue to circulate that the Korean GP track will not be finished. Surely with two months to go it is obvious if it is or not? I know with one month to go before we finished Daytona back in 2004 there were many doubters, but we had the track back and running early and knew we could make it. Bernie is reported to have offered the Aragon track in Spain the race, but Aragon will not stump up the fee.

Over at Brno it was business as usual for Lorenzo, quickest in first practice for the Czech MotoGP. Rossi was third, and Stoner, on what will soon be Rossi's Ducati, could only manage sixth. Early days though.

Sorry to hear about Hans Stuck's blood clot as a result of a racing accident a month ago, get well soon Hans.

English Premier League kicks off this weekend, go Spurs!

At home I am waiting for attorneys to show up to discuss an expert witness case, should be an interesting morning.

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.

So, Mr. Rossi is feeling a lot stronger following his three week break, and he is not talking about his leg. Seeing as how he was fighting for a podium before the vacation the other boys should start worrying now about their chances at Brno this weekend. Interesting suggestions for a Rossi/Ducati/Fiat link up next year, with Fiat's sponsorship of Yamaha ending. That would be a marketing persons dream come true. Also in the news, Ducati just bought the MV Augusta name back. Apparently Harley Davidson had it, who knew? What works of art those bikes were, so with Ducati can they reclaim that lost glory? Hard to improve on what Ducati already sell, but I'm sure some genius will think of something.

Elsewhere Murphy The Bear's latest rumor blog seems to be painting a negative picture for sports car racing, although it is hard to tell as some of it seems to be semi-positive. The common thread seems to be that GT racing is on the up, which is  no bad thing as that is where the best racing is at the moment. The ACO who runs Le Mans and the Le Mans Series is talking about not allowing manufacturer teams to race in non-Intercontinental Cup events. I like the idea and lean toward not allowing manufacturers to run teams at all, just make cars to sell to privateers. Unless there are a lot of Manufacturer teams then the racing is very lop sided. Yes the Peugeot/Audi contest is great to watch, but it puts everyone else in the shade. What if they were all Oreca like teams? Much more even competition as we see when the works teams do not run in LMS. Same problem in MotoGP, no one can compete against the works teams.

Bruno Senna has come out and told us what we already know. HRT has no money to develop the car and who knows if they will be on the grid next year. Virgin is looking to finish tenth in the teams competition by virtue of one race finish higher than the other two new teams have managed so far. Not much of an ambition, but they way they have been performing a pretty tall order, and it only needs Lotus to crack a point and they are done. Tenth is vitally important for a team as it is a money paying position for next year. Suggestions are that the FIA may not accept any new teams bid for 2011. Getting a bit late for a decision if you are going to build a car from scratch, so the prophesy becomes self fulfilling.

Sorry folks, Tuesday was very hectic and hence no posting. Sol Real became "real" last evening, sign on the door and open for business. Not the track of course, but our "office" come toy store in the hanger. It looked great with a couple of special motorcycles and cars, posters on the walls, an RV to look like a paddock set up, and projection on the wall. An invited audience of twenty from a cross section of racers, tuners and enthusiasts were treated to the first showing of the promo video and a presentation on the project and memberships. All were excited by what they saw and heard and fired up to find a way to become involved, so a great "kick off." Now we will fine tune some things based on the feed back and move forward with one-on-one sessions and more group presentations.

On the wider scene there was not a lot from the motor sport world to make ones juices run and stir the pen. We enter the enforced F1 shutdown period when the factories close, but you can imagine they cannot shut off the brains. They will be going full bore with ways to catch up or stay in front.Last Turn Club has some great scuttlebutt on Grand Am's moves to take over the sports car world here in the US, "The World Turned Upside Down." Check it out on their web site.

In the motorcycle world the worst kept secret is out with Valentino Rossi going to Ducati, that's according to Ducati. Nice chance to sell a lot of merchandise Valentino. Biaggi has apparently re-signed to ride Superbike next year. They will have to have wheelchairs to get these guys to the grid soon , and trainer wheels. Soon the rookies are going to be in their mid thirties by the time they get a chance.