Bob Barnard Track Engineering

What a strange weekend, the only race that did not end with someone really upset was the MotoGp at Laguna. Not a great race, but great result for guts and determination on the part of Valentino. Cannot imagine how hard the corkscrew is with a broken leg, although as I said before it is the shoulder that is giving him the most trouble. using more arm strength to turn the bike and he hurt his shoulder anyway. Roger Hayden at least finished the race which is more than a lot of the full time riders did, and was not last, so well done.

Ferrari are being hammered about the German GP debacle. I guess on balance my feelings are that if Alonso was faster he should have overtaken Massa without team orders, but we know how hard that is to do with cars so closely matched. From Ferrari's viewpoint I would have thought the team championship would be the prime target, and they got the same points for that whichever way round their drivers finished, so clearly there is a number one driver in that team. So, where do I stand? Let them race. It is going to be potentially a very stressful time for Ferrari until they know what the World Council is going to do, they have been known to strip a team's points for the season.

Over at Indy I guess Montoya thinks there were team orders at Ganassi, with his team mate being sent with two tires and him being delayed to take four and losing the race. I love Montoya for his passion, but then getting caught up in an accident seems to have been a "red mist" moment, although I did not see it so cannot really comment. Must be interesting in some teams debrief sessions. Managing these elite athletes is a special talent, and at the moment McLaren seems to  be the only ones doing it well, although they had their problems too in 2007. Maybe Martin Whitmarsh is the new Phil Jackson. If you do not know Phil he is the Coach of the Lakers Basketball, and was Michael Jordan's coach at Chicago. Known as one of very few men who can make egos work together. One funny story, he ran what he called the "triangle offence." When he went to the Lakers the players said they were confused as they could not work out which two of them could sit down.

Over at the IRL I watched the Edmonton race with the sound off as I was not really interested, but, like most I suspect, I am mystified how Castroneves was blocking? No wonder he was hot after the race, that was a terrible decision. About the only thing interesting about the whole race, except why there are walls right on the edge of the asphalt at an airport?

On the home front it has been an interesting morning with three e-mails about overseas projects. Never know where any of these end up, usually nothing happens, but it is nice to know people are out there finding me. Interesting the projects that get thought up. It is difficult to know whether just to give them a fee for what they are thinking of, or to try and redirect them to what I think probably works. It is also summer in most places that want to do something so they are on vacation and things take longer. That is a little of what is going on here in Arizona, but schools go back soon and things will get back in full swing.

Heat, we love it. Had breakfast outside this morning, no humidity and a great temperature. Place is looking like home already. This is what I remember from my years in Alice Springs, yes the sun is strong if you are stupid enough to stand out in it, but shade is great.

Had a very good session yesterday getting up to speed on the project. Visited with the architect on the graphic renderings of the track layout and buildings for the presentations. This is going to really surprise people, and not just in the US! This will be something really special, and the track layout I like more every time I look at it. Logo is just about there and web site will launch in two weeks. There will be a blog page on it with the latest development news and this blog will also be added to it. I will continue under this log in as well so you can take your pick.

San Antonio is looking to build a first stage of their track all in the base of the quarry, so hopefully that project will move forward. Still no news from Singapore or Saudi, but one of the expert witness cases is moving again. The wheels of justice grind exceedingly slow, but exceedingly fine, as someone once said.

Carl Edwards latest move at the weekend is not winning him many friends in the paddock, and the media are asking if the NASCAR move to allow more freedom for these guys to hit each other has gone a tad too far. Someone is going to get really hurt here soon, not that I want to take all the "rubbing" out of the racing, just the purposeful hit to take someone out.

You have heard me talk about Jeremy Burgess, the man behind Valentino Rossi, Mick Doohan and countless other Champions. Well it seems Jeremy is not likely to go to Ducati with Rossi, wishing to stay at Yamaha. Perhaps he sees Lorenzo as the future? Of course he plays down his value, it is a team thing, they can do without me. Yeh right Jeremy, I have been around you for twenty five years so tell that to someone else.

Jacques Villeneuve's F1 team bid has been rumored to be backed by Gadafi's son, with ties to the state owned oil company Tamoil. He denies it, but it reminded me of when I was promoting the USGP at Laguna for Kenny back in 1993. We were having trouble interesting US companies in sponsoring the race, and a "French Connection" said he had a deal for us, but could not tell us who it was. OK, the money was good, but as we got close to the race I said we had to start making signage so I needed to know who it was. He told us it was an oil company. Great, I thought, Total. Well, they then said they were working on State Dept. clearance! That ran up a few red flags. Iraq? can't be. No he said it is OK,  it is Tamoil, from Libya! In 1993 we were not so friendly as now with Libya, so I could see some definite downsides to the USGP being backed by a Libyan oil company. Grid girls in yashmaks? Libyan suicide squads parachuting from the sky? Needless to say we said thanks, but no thanks.

Lastly, there is a great piece on the Jaguar effort in the ALMS and Le Mans on the Last Turn Club page, http://lastturnclub.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=712&Itemid=51. I believe this is what I have been saying for a couple of months now. Sad.

Not much to comment on today. If you want a very good run down on the state of sportscar racing in the US following the Miller ALMS race then log on to www.lastturnclub.com.

Rossi says he will not win at Laguna Seca this weekend, he is saving that for a later race, so Lorenzo and the rest of the boys need to make hay etc. It will be interesting to see how Roger Hayden goes on a track he will know better than most and on a bike that has shown good form this year with de Puniet.

Red Bull are still at it. You must be getting tired of me writing about them , but they cannot help themselves. A week and a half later, and now the "engineer" come out and says Mark did not like that wing anyway.

On the home front the house is starting to look sorted, just need to recycle the paper and boxes now so we can walk around. Yesterday's meeting turned out to be defined by when people thought "tomorrow" was, so it is today. I'll update you tomorrow, that would be Wednesday, on the project.

One of the results of moving is changing the time zones. Has some good consequences, football starts early and we do not have to stay up all night to watch. On the other hand events like the Tour de France starts around 4 am! Good job they repeat it. We have a great race going, sure Lance is out of the running but he is hanging in there to finish and we have a terrific duel going on between Schleck and Contador. Great mental sparring going on and they are in a class of their own this year, except "class" is not a word I would use for Contador after today's move on Schleck. I cannot believe that Lance or one of the other greats would have taken advantage of a mechanical problem of his rival.

It is taking some time to get the house sorted, but it has only been two days. Kitchen is nearly done, but still boxes everywhere. Still found time to put the finishing touches to the web site, all we need now is the logo. Getting together this morning with the other partners so maybe we can decide on the final design. It will be good to catch up with the other guys and find out what has gone on while I have been moving.

My great friend Snoopy, who is French, says he cannot believe how much we move, Europeans cannot leave home like that. If I had lived in France perhaps I could not either, but England in the late 60's was not fun, and besides, most people in this sport have to move. When I worked with Kenny I asked why there were so many Australians and New Zealanders, and he said they were used to traveling and living in different countries.

Fantastic result for Valentino Rossi yesterday, he held nothing back despite the leg, fighting with Stoner for the last podium spot. Commentators made a lot of him riding with his broken leg, and sure that is very gutsy, but not unusual for motorcycle riders. Doohan rode just about all season with a broken leg and a thumb brake. Still do not know how they do it given the amount of effort it takes with the legs to turn these machines. Nice to see that Roger Hayden will replace De Puniet rather than some geriatric test rider, as it should be, give the young guys an opportunity.

Buemi says he has now decided to re-sign with Torro Rosso, but Glock is one of the drivers being tipped to replace Petrov, despite a pretty good rookie season. Renault are obviously looking to build a serious team again.

Bernie is playing his usual games, saying he does not really need the Monaco GP. He tried to get rid of it once before as he does not control it and they do not pay the fess like everyone else, but the sponsors told him he had to keep it. Maybe the reduction in sponsor support has given him ammunition to do it this time. He is looking to bring in India and Russia, while keeping the teams happy by limiting the number of races to twenty. At the same time that argument over the logos on team trucks continues. It seems so petty I can only imagine APM is hurting for signage money.

Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz assures us that he will give both his drivers equal treatment even if it costs them the title. They cannot shut up about it can they? Just show us, don't tell us. Ferrari's Team Manager has told his men that anyone who does not still believe they can win the Championship can leave now. I like that.

IRL put on their annual crash fest in Toronto, and elsewhere Carl Edwards pulled his usual stunt to win a race."We came here to win," even if you kill someone I suppose? Grand Am had a race in New Jersey, but did anyone notice?

Furniture arrived this morning so a day or two unpacking. Won't unpack it all as we will be moving again when the actual track construction starts, need to be closer as the days will be long. These first months are for planning and selling, so need to be here in Mesa. Did this in Georgia, and it is hard as we always need something we did not unpack, so we have to start guessing which box it is in.

Still working with the webmaster to finalize the site. It is my 90/10 rule again, it takes 10%of the effort to get it to 90% finished, and 90% of the effort to finish the last 10%. Always tempting to go public with something close to finished, but that would be a mistake.

Well done Valentino with fifth fastest in qualifying for the German MotoGP. His team "mate" Lorenzo is on pole, and pole is looking very familiar in every class. Vale is aiming for fourth in the race, and who would bet against him?

Le Mans Series in Portugal at the Algarve circuit. Big guys missing so Oreca is on pole in the private Peugeot, but not by much from the petrol brigade. Good field, but it does not seem a real LMS event without the big teams.

Interesting that Jacques Villeneuve has submitted a bid to be the next team to join F1. He has kept that pretty quiet. Not saying if he plans to drive or just manage. If you recall he has done this once before with his manager Craig Pollock when they set up British American racing that morphed into Honda and then Brawn. So do  not write him off, he is apparently collaborating with Durango, a GP2 team, in the bid. The decision is supposed to be the end of this month. I am amazed that none of my readers has any scoop on who Cypher is.