Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Now before you all write and tell me that is old news, this is the next generation. Wayne's two sons, Luca and Remy. This was their first time at a track where their World Champion father won the first Australian MotoGP back in '89, and Luca won one race in the rain and finished second in four others. Nice going. Remy had a bit more torrid time of it but still managed two seconds, two thirds and a fifth. Great future for these two I think, but Dad needs to lift his game as a mechanic. Still, Wayne did beat them when they took time out to go kart racing. The boys loved the Island, who wouldn't, and cannot wait to go back.

Over in Italy at Monza, another great track, the cream rose to the top with Ricciardo leading Alexander Rossi home in the second race. I loved the teams explanation why there were "loose bolts," apparently not just one but all of them. The rule only says "tight," but not how tight. Classic motor racing, if you do not define it with a torque value how tight is tight? He did not win the argument though.

A lot is being made about News Corp not being allowed to buy F1 because it will have a conflict of interest, being a media company. How short the memories are. How did all this get started? When Bernie decided to make a bunch of money and sell it to the Kirsch Media Group out of Germany. That's right, the Kirsch MEDIA Group. So what has changed in the last twenty years? If it was good enough then why not for Rupert and Co? I'm sure Rupert can put in place enough cut-outs, like Bernie and the boys have now, to put a fire wall between the company owning F1 and Sky. And why are they only carrying on about Sky? What about Fox and Speed in the US, and all the other stations he owns. We pay for Speed via the cable here in the US, so define "free to air."

Casey won at Le Mans, no surprise there, but Rossi third? That was largely thanks to Simoncelli and Pedrosa coming together and Lorenzo having a bad day, but the Ducati seems to be coming good. The Simoncelli incident earned him a ride through penalty, which has sparked a lot of debate on-line as to who was at fault here. I have not seen anything but the stills, and it does look like Simo did not leave him much room, unlike what we saw at Turkey last week, and he is making a habit of this and making himself very unpopular with his fellow riders. The Tech3 boys did not manage to repeat their qualifying form, and Spies was down in sixth. Marquez finally learned how to keep a four stroke upright and won his first Moto2 race, so look out everyone else if he repeats his form from the 125's.

Rockenfeller won his first DTM race, and about time. It is hard to believe that with all else he has won he has had to wait this long for a good car. Let's hope Grand-Am can bring this series here in 2013. Talking of Grand-Am the race from Virginia started with an hour behind the pace car for rain. Someone finally beat Ganassi and Co, but given how easily Pruit caught the lead car on the last lap I wonder if that was not a set up to try and make the series more interesting. $25,000 reward was posted by Grand-Am for anyone beating Ganassi which received more press than anything else they have done.

Kevin Magnessun won the third F3 race of the weekend at Snetterton after finishing ninth in the second "reverse grid" race with fastest lap of the race.

Bernie made a surprise visit to the reopening of the Austrian track owned by Red Bull magnate, Mateschitz, and told him that even though "Didi" does not want an F1 race, he should have one. Didi probably knows what it will cost him.

After my "foot in mouth," or is it keyboard in mouth, comment about Ricciardo just keeping his hand in he goes and sets fast time, only to have it taken away because a bolt was found loose on the car after qualifying. This sort of thing sounds a bit over the top, like last year when a piece of tape was found on a car. Daniel was philosophical about it though, confirming he was there for the race experience. He did well in the first race, coming through the field from last to sixth, but with another potential problem as he and a few others are under investigation for possibly passing under a yellow.  American Alexander Rossi finished well down, let's hope for a better finish in race 2.

Jan Magnussen's son Kevin won his maiden British F3 race with a couple of great overtaking moves. Let us hope Kevin can catch the breaks better than his father did. Somehow to me F3 is still the class to be in and win. We have F2, GP3, FR 3.5 etc, but this still seems the best finishing school. Many top drivers went straight from here to F1, while it almost seems that with a few exceptions classes like GP2 are for guys who will not quite make it. Still, not everyone is going to be world champion and at least they are living their dream and hopefully having some fun. Speaking of F2, another son of a famous father, Alex Brundle, took pole at Magny-Cours.

Also in France, at Le Mans, Casey Stoner continued to dominate practice and qualifying from Simoncelli and the rest of the Honda gang. Fifth is Lorenzo in front of the two Tech3 Yamahas, with Ben Spies eighth. So four Hondas, four Yamahas, and then the three Ducatis with Rossi and Hayden, who could not repeat yesterday's form. Are we loading an Ark here?

Grand Am is at VIR today, and DMG bikes are at Sears Point, but I don't think anyone is noticing.

He just loves to keep stirring doesn't he? In an interview with CNN, and why would he do this now, he said "We have gone too far with artificial elements. It's like, if I push footballers to wear tennis shoes in the rain. To have so many pitstops - listen, I want to see competition, I want to see cars on the track. I don't want to see competition in the pits," he explained. I like the "tennis shoes in the rain." I think he hit Bernie's sprinklers and Pirelli tires with one shot. So, is this all sabre rattling to get a better deal for the teams at the next Concorde Agreement, or are they for real? You can read the whole piece at:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/91349

In other news, Ferrari say Massa has their complete support, look out Felipe, that's usually the last sound someone hears, and the teams do not want to go testing again. Seems they cannot afford it. Not now they spent all that money on simulators. At Monza "Jules" Vergne is quickest in FR 3.5 practice with American Alexander Rossi not far behind. Aussie Daniel Ricciardo is much further back. It almost seems like FR 3.5 is just something to keep his hand in between F1 Friday sessions, and the up coming full ride.

At Le Mans the MotoGP boys are practicing for this weekends French GP, with Stoner breaking lap records and leading the way from Simoncelli. Let's see if he remembers the tires are cold at the start of the race? Nicky Hayden has the Ducati in fourth! Where did that come from? His mate Valentino is a second off in ninth, with Ben Spies even slower. Unless someone can step up Casey is going to run away with this one, but it is only Friday.

Seems the Indian GP is having a few problems with its neighbors. Not complaining about the noise, just everyday stuff about access to their temple, and threatening demonstrations over arguments with the government about compensation for land.

Someone else with problems is Sutil. You have to wonder what the conversation was to apparently smash a wine glass and stick it in someone's neck? Not a thing you do lightly, even after a few drinks. It is an odd situation with it having occurred in China. Who is bringing charges and where?

The News buyout of F1 saga rolls on with another group joining in that includes the Abu Dhabi investment arm, Mubadala, another Ferrari link. This can't all be smoke and mirrors.

Nice to have a comment from an old friend. Larry Spektor worked with me on the '93 US Motorcycle GP at Laguna. Thanks for the comments Larry and glad you enjoy the blog. Yesterday was another technology frustrating day with the log in page not wanting to load and then my cable/internet/phone went out for most of the day.

Not that there is much going on. I don't know how they expect us bloggers to keep going. MotoGP from Estoril is the most interesting with Lorenzo snatching the pole. Seems he has the Yamaha how he likes it, but not perhaps how Ben likes it. Spies is disappointing  us this season, with Colin Edwards on the non-factory Tech 3 bike showing him the way at times. Running his boot camp seems to have given Colin a new lease on life. Rossi is back off the pace after threatening in practice, but Nicky Hayden is even further off. Still, the forecast is for rain for the race, so who knows where they will all end up.

FR 3.5 is at Spa with Canadian up-and-comer Robert Wickens winning race one from the pole. Australian Daniel Ricciardo is not faring so well despite his good runs during Friday F1 practice with Torro Rosso.

Bahrain is hoping to have a race "in the near future." With the FIA sticking to the May 1 deadline that appears to be 2012. But do we really want to go there just because they have had their Saudi mates suppress their subjects?

Indycar is in Brazil. Let us hope the debacle of last year is avoided.

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Well the two events on this weekend produced some crazy action. If you have not seen it look at the youtube of the start of the LMS race.