Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Four in a row for Casey Stoner at The Island, and he made this one look so easy. Lorenzo showed the way to his current teammate Rossi who had a great dice with his future teammate Nicky Hayden. The interest was all in the 3-6th places as unusually for this track the first two were able to break away. Still a great track though after 20+ years. Decent crowd too considering the weather.

My apologies to my followers but it is all very quiet on the racing scene. Nice crash on the first lap at Hockenheim for the DTM cars, and looking at that corner I'm not surprised. Given the different configurations at that track, and even that corner, it is hard to see why they chose that one. You'll find it on Youtube. Grand Am announced that they were delighted with the likely link up with DTM, and who wouldn't be? What is that going to mean for their GT class though?

Things should liven up soon as the teams arrive in Korea for their first GP, so let's look forward to an interesting week.

Saturday morning and it is pretty quiet on the motorsport front apart from Phillip Island. Must be the end of the season. Weather sounds wonderful down at the Island, cold, wet and windy. Did not stop Stoner from capturing the pole from Lorenzo and Ben Spies doing a great job in third despite not running much Friday. Capirossi having a bad day despite the fact he won his first 125cc Championship on such a weekend in 1990. Rossi is down in eighth and not happy, and Pedrosa has thought better of it and stopped racing this weekend. Could be a race between Stoner and Lorenzo. Gone are the days when five guys were duking it out, how sad. Lookout though, some new blood is coming, Carlos Checa is making a return at age 38! Can they really not find anyone under thirty to ride these bikes?

Elsewhere our would be F1 driver, Danica, had her best Nationwide Series finish. "Danica Patrick finished 21st on her ninth NASCAR Nationwide Series outing at Charlotte, taking her best career finish in the the series thus far." The fact that she started 18th should not spoil a good news story.

So the deals done. $40m a year for five years in Sochi on a presumably new Tilke track for 2014. Then there's India, Rome, Austin, who's for the chop? Anyone who cannot manage $40m a year I guess.

The teams met in Japan to discuss how to make the Grand Prix's better. Make them two day events was one option being considered as it would be much more attractive for the fans. We could just run Sunday and make them even better on that logic, or perhaps just have a two hour race for the ultimate experience! They thankfully agreed that was not really such a good idea, but thought that they could move inspection to Friday to save them arriving so early in the week. Now that would be a great show for the fans. C'mon guys, you are supposed to be the geniuses running this sport, surely you can do better than this. Fans come to watch cars on track, racing, remember that? These need to be "events", let promoters run some decent supports like the V8Supercars in Australia and give the fan value for money. Look at the Goodwood Revival meetings to see how its done, or Adelaide in its hay-day.

It's nice to hear Massa has the team's full support. Usually that is the last sound someone hears before he is shown the door. Helmut Marko, the Red Bull motorsport genius says that Kimi is not coming through with the PR value for the money he is being paid. What other rally driver to hear about apart from Loeb, especially as Kimi is not winning and still getting coverage? Marko said Kimi crashes, well so does you golden boy Vettel, but I do not hear that you think he is not worth the money. Talking of Vettel it seems he and Webber are still at odds. A friend commented on Mark's body language in the parc ferme after Japan, and apparently Mark was off to the helicopter straight away without waiting for the normal team victory photo. I wonder how this is going to play out? I know Mark has signed a contract for next year and there does not appear many options open, but how can you see this going on for another season?

The MotoGP is gathering at Phillip Island for the Australian GP and Casey Stoner is looking to make it four in a row. If he can keep his Ducati upright it would be a good start, but he has shown in the last few races that it is competitive, so good luck Casey. Let's hope the rain stays away. The Island can be a cruel place at this time of year and the ground is still saturated after the winter. One famous quote from my September race in 1990 was that if you brought a car "you would be as popular as a Russian submarine in New York harbor." This was from a motorcycle magazine, really helped with my ticket sales! Always a good race at that track so make sure to watch.

On a personal note, how is it I can build a track like that and stage the first and best GP's, and be sitting here underemployed and undervalued? I despair of building a track again the way it is going.

Sir Richard Branson is not sure if he really likes a Virgin, which is odd for a team bearing his company name, not just sponsorship. I have commented before about his seeming lack of commitment, but it is really odd the way he has confirmed that he will continue to support the Virgin Racing team in 2011. And then? He is saying Virgin is willing to accept less branding on the car so that more sponsorship from other companies can be brought into the team. An exit strategy?

Superleague raced at a new track in Mongolia this weekend, Ordos, built by the Government for around $140 m by all accounts. There is a lot of discussion on the future of motorsport. Perhaps we are seeing it. As the populations of developed countries get distracted by other attractions, and building and operating tracks gets more difficult, the underdeveloped world is waking up to it as a sport and economic benefit.

Is Casey Stoner another John Koscinski? He seems to be able to win even on a bike he is not sure about the set up. John seemed to be able to ride around set up problems if his head was right, and maybe this is what we are seeing with Casey? There were some questions raised about his odd drops in form and mysterious injuries. The mind of a motorcycle racer is a powerful thing, and one not to be underestimated. No love lost between Rossi and Lorenzo, not that we thought their was any to start with. Yamaha vs Ducati next season could be very interesting, and let's not forget Casey on Honda with Pedrosa. Pity the size of the field is still disappointing. Not sure I like Motegi, bridges always bother me, and I know there are bridges at Suzuka and Road Atlanta, but not something I would put in a track by choice. Acres of gravel, even on the inside of corners!

Good racing both in Japan and France, surprised there were not more people watching in Japan, home of the motorcycle and with Motegi so close to Tokyo. WSBK in Magny Cours had a decent crowd considering how hard it is to get to.

On four wheels Michael Schumacher says he has the answer to framing a new Team Orders regulation. "I have a very clear position on what I think about team orders." I bet you do Michael, and I also bet we all know what that will be. Move over and let me through. I love Lewis Hamilton's comment that there was no value in beating Schumacher, "he's mostly racing behind me."

Here we are on Sunday, and I do not know if it is just me, but there is not much getting my juices flowing. Congratulations to Casey Stoner for his win at Aragon, and just maybe Valentino has made a brilliantly timed move to Ducati. He is talking about missing the last two races to get his shoulder operated on, sounds like a very smart move to me.

I mentioned the discussion on LinkedIn the other day about the loss of TV audience for NASCAR. I commented, but I am having my doubts as to the value of such discussions. I am amazed at the lack of knowledge or analysis that people in these groups have about the sport that they profess to follow. It is as if they just watch the races and believe everything they hear from either commentators or promoters without question. I am seriously considering stopping my involvement, but then they will all talk to each other and promote more disinformation.

So, back to the racing. IRL went to Motegi because Honda supplies the engines, I doubt the number of spectators made the trip worthwhile. I watched a little of the race towards the end, but cannot get excited by it. Have I been spoilt or just getting jaded and old? DTM, WTCC, FRenault3.5, BTCC, FIAGT, and Superleague all raced, but we do not see any of it here despite having a dedicated race channel, sorry NASCAR channel, so it is hard to follow these and comment. The Fords have been winning in BTCC, but stirring up controversy over their engine package. Sounds like good racing, but it is going the way of most series with spec body shells by Toyota and engines by the series. Formula Ford or Formula Vee have been delivering close racing for probably over twenty years, but who watches?  Nice to see Donnington back in action though.

There are signs that the honeymoon for the new CEO of the IRL, Randy Bernard, is over. It seems the team owners are not happy about the new car for 2012, and I admit to being wrong when I said that teams like Penske and Ganassi would dominate because they had the money to design and build the aero for the bodywork. Penske has come out and said he will not be producing his own aero kit as he would have to commit to selling it to any of the other teams who want it, so we are back to a spec car again because they will buy the best package from whoever comes up with it. That whole idea sounded goofy to me when it was announced.  The Indy boss also wants to go back to Milwaukee because they have a tremendous fan base there. That is why the last couple of promoters at the track went broke.