Bob Barnard Track Engineering

While I've been off in Germany at the Professional Circuit Owners Forum it would seem that between Bernie, the Texas State Comptroller and Tavo the "Circuit of the Americas" and the F1 GP have sailed off into the sunset. Not unexpected as any regular reader would know, none of this made any sense from the start.

The Forum was hurting from the current recession and the numbers were down, but the quality of most of the presentations was not. Some really good information being presented. If you can get to Orlando for the US Circuit Owners Convention on the 29th & 30th of this month you will not be disappointed in that respect.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we are getting to the end of the 2011 season with one more F1 race to go. Still a few snippets of interest though. It seems the British Serious Fraud office is sniffing around Bernie's little deal with Gribkowsky, that must be fun for him. In a similar vein the Venezuelan Congress is reported to be investigating how the sponsorship deal with Williams was done without their blessing.

Suzuki has pulled out of MotoGP making next year's field even thinner, and the man in charge of DORNA who run the series says something has to change. Well your running it so what's the problem. Oh, maybe you are the problem that got us here in the first place.

Well we at least have some GP racing going on at Brno, and Honda in the shape of Pedrosa is again leading the way. Stoner and Simoncelli are there as well so Lorenzo is running fourth fastest, but apparently working on race set up and doing consistent laps. Team mate Ben Spies was sixth despite a pinched nerve in his neck, can't be much fun. Rossi was happier with seventh, but still over a second off the pace. Rumors are that Ducati are thinking of going back to an aluminum frame instead of the carbon fibre. We've seen this before with the Cagiva in 1990. I can't help believing that a carbon frame and stressed engine is the way forward, it is just such a big step that it rewrites the set up and needs time to sort out. I'd hope they are given that time.

Suzuki are the surprise package with Bautista in eighth and ring-in John Hopkins right there in tenth. As Bautista said, nice to have John as long as he is slower than me. From there on down there are a bunch of guys making up the numbers. 

Elsewhere desperate web site are reduced to re-runs of THAT race at Dijon with Arnoux and Villeneuve, Gilles that is. Silverstone unveiled a very ambitious planning proposal for the site which will be great if they can fund it, but perhaps they should look carefully at what has happened at the Nurburgring with similar ambitious plans. Pirelli has raised the issue of qualifying tires for next year. Not sure I like the idea of going back to special tires, surely that is going to alter the set up on the car which has to be kept for the race? Anyway, the issue is teams saving tires during qualifying, so just give them extra sets of the race tires to use just for the qualifying rather than make something different.

Grand Am racing at Watkins Glen tomorrow, and Indycar at New Hampshire for something different.

How is it that cigarette advertising is banned, but Suzuki can have Rizla on the bike? Is there another use  for Rizla cigarette papers I am not aware of? Or is it only tobacco that is banned? Just a question.

Ducati meanwhile have been testing a new chassis at Mugello. I thought testing was not allowed, unless it is an ineligible machine?

Despite all this fun there is little else going on. MotoGP getting ready for Estoril and having a couple of riders fit again. The numbers look a bit thin otherwise. No F1 this week and not much else, so see you tomorrow.

There can only be two stories today. Rossi rides the Ducati, which has Rossi fans lathering at the mouth. Could they really not have painted the bike red? Lot of discussion about how far off the pace he is, but it's November, so what does it matter. Vale will go off and have his operation and come back all new and refreshed, then we will see. Did Jeremy and all the Yamaha boys all just change shirts overnight as well? Sorry to hear Stu Shenton has been let go by Suzuki, he is too good to be walking the street, but then again aren't we all?

The other is Red Bull and team orders. The team owner says there will be no team orders, he would rather lose the championship than win it that way. Well said, but there are a couple of people asking if it were Vettel who was in front of the two on points would the answer still be the same? A few others have echoed my thoughts that Red Bull would rather Alonso have it than Mark Webber. Talking of Alonso, I would have thought he would have done well to keep his opinion to himself on team orders. No one commented on my questions as to team orders in motorcycle racing?

Murphy the Bear has his latest offering about the state of sportscar racing and the omission of the Petit from the Intercontinental Cup. I think we would all like to know what that is about, sanction fee, TV rights, dates? The TV schedule for the ALMS is whacko, I'll be watching on live steaming and listening to Radio Le Mans I think, if there is anything worth watching. Sounds as if the GT class will be the thing, even more than this year.

What is going on with the whole Lotus thing? Do the Lotus Group i.e. Proton and the Malaysian Gov't really dislike Tony Fernandes that much? Why would they sponsor the Renault team when by stopping the stupid fight over the name they can have the existing team running around with their name on it, or is it an embarrassment at the moment? That is likely to change, and with a Renault engine. As Mike Gascoyne said "If they want to advertise their road cars, why spend so much money on it?" he told Auto Motor und Sport. "With us, they could do it free of charge."

Then there is the rumor that Virgin might be bringing in Russian backers, Sir Richard's exit strategy?

So, Max Biaggi wrapped up his Championship at Imola yesterday. Brought back fond memories seeing that track again. His rival, Leon Haslam, blew up in the biggest way, I still cannot believe he kept that bike upright, there must have been oil on his rear tire, or maybe it all burnt off which explained the huge smoke screen. So what now for WSBK? Ducati are pulling out the works team, and the runner up, Haslam, has been released by his Suzuki Team as they do not have confirmation from Suzuki for next year. What is going on? Suzuki are doing well in the US championship, but who cares? Tuned in for a bit of Barber yesterday, but it seemed a pretty thin crowd at the track. Daytona has gone back to a daytime race for the "showpiece" 200, but still not for superbikes, and the public thinks it is changing the deckchairs on the Titanic stuff.

I cannot help thinking that if someone put together a series that produced great racing, went to safe tracks, were run properly, spread the costs and income equably, and gave the spectators and sponsor value for money, we might get somewhere. This is how NASCAR got where it was, and somehow forgot.

How is it that a car can be inspected prior to the race and after the race, the result declared, and then taken to some secret research base and found not to meet the template by a "puffteenth," as my race car tuner used to say. Nice one NASCAR, not the way to keep fans, team owners or sponsors happy. Now we have the prospect of a fifth Championship for Mr. Personality, Jimmie Johnson.

Korea just keeps getting better, inspection now Oct 11, after the freight leaves to go there. I have a personal saying, "a late plane never gets any earlier." Something should have been done about this a long time ago. What is the procrastination over laying the top course?

Not much else of interest today. Petit on the horizon, and should be a good week for Sol Real.