Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Let me say at the outset that I am extremely sorry for the family of Kevin Ward Jr. No one deserves to die doing what they love, especially in these circumstances. However, I have on numerous occasions have had cause to remind drivers who are out of their cars at the scene of a crash that they are not immortal. They have just crashed there and so can someone else. Get over the barrier. It is unfortunate that it is part of the NASCAR and Sprint Car culture to wait and find the 'culprit" and wag the finger or throw something, all with cars going past, albeit at non-race speed. As we have seen they do not need to be going at race speed to inflict mortal injuries. This has to stop.

As with most of the expert witness cases I handle the only person who really knows what happened is no longer alive to tell the story. Only Kevin really knows what he did, I am sure Tony was not expecting it. What is remarkable is the Sheriff's involvement. I can only recall one case where the police attended, rare in itself, and conducted an investigation. Usually they decide this is a private facility and leave. On one case they did detail the fight that followed the accident and injury, but not the accident!

So why this case? Is Tony really seen to be a driver likely to run over someone on purpose? No way, he may be tough, but he lives for racing, and I for one cannot believe it. From the video I have seen it looks as if the rear wheels move away from Kevin, not toward. If it were Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon, or Jr. would the police really be looking at this?

So Tony does not drive at Watkins Glen, and rightly so. We saw some great racing, especially my Aussie mate Ambrose showing them how to really drive. Some hard racing but clean. Well done AJ, fought for and deserved that first win. I still find it hard to perceive that oval racing is so different that guys like Ambrose and Montoya cannot translate their obvious world class talent into oval wins, but it obviously is.

What was graphically demonstrated was how in need of an full course update Watkins Glen is. I have offered to go up and provide a report but of course NASCAR knows better. That is why we still use sand barrels and tire walls built totally wrong. Several drivers offered the same comment but then said it would cost too much. Watkins Glen is owned by the largest track owner in the world, ISC, and they cannot afford it? I loved Alan Bestwick's comment that the track narrows near the site of the big crash due to a "natural feature," meaning the tunnel. What, it was there before they built the track? Just one of the many ill-informed comments. This layout is great, it just needs bringing up to modern standards, and yes you can accommodate different users and configurations. Even the guard rail is still acceptable, it did not fail and was a softer hit than a concrete wall. Just a pain to repair. It is just in the wrong place on most of the track.

Marquez won his tenth straight MotoGP at Indy, but who was there to see it. Red Bull must be paying for all this as the crowd certainly isn't. Same story with the Tudor Sports car race which thankfully is not to return. MotoGP needs to go to tracks that show off their product, not just somewhere that pays the most. 

That's the big news of the day, Lewis Hamilton and Tony Stewart were both out on the Watkins Glen circuit and did not hit each other! That must be the first time for a long time for both Lewis and Tony. Personally I do not see much value in these swaps for us fans, but a great promotion for the sponsors.

What else is going on? Not much. Team Lotus are reaping the benefit of the court's decision to let them keep on using the Team Lotus name it seems with the announcement that GE is to be the new team sponsor. Now this is obviously partly due to Tony's airlines and GE aircraft engines, but good to see some new blood and money in the sport. This is the first of a few new sponsors for Team Lotus so with the announcement of them using the Williams wind tunnel look for them to really start to worry the time sheets.

Lewis says he is happy at McLaren as long as they give him a winning car. There lies the problem.

Exhaust blown diffusers employing fuel ignited in the exhaust pipes are to be banned in F1 from Silverstone onward. It has only recently been explained to most of us mere mortals that there are two types of blown diffusers. The original one cut the fuel and ignition on braking but kept the engine turning over so gas flow remained over the diffuser. Otherwise the extra downforce went away during braking which is not a desirable outcome. This is "cold blown" and as I understand the FIA stance is acceptable. What someone, probably Adrian Newey, worked out was that hot gas worked way better, so cut the ignition but keep the fuel flowing which now ignites in the hot exhaust and gives a large increase in downforce. This uses a lot more fuel, not very green, and can only really be used freely in practice and qualifying as the cars do not have enough to waste like this in the race, which might explain why Red Bull has a big advantage in qualifying which disappears in the race.

I think the FIA were struggling to find a way under the current regulations to ban this and so have come up with the "movable aerodynamic device" deal, the movable piece being the drivers right foot when he takes it off the throttle. Stretching a bit here I think, as does Red Bull who are not happy. They say they need the fuel flow to cool the valves. Funny they did not need it till now? Like all smart ideas it is very expensive and once discovered will be banned.

Lewis is off today playing car swaps with Tony Stewart who was a great open-wheel driver before switching to NASCAR and should enjoy the McLaren around Watkins Glen. Not sure Lewis will enjoy that tractor called a NASCAR. Let's hope they are not on track at the same time, they are likely to run into each other. Lewis' management denies looking for a new ride for Lewis, but this reminds me of Senna leaving McLaren because Williams had a car he could win in. Some odd characters in the McLaren garage and hospitality by all accounts, as one journo said "you can see where Lewis' head is at right now." What does Ron make of all this?

In all the excitement of the Le Mans 24 Hour a couple of things went unsaid. Aston Martin put on a worse display than the Jaguar last year and heads should roll for it. I don't know if the Audi engine guy is right in saying the engine configuration is all wrong, but something is badly wrong at Aston when you cannot do more than three laps in a 24 Hour race! They came out before the race and said that they would probably not last beyond 12 hours, what a great ambition. I know everyone will say its a new car, but both the Audi and Peugeot were new cars this year, the Audi only running one 6 hour race prior to this, and they managed very nicely thank you. It is not as if the Aston was ever on the pace when it was running, which for an engineering company is a sad indictment.

The other story is the ongoing problem of equality between petrol and diesel. The petrol cars were never in the race, way off the 2% and the faster refueling did not help much as the gravity fed flow could not match the increased size of the hose, nice one ACO. Now the diesel guys will keep saying it is because there is no one running a petrol car as seriously as they are, and if there was you would see it up there with them. There is some truth to this, we have not seen a similar effort with a petrol car, but just maybe it is because they know the current rules make it a waste of money?

Checked out actually. That is what Carlos Checa did in both WSBK races at Phillip Island today, with Biaggi settling for second in both in front of Haslam Jr. and Melandri in race 1 & 2 respectively. Greg Sarni scolded me for calling Checa and Biaggi geriatrics, and as he rightly points out they can still beat the youngsters, so why should they stop? It is a sad reflection on the state of racing that they can still beat the field. Where are all the next great riders?

There were a few in the race of course, just not at the sharp end other than Haslam. Australian Mark Aitchison started his first WSBK event after limited time on the bike, and as Kenny would tell him, stayed on it and improved. In race one he was over a minute behind the winner, but halved that deficit in the second. Now there may be reasons for that but as we in the US do not actually get to watch the races until this afternoon I guess I will have to wait and see.

Not much else going on. More quotes from Bernie's story, "No Angel," about Alonso who sounds like no angel himself, but most of us knew that already. Not to be outdone by Jenson running a V8Supercar around Bathurst it now seems Lewis is going to swap cars with Tony Stewart at Watkins Glen later this year. Has Lewis ever driven something with a roof?

Great article on Superbike Planet today about Lorenzo's visit to the Kenny Roberts school of hard knocks at his ranch in Hickman. I included the training school in my book, and my frequent visits to the local urgent care with would-be racers, and how Kenny will stop the race as soon as he is leading. Lorenzo is reportedly shocked a guy 30 years older can beat him. Silly boy, he needs to realize Kenny can still beat anyone over a short race, say a lap! Here is the link.

http://superbikeplanet.com/2011/Jan/110117krlorenzo.htm

Sir Frank Williams, a gentleman of a similar age and will to win, is considering floating the Williams team. This could relate to Joe Saward's story yesterday about Qatar Holdings being interested in a connection with Williams. More power to Sir Frank, who is emphasising that this does not mean he is stepping back from his role in the team.

Now we hear today that Boullier is considering Grosjean as the "third driver" for the Lotus Renault team. Surely he means fourth? Or is it a tie for third with Fauzy? Strange doings. And Peter Collins is now saying his driver Luizzi  may not drive in F1 this year, so can we finally sort out who is driving Force India before the test starts in 12 days time? Sutil and Di Resta with Hulkenburg as the third presumably.

Terrible to hear about Dean Stoneman's illness, and I'm sure we all wish him a recovery to rival Lance Armstrong's.

Sounds like an interesting evening at the Sydney Speedway a week ago with Tony Stewart getting into an altercation with one of the track owners and the police getting involved. My old mate Garry Rush is also an owner of that speedway, and I could sell tickets if he and Tony got into it. Another dynamite old racer who can still do it when required, and I'm sure he will not mind the "old." They used to say "there are old racers and bold racers, but there are no old, bold, racers." Not sure that applies anymore. Perhaps he and Tony could have sorted it all out with a match race?

Martin Whitmarsh has stated that the FIA and FOTA will not let the movable wing "fail." They will "tweak" the rules, which as I have been saying, remain unclear, but here is perhaps the best explanation from his interview with Autosport.

"Drivers will have the system primed in the race when FIA-monitored GPS technology tells them they are less than one-second behind the car in front at a certain point of the circuit. This only becomes valid two laps after the start of a safety car restart.

However, to ensure that the wing boost advantage is not over-egged, the FIA will only allow use of the wing's speed boost at a single zone on the track. This will be carefully monitored and controlled to ensure that overtaking still remains a challenge - and this area may not even be on the main start-finish straight."

So, only in one spot, and the boys will know which zone that is and hopefully so will we. Drivers can use the KERS system either to defend or to help with the wing's reduced drag. So is this going to be better or not? Are they all going to drive around behind another car waiting for that spot, and not try anywhere else? Is that better than no overtaking? I'm sorry, this all seems contrived, like Bernie's "short cut" idea. Let them move the wing whenever they want. What happens though when to overtake at the end of the straight the driver leaves the wing in low downforce too long? His braking is compromised so he will lose out at the corner, or worse go off. Is the FIA going to have another "trigger" to turn it off at a safe distance from the corner?