Bob Barnard Track Engineering

As I said a while ago, who arranged this timetable? Tour de France, World Cup Soccer, MotoGP in Spain, Daytona, IRL at the Glen, you get the picture. I'm trying to do some serious writing, and I'm not talking about this blog. I guess Wimbledon is finishing as well. Glad it is actually a holiday on Monday, but the Tour goes on.

Mark Webber did a promotion with the Red Bull F1 in Parliament Square, London, and wowed the crowd. There is nothing like seeing a F1 car on streets you know and where you can get close to appreciate just how fast they accelerate and brake. That is what is so astounding about these cars that sets them apart from say NASCAR, where the top speed is the same but it takes them two laps to get there. That is why I love street tracks, provided they are done right.

Elsewhere the other Schumacher finally seems to have come good in the DTM with his first pole. The Norisring track is interesting, it is on the old Nazi Party rally grounds. Looks a bit like the old Avus circuit in Berlin. If you have never seen that check it out, it had an amazing banked 180 degree corner that puts Daytona to shame. Over at Daytona Brian France is talking about going green with a bit of ethanol, provided Sunoco agree, and possible changes to The Chase again to include some sort of knockout. I had that idea a while ago, to make sure they all go for it. Start with the top ten and whoever is the last of those ten drops out, so even for the last race you do not have to win it, just finish in front of your competitor. What do you do if they both crash?

Australian Daniel Ricciardo won the Formula Renault 3.5 race in Hungary and still leads the Championship. The next Mark Webber? Joylon Palmer returned to the winners circle in the F2 Championship and is leading that handily.

Big crash during practice at The Glen. Viso ran over the curb at Turn One and could not get it back in time and hit the wall on the exit head on. I said a few weeks ago that I was unhappy about some aspects of that track when there seems to room to move barriers back, and that is one of them. It is also down to the asphalt run off behind that curb that allows drivers to try and drive out of an off without lifting.

Been a long week with a lot of late nights, but very productive. Some of the sessions with the clubs turned into "the great lie telling sessions," you know "the older I get the faster I was." Projects have a life of their own if they are going to happen, and this one is certainly gaining momentum. More meetings next week including the first real test of the County's reaction and what they are going to want for a planning proposal.

Plenty to do over the weekend, mainly writing and some cash flow projections, and preparing for the County meeting. That is between the World Cup and some racing, and the Tour de France. Lance has said this is definitely his last, so he wants to go out with a win. Big ask, but with Lance never count him out, he is a role model for not giving up. I have good friend in hospital in Australia with bleeding in the brain. Out of the blue had a really bad headache! Should be dead or paralysed, but hanging in there, so get yourself well Dale! Once you're out I want to see you as trim as Lance. Dale had been waiting a year to start a new job in the US and was due to come over this coming week. You never know in life so grab every minute while you can.

Our "new" riders in MotoGP, Mr's Yoshikawa and Akiyoshi, are in a race for last at Barcelona, both 4.5 seconds off the pole man who is Lorenzo of course. Yoshikawa says he will treat the race like a test. Well I guess that's what he knows to do, but not quite sure the fans paid to see a test.

F1 is actually asking the fans what they want, what a novel idea! FOTA had a fan session, a "town hall" as we would say in the US, and let's hope they listen better than our politicians. In the end it is the fan, at the track or at home watching on TV that pays the bills, through the gate, TV audience that generates ad revenue, or the sponsors by buying product or services, so let's see what he wants to spend his money on. At some levels racing is an end in itself, people who can afford to indulge their hobby, but they should not expect people to pay to watch. At the top levels it is entertainment, and a lot of series had better relearn that if they ever knew it.

The DTM, German touring car series, believes it is doing it right, with BMW ready to join Audi and Mercedes, and talks in progress to have some equivalence with the Japanese and US series so that cars can compete in more than one. I for one would love to see more of the Japanese series with some great cars from Nissan, Honda and Lexus. Not quite sure how they fit with Grand Am, I think they would blow their doors off.

Just watched the Brazil-Holland game. Pretty ugly. It seems unfortunate that for South American teams the "beautiful game" goes out the window if they start to lose. Very sad when you know how they can really play, but as we have said many times, winning is largely in the mind. Lose control of that, and you lose.