Bob Barnard Track Engineering

I owe a shout out to my good Aussie mate, Bruce Polain, scourge of CAMS, who run motor sport in Oz. Bruce and I met in around 1979 while racing at Amaroo in Sydney. I say we met, I was racing my Morgan and Bruce had his Ausca, and we swapped places for a race. After I built the Adelaide track Bruce invited me to Sydney to the Seaforth "Round the Houses" where for fifteen minutes they let loose anything anyone has brung on the local street. Andretti's Lotus 79 to a Grand National Dirt car! That is when we worked out we had raced each other that day, and that we had the same disrespect for ignorant authority.

Bruce will stand for no cant, and is a regular letter writer to the head of CAMS, and anyone who will listen, about insurance, management of the "Club" as that is what it is supposed to be, and track safety. He provides me both sides of the correspondence for my amusement. Of course he cannot win, the suits always win, but that is no reason to stop trying. If Bruce were here in the US he would have a field day with the tracks we have, and the lack of anyone enforcing any standards. There would be no one to write to.

Bruce's latest campaign is about Turn 7 at the Bathurst track. Now this is a road course in the true sense of the word, controlled by the Bathurst City Council, who think because they have had a race for years they know how to design a track. When I first went there in 1985 or 6, long time ago, the concrete walls had not appeared, they were installed for the abortive World Touring Car Championship, and the useless "Chase" was not there. Most of the track was lined by wire strand farm fence, as that was the property usually lining the track. Here and there were odd lengths of guard rail, but most too short to do any good. As a journalist colleague drove me around it dawned on me that these pieces were stuck in after there had been an accident, not because of any overall safety plan. When I mentioned it my colleague was obviously struck that I was right, he had not thought about it.

Well it seems not much has changed, the City is still doing what it thinks is OK, and have placed walls at Turn 7 that both make it a blind apex on the inside and leave no room on the outside. Despite Bruce having photographic evidence and in his inimitable fashion chiding CAMS for not following their own rules he is of course being ignored. The significance of all this is Turn 7 was the scene of Mark Porter's fatal accident in 2006. What have we got to do to stop people dying unecessarily on race tracks?

Now I know Nico is not Finish like his Father, but he does know how to finish a race off. There have been the doubters, but he has not been one of them, he just needed the right equipment, set up, and strategy. Congratulations Nico, great drive, but it did bring home the importance in today's era of deteriorating tires that being at the front is a huge advantage. We saw that last year with Vettel, although it was masked by a great car, but we also saw it with Button in Australia. Fighting through traffic after pit stops is quickly taking the edge off the tires, so qualifying at the front and getting there early is key.

Was anyone else surprised my the amount of "marbles" at this race, and so early on? Not something we saw at the end of last year, or at the first two races this year. Not great to see as it limits the overtaking options, although we did see a lot of that despite them.

What an excellent race though, and we are sure to see more of them. Mercedes have cured their tire problem it seems, in these temperatures anyway, but there is Lotus, Sauber, and yes Williams all showing signs they can compete. Now McLaren and Red Bull are going to be at the sharp end week after week, but surely Kimi is going to get in the mix soon, and Perez has also shown he can mix it. Who knows what Ferrari are going to do with that dog of a car. Sad to see Michael's race end that way, and I know I do not like him, but there you are. That's racing, ask Lewis after Malaysia and Jenson yesterday. Pit stops do have the ability to produce some different results. 

I loved our SPEED commentators carrying on about amazing it was that Mercedes won after 57 years! Well they did not race for 55 of them so what's the big deal? I suppose when Lotus win we will have the same carry on? Yes I had to suffer through a recorded SPEED coverage as when it was on I was on a plane coming home from a "Racing Goes Safer" conference in Long Beach where I continued my call for better track safety here in the US. If you have not gone on line and watched the Sky coverage and heard Alguersuari's comments then you are missing a lot, and David Hobbs misses most. Love David, but Jaime has current knowledge and what he can tell about what the driver and car is doing is amazing. An eye for detail I have always admired and wondered at in real racers.

I did watch part of the ALMS race live at Long Beach but cannot admit to being very excited by it. The GT's put on the usual show, but we miss the RISI Ferrari and the other overseas cars. Dyson has decided not to go to Le Mans due to the cost and not being able to raise more sponsorship or drivers who can pay. Sad for Rob and Chris, but an expensive experience if you are not competitive.

Watched part of the Indycar race, and let me say they do not look any better in the flesh. Ask Marco Andretti how well the new design of the cars works to prevent flying after riding over the rear wheels of another car. Waste of time and money come to mind? 

Finally Bahrain. Enough is being written about the situation without me adding my two bob's worth. Bernie and Jean Todt are getting rattled by the press pressure as they should. At least one team member had the courage to say they would not go for moral reasons, and got fired for their efforts which I think is outrageous. As I said, I for one will vote with my TV remote and will not be watching.

I have seen enough photographs of unsafe race tracks and read enough transcripts of fatal and debilitating accidents at events here in the US to say something has to change. I can no longer go on listening to “that’s how we have always done it,” “we have not had an accident before, “and yes “it was good enough for Can-Am.”  That was only forty years ago, so what’s changed?

Look around, nothing is built or operates “as we have always done it.” Can you just turn up and get on an airplane, and is it driven by propellers? Do men with red flags still walk in front of cars in England? Does LA still have smog now we have emission controls and do cars still do 8 mpg? Does Detroit still build cars that are “Unsafe at Any Speed” as exposed by Mr.Nader? No, no and no. Most of motor sport in the US is operating in a time warp, and seems divorced from the rest of our activities.

Where else can an owner go and build a tower block, road, bridge or airport without resorting to professional services, working to standards and obtaining approvals? In motor sport an owner blissfully unaware of any standards for construction or operation can set up shop and start, and then ten years later say he has all this experience. Yes, usually of doing it incorrectly. There is a great joke about the guy who fell off the Empire State and as he passed some lower windows an office worker asked how he was doing. “So far so good” was the answer.

Every week across America thousands of spectators, officials and competitors risk death and injury by attending local events at substandard facilities run by untrained and unqualified people. That is not totally their fault, the lack of published standards or licensing procedures as occur in most of the rest of the civilized world cause them to be unaware that they are doing anything wrong. The National Fire Protection Authority has a guideline for safe operations at facilities, NFPA 610, but how many people know of it, and as a guideline it has no legal standing other than best practice. It does not cover construction, nor a lot of the operation, but it is something.

The motor sport authorities are diverse in the US under an umbrella group called ACCUS that represents us to the world body, but plays a limited role in National and local events. The variety of racing bodies on two and four wheels makes some unified approach probably impossible. The insurers play a major role in this situation, so are they the ones to fix it?

How is it that the civil authorities do not become more involved, as though what goes on at a motor sport even cannot be criminally negligent? God forbid we get to the situation of Italy where the police and courts become involved, ask Sir Frank Williams how that works. But I see definite circumstances where in my opinion criminal negligence should be invoked, and perhaps this is what is required to make track owners and operators wake up to their responsibility and liability.

The media and the public create an outcry for answers when a high profile racer like Dan Wheldon dies, so what sort of Tsunami of opinion would be created if they knew that it was a weekly occurrence at the lower levels of the sport. Elderly contractors dying after being dragged onto a “hot” track to give a quote on some striping. Young children dying or being terribly burned due to the lack of proper procedures and emergency response? Innocent spectators being hit by debris and being killed or maimed for life because of incorrectly designed walls and fences? And that is the tip of the iceberg, just the very small proportion of the incidents that go to litigation and the even smaller number I get to see.

So, what to do? I can no longer go on accepting this is how it has to be. I don’t know how to change this, but I am going to try, starting now. I will use what is left of my professional life to achieve this. Initially I believe it should start by working with the sport and those involved like ACCUS and the insurers, and groups like the SCCA who have at least attempted to address this issue. Failing that then it is time the public knew, and who knows where that leads. We do not want the Government involved, and I care about the sport too much to close down these facilities. The joke is, and it is a bad one, that in most instances the fixes are not expensive; moving walls, grooming run offs, building proper tire walls and fences. These can be done by the track maintenance or volunteers, and staff can be trained and written procedures put in place; cost and ignorance cannot be an excuse any more for not doing it right. As I wrote the other day, being at a race track does not make you immortal.

As expected there are lots of comments about the events at LVMS last weekend. As I am famous for saying, drivers are like attorneys, they all have an opinion. They range from "Indycar should not race on ovals" from Jimmie Johnson and Mark Webber, to Paul Tracy and Max Mosley who say "let's not over-react." Not two gentlemen with whom I usually agree. Indycar not racing on ovals? Where do they think this all came from? The series name says it all, and they have been racing ovals for over 100 years. Jimmie Johnson should look to NASCAR's short history and the deaths that have occurred.

I have been invited to participate in a panel discussion on radio "Voice of Russia," their world service out of Washington DC. It was to be today at 5 pm EDT, but Gaddafi takes precedence apparently, so it is now scheduled for the same time Friday. Should be interesting, but why does it take a fatality at a high profile race to raise this issue? As I have said before, the top end of racing gets safer cars and tracks, and the vast majority of racers are not being taken care of. In my role as an expert witness I see potential and actual fatalities weekly.

On better things Kevin Magnussen had a run in a GP2 car at Barcelona the last few days, along with GP2 returnees and young guns like Kevin and Alexander Rossi, both of whom acquitted themselves very well, worrying the top of the time sheet. Magnusssen has confirmed however that he is going to FR3.5 with Carlin next year.

The falling out in FOTA continues, and Ross Brawn announces he is concerned there are still loopholes in the exhaust diffuser rules, not that he is using them.

On two wheels, Colin Edwards has announced he is staying in MotoGP with BMW-Suter, one of the Claiming Rule Teams, CRT, i.e. grid make-up teams. Given BMW's poor showing in WSBK why would you think it would be any better in MotoGP?

Dan Wheldon died yesterday doing what he loved. Should he have died? We will probably never know, but unfortunately in racing there is always that risk, and fortunately it is rare these days due to the safety systems in place. Track designers like myself must never forget that death or traumatic injury will result if we get it wrong.

Joe Saward says we should avoid trying to analyse the accident , leave it to the accident analysis guys, and we will. There are comments however about whether they should have raced there, but is Las Vegas really any different to Texas? Remember when CART cancelled a race at Texas due to the speed and G Forces? But Indycar had already raced there this year without this sort of problem. Would it really have made a difference if they were doing 215 and not 225 mph? Were 34 cars too many, I doubt it. I do worry sometimes about the standard of drivers down the field in Indycar, and especially those that do not race full time.

I will only offer this observation. Speedway Motorsports, Bruton Smith's tracks, are the only ones I know that put the cable on the track side of the mesh on the catch fence. I would add that there are places on ISC owned tracks that have no mesh at all, and neither practice is one I would endorse.