Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Here in the US Monday Night Football was a huge success and has since been followed by Sunday and Thursday night games. Someone worked out that people are at home in prime time, and there is not much else to watch in "prime time." Now Luca di Montezemolo is at it again stirring things up, don't you just love him, by suggesting that 2 pm starts should be moved to 5 pm as "most people are on the beach." In a European summer that would work, and if not there are always lights. Not sure what that does for the Asian races though. Luca probably does not realize that people like myself record the races anyway so we can watch them when it suits us and we can skip through the ads.

Talking of moving times of races, I commented a couple of months ago that the Phillip Island MotoGP was always intended to be run in March/April, it was only the fight over tobacco that moved the race location and date. But of course now the F1 GP has moved from Adelaide to Melbourne, and November to April, so the GP Board, who promotes both races, have a problem. It seems Dorna, after twenty years, have decided the MotoGP needs to be in that time slot, and have threatened that the FIM will not license the track if it is not moved. Don't really see what the date has to do with a track license. I have heard of licensing a track for different levels of competition, never for different times of the year?  As I said before, move the F1 race to November and run it with the Melbourne Cup, what a week for partying!

I don't know if any of you have thought through the ramifications of the arrest of Gribkowsky, the banker who managed the sale of the shares to CVC, but if it is true he took a bribe then the person who paid it would also be in trouble presumably, and perhaps the whole deal could be in jeopardy? The bank that sold the shares is State owned and has lost a bundle in the last few years, so I am sure the State would like to get some of that back.  I am no lawyer, but this could get really messy, or just maybe it will get the sport out of the hands of people who care nothing for the sport and only its earning potential.

Senor Carabante of HRT has been ordered to pay an ex-partner an amount of 47 m Euros, that's a lot of dollars! With HRT already strapped for cash it will be interesting to see what this does. Still, they have money in from Tata for Karthikeyan's ride and another seat to sell, and there is always a new investor coming with these guys.

Practice for this year's Rolex started today with the two Ganassi cars at the top of the time sheet, no surprise there. Watch for the Aten entered Ferrari 430 run by my buddy Tony Dowe. This is the first outing for this car, but Tony has a good driver line up and is no slouch in long distance racing.

Must be nearly New Year as the news has died down to a murmur. Just to give us hope, like the first flower poking through the snow, comes the news that the 2011 Ferrari monocoque has passed the crash test, so the new season must be getting close. The Rolex 24 hr is less than a month away, so we just have to hang in there. The Dakar starts Saturday, so there is another glimmer to maintain the faith. It's sad isn't it, we are just motorsport junkies. In the "good old days" we would have had the Tasman Series to keep us going through the dark days of winter.

At least I have a new track to keep my brain occupied, and it is a challenge. It is the old No Problems Raceway which was essentially a drag strip, which is now the "Circuit Grand Bayou" in Louisiana. So to wrap a track around the strip on a flat, narrow, long site and make it safe and fun. I am in mind to do something like the straights either side of the main stand in Malaysia, but still in full 'dream' mode, let it come.

Down to the last couple of chapters on the book, up to Daytona 2004, and 2011 could be busy so I need to finish it off.

Interesting to read that Team Lotus, or whoever they are, Mike Gascoyne's team, are building a wind tunnel. This is serious stuff and shows the level of commitment that Tony Fernandes is making to bring this team up to par with the big guys. I look forward to seeing the 2011 car with Renault power and Red Bull power train getting amongst the second half of the top teams. They have the drivers to do it.

Quiet day news wise, at least nothing worth my time talking about.

The biggest issue is in Australia at the moment, Bathurst NSW to be precise. Now if the world knows of Bathurst at all it is because of the V8Supercar race once a year, but along with Phillip Island it is an historic track in Australian motorsport on two and four wheels, with particular attachment to the motorcycle brigade. The track is public road and has never been "safe" even before the walls were put in principally for a round of the short lived World Touring Car Championship. The track is now only used for "tin tops" and there has been a push to build another circuit to allow other forms of sport, especially the motorcycles to compete there again. The track is owned by the Bathurst Council being public roads, but I believe parts of the infrastructure have been owned by the ARDC who ran the 1000 km race for a long time. So what does the Government do? I presume it was the NSW Gov't, still trying to find that out, commissioned the Homebush Bay Motor Racing Authority, HBMRA, the body they set up to manage the V8Supercar event at the old Olympic site, to do a study. They in turn commissioned a consultant, and guess what, it is too expensive and cannot make enough to justify that cost. How is HBMRA funded you ask? And does it make money? No it is justified on the basis of economic benefit, but it seems poor old Bathurst must pay for itself, and the $57m in infrastructure improvements! What are we building? Phillip Island, home of the motorcycle GP has no infrastructure but manages somehow. When I proposed rebuilding it the traffic guys said the two lane bridge will not cope. I doubt that they have widened it in the last twenty years, and still they come. This is a classic political manoeuvre. ask the question the right way and you get the answer you want, look at the referendum on the Queen. Who wrote the brief for this study and what were they looking to build. And why ask the HBMRA to do it and not Bathurst Council? As the report correctly states this track would not get the F1 GP, and why would you want it at a loss of $50m a year,  and is unlikely to steal the MotoGP from the island, so it should be a safe, good standard national track, not some $47m monument to some politicians or consultants ego, and should be capable of running all year on a closed track so it does generate economic benefit and income. Not sure what things cost in Australia, but that could be built for around $12m here in the US, depending on earthworks, but my guess this is not going up the mountain.

Of course you could spend the money making the existing track safe, but I doubt the macho V8's would like that. The trick is always to make a track safe without gutting it of the character. I would recommend looking at Phillip Island, which I rebuilt for $5m including the pits and tunnel, and Road Atlanta here in the states.

I watched the live streaming of the qualifying at the San Luis track and it looked much better seen from the driver's perspective than the aerial shots. Like an Argentinian Bathurst. Still some dodgy corners, but I am pleasantly surprised that the FIA licensed this. One of the discussions at the recent Forum was about how to bring spectators back, especially in the US, and focused on making the racing more exciting by making the tracks more challenging. The FIA guidelines proscribe things like maximum grades and cross slopes, which can make the tracks bland and uninteresting. This discussion is going to continue formally at the LA Forum, so perhaps San Luis can be part of that discussion.

Not much else going on so I'll update you with my activities. Writing the book of course and up to Chapter Nine and my time back in Australia in the mid nineties and then returning to the US and Road Atlanta. Had one publisher knock it back, which surprised me given the books they are putting out, but that's his loss. We found how Borders will let us publish electronically, which is about 25% of the market these days, so it is going to get out there one way or another.

The Grand Bayou track in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, has contacted me again about a new layout for the old "No Problems" track, so I look forward to designing again in the New Year. The All Surface Racing guys are progressing with their project and we have been chatting via Skype about a typical ASR facility and how the races could run. This will be fun and will borrow ideas from other sports to make it a test of intellect and not just speed.

A very dear friend from France, Jean-Marc Bonnay, "Snoopy," is going to be in town later this month and we are really looking forward to seeing him again.

On the Arizona front the Sol Real project is undergoing a major rethink so it is back to the drawing board. Waiting on a comprehensive plan approval for the new site which should come this Wednesday. Then we shall see what works and what does not.

In the meantime, kicking back and enjoying the sunshine while most of our friends freeze, or drown, sorry, could not resist that.

The reports this morning are that the FIA is close to reaching agreement on the 1.6 liter 4 cylinder turbo engine for 2013. Agreement with who? Previously the engine manufacturers were pushing back to keep the current engine due to the cost of designing and build new ones, so what happened? A Ferrari spokesman confirmed that he would be "surprised" if it did not now take place, adding: "An agreement is there, and when there is an agreement you work accordingly." Bernie still has his doubts that there should be a change, but it appears his opinion does not count on this issue.

The final round of the FIA GT Championship is being held at the San Luis, Argentina, track, Potrero de los Funes. This is a beautiful location around the bowl of an extinct, they hope, volcano, but the track basically has no run off. Peter Dumbreck said after the opening free practice session: "It's like Macau because you are constantly s****ing yourself as you try to keep it out of the wall." So how does the FIA approve this?

It seems even the cost conscious Moto2 is too expensive for American rider Kenny Noyes' team. Kenny was the only American in the class which is designed as a stepping stone to MotoGP, and according to the Superbike Planet web site, fellow American rider Roger Lee Hayden was offered rides for 2011 with no salary and he had to come up with nearly $400,000 to pay for the privilege.